OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Development in southeast Osceola County has some neighbors demanding another way in and out for safety reasons.

What You Need To Know

  • Vonda Baize says there needs to be another way in and out for those living off Kissimmee Park Road

  • Baize says Cross Prairie Parkway needs to be extended from the Tohoqua community down to Clay Whaley Road

  • Osceola County is looking at extending the road, but officials say timing is based on new developments

  • St. Cloud annexing land shouldn’t impact extending Cross Prairie Parkway, city and county spokespersons say

Vonda Baize lives off Kissimmee Park Road, just south of the interchange with Florida’s Turnpike.

“There’s going to be 50,000 homes (built) out here,” she said. “Not only are you going to have emergencies, but if we had a major disaster — fire, flooding, whatever — we would have no help.”

Baize wrote into Traffic Inbox because she’s concerned the only way in and out for her and the tens of thousands that will eventually move into that area is where Kissimmee Park Road meets Florida’s Turnpike.

“This turnpike interchange is going to be closed eventually because they’re going to put in a new turnpike interchange off Nolte Road,” Baize said.

She said the road already gets backed up at the turnpike and with the interchange closing.

“We want Cross Prairie Parkway to go straight and around, parallel to the turnpike, cross over the canal and connect with the Cross Prairie that is in Tohoqua at this time,” she said.

Baize said it’s vital for Cross Prairie Parkway to be extended from where it currently ends in the Tohoqua community all the way down south to Clay Whaley Road, near the Kissimmee Park Road/Florida’s Turnpike interchange.

Earlier this year, Osceola County commissioners approved extending Cross Prairie Parkway to Nolte Road.

“The section between the C-31 canal and Nolte Road is preliminarily estimated at $46.4 million,” said Mark Pino, public relations officer for Osceola County. “The advancing of the 30% design plans will refine this estimate, which currently includes a substantial estimate for removal of unsuitable soils.”

The other issue is getting Cross Prairie Parkway down to Clay Whaley Road and Kissimmee Park Road, where Baize lives.

The county doesn’t have any control over that timing, according to Pino, who says it’s development-driven.

As the development is built out, so, too, will the Cross Prairie extension.

“Based on the build-out rates provided by the development community, our anticipation is that the section (of Cross Prairie Parkway) from Nolte to Clay Whaley is completed by 2030,” Pino said. “Though this is subject to change in the event economic conditions result in a change to the development plan in the region.”

Baize said she is also concerned because the city of St. Cloud annexed property just last year where this road will be extended.

But representatives from both the city and county said this extension will be a county project and that shouldn’t impact its development.

“Annexation is not anticipated to delay the design or construction of Cross Prairie Parkway,” Pino said.

“Cross Prairie Parkway is an Osceola County roadway; the annexation does not change the ownership of the roadway,” St. Cloud communications director Maryemma Bachelder said. “The county is responsible for its roadway, and there are no agreements between the city of St. Cloud and Osceola County to partner on the proposed extension.”

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