Subdivision's dead end will stay closed, Oldsmar says

The City Council rejects a request to turn Montego Court into an additional entrance road for Gull Aire Village.

By ED QUIOCO

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 22, 2000

OLDSMAR -- A determined petition drive that gathered hundreds of signatures has helped block a proposal to open a dead-end road in the Bayside Meadows subdivision.

A crowd of about 50 people erupted in applause after council members unanimously voted Tuesday night against the request to open Montego Court. The proposal called for using the road as an additional entrance to Gull Aire Village, an adjacent neighborhood of about 510 manufactured homes.

About 750 residents of Gull Aire Village and Bayside Meadows signed petitions against the proposal.

"I don't think it's fair for me to . . . do something which the residents of these two communities are so obviously opposed to," Mayor Jeff Sandler said. "I'm not going to sit here and vote to change the makeup of two neighborhoods."

Gull Aire Ltd. president Bill Buckner wanted to use the western end of Montego Court, a quiet residential street, as an entrance to Gull Aire's newest phase of more than 70 site-built homes.

Bayside residents argued that using Montego as an entrance would bring in too many cars and would not benefit the neighborhood.

"These subdivisions are filled with children, and the people who have bought in these subdivisions bought because it wasn't a public thoroughfare," said Nancy Welch, who lives nearby. "They know the people who are coming in are people who live there or are visiting. Increasing the traffic flow will not help the residents of these subdivisions."

Gull Aire Ltd. consultant Todd Pressman submitted a petition signed by 30 people supporting the proposal and argued that opening Montego Court would make sense because it would help ease the traffic generated from the new phase.

Pressman said Bayside Meadows engineering plans from the 1980s show Montego extending from the subdivision. He also argued that council members should approve the proposal because the city's Community Development Department, Public Works Department and Fire Department recommended the road opening.

"To the argument that the city's own experts think this is a good idea, the city's own experts, with all due respect to them, are not the elected voice of the city of Oldsmar," Sandler said. "The people of the city of Oldsmar elected this council to make those decisions."

Pressman mostly argued that the proposal would improve public safety by giving firefighters another -- and possibly quicker -- route to Gull Aire and adding another evacuation route from the subdivision.

Council member David Tilki said the Fire Department recommendation is not surprising because fire officials would prefer "four or five more entrances into any neighborhood."

Council member Brian Michaels said he wasn't convinced that the proposal would improve public safety because there was no evidence proving how much time, if any, fire-rescue officials would save with the road opening.

Sandler said that if public safety was the main concern, then an electronic gate that firefighters could open like a garage door could be placed at the end of Montego Court. That way, he said, the road could be used only in emergencies.

In 1992, council members denied a similar proposal to open Montego Court during an emotional meeting packed with residents.

Residents have been gearing up to fight the latest proposal since it was submitted to the city in April.

"It won't benefit anyone except the developer," said Montego Court resident Dan Carter, who submitted one of the petitions against the request. "It's going to be too much traffic."

Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or at quioco@sptimes.com.

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