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Traffic Issues
Escambia County continues its plans to expand Perdido Key Drive to four
lanes. The engineering firm of Post, Buckley, Jernigan & Shue made a
presentation at the April Perdido Key Beach Chamber of Commerce luncheon
describing the proposed project. Their presentation was preliminary, costs
and permitting are still being studied and there are requirements for a
series of public meetings for the purpose of citizen input. What they were
able to show was some conceptual drawings of a four lane divided highway,
with a 19 ft landscaped median, bike lanes and a walking path on either
side. There would be turn outs approximately every half of a mile,
creating the necessity for some U-turns to access existing driveways. The
average amount of right of way available is 100 ft, and some areas may be
too narrow for the proposed plan. In that event they can either request
permission from the state to reduce the width of the median, or by the
rule of eminent domain, purchase additional right of way. The design phase
of the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, with
construction ready to begin in 2009 or 2010. There was no concept
discussed regarding the bridge, other than another bridge will be included
in the design phase. Although, we are sure this will be a huge
construction project, the length of time estimated to completion has not
been established yet.
The millions of dollars needed for this project is projected to come from
the newly created SW Escambia Tax Incentive plan. However, Escambia
Planning & Zoning Department reports that the existing roadway already has
enough capacity now to accommodate the 7150 dwelling units and 1000
lodging units that are allowed by the state mandated dwelling cap on
Perdido Key. Escambia Engineering Department reports that they have
calculated the traffic capacity (number of trips available) and they
believe the existing roadway will accommodate approximately 8,100 dwelling
units. This leads to the question: If Escambia County believes that the
existing roadway can accommodate all allowed construction, why is it
planning to spend county taxpayers money to enlarge a state road?
County officials have stated that building a four lane roadway will allow
additional development, which in turn will generate the taxes to pay for
building the four lane road. (If we build it, they will come) Unless there
are changes to the real estate market, and property tax and insurance
issues are resolved, and the state agrees to the removal of the dwelling
cap, there will be little or no additional tax revenues to pay for this
project. Therefore, there is no basis for enlarging Perdido Key Drive
other than to induce
additional impact. Do
we want to create additional impact? Do we want to encourage more
development? Or do we just want a safely designed roadway, with
bicycle/pedestrian paths and properly engineered turn lanes? What do we
want this community to look like?
That is the issue.
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