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| Lee County Commissioners |
Background
Palomino Lane was one of the first roads the complete
streets working group (which BikeWalkLee serves on) reviewed in 2010. It
was clear that this street met the criteria for improvement. It had major
safety problems, a dense population (approximately 5,000), school children
trying to get to and from bus stops, lack of access to the many shops and
amenities on Daniels, and several LeeTran bus stops. However, due to the
staff's projected costs and the drainage and right-of-way issues, no
improvements were programmed.
Over the past six months, the residents organized to work
with the county on trying to find a way to address the serious safety concerns
for all road users due to the lack of any bike/ped facilities along Palomino
Lane. Under the effective leadership of
residents John Harney (now member of BPAC) and Craig Deardon (member of Cape
Coral Bike-Ped), a proposal for an 8 foot pathway was developed, along with an
innovative funding approach that sets aside road impact fees that the City of
Fort Myers has collected from residents of communities off Palomino that are
located in the City. The funds collected
will be set aside for this project until it is fully funded.
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| Palomino Lane |
BikeWalkLee representative Darla Letourneau spoke in support
of the proposal and commended the community, Commissioner Pendergrass, Lee DOT
staff, the City of Fort Myers, and the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee
(BPAC), for working together on this proposal.
According to Letourneau, with both the current impact fee
dollars and the projected funds coming in when the 80% reduction in impact fees
ordinance expires in March 2015, approximately $500,000 of the $1.9 M total
cost--26%-- can be funded through the account set up by today's action. Additional
funds will be needed to move this project forward.
As Letourneau pointed out, there are lessons to be learned
from both the Palomino and Fiddlesticks communities' recent efforts to get
bike/ped facilities that connect them to Daniels Parkway. Part of the philosophy of complete streets is
"doing it right the first time" and addressing the needs of ALL users
at the beginning of the process rather than expensive retrofits later. Both these cases are reminders that biking
and walking facilities up to Daniels Parkway should have been included in the
development of these communities--each with about 6,000 residents. Since these developments were constructed
(some as early as the 1980s and others in the 2000's) these residents have had
to struggle with no safe biking and walking facilities to access all the
destinations on Daniels.
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| BWL's Darla Letourneau |
Next month (May 6th), BoCC will be asked award the first
contract for phase one of the 2-year effort to construct the Fiddlesticks path
they approved in 2012. After 10 years of
effort, the Fiddlesticks community will see their much-needed shared use path
completed by 2016, just in time to take advantage of the improvements to the
Daniels Parkway path system being constructed with the TIGER grant funds.
Unfortunately, the Palomino community could be waiting much longer. Letourneau urged commissioners and staff to continue
to work with the community to find ways to move this needed safety project
forward expeditiously.
Three members of the Palomino Lane community (including John
Harney and Craig Deardon) spoke in support of the project and talked about
their personal experiences with unsafe conditions on Palomino Lane for cyclists
and pedestrians. Residents had
researched where their impact fees had gone and found that they were used in
other locations, not to provide needed transportation facilities on Palomino,
which gave rise to their proposal to set-aside the City of Fort Myers impact
fees being collected from those communities and transferred to the county. The speakers thanked both Commissioner
Pendergrass and LeeDOT Director Dave Loveland for their efforts.
Take-Away
Both the Fiddlesticks and Palomino projects are good examples
of the importance of communities coming together to ask for bike/ped facilities
and working with their elected officials and county staff to address their
safety and accessibility needs. BikeWalkLee has supported both these projects,
but it was the citizens in each of the communities that made them happen. Kudos to all the citizens in communities off
of Fiddlesticks and Palomino who worked to make this happen. Yes, citizen involvement can really result in
improving your community! Be inspired!
Report by Darla Letourneau
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