FDOT Complete Street project aims to restore Palmetto’s Old Main Street

While most projects are designed to modernize, the Florida Department of Transportation’s general vision of a Complete Street project is primarily focused on restoring a city’s Main Street back to a time when they were the central hub of activity.

That’s the goal for Palmetto’s Old Main Street, which is 10th Avenue West, between Riverside Drive West and 17th Street West, encompassing the historic downtown, Sutton and Lamb parks and the residential area north of 11th Street West.

“I’ve been doing these projects quite a bit longer before Complete Street came to be a popular term,” said FDOT consultant Jim Brown, who has worked on restoring Main Streets throughout the country. “The essence of it is the ability to bring old Main Streets back to the people, not just vehicles.”

Brown said 10th Avenue West is “seasoned. It’s old. It needs a fresh look.”

About 40 people attended FDOT’s first public workshop on Thursday to get a basic look at some options that could be incorporated into the plan, and there is a smorgasbord of parking, landscape, street and sidewalk width options from which to choose or create a new idea altogether. Primary concerns from residents and Old Main Street business owners are to ensure no loss of parking and that construction doesn’t affect business.

Lori Skylove and her husband have owned property and businesses on Old Main Street for 20 years. Skylove said she thinks it’s a great project, “But parking is key and we cannot lose any parking. It’s also not friendly to people with disabilities. Also important is that small businesses operate on a very small margin, and we could not afford to have to close for any length of time.”

Brown said all of that would be taken into consideration in what he called, “Maintenance of business, which is, ‘What is the plan in the construction phase to keep businesses open and operational?’ I understand small businesses can’t afford to close. We will have a plan to keep those businesses operational and clean during construction.”

Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said Thursday’s meeting was important because, “This is a big project. We want the public to take ownership and be a part of it once we break ground. We’ll want to look at things like incorporating our historical lighting, cameras for safety and try to be environmentally conscious. We want to leave the footprint for Palmetto better than we found it.”

FDOT consultant Ray Lee said a Complete Street project facilitates the community’s vision to transform Palmetto’s Old Main Street by enhancing multimodal opportunities, promoting economic development and creating a sense of place.

“We are very excited to be working on this project because this is the first Complete Street project in District One,” Lee said. “It’s very important to us and very important to see what the community would like to see as improvements.”

The feasibility study is expected to be completed in about eight months. Costs and a construction timeline can’t be predicted until the final design, but Brown said by the next public workshop he could have a “ballpark figure” on how long the project may take.

“The project is designed to bring back old town America,” Lee said. “We’ve met with a lot of people and the No. 1 thing people don’t want is for Palmetto to not look like it’s Palmetto anymore. They want to bring the historic nature back and the Complete Street concept does that.”

This story was originally published June 8, 2017 at 8:27 PM with the headline "FDOT Complete Street project aims to restore Palmetto’s Old Main Street."