Innovation Way Update

By Sara Bridget Au, Editor, Insight Magazine

The East Orlando Chamber of Commerce, along with more than 125 business owners and residents of East Orange County, came together in mid-March to outline their top concerns for the area. A survey found 69% of the audience identified the Alafaya Trail/Beachline Interchange as their top issue, 14% said getting a police substation, and 7% want to protect funding for the UCF Medical School.

ALAFAYA TO BEACHLINE: TEMPORARY SOLUTION

To a round of applause, Chamber Chair Maritza Martinez announced news of an agreement between Orange County and the owners of International Corporate Park, the land parcel on which the Alafaya/Beachline Interchange will be located, to construct a temporary access road connecting the two within a year. An access road will be built from the end of the new Innovation Way road south of Alafaya Trail which would connect to the Beachline via an existing interchange near the county jail.

“While this is a temporary solution, it will considerably hasten this vital connection,” said Martinez. “Still, we will remain focused as a Chamber on ensuring the proper and timely delivery of a permanent solution to the Alafaya Trail connection.”

Avalon Park resident Cara Kane and her husband moved to this area because of the promise of that connection. “Here we are four years later with no connection,” she stated, her frustration obvious. “The drive is at some points unbearable when you commute every day.”

Lisa Booth, owner of the newly opened Super Suppers in Lake Nona, told the audience Innovation Way is crucial for her store to be successful. Mike Marini, owner of Avalon Park’s Wine Down, agreed, “We need transient traffic to open up and a constant influx of new people for our business to work.”

BETTER POLICE PROTECTION

Eastwood resident Christine Greenaway, who is involved in that subdivision’s neighborhood watch program, shared how a spate of home burglaries in 2006, including one at her home, raised her awareness that a Sheriff’s substation is needed. “With the growth of population comes the growth of crime, that will not change, but we have the courage to demand the additional police protection we should have here on the east side.”

SCHOOL NEWS

The Timber Creek relief school, scheduled to open in 2009 at the old Columbia Elementary site near the intersection of S.R. 50 and S. R. 419, is another top concern.

School Board member Daryl Flynn explained the relief school will open without a senior class, and so overcrowding issues at Timber Creek won’t be entirely alleviated until 2010. “When other schools open, most seniors were taking the option to stay at their current school through graduation,” she stated. “So the first year for Timber Creek will be a little bit higher than you think and then the next year it will go down to numbers we feel good about.”

Area Superintendent John Edwards announced once the relief school opens, the Avalon Center for Technical Excellence will be used for dual enrollment classes for upperclassmen. Currently, 9^th graders cross busy Avalon Park Boulevard twice a day because of overcrowding. “I hope after two years, we won’t have to do that anymore.”

MORE YOUTH FACILITIES NEEDED

Local mom, Amy Carnes, expressed the need for more recreational programs and parks on this side of town. “There are a great number of programs that are available but you have to go a great distance, and then you deal with all the traffic, so all these things all focus in together,” she said. “I think it will take all of us working together toward these goals – to get the schools, to get the safety, to get the roads, and to get the parks, as well.”

Cara Kane echoed those comments, and laments the four years did not make her voice heard on local issues. “I hope this is a call to action to get residents more involved to help make this a reality.”

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