Transit Oriented Development Workshop coming in August

[Ocklawaha]

Yeah, I was talking to the crew chief with measure in hand, he went over the widest points and the narrows with me. With parking gone, at it's widest it reaches 36'. At least the job did, which to them constitutes the "median". The center lanes are a good 12' on Main, 8' - 9' on 8Th depending if you count the concrete you might get to 10'. A railroad tie is 8', cars range from 8-11 feet depending on the type and conditions. I'm not worried about re-re-re-re doing Main, it's done all the time, look at Hendricks, and THAT for a stupid overshight! There are a zillion funding sources under IceTea or Streetscape, Main Street and other urban programs to underwite this, and hey, we're only talking maybe 10 blocks of Main, and 6 of 8Th to Shands.

The important thing in this thread is we won't go out and buy up 1/2 of Springfield, to build laundry mats and c-stores and call them TODS.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

If anyone is interested in attending this workshop, they should RSVP ASAP...we alkready have 65 people attending and the room only holds 90.

[SL32205]

Are you sure rail/streetcars ran down Herschel in the Fairfax area?  I understood that rail ran down St. Johns Avenue from town, then looped back using Aberdeen, as shown in the photos - rather than extending further.

Do you have photographic evidence or maps of these routes?

[thelakelander]

Ock has a map somewhere.  I believe the streetcars ran all the way down to NAS Jax.  Some of the old track is still visible from aerials of the base.

[thelakelander]

Here's Ock's map of the old streetcar routes

[thelakelander]

Is it safe to assume this workshop is canceled?

[tufsu1]

Is it safe to assume this workshop is canceled?

yes....the workshop has been postponed.....looking to reschedule possibly on September 4th (same time, same place).

Once the date has been locked down (should be sometime today), info. will be sent out

[thelakelander]

Here's the revised information:

[Coolyfett]

Since they feature the 2 TODs in the flier, chances are they will both be built??

[tufsu1]

FYI....in order to accomodate more people (over 100 have registered) the TOD workshop scheduled for tomorrow has been moved to City Hall...First Floor...Lynwood Roberts Room

[southerngirl]

WHY OH WHY didn't I see this before??    It would have been nice to have someone from the Jackson Square neighborhood be there in order to hear more about the city's plans and perhaps be able to ask questions of someone other than Steve Cissel (developer).

Grrrrrrr.

Will someone please help us and post details about what was said?  Esp. about Jackson Square?

[JeffreyS]

WHY OH WHY didn't I see this before??    It would have been nice to have someone from the Jackson Square neighborhood be there in order to hear more about the city's plans and perhaps be able to ask questions of someone other than Steve Cissel (developer).

Grrrrrrr.

Will someone please help us and post details about what was said?  Esp. about Jackson Square?

We need to find a way to make better use of the Calender.  When use post a new topic you can do so from the calender or when you post a new topic you can link to calender but not when you reply.  No one uses the calender and maybe we never will.

[uptowngirl]

Is this different than the Urban Core Planning District Community Visioning? They are meeting tonihgt at 6-9PM and the topic is Transportation and Connectivity @Brentwood Community Center.

[Coolyfett]

Lets us know how things went!!!

[thelakelander]

The meeting was a good one for understanding the what a TOD really is.  The first speaker represented Reconnecting America (http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/).  I felt pretty good inside to see them answer questions about TOD and mass transit that validates the things we've been saying on this site.  These include:

1. BRT has not had as much success as rail in attracting quality TODs because of flexibility issues.

2. The best reason to go with BRT over rail revolves around cheaper implementation costs.  However, cheap BRT systems struggle to attract TODs.

3. Dedicated Busways can attract TODs to a degree, but its better to go ahead and go with rail because dedicated busways cost just as much to build.  Plus their O&M costs are higher.

4. He also mentioned that TODs should be integrated with the surrounding communities (connectivity).  Instead of being isolated TODs, they should become a place that better connects the surrounding area to mass transit and a mix of uses.

The outlook of the speaker from DC definately backed sentiment on this site.  Hopefully, JTA does a good job of making sure BRT and Commuter rail lines complement each other instead of competing head-to-head with one another.

As for the developers, Carlton Jones spoke briefly about Bay Street Station, Kings Avenue Station and the Laura Street Station.  They plan to sell off individual components of the Bay Street Plan to hotel, retail and theater operators.  It sounded like it would be a while before this one got off the ground.  However, one of the partners in his group has connections to a streetcar supplier and they are pushing to get a line running between the Prime Osborn and Hyatt.  Hopefully JTA can take advantage to get a starter line up and running soon.

Steve Cissel represented the Jackson Square group.  He mentioned he represented a development group that was doing some work out of Orlando.  This is something I'll have to look up to see how their past projects have turned out.  He said that they were working with the community to make sure it fit into the surrounding area.  Ock mentioned that the railroad would favor closing the River Oaks crossing, but there was no discussion that followed after his comment.

During my presentation (Integrating TODs into existing neighborhoods), I used the Jackson Square plan to illustrate how bringing the buildings up to Philips Highway would create strong pedestrian connectivity along the entire Philips Highway corridor.  The graphic (which has been shown on this site) really applied to the conceptual strip shopping center sketched across the street from the development and not the Jackson Square apartment layout. 

Not realizing I was talking about building setbacks in the city as a whole, he attempted to explain that what was shown was the best plan possible and that in theory I was right, but in reality it was not possible because of utility easements, etc.  However, he did state that the plan was not finalized.  He also had some great graphics showing what could be built under the existing zoning and how the Jackson Square project was a reduction in development density that better fit with the surrounding community.  If we had time to sit down in private, I'm sure I could change his mind on the front setback issue.