Three plans are being drafted for review: a City-wide connectivity plan, downtown improvements, and Gulf Blvd safety improvements. There are two upcoming open houses where there will be a table setup for each of the studies where participants can review the data that has been collected and potential improvement projects.
- Saturday 3/25 for a 10AM at the City Hall Auditorium
- Wednesday 4/5 for a 9AM at the City Hall Auditorium
After the feedback is collected and incorporated, draft reports will be presented at a Commission Workshop for discussion.
The development of these plans is supported by Goal 1 of the City’s Master Park Plan is to “Provide a safer environment to walk and bike by improving connectivity between parks and public places”. Additionally, the Financial and Economic Development Road Map, Goal 2, Objective 1, Bold Action 3 of the City’s Strategic Plan is to “Identify opportunities to enhance connectivity between the waterfront and downtown areas”. The Infrastructure Road Map, Goal 1, Objective 3 is to “Enhance City-wide connectivity to create an improved environment for bikes and pedestrians.” Bold Action 1 under this objective is to “Identify connectivity gaps and grant opportunities”.
The City-wide Connectivity Plan is being developed to improve non-vehicular accessibility to local attractions, including the beach, downtown, municipal facilities and parks through the addition of wayfinding signage, shared or dedicated bicycle lanes, bicycle storage facilities, trails, sidewalks, and waterway trails/docks/infrastructure. The result will be a reduced toll on our roadways and enhanced safety, health and enjoyment for our residents and visitors. The plan will provide easy-to-understand webmaps of future improvement projects, and also conceptual designs, project descriptions and budgetary estimates for incorporation into the City’s Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) budget.
In advance of the open house engagement meetings, the draft connectivity plan will be posted on the City’s website to encourage feedback prior to finalization. Projects will be prioritized to address any safety concerns that are identified throughout the process.
Downtown Traffic & Mobility Plan
The Downtown Traffic & Mobility Plan will provide a phased, prioritized set of downtown improvements to be considered in future CIP planning. Overall, this study has a primary goal of providing increased person-moving capacity for downtown through a network of dedicated multi-modal facilities. It will have the following as broad objectives in support of this goal:
-- Maximize safety throughout downtown, particularly for bicycles and pedestrians.
-- Improve infrastructure conditions and connections for pedestrians, cyclists, and micromobility users, all while maintaining operational traffic flow and mitigating congestion and delay.
-- Assess the incorporation of increased capacity for alternative transportation through downtown via use of dedicated multi-modal facilities.
-- Promote sustainability by seeking opportunities to enhance tree cover and natural drainage elements through strategic use of complete streets concepts.
-- Explore traffic operations scenarios that add to overall efficiency.
-- Assess a reduction of the number of lanes on 107th from Gulf Boulevard to the intersection with 104th/108th, improvements to the 107th/104th/108th split, and the potential to one-way 108th and/or 104th Avenues.
Traffic counts and an analysis of existing conditions will determine opportunities for multimodal enhancement throughout downtown to include potential areas for micromobility parking stalls within the right-of-way. Additionally, the consultant will develop improvement projects for intersection and pedestrian crossings, changes to traffic flow and operations, multi-lane roadway reductions or repurposing, bicycle, micromobility, and pedestrian paths outside of typical right-of-way boundaries, and where parking locations and access might be generating additional vehicle travel activity and what mitigation strategies might be used to address this.
Evaluation criteria will be applied to potential improvements to determine which projects are viable, in collaboration with City staff. Notations will be made where projects may not be feasible until a property is redeveloped or otherwise substantially changed, as to avoid major impacts. Planning-level cost estimates will be developed for projects. Three perspective illustrations (either eye-level or bird’s-eye view) and ten typical cross-section graphics will be developed for priority candidate projects.
Gulf Boulevard Safety Improvements Plan
Gulf Boulevard (State Road 699) is owned and maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. As such, improvement plans need to be vetted through the State. Forward Pinellas has worked with the cities of St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island to develop scopes of work to assess safety and to develop conceptual design alternatives. The consultant will review the Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach corridors together for consistency. The recommendations developed will be vetted through FDOT and will include potential projects for grant and/or joint funding. Overall, the study will provide an improvement plan to help improve safety and connectivity for all modes of travel, including micromobility, on Gulf Boulevard. The work to be performed will include a review of previous plans and reports, technical analysis, preparation of reports with specific recommendations, incorporation of public comments, and a final presentation to the City.
Updated 2 February 2023