The City Waterways Commission voted Wednesday against recommending to City Council a kayak launch near Downtown and a dredging project near the Jacksonville Zoo.
The commission questioned the projects’ costs and return on investment.
The two projects are among four under review.
The City is seeking approval to apply for Florida Inland Navigation District grants for four waterways projects in Resolution 2012-273 with a total cost of $2.1 million.
The district is a special state taxing district for the continued
management and maintenance of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. If the applications are approved by the district, it would split the cost of the projects evenly with the City.
Members of the commission were concerned with the costs involved with the $1 million dredging project near the Jacksonville Zoo that would allow larger boats to dock at the zoo and a kayak launch at Gefen Riverwalk Park near Downtown that could cost about $400,000.
City Council member John Crescimbeni, vice chair of the commission, asked how long the dredging project would allow the larger boats to dock at the zoo and how soon would the City have to revisit the project.
“Dredging projects are one of those unknowns,” said Tera Meeks, chief of waterfront management programming for the City Recreation and Community Services Department.
“A lot of it is determined by the amount of use of the facility. If we dredge it out, and it is utilized by larger recreational boats, it will stay dredged out or more accessible for a longer amount of time,” said Meeks.
She also explained that the project was being pursued to attract recreational boaters to Jacksonville. By making the dock available to larger boats, it gives boaters another destination to visit in Jacksonville, said Meeks.
“There is a long-term plan here for a partnership between the state parks, the national parks and the City of Jacksonville to establish a water-based, educational tour system of the Timucuan Preserve, and the zoo would be one of the stops on that tour,” said Meeks.
Without a guarantee for the lifespan of the project, Crescimbeni said he couldn’t support the project, even though that would mean losing out on funding from the district.
“We spent most of last night arguing about spending $750,000 on furniture that would last 50 years, but the mayor has signed off on spending $500,000 of general fund money and $500,000 of FIND money, which is taxpayer dollars, on a project that, at best, would last five years?” said Crescimbeni.
The application for the proposed kayak launch has an estimated cost of $90,000 for kayak launch design, with the cost being split evenly between the district and the City.
The problem that the commission discussed was the estimated $300,000 construction cost, which would be another application.
Meeks explained that the project would include replacing a “flat” bridge at the park with an arced bridge that would allow kayakers to access the river under the bridge. The bridge is part of the boardwalk system on the Northbank.
“I’m just flabbergasted that, with the mayor’s recent publicity about kayaks and launching sites for kayaks, we are going to devote the lion’s share of this project under the disguise of a kayak launch to a boardwalk,” said Crescimbeni.
Crescimbeni said he was not against developing river access for non-motorized boats. He wanted to see funding used for multiple launch sites and at more reasonable prices, he said.
The commission did approve recommendations for boat ramp and dock improvements in Mayport, with a total estimated cost of $803,350, and dredging for Pottsburg Creek from the confluence of the St. Johns River to the boat ramp at Beach Boulevard at an estimated cost of $250,000.
The resolution will be further discussed by the commission at a meeting May 21.
The resolution is being reviewed by the Council Finance and Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety committees before a vote by the full Council May 22.
Applications for district funds were due April 1. If Council decides to eliminate projects from the resolution, the projects will have to wait for the next application cycle for funding.
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