by Joel Addington
Contributing Writer
It’s been more than a year since city and state transportation officials received public comment on the proposed Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center planned in LaVilla around the existing Skyway terminal between west Forsyth and Bay streets.
With the first phase of the $147 million project slated for construction next year, planners with the Florida Department of Transportation — the lead agency on the project — solicited input yesterday as it works to complete construction documents and finalize the environmental assessment study this month.
“Tonight is another federal requirement to conclude the assessment,” said Craig Teal of FDOT, which is partnering with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) to fund construction of the first phase estimated at $50 million.
The initial phase includes 60,000 square feet of JTA offices and a Regional Transportation Management Center of 35,000 square feet housing City and FDOT transportation management, transit dispatchers, Florida Highway Patrol and the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization, all located west of the existing Skyway terminal.
Phase one will also integrate the existing Skyway terminal with two Bus Rapid Transit stations on the north and south sides, a public plaza and parking for 200 vehicles plus retail space.
In May 2006, schematic designs for the overall project were completed and call for three additional phases.
“So far we’ve done a lot out of the FDOT pocket, and now we’re working with JTA to get the federal match,” said Teal. “They (the federal government) have committed to do that as funds become available.”
The latter phases call for a JTA bus facility with 16 bus bays between Forsyth and Houston streets, more retail space, a public plaza fronting Johnson Street, structured parking for another 876 vehicles, an Amtrak commuter rail terminal adjacent to the historic Jacksonville Union Terminal and Prime Osborn Convention Center, and a Greyhound Bus facility between Houston and Adams Streets.
After a brief presentation on the project, attendees had the opportunity to comment on what they heard and saw.
Jerry Sullivan, a former CSX worker and president of the local chapter of the National Railway Historic Society and frequent Amtrak rider and said he wanted assurances that security for vehicles parked at the proposed Amtrak terminal would be better than it currently is at the station on Clifford Lane.
“If I’m gone for a week, I don’t care if I have to pay $10 for security,” he said. “Right now when you go to the train station you just park your car and pray.”
Hank Rogers, an assistant to state representative Audrey Gibson, said, “It’s a great project. I think it’s going to boost up Jacksonville’s transportation facilities.”
Greyhound District Manager Emma Gray was also impressed and said intermodal transportation centers — those connecting multiples modes of transportation — are becoming more and more common in U.S. cities.
“This is the new wave of transportation to have everything together,” she said. “It’s an exciting time and a major growth for the city.”
Riverside residents Rob and Kassia Zinn attended the meeting and both criticized the architectural design of the project.
“This looks like a strip mall,” said Kassia Zinn before calling the design mediocre.
Rob Zinn said the architecture doesn’t “say a whole lot about us.”
He also suggested bridging McCoy’s Creek on the west side of the project to provide pedestrian access from redevelopment ongoing in the Brooklyn neighborhood near Riverside.
Rich Heidrick, vice president of the consulting firm hired to design the project, responded saying he was “sensitive to the functionality and visual imagery of the project” and invited the Zinns to meet for further discussions.
“We hope to inspire more development to come to the area and have Johnson Street become a boulevard,” he said. “The idea was the public infrastructure could be a start for further development.”