Concerned condo residents speak out against BRT
Don Redman (District 4 Council Member), Lori Boyer (District 5 Council Member), Nat Ford (CEO, Jacksonville Transportation Authority), and Brad Thoburn (JTA Director, Strategic Planning)
Can JTA resolve conflict with urban lifestyle desires?
With emotions running hot and high at the Southbank Community JTA Bus Rapid Transit meeting on Feb. 19 at the Wyndham Hotel, the estimated 100 or so community members were mostly of one voice and like mind: Stop the project!
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s Bus Rapid Transit Service/MAX Downtown project has been developing since October 2006, well before urban dwellers bought into San Marco Place, The Peninsula or The Strand at Southbank condominiums along Riverplace Blvd. Therein may lie part of the problem.
While several public meetings were conducted from 2007 to 2009, many of the residents of those three mixed-used buildings were not residents at the time the notices were mailed. Although Suraya Teeple, JTA Transportation Planning Manager, stated that the publicly available database of real estate ownership was updated at least twice, it was not evident that a single person raised their hand when asked if they had received notification of the four public meetings during that period.
The issues raised by the concerned residents ranged from unsafe pedestrian access across six lanes (two dedicated bus lanes, two travel lanes, one left turn lane and one on-street parking lane), to the practicality and safety of a shared bus and bicycle lane, to the effects on property values of current residences as well as on future development.
Jane Condon, a resident of San Marco Place and one of the pioneers of mixed-use downtown living, said, “I don’t believe that rapid bus transportation is as important as Downtown development. This is anti-Downtown development!”
Other residents questioned the need for 24-hour dedicated bus lanes along Riverplace, wanting to see data that would support the current JTA plan to put in bus stops to accommodate, conservatively, 12-15 stops per peak hour (six stops in each direction plus at least three stops from local bus service).
“Increased stops will make Riverplace less quiet,” said Peninsula residents Kevin and Ellen Smith. “We’ll have noise for 18 hours a day with two bus stops proposed at the Peninsula.” The Smiths have been residents at the Peninsula for two-and-a-half years, and enjoy being able to walk to MOSH, to Friendship Fountain Park, the Riverwalk or take the Water Taxi. They were attending the community meeting because “If you don’t speak up, you can’t effect change,” said Kevin.
While Brad Thoburn, JTA’s Director of Strategic Planning, indicated that the project was at least 60% designed but the JTA would stop to see what could be done better, condo owners still felt that the original premise of the project needed to be re-visited since it was initiated before the three condominiums were erected.
“We need to protect the value of our investments,” said Ron Moody, San Marco Place resident and local real estate appraiser.
It wasn’t just the homeowners who had concerns; business owners also had opinions on the project. Said Steve Suddath, “I have 500 employees in a nearby building [Suddath Relocation], and I’m not hearing a lot of excitement from them for the plan. Let’s get some feedback from downtown businesses and employers.”
When Jim Morrill, of San Marco Place, asked “Where does this segment [Riverplace] fall into bringing people in from the suburbs and beaches?” the response from Thoburn was “The JTA wants to develop a system that is more efficient to ride. A lot of people we serve are dependent on the system.”
Thoburn stated that a Bus Rapid Transit service was the best approach to move people through Jacksonville because it takes a long time on the local bus system, due to frequent stops. “The BRT – an unfortunate project name – will not move any faster than local buses but will stop less often. The buses will be hybrid electric that are quieter and more fuel efficient.”
Branded as MAX, the system is an integral part of the JTA’s transit vision, with Downtown serving as the hub and integrating with the Skyway and future rail transit. However, another vocal resident felt that the MAX system would be a significant duplication of the Skyway service and suggested – to much applause – stopping MAX service at the Skyway instead of taking it across the river. “It would be the same number of transfers,” he said. “Just bus-to-Skyway instead of bus-to-bus.”
The shared bus-bike lane concern was brought up as well. After the last of the public meetings were held in 2009, the BRT/MAX plans progressed through August 2011 at which time a request was made for bicycle accommodation, resulting in incorporating a shared bus-bike lane in the design. Apparently the biking community is not 100% behind sharing a lane with a bus.
