A regional transportation center at the Osborn Center and streetcar and commuter rail lines are among the 14 detailed recommendations from Mayor Alvin Brown’s Transportation Transition Committee.
Another recommendation for funding includes looking at the SunPass system used by the Florida Department of Transportation for toll roads.
Listed by alphabet rather than number, “Recommendation I” calls for Brown to study the feasibility of converting the Osborn Center site to accommodate a “state-of-the-art, efficient and compact Regional Transportation Center.”
“The Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center should be a defining project for Northeast Florida,” said the committee report.
“The JRTC will serve as the heart of our region’s transportation system providing connections both within our region and to the external reaches of the Southeast and beyond,” it said.
It also said the center would “provide much-needed support to Downtown redevelopment and will provide an excellent gateway for local, regional and long-distance travelers.”
Streetcars were included in “Recommendation E,” which called for Brown to publicly endorse the mass transit-based priority projects funded by the 2030 Mobility Plan by working toward engineering and design and lobbying state and federal sources for funding.
The recommendation cites streetcar/commuter rail lines and said streetcars “offer an ability to attract new investments.”
“The ratio of new investments to dollars spent from a Cincinnati study found the average to be $14 to $1,” it said.
“Recommendation K” includes the SunPass system among four “potential options for a sustainable transportation fund.”
It said that when the 6-cent local option gas tax expires in 2016, “funding available to run a mass transit system and investment in critical new transportation infrastructure is limited and will face a crisis stage.”
In the report introduction, the committee said its discussions “focused on moving people and goods efficiently, safely and in such a manner as to provide economic stimulus and increase productivity of our City’s resources, from ports to neighborhoods.”
The report was detailed and specific, but its many recommendations and observations include these:
Ports, freight and logistics
• Recommendation A. Support port-related development with enhanced public relations and strategic investments that leverage state and federal funding.
Among the recommendation’s 14 suggestions were to focus on correcting Mile Point as the first priority for port development; relocate the cruise ship terminal to allow for construction of the Hanjin terminal; and develop a strategy for deepening the harbor that identifies funding needed to match the federal funding.
Transportation network
Recommendation B. Lead an effort to develop a regional transportation plan and implementation strategy.
Recommendation C. Lead a comprehensive plan for the ideas and plans in process by transportation and related groups, “thereby championing a master comprehensive long-term plan for Jacksonville and the Northeast Florida region.”
Recommendation D. Coordinate rail planning between the Jacksonville Port Authirity, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, the City, CSX, Florida East Coast Railway and Norfolk Southern.
However, the report emphasized that any commuter rail lines that use private freight lines should not impede the capacity for freight traffic.
It also noted that the port and CSX are working to develop an on-dock intermodal container transfer facility and that CSX committed $40 million for rail infrastructure connecting to Dames Point subject to the ICTF being built and two trainloads a day of container traffic coming out of the facility.
Recommendation E. Publicly endorse the streetcar/commuter rail projects.
Recommendation F. Adopt “Complete Streets” policies as part of the 2030 Mobility Plan. The policies include designing roads that treat cars, trucks, transit, bicycles and pedestrians “as equal priorities.”
Recommendation G. Create a transportation task force to develop a citywide transportation strategic plan for near-term job creation opportunities, long-term policy guidance and coordination between agencies.
Recommendation H. Commit to transit-supportive land use, focusing on land-use policies that ensure “effective and efficient transportation mobility.”
Recommendation I. Study the feasibility of the Regional Transportation Center.
Recommendation J. Establish and follow a Downtown development policy that supports the use of transit as a primary mode of transportation and limits the number of new parking garages built Downtown.
Recommendation K. Develop a strategy for sustainable transportation funding. It said the 6-cent local option gas tax is scheduled to expire in 2016 and that the Better Jacksonville Plan funding has been “exhausted and much of the revenues from the existing 1/2-cent local option transportation sales tax is committed to pay off debt from BJP.”
The report said potential options for a sustainable transportation fund include a mobility fee implementation; extension of the local option gas tax beyond 2016; managed lanes and SunPass system roadways; and extension of the infrastructure sales tax beyond 2030.
(SunPass is the Florida Department of Transportation’s Prepaid Toll Program used on toll roads and most toll bridges. The system is planned on a new toll road announced on Branan Field Road in West Jacksonville. The state is moving ahead with turning the road from Interstate 10 to Blanding Boulevard into a toll road at 15 cents a mile. The Florida Turnpike Enterprise is financing the $291 million project and will be repaid from the tolls.)
Recommendation L. Support implementation of the mobility fee. The fee and plan is designed to replace the concurrency-based fair share system.
Recommendation M. Form a citizen task force to determine the “fairest” method of capitalizing transportation projects.
Recommendation N. Immediately release transportation projects that are on hold and are approved for design or construction.
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Transportation Transition Committee
Co-Chairs: Lisa Strange Weatherby and Bishop McKinley Young
Members: Melody Bishop, Michael Blaylock, Calvin Burney, Greg Clary, Ennis Davis, Joseph Debs, Deidra Dix-Wynn, George Gabel, Tony Hansberry, Tomas Jimenez, Robert Mann, Bill Mason, Lisa Robert, Ron Wright, Elizabeth Yates
In transition
Mayor Alvin Brown and his staff are reviewing reports submitted Aug. 8 by 18 transition policy committees. The committees consisted of 217 people and another 125 subject area experts and staff. More than 110 meetings were held over a month. The Daily Record will summarize one report daily and include the names of the committee co-chairs and members. Today’s summary covers the Transportation Transition Committee.