The Village of Ozona, Florida
The Official Website of Ozona Village Improvement Society (OVIS)
Traffic Committee Established for Ozona
March 1, 2017
If you were driving out of Ozona by heading north on Orange Street then right on Tampa Road you may have noticed the stop sign looks different. There are little flashing red lights all around the perimeter of the stop sign. The County is experimenting with this attention grabbing stop sign. It is the intent that the County would have you give more attention to this stop sign than you have in the past. As you may recall this particular stop sign is complicated because it has a through lane and a right turn lane. Needless to say we should stop at all stop signs but this does underscore the fact that we need to be more aware of this at this location.
As it was reported earlier, the petition effort on the Ozona traffic plan was not successful. The benefit of that plan through petition would’ve been traffic measures installed without having to meet specific engineering requirements. However, OVIS is proceeding forward supporting County initiatives with traffic concerns in the community through the normal process which did prove successful.
A new stop sign was installed on Bay Street at Banana which is halfway between the waterfront and Orange Street. This has had a calming effect there. In addition, the County signed off on locating a four way stop sign at Orange and Bay Streets. This helped in the pedestrian intensive area with the restaurants and shops north of there on Orange Street. The issue of speeding on Shore Drive moved away from the original proposal of speed bumps to a less intrusive initiative of solar powered speed indicators. The County received some State funding for that and they were installed with very positive results.
July 1, 2015
Attached PDF is the official response from the County.
May 19, 2015
As you are aware, we have had a significant outreach over the last several months with respect to the petition for the Ozona traffic plan. The County procedures required 240 executed forms from the affected area which would include 136 affirmative votes. We were not successful in meeting those objectives. We received 72 signed petitions which included 65 yes’s. This is less than a half the affirmative votes needed and a third of the total signed petitions required.
I must say this was not without some effort on the part of those that have been involved. This effort would not have been possible without the work Jennifer Clemans who agreed to be the point person for the petition drive. She had help from a select few people who carried petitions door-to-door. As you know, this is a significant commitment of both time and effort by those people that agreed to help. However, since we did not have enough people to do that affectively we changed gears and went to the Internet email route. We did extensive notifications with the OVIS newsletter, emails, eblasts with the drop box at the post office and other locations, and continued to do the networking. Even with that extensive outreach you can see the numbers we have. Based upon this petition status and our deadline of June 4, I met with Tom Washburn of the County Traffic Engineering Office. He confirmed that the County petition requirements could not be met for the plan.
I do want to, on behalf of the community, thank those that have put an effort out to obtain petition signatures. I would especially like to thank Jennifer for all of her work. However, it is important to note, that we should continue to work on solutions to the speeding problems in the community. Tom Washburn indicated to me the County is in the process of installing a stop sign at Bay Street and Banana Street. Also, he agreed to consider a stop sign at Orange Street and Bay Street. For other locations, he has agreed to consider solar powered speed indicators which you may have noticed in other communities. I might emphasize this is an idea at this point but I think one worth pursuing. This instrument has a very good track record of reducing speeding. The point is we will continue to leave no stone unturned in terms of working with not only the County Traffic Engineering Office but also the Sheriff’s Office. So stay tuned as we proceed, since these activities will take some effort on our part.
We do greatly appreciate your help.
Brian Smith
OVIS President
March 23, 2015
The Ozona traffic committee has developed a traffic plan to respond to speeding drivers on Shore Drive, Bay Street, and Orange Street along the section of road between Bay Street and Tampa Road. The intent was to make it safer for pedestrians of all ages. To accomplish this, the plan includes three speed humps on Shore Drive and there are also three stop signs as well. A 3-way stop intersection will be added at Harbor Drive and Shore Drive. This is a safety initiative in that some people assume there is a stop sign at all corners, and there is not. A 4-way stop intersection would be installed on Bay Street at the halfway point at Banana Street. The third 4-way stop intersection will be located on the Orange Street at Bay Street to slow traffic down as it enters the downtown restaurant area where there is considerable pedestrian crossing and loitering.
To put this plan in place the County requires a petition be circulated for the impact area with 60% approving and 90% recognizing the petition effort. The petition has an individual sheet for each signatory where the person says they are for or against the plan. Only residential property owners are included in the petition. In going door to door with the petition, the petitioners have not always found people at home, or the person residing there is not the owner but a renter. Therefore, to make it easier for people (especially the property owners) to participate we are initiating this email outreach to provide the attached petition form to people so they can respond conveniently. (A map identifying the impact area is attached – all colors are included in the area.) If you have not already done so, we would appreciate your help in executing a form if you own a house in the impacted area. We do need the original signed copy of the form so therefore we request that you drop it off in one of the following ways. There will be a dropoff box on the counter at the Ozona Post Office, or you can put it in the mailbox by the front door at Green Realty at the corner of Tampa Road and Orange Street, or may also email a question (for other dropoff locations) to Jennifer Clemans at jenclemans@hotmail.com.
Included with this email is a copy of the form that you can print out and fill out and sign along with a copy of the impacted area for those properties that are included in the petition.
We do greatly appreciate your help.
Brian Smith
OVIS President
December 20, 2014
,Yesterday Brian Smith received a copy of the approved right of way utilization permit for OVIS from the County. This authorizes OVIS to install the speed humps in the Ozona traffic plan. He also received the petition packages that include the required forms to be used for that effort. This opens the door for the petition effort to be initiated and the funding package to be put together. Concerning the funding, OVIS has agreed to be the recipient of funds and we now need two or three people to be in charge of actually carrying out the activity of fundraising. OVIS has notified the entire community through the community newsletter and website of the traffic plan, agreed to be the installer of the speed humps, and obtained the needed permit to implement the traffic plan. Now we need to get back to the committee members to move things forward.
November 12, 2014
Traffic Committee Meeting
October, 2014
A traffic committee has been established based on a workshop held in the fall to deal with objects along Shore Drive. The commitee is tasked with finalizing a traffic plan focused on speed vehicles. The committee is finalizing a plan that includes 3 speed humps on Shore Drive and three stop signs in Ozona (Harbor Drive/Shore Drive, Bay Street/Banana Street, Bay Street/Orange Street). The stop signs will be installed and funded by the County. The speed hump program was discontinued by the County but the County is agreeable to have OVIS obtain a right-of-way permit to install the speed humps. The committee is organizing a fundraising effort to pay for the installation of the speed humps. Before that, the traffic plan requires a 60% approval (by petition) of the affected area. The County is putting together the petition for the committee.