by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The chair of the Riverside/Avondale Preservation Society said advocates from the neighborhoods and neighboring Brooklyn would seek a court order, if necessary, to stop the State from widening Riverside Avenue to six lanes.
Trip Stanley said legal action would only be considered as a last resort. But he said the window of opportunity was rapidly closing to change the Florida Department of Transportations’ plans using other means.
“We’re in the 11th hour,” Stanley said following the Downtown Development Authority’s board meeting Wednesday. “Once the asphalt goes in, the party’s over.”
The opposition to the FDOT’s plans has grown over the past month. The City Council and Metropolitan Planning Organization issued resolutions, recommending Riverside be kept at four lanes. The opposition was bolstered by a study from Orlando-based traffic engineer and consultant Walter Kulash that said the FDOT plan would hinder the City’s efforts to revitalize the Brooklyn neighborhood, which surrounds the street.
FDOT spokesperson Mike Goldman said six lanes were needed to handle growing traffic on the street, which connects downtown to Riverside and Brooklyn neighborhoods. To stop or slow work now, said Goldman, would cost the FDOT, which has already spent $25 million to buy land bordering the street.
The cost overruns would be paid for out of funds set aside for Jacksonville’s future transportation projects, he said.
Goldman said the FDOT planned to build six lanes, but he said the street could be revisited later. If funds became available, he said the State could reduce the lanes to four in another project.
Once six lanes have been built, Stanley doubted the State would spend more to eliminate two. He said the opposition groups want the FDOT to slow down construction until it can consider its plans in concert with an urban planner’s master plan for the area. The City hired Pittsburgh-based Urban Design Associates to design a development plan for Brooklyn. That plan is expected to be released in mid-September and might incorporate Kulash’s concepts. UDA hired him to help put together the transportation element of its plan.
By September, Stanley fears construction on what he calls, “a six-lane suburban highway running through an urban neighborhood,” might already be well under way. He said he went to the DDA to build a political case for following Kulash’s recommendations.
“The FDOT answers to nobody, but they bend to political pressure,” said Stanley. “That’s what we’re trying to build now.”
DDA board member David Auchter said he would brief Mayor John Peyton on the situation. Peyton spokesperson Heather Murphy said Peyton’s main priority in the area was to keep construction on schedule.