Jam on Rye?

MILL CREEK — Mill Creek resident Rick Lundholm sees the growth coming and can’t help but worry.

His section of Mill Creek — Phase VI — opens onto Rye Road, just 506 feet north of State Road 64. And he believes the traffic there at his street, 18th Place East, is only going to worsen as more development comes online.

At 8:15 a.m. on a Friday, traffic heading south on Rye Road was backed up at least 30 vehicles. Lundholm and his neighbors Cris and John Dawson say it’s generally because a vehicle tries to turn eastward onto S.R. 64, and there is no designated right turn lane to head west for other drivers to use and keep traffic flowing.

Although Lundholm and the Dawsons have a plethora of worries — noise from compression breaking, reclaimed water hookup, losing the area’s rural feel and the development of lands south of S.R. 64, for example — the continued development of the rural area along Rye Road is their greatest concern. 

More homes will produce more congestion and make it more dangerous for them to exit their 38-home neighborhood, they say.

Drivers, frustrated with the wait to turn onto State Road 64, frequently veer onto 18th Place East without regard to oncoming traffic or vehicles trying to exit Mill Creek.

“There’s so many areas that haven’t been developed yet, but are (approved already),” Cris Dawson said. “I just don’t understand (why we’re approving more).”

Approvals from the last two years alone will result in the addition of nearly 1,000 homes along the Rye Road Road corridor.

Specifically, the Martin-Hillwood project, off Waterline Road, will add another 195 homes to the mix. Manatee Commissioners approved it Feb. 5, after denying it before and despite public opposition; the subsequent approval came after a special magistrate suggested the commission was violating the property owner’s rights by denying the project.

Projects such as the roughly 600-home Del Tierra community, farther north, have already been approved. Even Mill Creek has seen a rebirth in development, with 22 undeveloped lots in Phase VII now being built.

Neal Communities hosted a neighborhood workshop to discuss a parcel immediately north of Mill Creek Phase VI last month, and although no application has been submitted to the county, the rendering it showed to residents depicted another 82 homes, the Dawsons and Lundholm said.

“A lot of that traffic is going to filter onto Rye Road,” Lundholm said. “It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, we can accommodate this development,’ but they haven’t factored in these (other ones).”

“The road doesn’t meet current standards,” he adds. “It’s short 1 foot on either side. The other issue is entrance to S.R. 64. You can’t really see what oncoming traffic is going west on S.R. 64.”

Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh says the county knows roads in the area have problems, and the county is working on solutions. But, the board also must comply with the law, as in the Martin-Hillwood case.

Manatee County Planning Official John Osborne said approvals are in line with what was envisioned for that area of the county in 1989, when it adopted its comprehensive plan. 

“The Rye Road is sort of transitioned,” Osborne said. “We’ve had some developments for infill, and there are more plans to do more infrastructure out there. The widening of Rye Road is in the future thoroughfare plan, but not in the Capital Improvement Project (plan). This is an area we programmed since 1989 with urban-fringe development.”

The Florida Department of Transportation is exploring options for improving the intersection of S.R. 64 and Rye Road, possibly with the construction of a roundabout. The concept should be fully vetted by the end of the month, FDOT spokesman Robin Stublen said.

Last summer, FDOT determined the intersection did not need a traffic signal, after Manatee County’s transportation department requested one. FDOT, instead, suggested the addition of a right-turn lane on Rye Road onto S.R. 64 to head west would reduce the traffic backups by 80%. 

Manatee transportation officials disagreed, but said a roundabout or signal would be OK.

“We’ve come to an agreement about the roundabout and we’re determining the feasibility of it,” Stublen said.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].