A proposal to develop a road diet for the Brooklyn neighborhood may hit a detour after Downtown Investment Authority board members directed that transportation planners and traffic engineers be consulted on the project.
Authority staff recommended a request for proposals for a study of Forest and Park streets and Riverside Avenue to develop a conceptual plan to make the area around Unity Plaza and The Fresh Market shopping center more accommodating for bicyclists and pedestrians and to better connect Brooklyn and LaVilla.
Aundra Wallace, authority CEO, said at the board’s monthly meeting Wednesday the proposal is the result of discussions with stakeholders to “make sure we have the right kind of pedestrian mobility.”
Apprised of the proposal before the meeting, Denise Bunnewith, planning director for the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, said a road diet means creating narrower roadways with wider sidewalks for pedestrians and the creation of bike lanes.
That’s an option, she said, if traffic volume in the area under consideration is flat or declining.
“There has been a lot of new development in that corridor and there’s more traffic,” Bunnewith said. “It’s probably not the best time for a road diet in that corridor.”
Since the Florida Department of Transportation completed in 2005 the project to widen Riverside Avenue to six lanes at a cost of $12 million, two apartment buildings, a shopping center anchored by Fresh Market, several new restaurants and Unity Plaza have opened in the area being considered.
In addition, the Yates Family YMCA along Riverside Avenue is being enlarged and is scheduled to open this summer. Another 190-unit apartment development was approved in February to be constructed between 220 Riverside and the shopping center.
Forest Street was widened as part of the $148 million Interstate 10-Interstate 95 improvement project completed in 2011 to improve traffic flow between the interchange and Riverside Avenue.
Bunnewith said the independent regional transportation planning agency has not proposed a road diet in Brooklyn. Considering the level of development completed and approved for construction, traffic in the area is more likely to increase rather than decrease.
Downtown Redevelopment Manager Guy Parola defended the study.
He said consultants would be able to “extrapolate demand” by analyzing land use patterns.
“What’s already occurred gives you a pretty good idea of what you’re going to get,” he said.
DIA board member Brenna Durden said the state transportation department also should be included in the group for the study.
Before approving the request for proposals, the board directed that the transportation agency and traffic engineers participate in the study after Wallace said neither had been contacted concerning the road diet.
Board member Oliver Barakat said the neighborhood is in transition and questioned the lack of consultation with traffic experts before the proposal was submitted.
“A traffic engineering firm should be the leader” of the process, he said.
Parola said it will take “the better part of a year” to identify a consultant and complete the study.
Wallace couldn’t provide a cost other than “we have an appropriate range” for the consulting fee.
The board also approved a $29,000 Retail Enhancement Grant for “The Men’s Room,” a grooming facility proposed at 327 E. Bay St.
The grant is in the form of a forgivable loan at 0 percent interest that decreases 20 percent per year for five years.
In the application, William Keohane said he has 10 years of experience in the grooming business and he plans to invest more than $58,000 to open the salon.
The project will redevelop 1,900 square feet on the ground floor of the two-story former warehouse building, including installation of electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems and minor exterior improvements.
The application indicates seven full-time jobs will be created in the first year of operation.
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