The state is proposing to make changes to a Cortez street. Residents and businesses are concerned.

Jane Von Hahmann is very familiar with the intersection of 119th Street West and Cortez Road. She lives there, and she owns a strip center at the intersection.

So when the Cortez resident and former Manatee County commissioner found out about Florida Department of Transportation’s proposal to construct a median from 119th Street West to 121st Street West along Cortez Road, she called it “absolutely insane.”

This is one of three options FDOT is considering for the intersection.

“It’s just insane that they think they can do this to the village,” Von Hahmann said Tuesday. “I was flabbergasted when I saw this. I can’t believe they are even thinking about doing something like this.”

If the median is constructed, any westbound motorists seeking to make a left turn onto 119th Street West from Cortez Road would have to do so at 121st Street West. Anyone wanting to make a left turn from 119th Street West onto Cortez Road would not be able to.

“We are focusing on the corridor and not just the intersection,” said Robin Stublen, FDOT spokesman. “The modifications at 119th are a small part of the overall safety project. The overall safety project will include the construction of bike lanes, sections of median between 121st Street and 119th Street, a section of median between 87th Street and 86th Street, a high friction surface treatment and some ADA modifications. The safety project was based upon the crash history of the corridor.”

After hearing from businesses along 119th Street West, as well as the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization Scenic Highway Committee, FDOT developed three options for the intersection:

• Keep the signal as is.
• Remove the signal and re-stripe the roadway from the 119th Street West south portion to the existing median located east of the intersection as a two-way left turn lane.
• Modify the signal to only control the north portion. For the southern portion of 119th Street West, it would be restricted to a right-in/right out turning movements. The north portion “will be restricted to southbound to eastbound left out and right-in/right out movements under control of a traffic signal. Under these conditions, the eastbound through traffic on Cortez Road would only stop when the pedestrian phase is called,” Stublen said.

“We conducted additional field tests based on the input and will hold the public hearing in early May,” Stublen said.

As of now, nothing is planned to address the right-turn westbound lane that ends near 119th Street West on Cortez Road.

“However, after a decision is made, there may be a temporary ‘fix’ until the permanent solution,” Stublen said. “I do not know exactly when that will be.”

But with the Florida Maritime Museum, as well as multiple restaurants located off 119th Street West in Cortez, the road is wider than 121st Street West and is more of a thoroughfare into the historic fishing village, Von Hahmann said.

“It’s a major commercial area for this area,” she said. “We are definitely not happy. There is absolutely no way that they will be able to negotiate a turn on 121st. It’s just impossible. They can barely make the turn onto 119th.”

Cortez is not just a residential area, Von Hahmann said.

Nancy Taillon, one of the managers at the Cortez Kitchen restaurant, said she also thinks it would be a problem for delivery trucks if they aren’t able to turn onto 119th Street West.

“That’s the main road they travel on,” she said. “I don’t see them being able to maneuver through the village with an 18-wheeler. They usually have to make a wide turn. I just don’t see how they are going to be able to do that. I don’t see how this is supposed to improve anything by eliminating the left turn lane.”

With traffic bumper to bumper coming off Anna Maria Island during season, people aren’t going to be able to turn left onto 121st Street West from Cortez Road, Taillon said.

“You have to go left to get to us, and so I mean basically it will probably be holding up more traffic,” she said. “Now you are going to be waiting and waiting to get over. ... I don’t see how it’s going to be beneficial at all.”

For Bob Slicker, manager of Swordfish Grill & Tiki Bar, his concerns are about both the trucks and customers not being able to get to the restaurants in Cortez. On a busy day, more than 1,400 customers come to both Swordfish Grill and Cortez Kitchen, Slicker added.

“Traffic is already such a problem,” he said. “If we throw one more cog into the wheel, they are just not going to come here.”

While on paper it may be a reasonable idea, it doesn’t work well in reality, Slicker said.

“Next to the oldest fishing village in the state of Florida, it just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The residents are in an uprage.”

Von Hahmann, who had planned to address the county commission Tuesday before the meeting was canceled, said the 119th Street West and Cortez Road intersection was “so poorly conceived in its original making.”

“They are asking this village to pay the price,” she said. “That’s just wrong. That’s absolutely wrong. We always said they needed to correct the intersection. You don’t correct it by cutting off an entire population. It will destroy life. It will destroy people’s businesses.”

For Von Hahmann, a better solution would be to realign 119th Street West onto a portion of the museum property.

“We absolutely do believe it needs to be corrected,” she said.

Slicker said he questions why they are doing this to 119th Street West more than anything.

“They are talking about changing the whole landscape of the village itself,” he said. “I don’t think they realize how much traffic comes to the Village of Cortez and how we are dependent on fish houses to supply our food. I don’t really want semis going by my house all day long. ... It’s the oldest active fishing village in the state of Florida and we would like to keep it that way.”

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 2:48 PM with the headline "The state is proposing to make changes to a Cortez street. Residents and businesses are concerned.."