Residents press Casselberry for answers on license-plate cameras and pull together petitions over Avalon bike-lane parking changes

Several residents used the commission meeting’s public-comment period to press for information and remedies on two community concerns: automatic license-plate-reader (LPR) cameras and newly implemented bike lanes that eliminated on-street parking on Avalon Boulevard.

Zanae Miller (self-identified) told the commission she discovered automated license-plate cameras near her Hollowbrook neighborhood and said she had not received notice before they were installed. “Most residents, including myself, had no idea that these cameras were installed,” Miller said. She asked the city to provide crime statistics or traffic data that justified siting cameras at the intersection, a full map of camera locations, annual transparency reports listing queries and sharing, and a public hearing before renewing or expanding any program. Miller also asked what plan exists to notify or compensate residents if camera data were hacked or misused.

City staff responded that the intersection Miller cited may lie outside the city’s corporate limits and that Seminole County or the sheriff’s office may have deployed cameras; staff noted the city commission approved the purchase at a public meeting but agreed to follow up on the public-records requests and location questions.

On Avalon Boulevard, multiple residents described being surprised when bike-lane striping removed on-street parking and enforcement began. Tyler Stewart said he received multiple violations after parking on a street where he had long parked and said he and neighbors received little or no direct notice about the change. Other residents described small driveways and long-standing parking patterns; some said the cost to extend driveways was prohibitive. Samantha Stewart and others presented photos and a petition of roughly 40 signatures asking the city to review the change, pause enforcement in the area while the petition is considered, and explore options such as home improvement grants or more targeted notification.

Public works director Kelly Brock said Avalon’s bike lane was installed as part of a road rehabilitation project and that, while citywide paving notifications were distributed, the city may not have provided a specific, targeted notice that a bike lane would be placed on Avalon. Brock said the project is part of the city’s bike-network planning connected to Dewdrop Park and anticipated future cycle-track grant work. The police chief said officers were asked to withhold enforcement unless they received a complaint; staff and commissioners agreed to study the petition and return with options.