After more than a decade of research, committees, hearings, and even the purchase of property to make New Canada Road a reality, there’s still question marks for a group of citizens.
Those citizens, who live on Laurel Hill in the neighborhood Plantation Hills, have been told their street will be connecting to New Canada Road. According to the residents that was not part of the original plan and they do not want their street connecting to a major thoroughfare like New Canada Road.
Chad Johnson, whose home is on Laurel Hill, says the removal of the connecting street between Laurel Hill and New Canada Road was a result of community input via the planning process in 2009. He said the 2011 BOC adopted the plan per that recommendation and approved a plan called “Modified A Alternative”. Mr. Johnson said his decision to purchase a home on Laurel Hill would have changed if he had known their street would be a connecting street to a future busy thoroughfare. Mr. Johnson told Lakeland Currents, “It was accepted as fact from many in the neighborhood that the connector was not part of NCR (New Canada Road) and we purchased our house under that pretense and have made financial decisions since then based on that presumption.”
However, according to City Engineer Emily Harrell, the Laurel Hill connection has always been in the project. Mrs. Harrell thinks this is simply a case of residents being misinformed and she plans on presenting more information at the BOC work session Thursday evening. “I will be presenting an update to the BOC tomorrow night. The BOC is aware of the concern, and it will be their decision whether to continue as is or make a change,” Mrs. Harrell told Lakeland Currents.
Commissioner Wesley Wright said he knows this is a major decision to both residents and the city. “New Canada Road above all else will be a critical connector that should be given close attention. My hopes is that it is built to reflect high safety and design standards. Meanwhile my responsibility is to be an advocate for Plantation Hills, Woodbridge and Lakeland as a whole,” Commissioner Wright said.
While no start date on construction for New Canada Road has been set, officials believe it will be soon. If the BOC decides to make any changes to the plan, that would be done at a future business meeting when officials can vote on a matter.
