Ultimate I-4 makes trouble for Maitland

Maitland’s impending traffic troubles at the soon-to-be revamped Maitland Boulevard and Interstate 4 interchange, City Council members said, could all be fixed if the Florida Department of Transportation would agree to move the entire interchange just a little to the west, making room to keep traffic movements as is.

Current Ultimate I-4 plans have deemed it necessary to close the eastbound entrance ramp from Sandspur Road onto Maitland Boulevard to avoid dangerous traffic weaving, which residents say will only tie up additional traffic trying to commute east and increase through traffic on currently quiet Sandspur.

But in case FDOT can’t move the project west, the Maitland City Council agreed on two alternative ideas in a special meeting July 15. FDOT has agreed to study and implement either of the ideas free of cost to the city – if the studies can be completed, analyzed and approved by FDOT’s Sept. 1 deadline. Otherwise, the additional desired construction costs will fall back on Maitland.

“It seems like you and, consequently, us are getting put between a rock and a hard place by DOT,” Druid Isles resident Fred Sells said, encouraging the Council to do what’s best and right for Maitland.

The Council unanimously agreed on two options. The first and preferred option challenges FDOT to come up with a new traffic plan that allows the Sandspur ramp to stay open, possibly by extending it eastward to eliminate weaving issues. The second back-up option proposes opening a one-way northbound connection from Sandspur Road to Maitland Boulevard from Concourse Parkway, which borders Orangewood Christian School and Maitland Concourse South.

A third option drafted by the city’s Transportation Advisory Board, which proposed allowing two-way traffic on Concourse Parkway onto Sandspur Road, was thrown out after residents argued future development in the area could flood Sandspur and have longstanding impacts on the residential street.

“It’s a deal breaker for us,” former mayor Doug Kinson, a Maitland Woods resident, said. “… We will not stop fighting it.”

Before the final vote, Council members echoed resident sentiments that the city needs to push FDOT as far as it can go toward keeping existing traffic patterns, and in doing so keeping up the integrity of Maitland’s neighborhoods.

“[FDOT’s] job is to control traffic, not to preserve neighborhoods,” Councilman John Lowndes said, reiterating a resident who spoke earlier. That, he said, remains in the city’s hands now and through the planning and construction processes.