GREEN COVE SPRINGS – It’s going to take some good old-fashioned cash to accomplish, but Clay County officials believe they can act relatively quickly to relieve traffic woes that are plaguing Oakleaf drivers who have endured as much as two-hour detours while road work is being done there.

Clay County Commissioners voted unanimously Feb. 9 to allocate more than $78,000 to be used to relieve traffic congestion – hopefully by the end of the week – in Oakleaf that had come to a head the morning of the commission meeting.

The problem stems from emergency work being done to repair a box culvert in the area. A posting on the county’s webpage told residents that the northbound Oakleaf Village Parkway would be closed to all traffic between Oakworth Court and Silver Bluff Boulevard from Feb. 8 to March 8 for “the emergency replacement of the deteriorated box culvert.”

County Manager Stephanie Kopelousos said the project is half-completed but when the changeover on the roadway was made to work on the northbound lane, “all the phones lit up” at the county administration building.

“It’s pretty much unacceptable,” Kopelousos said.

The detour went through four school zones, a round-about and a traffic signal, said John Beck, director of engineering and public works. People just trying to get their children to school were jammed up on the road for as much as two hours, with traffic backed up for a considerable distance, he said.

“It’s pretty rough for the residents to deal with out there,” Beck said.

Commissioner Wayne Bolla, who represents the district involved, agreed, saying he had received more than 18 phone calls Tuesday morning of people complaining. Even the children’s activities were affected, he said.

“I was judging science projects this morning. Three of the kids from Oakleaf were tied up in traffic and couldn’t make it so they couldn’t compete,” Bolla said.

Kopelousos said Beck spent a very frustrating morning driving the area, but did come up with a solution.

“What I’m bringing before you today is a solution, but it’s a solution that does cost money,” Kopelousos said.

The cost is expected to be $78,375. “What it will do is allow us to keep traffic moving for the (four) hours of rush hour traffic in the morning and then it will close down again so the contractor can work,” Kopesolous said.

After the meeting Tuesday, Bolla said the plan was to route all traffic north from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Bolla said it is expected to put the plan into action as early as Thursday morning and then re-evaluate it.

Beck said it should take 20 weekdays to finish the project.

“We would not be bringing it (the proposed solution) to you if we at staff didn’t think it was the absolute right thing to do,” Kopelousos told the commissioners.

Commissioners expressed regret that they would have to spend the money, but saw little alternative.

“This is just totally unacceptable,” said Bolla. “We’ve got the neighborhood shut down so we’ve got to do something.”

Commissioner Gavin Rollins agreed. “I hate it. I don’t like the idea of spending that much money for the little bit of time but I just don’t see any other option,” he said.

In other business, the commission took up the issue of “barn weddings” and other similar type of events such as reunions on properties located in the Agriculture Land Use category. The subject first came up in November when a resident, Joe Joseph, said he and his wife were hoping to supplement their retirement income by utilizing their property on Hogarth Road for barn weddings, but didn’t want to get too far into making a huge capital investment before making sure they were within zoning regulations and the like.

The subject had not really been considered before, so the commission instructed staff to develop conditional use language that could be incorporated into the Land Development Code. Tuesday, staff came back with a proposed ordinance to amend the Land Development Code to add “rural event centers” as a conditional use. The use would be allowed in four different zonings: Agricultural, Agricultural Rural, Lake Asbury Rural Community and Branan Field Rural Suburbs.

But when commissioners looked closer at the regulations included, they decided it was more restrictive than they really wanted. In fact, several said they would just as soon do nothing and table the whole idea.

“Why can’t we just do nothing,” asked Bolla.

Edward Lehman, director of Planning and Zoning, said he worried about doing nothing, however.

“My only concern with doing nothing is staffs change, commissions change and you’re going to probably have to address this issue again,” Lehman said.

Commission Chairwoman Diane Hutchings said while she wanted to reduce the regulations proposed, she would like to see something done for the good of the people who were getting involved and invested in such projects.

“I think it protects the people who are doing it today to not have future confusion with staff who changes and commissioners, but make it very broad,” she said.

Rollins said he thought the hard work on a potential, regulated ordinance had been done by staff and if commissioners decided they needed it or parts of it, it would be ready to go. But he also said he believed government tended to over react.

“Let’s go slowly and try it and then we can always come back and do more later if we feel we need to do more later,” he said.

Lehman suggested simply adding rural event centers as a conditional use with a definition of a rural event center and a requirement the center be at least 3.5 acres.

Commissioners agreed with that premise, and will look at what Lehman brings back to the Feb. 23 meeting for action.