Deland Businesses Want to Boot Big Rigs

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL , FOX 35) - Woodland Boulevard cuts right through the heart of downtown Deland. The two lane road is filled with sidewalk cafes, antique stores and other retail. It's historic and quaint in many ways.

But on either end of the little city, the road is called Highway 17/92. It's a main artery filled with strip malls, fast food restaurants and lots of tractor-trailer trucks.

State Road 15-A is the designated truck route created to be used as a bypass around downtown. But merchants say many of the big rigs cruise right on through and they don’t like it.

David Buth owns Casey’s On The Corner restaurant on the corner of Woodland and Indiana Avenue. Buth says his customers can feel the floor shake when big rigs roll by.

Two doors down, Manny De La Vega say he hears the same complaints from customers at his gourmet Mexican restaurant, especially those who sit outside on the restaurants patio.

He had to pause several times as a tractor-trailer went by but managed to tell us, "It’s a little hectic, especially right now during the day. Obviously being on the main boulevard and having a patio outside you definitely hear everything.”

The city recently asked the Florida Department of Transportation to consider banning big rigs from downtown Deland’s major artery. The DOT denied the request saying the trucks do not pose a safety problem.

City Manager Michael Pleus said the DOT. is willing to hear other ideas to encourage truckers to use the truck route instead of going through downtown. Pleus says the city plans to do some brainstorming and then take the DOT up on that offer.

Among the options he’s would consider is a pre-recorded message that would be broadcast on low-power radio stations along 17/92. Truckers would be asked to tune to a specific a.m. radio frequency. The message would direct them to the truck route on SR 15-A.

For now though, people in downtown Deland will just have to continue dealing with the tractor-trailers in their midst.