ANNA MARIA – Additional planning is underway for the expanded Reimagining Pine Avenue project which now also includes Spring and Magnolia avenues.
The long-discussed project includes the installation of permeable brick paver sidewalks along both sides of Pine Avenue, new and improved crosswalks and new streetlights along the commercial corridor. The sidewalks will meander in areas where the unpaved paths currently curve inward toward the businesses. The permeable pavers are expected to improve drainage along Pine Avenue.
The expanded project will also include safety improvements along Spring and Magnolia avenues, both of which run parallel to Pine Avenue. Portions of Spring and Magnolia currently lack sidewalks and crosswalks.
The purpose of the expanded project is to increase safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and others who use the three streets that comprise the Pine Avenue corridor. Commissioners discussed eliminating the parallel parking spaces along Pine Avenue, but did not vote to do so.
The city’s 2023-24 fiscal year budget includes $3.34 million in projected Reimagining Pine Avenue-related expenditures. The funding sources are $2.69 million in state appropriations, $283,412 in federal American Rescue Plan funds and $367,781 in impact fees, property tax revenues and funds carried over from the previous fiscal year budget.
On Sept. 21, Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy provided the city commission with a project status update. He said in the coming weeks he’d be meeting with project engineer Gerry Traverso, of the George F. Young engineering firm, regarding the proposed safety improvements to be made along Spring and Magnolia avenues. The city commission-approved plans that Traverso created for the initial Pine Avenue safety improvements were completed more than a year ago.
Murphy said the engineering firm will provide a comprehensive view of the improvements that could be made along Spring and Magnolia and incorporate those improvements with the existing Pine Avenue plans.
He said he will bring the commission a list of recommendations as to what can be done in the entire Pine Avenue corridor using the state, federal and city funds already earmarked for the project.
“By the end of October, you will have a list of plans and ideas of what we can do with Magnolia, Spring and how it ties into Pine,” he told the commission.
“This won’t be as complicated as Pine because you’re looking at two similar residential streets,” Murphy added, noting the Pine Avenue plans were more complex because Pine Avenue serves as Anna Maria’s primary commercial district.
As was the case with the original Pine Avenue planning process that began in 2021, the planning and decision-making process for the proposed Spring and Magnolia improvements will include public input being provided by residents and business owners before any final decisions are made.
“It’s the start of the finalized plan. Similar to how we did Pine Avenue,” Murphy said of the pending planning process.
Commissioner Charlie Salem asked if it’s possible to ask the engineering firm to look at the alleyway that runs parallel to Pine Avenue, behind the businesses on the west side of the street.
Regarding the city-owned alley that already contains stormwater and drainage elements, Murphy said, “That’s one of the things I asked him to look at, that swale behind the stores there. What are the possibilities of using that for some mode of transportation?”
After the expanded project plans are completed, the city will issue a new request for proposals (RFP) seeking bids from construction firms interested in installing the safety improvements.
In the past year or so, the city issued three RFPs for the Reimagining Pine Avenue project. Each of those RFPs generated one bid proposal from the same construction firm. Because only one firm bid on those RFPs, and because the quoted prices were higher than the city hoped for, all three of those bids were rejected. The mayor and commission hope expanding the project to include Spring and Magnolia avenues will make the project more attractive and lucrative to more construction firms, which could generate more bid proposals for the expanded project.
