Southside Boulevard is becoming a battleground in
Jacksonville's transportation future, pitting traffic-jammed drivers who want
wider roads against homeowners who fear that will force their neighborhoods into
decline.
Three projects on Southside Boulevard are aimed at easing rush-hour traffic
jams -- the state Department of Transportation's current widening of the road to
six lanes between Southbound Interstate 95 ramps at Western Way and Butler
Boulevard and the Better Jacksonville Plan's future construction of an overpass
at Baymeadows Road and an overpass at Atlantic Boulevard.
But beyond that, it's not clear what it will be like to travel along
Southside Boulevard. In an early taste of future showdowns, two City Council
members, Lynette Self and Suzanne Jenkins, recently asked the city's lawyers to
research whether City Hall can file a legal challenge to block the state from
installing highway-style streetlights between Atlantic and Beach boulevards.
Meanwhile, Councilman Matt Carlucci faces a dilemma with the proposed
extension of Sunbeam Road, which the developers of Freedom Commerce Centre have
pledged to build if City Hall OKs an application for more development at the
site. Sunbeam Road now stops at Philips Highway. The proposed extension would
continue it eastward with an overpass across Interstate 95 and onward to
Southside Boulevard, giving drivers an alternative to traffic-clogged Baymeadows
Road when traveling between Philips Highway and Southside Boulevard.
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The First Coast
Metropolitan Planning Organization will have a public meeting at 6 p.m. today at
Jacksonville City Hall, 117 W. Duval St., on the ongoing creation of a list of
transportation projects to handle traffic through 2025. Other meetings will be
at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Cunningham Creek Elementary School in St. Johns County, 6
p.m. Wednesday at Orange Park Town Hall and 6 p.m. Thursday at Jacksonville
Beach City Hall. --------------------------------------------------
Carlucci said the Sunbeam Road extension would be "unacceptable to me" if it
sends traffic down Belle Rive Boulevard, the entry to subdivisions along
Southside Boulevard.
"That just can't be part of the equation," he said.
But to avoid that, the state would have to put another traffic light on
Southside Boulevard for the extension's connection.
"The concern I have is another traffic light on Southside Boulevard means
another red light on Southside Boulevard and we want to keep the traffic flowing
as best we can," said Carlucci, who is still wrestling with the choice.
It's a decision that officials are making across the nation as they face
complaints from drivers about increasing congestion that keeps them sitting
longer in traffic. In May, the Texas Transportation Institute, which tracks
traffic jams in major cities, said in a report that funding isn't the only
constraint on building enough roads to keep pace with vehicle travel. The other
factor is "project approval since many Americans do not want major
transportation projects near their home or neighborhoods."
Southside Boulevard handles more than 60,000 vehicles daily in its busiest
stretch between Baymeadows Road and The Avenues mall. On its northern end, near
its overpass at the Arlington Expressway, the boulevard handles about 40,000
vehicles daily.
Like other Jacksonville roads, travel is predominantly by car, but the
Jacksonville Transportation Authority is considering Southside Boulevard as a
possible route for a future light rail line or busway, which are lanes dedicated
exclusively to express buses.
The most intense scrutiny of Southside Boulevard's impact on neighborhoods
has come on the stretch between Atlantic and Beach boulevards, where
neighborhoods that date to the post-World War II era flank the road. The state
already has poured concrete for the foundation of tall light poles in the
medians of Southside Boulevard. State engineers say the lights will eventually
run the length of Southside Boulevard and are needed for safe nighttime driving.
Self and Jenkins, joined by leaders of neighborhood groups, have disputed the
state's analysis of traffic data and argue that the lights will make Southside
Boulevard look like a commercial corridor and diminish the appeal of living in
the neighborhoods. City lawyers are still doing research, but one option would
be to file a petition with an administrative hearing judge. That would require a
City Council resolution.
Self said that before the state proceeds with any more widening of Southside
Boulevard, there needs to be a master plan for the road from one end to the
other.
"I'm tired of piecemealing it," she said.
Aage Schroder, secretary for the Northeast Florida district of the state
transportation department, agrees the transportation planning process can be
complicated. However, he said the state's transportation planning can't be a
vehicle for other issues, such as how the city wants to shape development.
For instance, Self and Jenkins said widening Southside Boulevard to six lanes
would undermine the city's effort to preserve residential zoning for the houses
that line the road between Atlantic and Beach boulevards. If those houses are
abandoned or are converted to office use, the council members said that would
have a negative ripple effect on the stability of the rest of the neighborhoods.
Their proposed solution would be that if Southside Boulevard is widened, the
state should take the novel and costly step of buying the houses that border the
road and in their place put landscaped berms to build a buffer between the
neighborhoods and traffic.
"Then you have an attractive route for the commuters and a stable
neighborhood," Jenkins said. "You can have both."
Schroder said if that's what City Hall wants, it can develop a sector plan --
as Clay County and St. Johns County have done for high-growth areas -- that
determines what kind of development it wants along the corridor. Then it would
be up to the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization, which coordinates
transportation projects in Duval County and northern Clay and St. Johns
counties, to set funding priorities for how to best use tight road-building
dollars, Schroder said.
