OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Jan Cornish is a few years removed from her teenage escapades, but still places a curfew on herself that would make any adolescent shudder.

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“I know better than to leave before 10 and to stay out past 2:30,” she said, without a trace of humor on her face.

That’s 2:30 during the day, mind you.

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The retired transportation worker has the ability to set a routine few others in her neighborhood can afford, but still comes armed with receipts. Her former neighbor used to leave the house at 6 a.m. to begin his commute, she said. Seniors will take all-day trips to the doctor.

Her neighborhood is one of many that have popped up in recent years around Pleasant Hill Road, one of the numerous traffic-clogged arteries running through Osceola County. The formerly rural communities deep in Central Florida’s swamps have become a mecca for developers, families and seniors alike, with the population exploding since the turn of the century.

However, the area’s transit network hasn’t kept up. Cornish’s community has one way in and one way out — one of the reasons Osceola constantly ranks among the worst commutes in Florida. Her curfew keeps her off the roads during rush hours, when jams can stretch for miles on back roads.

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Citizens who shared Cornish’s opinion packed Monday night’s Osceola County Commission meeting to oppose an array of rezoning requests that were poised to add additional homes — and cars — to the county in the coming years.

“I wonder if you don’t have family and friends,” one woman said. “Apparently you don’t, because your loved ones have to drive on these roads every day.”

County officials say there are improvements to roads across the county in the works. The county itself has more than a dozen projects underway, along with a series run by FDOT and major improvements to the highways by the Central Florida Expressway Authority. CFXway officials are planning two new routes in and out of the area to I-4 and Lake Nona to relieve traffic on the Turnpike and other roads, though upgrades to the Turnpike itself are off the table for now.

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County leaders said they need development to happen in order to pay for many of the projects, as each house brings in roughly $11,000 in impact fees for infrastructure improvements. They also can’t attract commercial development to communities — which cuts down on trips in and out — without the residential spaces.

“This is kind of the gangly teenager phase that we’re in now,” Commissioner Cheryl Grieb said. “We’re going to get there but it’ll take time.”

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Residents like Cornish want more dramatic action sooner, such as moratoriums on development until road conditions improve. Other communities have attempted moratoriums to varying degrees of success, though some view it as a non-starter.

“If there was any other kind of road access, we would feel a little bit more pacified. But there’s not so and it just keeps multiplying,” she said. “If we continue to allow more development, more growth, more communities, there’s not a fix and all that is going to do is bottleneck everything in it.”

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