“Who thought a shared bus-bike lane was a good idea?” questioned one of the San Marco Place residents. According to District 4 Council Member Don Redman, “Buses will not pass bicyclists and vice versa,” prompting some laughter and head shaking. Although under normal “sharrows” circumstances where passing is allowed in an adjacent lane, there is no passing in a dedicated shared lane, so a bus following a bicycle would be limited to the speed of the cyclist.
One final bone of contention was the proposed design of the MAX stations and shelters, which incorporate bright yellow canopies and red pavements. One resident who described herself as a world traveler stated “I haven’t seen an uglier design for bus stops” and cited examples in other cities, such as San Diego, as far more attractive and befitting the
neighborhood.
According to Thoburn, one of the elements of the BRT/MAX is a branded station for consistency and easy identification throughout the system. The yellow and red scheme was designed in collaboration with and approved by the Downtown Development Review Board during the 2010-2011 design phase.
After hearing much of the same comments over and over, the mood progressed to next steps: “What can we do to stop this? What choices do we have?”
Because 80% of the project is funded through a Federal Transit Administration grant (with additional 10% state and 10% local funding), it comes with a contingency: At least 50% of the roadway improvements must be dedicated peak-hour bus lanes. According to Kristina Price, a project engineer with HDR Engineering which is consulting on the BRT/MAX project with the JTA, if the stretch of Riverplace Blvd. in question is removed from the bus lane design, that percentage may fall below 50% and possibly compromise the project.
Although many alternatives were investigated for a number of years, Riverplace Blvd. is the link between the Kings Avenue Skyway station and the Acosta Bridge with capacity to accommodate current and future transit service.
When questioned about recommendations from urban architects to include landscaped medians between lanes, similar to San Marco Blvd., Price stated, “Median landscaping is probably not feasible due to safety. Straight roadways may allow for an exception as long as trees do not create a wall.” She further noted, “This is not an enhancement project. It’s totally a bus project involving new paving and striping.”
So where do the concerned condo owners go from here? Late in the meeting, District 5 Council Member Lori Boyer took to the podium to provide clarity and elicit answers. “I want to make it clear that the JTA is an independent agency and we [City Council] review their budget annually, but your comments are not falling on deaf ears tonight,” she said. “What you have said may have an impact on the project going forward but you need to send those comments to the JTA.”
Boyer’s questions of the community focused on pedestrian crossings and on-street parking. “Why is the traffic signal at Kipp Street insufficient?” she asked. “Is it location and/or timing?” The response was, “both.”
Boyer also wanted to know who had previously advocated for on-street parking and if it was utilized. Answers varied from “On-street parking would slow traffic down and encourage retail growth” to “Current parking is not striped, signed or safe to use due to speed of traffic” to “Public on-street parking on Riverplace would provide people with access to the Riverwalk and the Fountain.”
Just as the two-and-a-half hour meeting was winding up, the heretofore unannounced or introduced new CEO of the JTA, Nat Ford, came forward. Ford, hired in October 2012, was in a similar position in San Francisco, where the term “sharrows” was coined under his tenure there. He expressed surprised that the Southbank BRT/MAX issue needed 100 or more residents to be addressed. “We went through the same type of project in San Francisco, working closely with the residents, businesses and bicycling community,” he said. “It only took one person to object and we addressed it.”
Ford was also concerned about the perception of lack of communication about the project. “There’s never enough outreach on projects like this,” he stated. “We’ll take all comments seriously, but we’re not going to shut the project down. That’s not the answer. We need to move a workforce around rapidly, including those like the people who work at this hotel [the Wyndham].”
The project is currently scheduled to go to construction this summer with completion in summer of 2014, but it’s possible, according to Thoburn, that finding that resolution may set the schedule back a bit. “It’s not the first time we’ve had to take a pause,” he noted. “We did so to accommodate the request for the shared bus-bike lane.”
At the end of the meeting, Ford promised, “Give us a chance to work on this. We will try to resolve it to everybody’s satisfaction.”
By Kate A. Hallock
Resident Community News
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