Driving through some Winter Park neighborhoods, you may have noticed these puzzling signs that read "no density."
That’s because some residents are fed up with the increased development and want to protect the character of their city.
Not far from some residential roads are the shops, restaurants and parks. But just driving down Park Avenue, it seems your foot spends more time on the brakes than the gas.
“We’ve had a terrible problem with traffic in our neighborhood here, also on Pennsylvania, Denning, Fairbanks, Orange and Aloma,” Orman Kimbrough said. “And it’s just spilling onto Park Ave and it’s getting worse and worse.”
Feeling like their voices are going unheard, some residents have formed the Citizens for Managed Growth campaign and have posted signs in their front yards to try and get the city’s attention.
Sally Flynn said more than 600 signs have been handed out so far.
“It is not political,” Flynn said. “It is that we want to preserve the quality of our city, and [they are not] hearing us.”
The city, in a statement, said: “We value the addition of new residents and businesses that add to our city’s quality of life. We look forward to visioning with our community on the future growth of Winter Park.”
But not everyone shares the same vision for the historic town.
Some students at Rollins College said what happens outside their school trickles down onto campus.
“For anyone that’s been to Winter Park, you could already know that parking is not the easiest thing in the world,” student Drew Phillips said.
So far Citizens for Managed Growth has seen some success, this summer they were able to stop a minor league baseball stadium from coming to Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
“But we’re not against growth,” Flynn said. “It just needs to be in the character that preserves our village atmosphere.”
Citizens for Managed Growth said they will continue to order signs to give out and make their voices heard at city commission meetings.