Maitland looks to curb cut-through traffic

The city of Maitland is making moves to protect one of its core city streets from increased cut-through traffic by proposing a simple request to the Florida Department of Transportation: Don’t do anything.

Overall plans to overhaul and widen Maitland Boulevard included a proposal to add an additional northbound through-lane on Maitland Avenue at the intersection where the two roads meet. On Monday, the Maitland City Council will take a vote to ask FDOT to erase the additional Maitland Avenue lane, leaving the north-to-south thoroughfare alone, citing concerns that the new lane will bring new traffic with it.

“I’m not sure we want to expedite more traffic through there, because if you build it they will come,” said City Councilman John Lowndes. “And what we’re trying to do is not incentivize them to come.”

The city has long fought to keep rush-hour traffic moving along U.S. Highway 17-92 instead of commuters looking for a cut-through clogging up Horatio Avenue on the way to and from Maitland Avenue. In 2013 the city reconfigured Horatio to discourage use of the road as a short cut by decreasing the eastbound side to one lane, but then faced the issue of the new lack of lanes increasing traffic backing up onto the railroad tracks.

As the city continues to tweak light timing, and eventually installs quiet zones which will keep cars from getting trapped on rail crossings, Council members said they’d rather continue to work on dissuading drivers from taking Maitland Avenue as a cut-through rather than adding an addition that could make the road even more attractive to commuters.

“By adding that lane we’re encouraging to take Maitland Avenue as opposed to discouraging them and making them go to 17-92” said Councilman Ivan Valdes. “It’s almost like counter productive to what a lot of us would like to have happen, which is to have people go and use 17-92 both south and north.”

At the Council’s July 13 meeting, nearby property owners also spoke out against adding the additional lane, fearing the impact it will have on their businesses – including the land that will be taken from them to make room for the road.

Jennifer Sigman, who runs a counseling service out of the building at 940 N. Maitland Ave. which is just southeast of the Maitland Boulevard intersection, said FDOT told her that she’d lose approximately 10.6 feet of her property to make way for the new lane. She told the Council that she and other surrounding property owners were against widening the road for a multitude of reasons, including encroachment into the building’s parking capacity.

The Council will take public comment and make a formal decision on the fate of the additional Maitland Avenue lane at its meeting on Monday, July 27.