Oak View Village Requests Road Closure

NEWBERRY – The Newberry City Commission has commissioned a traffic study to examine a request to close a private road in Oak View Village. During the Jan. 27 City Commission meeting Oak View Village Homeowners’ Association President Naim Erched requested that a subdivision road be closed due to concerns about heavy traffic.

According to Erched, drivers wanting to avoid the slower school zone traffic for Oak View Middle School on US 27/41-SR 45 have been using Southwest 251^st Way as a bypass and exiting at the Southwest 15^th Avenue intersection. He said the homeowners have asked the Homeowners Association to have the road closed to through traffic. They believe that they can close it because the roads in the subdivision are owned and maintained by the homeowners association, with public utilities easements for municipal water, wastewater and electric utilities in the rights of way.

The City’s Planning and Economic Development Director Bryan Thomas researched the issue and said his findings were that once a private road is opened to the public for use, the local governing body obtains jurisdiction over that road. Therefore, a public process, with appropriate notification, must be followed prior to closing the road to the public. He further outlined the process should the Commission wish to grant the Homeowners Association’s request.

Commissioners were hesitant to take action without a traffic study being performed. Instead of taking action to close the road at the Commission meeting, they decided instead to request that the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office be contacted and a request made by the City for them to perform the study.

Thomas reminded Commissioners that the City’s Land Development Regulations prohibit the creation of “dead-end,” streets. In addition, he said, “the Florida Fire Safety Code also requires that a turnaround be provided to allow emergency vehicles the ability to turn around in an emergency. Therefore, should the Commission decide to close Southwest 251^st Way, the Oak View Village HOA would be required to construct either a cul-de-sac or other acceptable form of turnaround at the end of Southwest 251^st Way.”

“If the Commission decides to consider closing Southwest 251^st Way, it should adopt a Resolution that establishes a time and place for a public hearing to discuss closing the road,” Thomas said.

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