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Commission to reconsider Reimagining Pine Avenue parking reductions

Commission to reconsider Pine Avenue parking reductions

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria, Community News.

ANNA MARIA – City officials are reconsidering the elimination of 53 parallel parking spaces in the Reimagining Pine Avenue project.

During a special commission meeting on Monday, Oct. 25, the divided Anna Maria City Commission reached an initial 3-2 consensus in favor of eliminating 53 parallel parking spaces located in the city-owned rights of way along Pine Avenue. But during the commission’s regular meeting on Thursday, Oct. 28, Mayor Dan Murphy recommended a step-by-step decision-making and implementation process that addresses sidewalks, crosswalks and lighting first and allows commissioners more time to reconsider the need for Pine Avenue bike paths and the potential elimination of the parallel parking spaces.

The city does not intend to eliminate nor significantly impact the privately-owned perpendicular parking spaces associated with the Pine Avenue businesses – as long as those parking areas do not infringe upon city-owned rights of way.

Consensus reached

During the Oct. 25 meeting, the commission reached a majority consensus regarding several Reimagining Pine Avenue design options. These included the locations of the sidewalks and bike paths as well as crosswalk and street lighting improvements and a delivery truck turnaround area near the City Pier.

Commissioners Carol Carter, Deanie Sebring and Mark Short supported the elimination of the parallel parking spaces. Commissioner Doug Copeland and Jon Crane did not.

“I do not believe there should be parallel parking on Pine. I think it’s very dangerous for strollers, bikers, walkers. There’s no space. It should never have been put there in the first place,” Sebring said.

“I’m not feeling good about parallel parking along Pine,” Carter added.

Copeland presented an alternative design option that included sidewalks on both sides of the street, two bike lanes on the same side of the street and parallel parking along the opposite side of the street. Copeland said the most important element for any of the design options is the installation of continuous sidewalks constructed of the same materials, but his overall design concept did not garner the majority support of the commission.

Short asked contracted traffic engineer Gerry Traverso if diagonal parking spaces could be installed along Pine Avenue. Traverso said that would provide fewer parking spaces than the parallel parking spaces and work better on a one-way street. Murphy noted the commission previously eliminated the design alternative Traverso proposed that called for Pine Avenue and Magnolia Avenue to become one-way streets.

When choosing between the two remaining design concepts previously proposed by Traverso, the totality of the commission’s Oct. 25 decision-making produced a design option that most resembles Traverso’s Alternative 2 option.

Alternative 2 proposes new sidewalks and bike paths along both sides of Gulf Drive. Alternative 3 proposes new sidewalks along both sides of Pine Avenue and a single multi-use trail along one side of the street only. Both alternatives propose eliminating the existing parallel parking spaces.

The commission unanimously agreed the new sidewalks and bike paths would be constructed of permeable pavers and be installed atop French drain systems that further enhance drainage.

Where applicable, the paver sidewalks will follow the existing footprints of the unpaved meandering paths that pass by several Pine Avenue businesses. Murphy said the sidewalks would extend the entire length of Pine Avenue, from Tampa Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

Commission to reconsider Reimagining Pine Avenue parking reductions
Illustrated in gray, the new sidewalks will follow the footprints of the existing unpaved meandering paths. – City of Anna Maria | Submitted

The commission unanimously supported the installation of raised crosswalks with flashing beacons that double as speed tables, with additional street lighting to also be installed at the existing and new crossing areas.

The commission unanimously agreed to create a delivery truck turnaround area by the trolley stop and parking lot near the City Pier in hopes of decreasing delivery truck traffic on nearby residential streets.

The Pine Avenue improvements are desired primarily to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and others, with improved traffic flow as a secondary consideration. The commission agreed to pursue the Pine Avenue improvements first and address Spring Avenue and Magnolia Avenue as future project phases. Murphy said Magnolia Avenue will still be repaved as currently planned and budgeted.

The commission made these decisions while facing a Wednesday, Oct. 27 deadline to apply for a state appropriation that, if approved, could provide state funding for the city project.

Consensus reconsidered

On Oct. 28, Murphy suggested the specific design decisions be made one at a time, beginning with the installation of sidewalks along both sides of Pine Avenue and the delivery truck turnaround area, to be followed by the crosswalk installations and street lighting improvements.

Using this approach, Murphy doesn’t envision the commission addressing bike paths and the potential elimination of the parallel parking spaces until June or July. He said the elimination of parking spaces to accommodate bike paths remains “a major bone of contention.”

