by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Representatives from several City and State agencies returned to City Hall Tuesday for further discussion about directional signage downtown.
Led by City Council member Suzanne Jenkins, with input from Downtown Vision, Inc., the Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, the proposed signage plan — its goal is to guide both automotive and foot traffic into and through downtown — has had its share of redrafts since discussions began last August.
Close to reaching a consensus on sign design and location in January, the group’s efforts were slightly derailed after newly issued federal guidelines seemed to present a conflict.
According to the Federal Highway Administration Manual, “Different color sign backgrounds shall not be used to provide color coding destinations.”
Color-coding signs downtown based on the various subdistricts had been among the more popular ideas previously on the table.
Based on that information, consulting firm Basham & Lucas Design Group, Inc. presented conceptual sign renderings to the group that the City, State and federal administrations might all be able to live with.
“One of our challenges,” said Paul Basham, president of the design firm, “was that we wanted to create a unifying message for Jacksonville that it doesn’t really have right now, something we could put on signs leading traffic into downtown and also on signs directing people to the different downtown attractions.”
Basham’s design, colored icons on a standard green background, could be an option.
“We think we’ve been able to work within the boundaries presented to us,” he said, “but we’ve managed to play with them a little.”
Based on Basham’s concept, various colored icons — each would correspond to the 10 districts outlined in the Downtown Master Plan — would be added to signage along I-95 and I-10.
Once downtown, additional signage would be printed by an in-house City shop and put in place to further direct traffic to the various districts. The current signs with purple backdrops would be removed.
James Scott, a traffic operations engineer with Florida Department of Transportation, was unsure if the colors specifically needed to code the icons met FDOT standards.
“I can’t really say right now,” he said. “But I could have that information within two days.”
Scott said FDOT was also in the process of revamping interstate signs in Florida, including those locally.
It would be important, said Scott, for all parties working to improve directional signage to agree on a plan and sign off as soon as possible. That way, FDOT would have the necessary local input.
Interstate signs are a FDOT expense though a funding source for signs downtown has yet to be identified.
“That’s up to me,” said Jenkins. “We do have a lot of work ahead of us and we could meet again in about two weeks to see where we are. We’re getting pretty close the Super Bowl so there’s definitely more of a push to get new signage in place. Plus, downtown is becoming much more vibrant now.
“We need to be able to direct traffic there.”