Winter Park residents use yard signs to unite against density

Winter Park residents need only drive through a nearby neighborhood to see what residents are up in arms against.

An organization of residents called Citizens for Managed Growth has made a statement this month with a slew of signs in front yards opposed to higher density in the city.

Resident Sally Flynn of Citizens for Managed Growth said group members have distributed more than 450 yellow “no density” signs since the first week of July – a response to increasing development, pending density code changes and the threat of worsening traffic problems.

Winter Park residents like Mary Randall have placed the signs in their front yards and collected extras to pass out to other residents. The city needs to keep density under control to maintain its village character, she said.

“Everyone will get the message that the citizens aren’t interested in more density,” Randall said.

“Our traffic is out of control already … A year from now you won’t be able to move in this city.”

The City Commission opened the door for potentially larger developments when they passed a series of changes to the land development code last month. The changes, currently pending at the state level, would allow for planned developments along any four-lane road – outside the box of Fairbanks, Pennsylvania and Webster avenues.

But Citizens for Managed Growth originally formed this summer to rise up against the proposed minor league baseball stadium in the city, resident Marty Sullivan said. The group gathered more than 2,000 signatures to get an ordinance before the City Commission prohibiting the stadium in Martin Luther King Jr. Park.

The ordinance passed for a second time during Monday’s City Commission meeting after a scrivener’s error brought it back.

Mayor Ken Bradley said he wasn’t thrown off by the growing number of no density signs in residential neighborhoods.

“It doesn’t faze me one way or the other,” Mayor Ken Bradley said. “We’ve been debating how fast and how small and how tall things should be in Winter Park for a hundred years and we’ll debate it again.”

“I’m sure there were citizens that had signs in 1888 that said ‘No trains in our city.’”

Other areas like Arlington County, a city-like unincorporated suburb in Virginia founded in the early 1800s, have successfully increased density while decreasing traffic. Salon.com reported that Arlington County strategically densified specific areas with planned developments and residential space, giving locals the chance to walk to work or use public transportation.

Nearly 20,000 cars a day traveled along Wilson Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in Arlington County, in 1980. But today that number has dropped to 13,000, despite Arlington’s population growing nearly 50 percent, according to GreaterGreaterWashignton.org

Sullivan said that the scenario could be possible in Winter Park as long as density is increased only where it’s needed. Citizens for Managed Growth will continue to speak out and post signs, he said.

Randall said the residents only mean to protect their city.

“We’re not angry people,” she said. “We’re passionate and we feel deeply about our community.”

“It’s the passion that drives us.”

Citizens for Managed Growth recently ordered 200 more signs to be distributed.