“The consensus we took was 3-2. Let’s see what these first three things (sidewalks, crosswalks and lighting) are going to do for us and then we’ll go to the bike path. There might be other alternatives to the bike path, there might not. There might be other alternatives to run a bike path down Magnolia and not disturb any parking on Pine. I want you to have time to think about that and also be able see the improvements, if any, that the first three steps have made. By June or July, you’ll have been through a spring break season. Taking it in bites like this I think is a good approach,” Murphy told the commission.

He said he would bring some of these matters back for discussion at the commission’s next meeting.

City staff member Amy Moriarty told the commission the city has now submitted an initial application for a $1.2 million state appropriation from the state Legislature for the Pine Avenue improvements.

Holmes Beach multi use path palm

Multi-use path approved for Palm Drive

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – An eight-foot wide multi-use path is moving out of residential neighborhoods and onto Palm Drive to link up with similar facilities coming south out of Anna Maria.

Commissioners agreed in a 4-1 informal vote to allow City Engineer Lynn Burnett to bring a contract before them for the installation of the multi-use path and widened bicycle lane along the east side of Palm Drive from the city’s northern border with Anna Maria at Crosspoint Fellowship Church to Key Royale Drive. Burnett said the opportunity to move the path from the previously planned route along Marina Drive and 85th Street to the main road happened because the Manatee County force main replacement project along the eastern side of Palm Drive wrapped up much earlier than expected. The sudden opening also allows for the city to save funds on clearing the right of way for the project and mobilizing a construction unit if they choose to use the county’s contractor for the work, which Burnett recommended. When force main work is done on the west side of the road, possibly up to three years from now, she said the same plan could be implemented on that side of the street. Once completed, the Palm Drive corridor facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians would be ready to link up to the long-planned AMI Sun Trail that will go along state roads to link up with facilities on Longboat Key. With facilities being installed on the locally owned sections of the main roads in Anna Maria and Holmes Beach, the Sun Trail facility would stretch from end to end on Anna Maria Island, Burnett said, offering cyclists, joggers, and pedestrians a safe place to go that’s not in travel lanes and not through strictly residential neighborhoods.

Holmes Beach multi use path vote ks
Commissioners vote 4-1 to approve the multi-use path. – Kristin Swain | Sun

Commissioner Jim Kihm, who did not agree with the plan, said he’s concerned with putting in such wide sidewalks. He said he would prefer a five-foot concrete path instead of eight-feet.

Commissioners agreed to install a five-foot sidewalk on the east side of Holmes Boulevard and have Burnett find a contractor to repair the existing sidewalks where needed along Marina Drive and 85th Street.

Though commissioners agreed to a five-foot sidewalk in one section of the city, Burnett warned that they would be paying to install a substandard facility. She said the minimum sidewalk width for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance is six-feet while the minimum acceptable width according to the Florida Department of Transportation on state roads is eight-feet. Burnett said she was looking at various surfaces to use for the multi-use path, not just concrete. One involves the installation of plastic honeycombed sections that are filled with sand or rock and are permeable. Burnett said grass could be planted in these but it would require assistance from the public works department to maintain. Once the path is installed, she said she’d like to speak with members of the city’s parks and beautification committee to see if new trees could be planted along the path to help make up for some of the tree canopies that was lost to the force main project.

Commissioners also agreed to the installation of bike path marker signs on the road not only for cyclists but also for pedestrians and motorists using the lanes incorrectly. Part of their charge, Commissioner Pat Morton said, is for Holmes Beach police officers to enforce correct usage of the sidewalks and bicycle lanes by stopping cyclists from traveling in the wrong direction on sidewalks and bicycle lanes, preventing motorists from using bicycle lanes as a passing lane, and stopping people driving golf carts and scooters from using bicycle lanes as travel lanes.

Chief Bill Tokajer said there would be heightened police enforcement along city streets and for people to keep in mind that only non-motorized vehicles, such as bicycles and skateboards, are allowed in the bicycle lane. “Tickets are expensive, folks,” he said.

Anna Maria bike trail

Where to bike on the Island

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News.

Anna Maria

In Anna Maria, the city’s bicycle paths are a mix of multi-use paths, shared with pedestrians, and unmarked sharrow roads.

