by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The City is getting closer to answering the question of what needs to be done to develop Cecil Field.
The newly created Seaport and Airport Special Committee met Tuesday to discuss the progress that was being made in three areas, dredging of the waterways that serve Jacksonville’s ports, and concurrency and infrastructure issues related to Cecil Field development.
The owners of Cecil Field, the City of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, need to divide up allotted daily trips to find out what improvements will be required in the area to handle the impacts of developing the property. When the U.S. Navy left Cecil Field it was vested in the City’s Concurrency Management System. According to the language of the agreement, before any property in the system can be developed, “it must be demonstrated that its impact can be adequately absorbed by the public facilities.”
The property was calculated to handle 4,785 peak hour vehicle trips a day in its current state. The City and the Aviation Authority have been trying to determine a fair way to divide those trips, and once that is done it will be easier to determine what needs to be done to meet the capacity of trips created by development.
“We are 95 percent sure we will have an agreement soon,” said Stephen Joost, a member of the committee who is responsible for its transportation issues.
The Committee was created by City Council President Ronnie Fussell in late July and consists of Council members Joost, Art Graham and Daniel Davis. Its goal is to work with both the Aviation and Port authorities in an effort to take advantage of the economic opportunities both present by facilitating such things as permitting and other functions performed by the City. Those include finding and securing resources to support the City’s growing seaport business and development opportunities at Cecil Field.
Davis, who chairs the Committee, was confident in Joost’s statement.
“We expect a resolution to be presented to the City Council in two weeks,” said Davis.
The committee also received an update on the dredging project at the Blount Island, Dames Point and Talleyrand port terminals. Eric Green of the Port Authority addressed the committee and informed them that the current project is on schedule and should be completed in the next 30 days. It involves dredging the river to 40 feet from 38 feet from the mouth of the St. Johns River to Drummond Point, which covers the Blount Island and Dames Point terminals. The next phase would take that level up the river to the Talleyrand Terminal.
Approval and funding need to be acquired for the next phase of the dredging project, and the first step of the process will be to get the project included in the 2010 Water Resources Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Green offered an invitation for the members of the committee to join members of the Port Authority in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress to get the project included in the act. Graham, Davis and Joost have prior commitments and won’t be able to make the trip. Green said he would find out if another meeting could be arranged.
Another project will be pursued once the port area is dredged to a depth of 40 feet. The same area will need to be dredged down to 47 feet to accommodate the bigger ships that will be able to travel through the Panama Canal once the new locks have been installed by 2014.
356-2466