Two items of particular interest to Springfield residents were discussed at last night's Urban Core CPAC Meeting.
A representative of the Florida Department of Transportation attends each meeting. He provided follow up to two questions raised at the February meeting.
In February Ron Barton (Executive Director, Jacksonville Economic Development Commission) was asked about the possibility of Main Street returning to two way traffic between State and Union, something that would greatly improve connectivity between downtown and Springfield. Barton dismissed the idea and suggested that he had more important things on his plate, advising that Laura Street was a satisfactory connection with Springfield.
FDOT told us last night that they would proceed with a study regarding the feasibility of two way traffic on that section of Main if the City of Jacksonville would simply make that request. The CPAC followed up with a unanimous resolution that Main Street be returned to two way traffic, and I understand that this resolution will be forwarded to the City for action. No guarantees but a step in the right direction.
FDOT also followed up on a question from last month related to planned improvements to the Newnan/Hubbard Klutho bridge at Confederat Park. FDOT was not aware before the February CPAC meeting that the City's vision plan for the Hogans Creek greenway included a proposal to close that bridge to automobile traffic, creating a pedestrian crossing. If that occurs there will be no need to improve the bridge, saving taxpayers many thousands of dollars. FDOT followed up with the City and learned from the Parks department that there is no funding for the proposed improvements, so studies regarding the bridge will continue. However, these studies are preliminary and any construction would be several years from now. This is an opportunity to coordinate City and State efforts to save money and improve our quality of life, as this portion of the vision plan would lead to traffic calming on Hubbard as well as a much improved park, with better connectivity between the dog park and proposed playground and the rest of Confederate Park. Something we should be talking about and working for.
It was good to see this positive action come from our CPAC. Doug Vanderlaan does a great job as chair and I was favorably impressed by FDOT's initiative in this case
The final version of the Hogans Creek Master Plan should probably be shared with the the public in a more open format. If FDOT wasn't aware that Hubbard closes to auto traffic in the vision, I suspect most residents aren't aware as well. I think it would be good to get some general feedback on the final plan and its components from local residents. As for Main, hopefully the city will make an official request. Unless there are significant stacking issues, that block should be two-way.
Doug rocks!
Do we need to pressure the city to make the formal request? Since it seemed at the last meeting Ron had more important issues than our neighborhood to concern himself with? Laura St. is not an acceptable alternative, our business strip is not on Laura, Laura is residential.
Closing off Hogan and creating better connectivity for Confederate Park is a great idea, if the city can make it happen, that portion of Hubbard is not used much anyway. I am really not sure why there are stop lights on Hubbard, traffic is pretty low on that street.
Springfield traffic is a personal pet project of mine, Uptown. Dr. Gaffney has been very helpful in working to try to draw some attention to this problem, and has requested that a representative of the City's traffic engineering department attend the Springfield roundtable meeting tomorrow (10:30 am at Jack Meek's office) to discuss the issues.
I will follow up regarding the Main Street request and will work on opening up more neighborhood conversatins about the possible closure of Hubbard. As stated above, that's an issue that merits more discussion. There are pros and cons but, I think, if Main Street traffic returns to two-way between State and Union the pros outweigh the cons.
What was the name of the FDOT representative in attendance?