Concerns over proposed Sanford airport connector

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Central Florida Expressway Authority is exploring plans to build a road that would connect State Road 417 directly to Orlando Sanford International Airport. The proposed road would go in from the toll plaza on State Road 417 over to Red Cleveland Boulevard, the main road into the airport. But there are several possible routes CFX is considering.

Julio Lara says he wakes up every morning to bald eagles in his backyard. It's one of the reasons why his family moved to his home in Kensington Reserve a year and a half ago.

"They’re beautiful, the eagles are just beautiful," said Lara. "It's why we love it, my kids love it."

But he's worried they might lose the bald eagles, and their beautiful view, if the connector road is built. He says one of the proposed routes for the two-mile road puts it right behind his home.

"It's going to be passing right through literally the lake we have right back here, between the new community D.R. Horton is building over there and ours," said Lara.

Lara and some of his neighbors in Kensington Reserve say they chose the neighborhood because of the conservation lands behind it. And they say they weren't told a connector road could be going in.

Seminole county commissioners sent a letter to CFX in September 2021, before many of the concerned residents moved into their homes, asking CFX to study the feasibility of a connector road.

"All of us here, especially in this back corner, we purchased the home with knowledge there was conservation behind us - we were told it would never be affected - it was protected and we paid a premium to have that," said Erica Thims, a homeowner and Kensington Reserve HOA board member.

Lara says he also has another environmental concern.

"When it rains, it floods, so right now where we’re standing, when it rains a lot, all of that is water," said Lara.

Lara is worried that flooding will get worse if a connector road goes in.

Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine says the new road is needed, but CFX will have to consider environmental affects and mitigate those as much as possible.

There's another neighborhood under construction next to Kensington Reserve, called Concorde. Spectrum News reached out to the developer of that neighborhood, D.R. Horton, to see if it is notifying potential home buyers of the plans for a possible connector road in the area, but did not immediately hear back.

CFX is having an information session about the proposed director connector project on June 20th from 5:30 – 7:30p.m. at Millennium Middle School in Sanford. CFX is expected to make a decision on the project by August. Plans for project can be viewed here.