Lakewood Ranch - But What About the Traffic?

Home sales have hit a record high in the first quarter of 2019 for East Manatee County and Lakewood Ranch Communities. As there are still new homes, communities, and businesses being developed each day, there will be many new residents in the coming years. 

That being said, one question asked by locals is:
“Will the current infrastructure support the anticipated growth?”  

According to a recent article by ABC-7  Marci Walker, co-owner of Blue Skye Lending in Lakewood Ranch, stated, “Traffic is getting awful around here and the school systems, they just opened a new middle school and a new high school, but they’re already at capacity.” The schools she’s referring to are Dr. Mona Jain Middle School and an additional wing at Lakewood Ranch High School.

As Lakewood Ranch was named the second best selling master planned community in all of the nation in 2018, one would assume everything has been planned accordingly. David Hutchinson, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) commented the growth has been anticipated by the MPO. “We rely on new growth, it’s part of our economic development strategy and we’re planning on it," explained Hutchinson. “So we know that the secret is to have a robust transportation network, or a grid. So we will see in the future, new roads out to the east to serve the new developments that are already approved or in the process of being approved to go in."

The article from ABC-7 also said, “The developers are required to build the roads as they build new homes,” then further commented, “the MPO projects another 300,000 people will move to our area in the next 25 years.”

Due to the staggering amount of growth, Hutchinson then stated there is a concern that the current infrastructure isn’t enough to withstand the new growth. “One of the things that we have determined from past studies, which we’re about to update, is that we will have a shortfall of infrastructure,” said Hutchinson. “So we won’t always be able to afford to build everything we think would be nice to have.”

For additional information, please check the MPO site directly at, https://www.mympo.org/.