Streetscape Plans Nearing Approval

When the Community Redevelopment Agency meets Feb. 7, an overhauled downtown Sarasota streetscape plan that costs $4.4 million will be up for consideration.

The plan has seen tweaks at the as well as at a Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board meeting Thursday, where the city's chief planner Steven Stancel laid out the proposal for the board's recommendation. 

CRAAB voted to recommend the plan to the Community Redevelopment Agency to be accepted, subject to First and Main streets getting the highest priority for first completion. CRAAB member Valerie Buchand voted against the recommendation.

The plans feature a lot less brick — asphalt roads will be in each plan and concrete sidewalks with brick accents will be the norm for most of the plan.

Here's how the plan would go:

Bayfront Drive to Five Points Park ($1.3 million)

• Parallel parking on north side

• Enhanced landscaping and limited bulb-outs

• Replace pedestrian lighting with black poles

• Brick paver sidewalks

• Asphalt road; repave and mill

• Enhanced gateway at or near Gulfstream intersection

Five Points Park to Orange Avenue ($150,000)

• Retain angled parking

• Enhance landscaping

• Bulb-outs at and

• Maintain existing lighting fixtures, replace lights with clear globes

• Asphalt road; repave and mill

Orange Avenue to Osprey Avenue ($800,000)

• Additional modified bulb-outs to narrow road

• More greenspace

• Brick crosswalks

• Concrete sidewalks with limited brick accents

• Utility and drainage improvements

• Clear globe bulbs in light posts

• Site furnishings 

Orange and Main streets Roundabout ($1 million)

• Roundabout and right-of-way acquisition

Osprey Avenue to Washington Boulevard (deferred)

• Retain angled parking

• Some enhanced landscape

• Modified bulb-outs

• Repair/replace concrete sidewalks

• Brick crosswalks

• Concrete sidewalks with limited brick accents

• Enhanced gateway to Washington Boulevard

• Site Furnishings

• Limited Drainage Improvements

North Palm Avenue ($236,753.66) 

• Parallel parking

• Sidewalk widened to 17 to 20 feet wide.

• Increased landscaping

First Street ($1.34 million)

• Widen street

• Plant shade trees

• Install irrigation system

• Bury utilities while replacing some

• Brick paver crosswalks

• Concrete sidewalks, without brick accents 

The fourth segment, Osprey Avenue to Washington Avenue as well as the second half of the Orange Avenue to Osprey project will be deferred as there isn't any available money, Stancel said.

Stancel said the Downtown Improvement District would pay for the following: 

• $10,000 toward North Palm Avenue

• 100 percent of the Byfront Drive to Five Points Park improvements

• 100 percent of Five Points Park to Orange Avenue

• 100 percent of improvements in the Orange Avenue to Osprey Avenue, up to the Goodrige and Pine intersection.

The district should be able to get a $1.8 million to $2.1 million bond from the city, and $2.3 million to $2.7 million in tax incremental funds could be used to pay for the plan, Stancel said. 

Here's where that leaves the Community Redevelopment Agency, according to The Observer:

"The DID board hopes the Community Redevelopment Agency will approve funding the following downtown projects instead:

• $224,000 for a North Palm Avenue streetscape project (The DID will pay an extra $10,000 for this work.);

• $1.3 million for a First Street enhancement project, from Pineapple Avenue to U.S. 41;

• $1 million for a roundabout at the intersection of Main Street and Orange Avenue.

Moran told the Sarasota Observer Wednesday the DID board hopes the CRA and the Sarasota City Commission will agree to pay for the above projects out of a $2.7 million revitalization fund it has available for such undertakings downtown."

The bonds mean the district members would have to pay "an extra 2 mills for the next 20 years," The Observer reported.

Stancel said at the Thursday meeting there is also another possibility for the district.

"There's a chance the DID could expand in the future and pay for these improvements," he said.

owner J.P. Knaggs is supportive of the First Street improvements.

"Especially now with , who are  very good friends of ours, we think it's imperative to do something to continue First Street  from Pineapple all the way to 41 so it has a unique look and is the approach from to downtown Sarasota," Knaggs told the board.

Rebecca Hopkings, managing director at the theater, said the arts venue would like to see that corridor continue to grow and be beautified as the landscaping is "not so beautiful from Pineapple down to 41."