In an effort to improve road safety, Mount Dora may make three major downtown thoroughfares into one-way streets.

Alexander Street, Baker Street and Tremain Street are narrow roads located in the heart of Mount Dora where on-street parking competes with two-way traffic.

Mount Dora councilmembers voted 5-2 this week to support a plan that could see one block of Alexander Street and two blocks of Baker Street and Tremain Street realigned into a one-way configuration, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

Adam Sumner, CRA Administrator in the City of Mount Dora’s Office of Planning and Development said planning staff hired a consultant to look at existing street conditions and the feasibility of angled parking earlier this year.

Sumner said a licensed engineer informed them that changes need to be made on those three downtown streets to “meet safety standards” and said only two options would satisfy the safety criteria.

“We were given notice by a license engineer that we have a concern and we need to address it,” he said. “The only two options to address it are removing the parking and keeping two-way traffic or putting in proper parking and going to one-way. Those are the only options we have.”

On Alexander Street, changes are being considered between Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue, while Baker Street and Tremain Street would see their realignment take place between Third Avenue and Fifth Avenue.

“It’s not about the length of the one-way, it’s about the width of the right-of-way,” Sumner said. “We have to make a change. That is why we’re here today, we don’t have a choice.”

The two-way option would mean a loss of over 50 parking spaces, according to Sumner.

For several council members, that was enough to throw their full support behind the one-way option.

“It’s not something we want to really consider, but I think we’re left with having to try this and doing it,” Mount Dora Mayor James Homich said. “We’re not redoing the roads, we’re not redoing like when we did the whole downtown rebuild. We’re just putting striping and signage.”

But others were reluctant to make such a major change.

Acknowledging safety as a paramount issue, Councilmember Nate Walker said he doesn’t see traffic or safety as major concerns on the three roads downtown.

“We can leave here now, go through a traffic light, and someone can run through that traffic light, or we can leave here now and drive perfectly fine, and someone walks in front of our car,” Walker said. “Stuff like that is always going to happen; you’re never going to eliminate that. I don’t think we have a problem like that, that’s my opinion.”

Councilmember Doug Bryant agreed, saying the streets are not particularly unsafe compared to nearby intersections, such as Fifth Avenue and Donnelly or Fifth and Alexander.

“Those are areas of concern, and that’s where we need to be putting resources. That’s where we need to be doing something about it,” he said. “It’s not southbound on Alexander or southbound on Baker, where there may be one fender bender in a year’s time at an intersection.”

Before taking a roll call vote, Homich gave final thoughts about the one-way configuration and argued the roadways are more dangerous than Bryant and Walker indicated.

“You can probably guess my opinion on this, and it’s that this is a safety issue,” Homich said. “I disagree with you, Mr. Bryant. I think that the cluster of accidents at Baker and 5th would be solved by the one-way that way because we wouldn’t be having all these numbskulls going straight through or turning left or doing things they shouldn’t be doing at Baker, which is a very crazy intersection.”

The motion passed with Bryant and Walker voting in opposition.

According to Sumner, a lengthy implementation process remains for the one-way option, and it would not be put in place until late next summer.

“We’ve got to go through the drawing phase, the dissemination of information phase to DOT, Lake County, Google, and all those digital map companies notifying them of our start date for it,” he said. “We have to then send out a public education campaign, then we stripe, then we put up signage, then we turn the switch and make the change.

“This is a starting point for it; anything can happen in eight to ten months,” he said. “But to go forward, we have to start here.”

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.