Additional Exit
A potential benefit of this project is that it would provide an additional exit for residents of the Heritage Oaks area. But residents feel that a second exit would do much more harm than good.
-
The additional exit would bring in a lot of traffic. That is exactly what happened with Trend Road, which acts as a short cut between Henry and Hollywood, and which has a serious problem with cut-through traffic. Cut-through traffic can be the most dangerous kind of traffic. (See Cut-through Traffic page.)
-
A second exit would also make the neighborhood more crime-friendly. Currently, if a resident of Heritage Oaks calls 911 to report an intruder, the intruder must exit the neighborhood via the same road that the responding patrol car is using, and then must pass close to the police station. With a second exit, the intruder could easily evade police. This is not a hypothetical scenario. Recently, the West Melbourne police were able to apprehend four intruders in the Sawgrass subdivision precisely because of its single-exit configuration. Listen here as Council Member Phrampus describes the incident, and Mayor Rose comments that having only a single exit configuration made it possible to apprehend the intruders.
(See Crime page for additional discussion of crime.)
-
​The new road would create an emergency services access issue for the people living on the side streets off of Henry. Even now, traffic jams regularly block access from these side streets (Sylvia, Edward, Parker, Clifton, Trend). This blockage is well known to city officials and they have band-aided the problem by placing "Do Not Block" signs alongside the road, and on the road surface. The new road would exacerbate these problems. (See Henry Avenue - Current Conditions page.)
-
The thing most likely to cause access blockage might well be flooding caused by the road itself. This is because the road’s drainage system will be sized to deal with a nominal rainfall event, but there are going to be hurricanes and tropical storms that will dump much more rain than the nominal event, so if the road is in place, it could trigger flooding. (See Stormwater management section.)
-
Also, there is really no escaping the single exit configuration. Generally, the most desirable individual subdivisions in the city have only a single exit, and in addition, each cul de sac within each subdivision also has only a single exit, so it is clear that most people in these areas do not place a much value on having multiple exits.
​
-
To put this in context, a quick perusal of local maps reveals that the single exit configuration is not at all unusual in this area. For example, note that Compass Pointe, Palm Lake Estates, and Clements Wood subdivisions all have only a single exit, via Fell Road.
-
If you read discussions on social media and neighborhood discussions, you will find that the residents, in general, do not crave more accessibility; rather, they are concerned about too much accessibility of the wrong kind, and they are critical of the city because of out-of-control development, and for being oblivious to the consequences this has to the quality of life in their neighborhoods.
-
Historically, the need for a second exit has not been taken very seriously. The ordinance requiring it for new subdivisions was only issued recently, and the ordinance is so loose that questionable designs can be said to comply. For example, the entry to the new Ascend subdivision is compliant with the ordinance, in spite of the fact that it consists of a single intersection where the driver can choose to go west or south. The problem is that this is still a single point of failure configuration – a single blockage would prevent the driver from transiting the intersection, whether he wants to go west or south. The Council apparently recognized that this situation was a result of a loophole in the ordinance but did not initiate any action to close it.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Overall, most residents value safety, security, and privacy, rather than more accessibility. They feel that whatever ailment the extension may be a cure for, the cure is worse than the disease! The community is better off without the road.