The path journeys north from Holmes Beach down Gulf Drive to Willow Avenue, where bicyclists can make a left to Gulf Front Park or right to continue north down Jacaranda Road or Crescent Drive. Cyclists on Crescent Road can continue to Bayfront Park, take a left at the fork onto Gladiolus Street or loop into Jacaranda Road and take a right to North Shore Drive to cruise past the Rod and Reel Pier.

City engineer Lynn Burnett said future plans for Anna Maria include upgrades to Pine Avenue to include a multi-use path down the length of the major thoroughfare to allow for multi-modal transportation as part of the city’s 10-year capital improvement plan

Burnett said shared roads would be marked with sharrow lane striping over the next few years. The east side of Gulf Drive is planned to have a new infiltration trench installed with a multi-use bicycle and pedestrian path erected afterwards.

Holmes Beach

No official bicycle path currently exists in Holmes Beach, though there are bicycle lanes in both directions along Gulf Drive.

A planned path meanders from Gulf Drive east to 85th Street and down Marina Drive with a sharrow road along 83rd Street.

Another sharrow road at 72nd Street is planned to connect the Marina Drive eastern path with a western route on Holmes Boulevard. Multi-modal sidewalks are planned on the west side of Holmes Boulevard. The path is planned to follow Marina Drive south with accesses to Gulf Drive and the beaches.

A sharrow street is planned for 62nd Street to connect the trail to Flotilla Drive.

A multi-modal path is planned for 56th Street to connect Marina to Gulf Drive and the beach. Rather than traversing the intersection at Marina and Gulf Drives, the path is planned to divert along a sharrow road west on 54th Street to Gulf Drive. From there, the path is planned to continue to 52nd Street and Second Avenue where it breaks into several branches around the Manatee Public Beach. Dual paths are planned down Gulf Drive and Sixth Avenue until they converge near the Bradenton Beach city line to continue south to Longboat Key.

Some elements of the multi-modal path, an eight to 10-foot sidewalk along one or both sides of streets, depending on right of way allowances, are already budgeted through Holmes Beach. In the city’s current fiscal year budget are items such as restriping and signs marking sharrow roads. Other improvements on local city roads are planned over the next several years. Burnett said improvements to county or state roads will have to be approved and funded through those agencies. Some streets also may be eligible for federal funds assistance.

Improvements along Gulf Drive are scheduled for construction in correlation with Manatee County’s planned force water main improvements. The sidewalks and bicycle lanes will not be constructed until that project is finished, potentially as early as mid to late 2019.

The Holmes Beach local multi-modal path sections of the route were approved by city commissioners in March.

Bradenton Beach

In Bradenton Beach, the multi-modal path is simpler. Rather than meandering through residential areas, the path predominantly tracks down Gulf Drive until it meets up with the Longboat Pass Bridge. The plan is to continue the multi-modal path across the bridge and into Longboat Key. If the SUN Trail western route and funding are approved by the state, this will be the route the trail takes through Bradenton Beach, across Longboat Key and into Sarasota via the Ringling Bridge.

A secondary trail is planned to go through the community redevelopment segment of the city east of Gulf Drive on the east side of the street.

All multi-modal paths on the Island are planned as eight-foot sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists.

With the exception of paths through the CRA district, all Bradenton Beach bicycle and multi-modal path improvements will be paid by state funding when available.

No official bicycle trail currently exists in Bradenton Beach, though there is an existing multi-modal path on the west side of Gulf Drive south to the underside of the Longboat Pass Bridge along Coquina Beach. The current path is not planned to be incorporated into the future bicycle and multi-modal paths according to Burnett.

The SUN Trail

The western leg of the SUN Trail, if approved, will travel to Anna Maria Island via the Green Bridge in downtown Bradenton, continuing either down Manatee Avenue or through adjacent residential areas to where Manatee Avenue begins crossing waterways that lead to Anna Maria Island.

Funds for the SUN Trail have yet to be assigned. Burnett is hopeful funds will be allocated for the project by the end of the current Island transportation study.

One part of the study is determining if roundabouts will be installed at the intersections of Gulf and Marina Drives, Manatee Avenue and Gulf Drive and Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive. If the roundabouts are installed, it will reformat those sections of the SUN Trail to accommodate curving intersections.

If the SUN Trail is implemented, it will feature two traffic lanes with two bicycle lanes and pedestrians sidewalks on each side.

Burnett said SUN Trail lanes will incorporate any existing bicycle paths or sidewalks if the route is funded to reduce cost and inconvenience to Island residents and visitors.

No existing bicycle paths or sidewalks are slated for removal as part of the Island-wide improvement project.