by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
A survey of Duval County residents conducted by The Trust for Public Land indicates the St. Johns River is vital to the area’s waterborne recreational interests. The survey also showed people are still looking for ways to either access the river or simply enjoy seeing it — and preferably from a Downtown venue.
Andrea Goldman, senior project associate for The Trust for Public Land’s Jacksonville office, talked about the methodology of the study and its results in detail during Thursday’s meeting of the Jacksonville Waterways Commission.
“We have strategically decided to focus our efforts on preserving more land on the river in Florida,” she said, adding access to the river through public parks and boat ramps and private property is important.
The survey questions were posted on the TPL Web site as well as the City’s from Oct. 20-Dec. 20 and was promoted through other Web sites, Facebook, e-mails and the media. Overall, 514 people completed the multi-question survey.
“We were trying to get people that use the river and care about the river,” said Goldman.
Of the 514 respondents, 93 percent indicated they have used the river for recreation in the previous 12 months and most of them were in a boat. Also, 85 percent of those who answered have lived in Duval County for at least five years, indicating genuine, long-term interest in the river.
“I think the survey was really exploratory, gives us a broad-based picture and the ability to conduct more research,” said Goldman.
The survey also showed that 47 percent of the respondents were “not satisfied” with the quality of places to enjoy the river and most indicated they would prefer to be Downtown.
“Downtown was definitely No. 1. People want to enjoy the riverfront in highly visible places,” said Goldman.
Jody McDaniel of the City’s Planning Department said the City doesn’t have an accurate method for tracking use of public, riverfront parks or boat ramps. She said there are occasionally vehicle counts in parking lots done.
“We only monitor the parks and ramps that are staffed,” said McDaniel. “One of the only ways we know is how often the maintenance crews have to empty the garbage cans.”
Capt. Jim Suber and McDaniel gave an update on the City’s rewrite of its Manatee Protection Plan. Wednesday, several local, state and federal agencies that oversee water safety — and thus manatee protection — met to discuss the issue, the number of manatee deaths in local waters and what can be done to alleviate the problem.
“The policy is different between the federal agency and the state and local agencies,” said Suber, adding the differences aren’t “deal breaking.”
Suber said the biggest difference is the federal agencies don’t usually handle education and give out warnings — they primarily focus on enforcement of regulations and penalties. The State agencies and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol, on the other hand, tend to focus on educating the boating public and issuing warnings first. Overall, he said the meeting went well.
“By all appearances, there seems to be a very successful understanding of what the agencies can do,” said Suber.
McDaniel said a Request for Proposal was sent out and respondents have until the end of the day Friday to submit their bids to rewrite the plan.Those responses will be evaluated and her hope is the new plan could be submitted to City Council by June.
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