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County: Study traffic or halt evelopment
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer CRYSTAL RIVER -- A dispute over a traffic study, or the lack of one, has prompted a county official to call for a building moratorium in Meadowcrest. If approved May 14 by the County Commission, the moratorium would halt any new construction within the 340-acre development -- a blend of houses, offices, stores and industrial uses just east of Crystal River -- until Meadowcrest Development Inc. conducts a traffic study at State Road 44 and Meadowcrest Boulevard. "They need to do the study," said Gary Maidhof, the county's director of Development Services, who is recommending the moratorium. "If the study indicates a traffic signal is required, and if (the Department of Transportation) issues a permit, the developer would be responsible for installing that signal." Clark Stillwell, the attorney representing Meadowcrest Development, did not return a call Thursday seeking comment. As part of a 1992 amendment to its plans, Meadowcrest Development gained an access point on SR 44 for the new Winn-Dixie supermarket. In return, the developer agreed to perform a traffic study after the supermarket was built and SR 44 was widened to see whether a signal was needed at Meadowcrest Boulevard. But the study was never done. Over the years, the county reminded Meadowcrest Development about the need for the traffic study, Maidhof said. Officials became more persistent within the past year as the growing number of accidents at that intersection prompted questions about the need for a signal. In a July 26, 2001, letter to the county, Stillwell agreed the developer must perform a traffic study. But he said the study should use traffic figures from 1994, the year the supermarket and adjacent SR 44 widening were completed. To use present-day traffic counts, Stillwell wrote, would be "contrary to the terms of the noted Development Order and unfairly shifts to the developer the burden of the increase of off-site traffic since 1994." County and DOT officials disagree. Traffic signal studies are always done with current data, not historical or projected numbers, DOT district traffic operations engineer David Buser wrote in a November letter to the county. And Maidhof said developer Stan Olsen has only himself to blame for not doing the study sooner. A moratorium would have little impact on the residential portion of Meadowcrest. According to a 2001 report submitted to the county, the developer has built 146 of the 190 single-family homes in its planned, as well as 475 of the 610 cluster housing units it planned. None of the 150 condos in the plans have been built, however. The developer has built just over half of the 300,000 square feet of industrial space on its plans. Much of the professional and commercial space has been built, although the plans would allow up to 30,749 square feet of additional offices and 19,000 square feet of new stores. -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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