New apartments are crowding East Bradenton streets. City thinks it has a solution

As The Preserve at Riverwalk apartment complex continues growing and drawing new residents, motorists entering or leaving the complex at mostly a single location will present a challenge.

The city believes it has found a $2.9 million solution.

Most of the traffic enters or exits The Preserve at Manatee Avenue East and 11th Street East. But the city believes there is a way to provide more options for not only Preserve residents, but for anyone trying to negotiate the maze of roadways north of Manatee Avenue East to the Manatee River.

Even before The Preserve was built, the site was proposed for high-rise condominiums so better neighborhood road connections have been a long-term goal for the city in that area. Connecting Third Avenue East where it breaks off between Ninth and 10th streets east would provide more options for motorists to find their way out.

The problem is that the connector would require the purchase of private property and that has not been on the city’s financial radar until recently. Which is why the city did not put the burden on the developer early in the process.

Developers pay a variety of impact fees when constructing a new project and those funds are typically restricted to specific uses.

Impact fees paid to the city of Bradenton cover costs for emergency responders, parks and potential transportation improvements. Transportation impact dollars are restricted dollars typically, used for widening roads, according to Planning and Community Development Director Catherine Hartley.

“And we really don’t have any more roads that could be widened,” Hartley said.

Currently there is $2.9 million sitting in that fund account with little means to use it. As the city goes through the process of updating its codes, Hartley said she would like to have the fund re-designated as a mobility impact fund, allowing it to be used for other transportation-related projects.

Transportation, after all, she said, is being redefined throughout the country with cities striving to a lessen vehicular traffic and increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

By re-designating the restricted fund, it would give the city legal access to the dollars to apply toward the purchase of property for new roads, as well as other pedestrian and bicycle related projects that would encourage less car traffic.

“Third Avenue has a missing link between 10th Street East and Ninth Street East,” Hartley said. “Then there’s another east-west missing link to Sixth Street East. So basically, if you want to get from The Preserve at Riverwalk — or really anywhere north of Manatee Avenue east of The Preserve — to get the hospital or to downtown, it would make sense to fill that gap with a narrow neighborhood street — or at a minimum, a bike/pedestrian path — to reduce the demand on Manatee and make it more convenient for that neighborhood.”

Hartley said the city is not considering eminent domain to make it happen, so, “We would look for willing sellers and pay market value.”

Ultimately, those dollars would go toward a bigger goal.

As 2019 kicked off, Florida was ranked the deadliest state in the country for pedestrians, including having nine of the top 20 deadliest cities, including Bradenton.

Hartley said creating a safe pedestrian and bicycle transportation route away from of a main road like Manatee Avenue —where there is little room for safety improvements — is one step in that solution.

The city, “will coordinate with the (Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization) and FDOT to prioritize improvements on high collision locations,” she said.