OVIEDO -- A subdivision seeking to halt cut-through traffic is a step closer to gating its entrance.
A majority of homeowners in MacKinley's Mill recently voted to ask the Oviedo City Council to turn over a strip of land at the subdivision's entrance along State Road 434 so a privacy gate could be installed.
Closing off the entrance could force cut-through traffic into adjacent subdivisions, if a road through those neighborhoods is opened up.
Oviedo City Council member Regina Bereswill lives in MacKinley's Mill.
City officials are considering extending Pine Avenue to Palm Drive, effectively creating an easy cut-through from S.R. 434 to State Road 426 directly through Bentley Woods and Worthington Estates, where Pine Avenue now dead-ends.
MacKinley's Mill could be required to turn the entrance parcel back over to the city when the extension of Pine is complete, probably several years from now. The gate then likely would come down.
Bereswill has said she wants to "share the burden" of cut-through traffic with other neighborhoods so that her subdivision doesn't have to bear the brunt of unwelcome drivers on its own.
The City Council is expected to address the issue in late March or early April, as long as the land abandonment isn't found to affect any of the utilities, Oviedo City Manager Gerald Seeber said earlier this week.
MacKinley's Mill would likely pay for the entrance gate with $25,000 received last year from Cambridge Homes, which is developing a subdivision across S.R. 434, said Bradley Smith, chairman of the traffic committee in MacKinley's Mill.
He said the money was provided to help pay for future "traffic-calming" needs caused by the new homes being built in the area.
The idea of rerouting traffic into other subdivisions isn't warmly received by some of those other homeowners.
"If the intent is to look inwardly for ways to solve traffic issues, then I'm in favor of gating -- even partially," said Lisa Chiaravallo, who lives in Worthington Estates. "If, however, the intent is to close off their streets while pushing for accelerated openings of streets in other neighborhoods, I'd say shame on them."
Oviedo Council member James Greer said he wants the city "to look carefully at other neighborhoods and try to figure out how to limit cut-through traffic in those where needed."
City officials have asked for a traffic study to determine traffic needs in Worthington Estates as well as all neighborhoods in the north end of the city.
