Osceola County, developer plead with state for help to ease traffic congestion

Longtime Osceola County resident Bill Nagy, 78, spends many days at doctors’ offices in Orlando dealing with health care issues. And even though he lives closer to Kissimmee, he said local traffic congestion makes it’s easier and faster for him to get to appointments in Orlando.

“I’ve got doctors I don’t see anymore in Kissimmee because I can’t get there,” Nagy said. “I still live here because I love it but I just don’t go anyplace anymore because it’s so hard to get anywhere.”

On the eastern side of the county, 17,000 homes are planned that will add to the already congested streets where Nagy lives as Wheelock Communities begins construction of the Waterlin development. The master planned 6,000-acre community on the shores of Lake Toho will include multiple districts and neighborhoods.

Tesla also plans to build the nation’s largest electric charging station near Waterlin at the Florida’s Turnpike exit in the Osceola city of Yeehaw Junction.

“It’s almost impossible to drive now … something’s got to be done,” Nagy said.

He worries growth and development will entice more drivers onto streets and further back up traffic.

Osceola County officials, Wheelock and residents are looking to the state for help to ease congestion on roads.

County Commissioner Ricky Booth, who oversees the district of Nagy and Waterlin, wants the county to ask Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise — which operates toll roads in the state as part of the Florida Department of Transportation — to expedite construction of roads that could alleviate congestion.

“I would say that it needs to happen today. It actually should have happened yesterday,” Booth said. “I’m going to continue to stand against large-scale developments in the area until we have an answer for transportation infrastructure on the east side.”

He said he voted to approve Waterlin because the developer signed an agreement requiring construction of roads within the community before homes are finished. This model serves as an example all large-scale developments should follow countywide, he said.

The county, city of St. Cloud and developer signed an agreement last week that requires Wheelock build a 22-mile road network to alleviate some congestion on the county’s east side. In return, the developer won’t have to pay a nearly $230 million mobility fee — a requirement developers make for the impact their project will have on the community.

But the developer and county officials worry Wheelock’s roads will not be enough to handle the multiple planned subdivisions in the area. The already congested streets are two-lane roads that link the booming city of St. Cloud with the budding unincorporated east Osceola County. The county plans to widen many of the roads but officials say it’s still not enough.

Booth said because Waterlin is surrounded by the Turnpike having direct access to it would allow for employment centers and ease congestion.

“We still need relief in that area and we need it as quickly as possible,” he said. “If you’re going to grow in that area it makes a huge difference to the type of growth that can happen … if you have the Turnpike access as the community is growing.”

A spokesman for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise said help from the state agency won’t be coming anytime soon.

In January the agency began studying if and how to add an interchange to the Turnpike near Waterlin, spokesman Kerry French said. He said the study could be completed by June 2026 but adding an interchange could take decades depending on the results.

Booth wants to push Turnpike officials to speed up the study to get roads built faster.

However, it’s unclear if Turnpike officials can accelerate the study and what implications that could have, if any. Repeated attempts to get answers to those questions from Turnpike officials went unanswered.

Matt Call, Wheelock project director for Florida, said a Turnpike interchange would give the neighborhood a second exit and alleviate traffic on nearby Mildred Bass, Canoe Creek and Kissimmee Park roads.

“We can’t have unlimited exits but we prefer two over one exit,” Call said.

Despite Waterlin’s 30-year timeline for completion, he said having the interchange sooner is beneficial for all county residents as more developments are planned in the nearby area.

“We’re concerned about the future residents and concerned about the current residents in the area and for the future residents in the developments that surround us to the south and north,” Call said. “They’re all going to have to use Canoe Creek Road.”

He said Wheelock has had preliminary conversations with Turnpike officials but were asked to work directly with the county, instead. The county is taking the lead and has organized regular meetings between Turnpike officials and the developer, he said.

But some residents say it’s too little, too late.

For years, county residents have asked officials to slow growth until the road network is upgraded to handle the amount of traffic.

In 2022, over 250 residents filled a County Commission meeting where they asked officials to slow growth and blamed them for not doing enough. A group of those residents went on to establish Osceola Action Committee — a political action committee that aims to empower local residents to run for office on a platform of reducing traffic and slowing growth.

Its president, Cliff Clover, said since that meeting as traffic and development continue to increase so has the group’s membership. Osceola Action Committee’s growth serves as a testament to the level of frustration residents have over lack of traffic improvement, Clover said.

“It’s only because it’s affected us that we have now grown to almost 2,000-plus people,” he said. “We started off 2022 with a handful of upset angry neighbors and now … you’re hearing some commissioners starting to backpedal and let everybody know that they care now.”

“Well why didn’t you care 10 years ago?”