Designers open discussion for changes to Dillard Street

WINTER GARDEN  As a main gateway from State Road 50 to Plant Street and downtown Winter Garden, South Dillard Street is an important corridor from the city’s perspective of growth management and livability.

Aging utilities will require replacements on this roughly mile-long segment, which means crews will dig up the road and repave it after the upgrades.

But local residents, business leaders and property owners agreed with Toole Design Group engineer Ian Lockwood that it needs to be much more.

“So while we’re digging up the street to replace the sewers and everything, why not put it back the way we want it?” Lockwood asked rhetorically. “We will translate all the words that are said here into drawings with what we call starter ideas.”

Lockwood — who helped redesign Plant Street about 15 years ago — presented ideas for a redesign of South Dillard Street Oct. 6 in the Winter Garden City Commission Chambers. He offered locals chances to brainstorm so that his design team would have a proper idea of what they want the street to be.

Lockwood said observations about this area from before the meeting had included poor aesthetics, a need for business, fast and heavy traffic, long width of the street, many pedestrians and a psychological disconnect from one side of the city to the other.

Among ideas Lockwood presented were trail connections; shade; foliage; green infrastructure; street parking; improved emergency and delivery access; short medians; art; and roundabouts with potential locations of Plant Street, Smith Street and Story Avenue.

The roundabouts even could be shaped differently from traditional ones, such as those in Windermere. Peanut and dumbbell shapes were Lockwood’s two different examples, and he said two-lane roundabouts likely would be best for Dillard Street. He also cited statistics of significantly reduced speeds, injury rates and death rates from roundabouts.

Especially with a roundabout or street parking, the road would ideally have a reduction from the current five-lane format to mostly three lanes, Lockwood said.

A design phase from Nov. 16 to 19 should include more formalized design plans, Lockwood said. Public meetings at 6 p.m. both Nov. 16 and 19 will involve discussions of plans and presentation of the expected plans in a final meeting, respectively.

“We still have to find funding, so this project’s probably a couple years out — maybe two, maybe five,” Lockwood said.

LOCALS’ DESIRES

- Gradual change from S.R. 50 to Plant Street

- Better modern aesthetics and greenery

- Easier turns in and out of lots

- Maintained sidewalks

- Unity east and west of Dillard Street, north and south of S.R. 50

- Art reflecting city history

- Street parking where needed

- Seating

- Bricks in the center

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].