CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Lake Asbury is one of the fastest-growing areas of Clay County, and its growth has been coupled with various road projects that have frustrated thousands of residents over the past few years.
However, a recent plan expected to improve “connectivity between adjacent developments” in the county was recently withdrawn.
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Connectivity and the ability to get in and out of neighborhoods have been regular complaints in the area as residents have expressed concerns over being “trapped” and how fire trucks and ambulances can operate with the significant congestion.
Wendy Hill works in Clay County and says the constant traffic is frustrating because “it just slows everything down.”
Road construction worker Beck Janssen echoed that sentiment.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Janssen said. “They’ll block off an entire lane of traffic for 5 minutes or more sometimes...[You can get] trapped on a road for 20 minutes just trying to get a hundred feet down [the road.]”
The fire chief in Clay County tells News4JAX that response times are actually down as the agency continues to monitor construction, which reached its peak as an issue over a year ago when Sandridge Road, in front of the Lake Asbury Elementary School, was shut down all summer.
Now that the withdrawal of the plan to improve connectivity between neighborhoods is official, the county will remain under its original Lake Asbury Master Development Plan.
Clay County sent a statement to News4JAX regarding the original development plan, saying:
A majority of Clay County’s ongoing major road projects touch the Lake Asbury area, and, as part of this plan, will provide added connectivity to this quickly-growing area once most are completed in the next 6-18 months
Clay County Spokesperson
County officials also pointed out that while Lake Asbury’s construction is nearly completed, similar issues can be expected in Green Cove Springs, which is expected to have a massive population boom in coming years, and along County Road 220 which is set to undergo a large widening project.