Action item for 16 Oct 2003 Faculty Senate meeting

Whereas the UF Master Plan provides for no roadway through the southwest corner of campus from SW 34th Street to Surge Area Drive, but instead devotes that area as a conservation area-specifically, Preservation Area 1, which is entirely within the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory,

Whereas, at the 20 February 2003 meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization (MTPO), UF Vice President Ed Poppell endorsed an extension of SW 24th Avenue through the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory and Preservation Area 1 by stating that "the University of Florida is committed to recommending to the State of Florida Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund that right-of-way be provided for the extension of SW 24th Avenue east to Archer Road,"

Whereas, on 25 March 2003, UF President Charles Young endorsed an extension of SW 24th Avenue through the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory and Preservation Area 1 by writing to the Alachua County Commission that the University "will recommend through its Master Plan amendment process that sufficient right-of-way be given to the City of Gainesville/County of Alachua to provide the necessary land to connect SW 24th Avenue to Archer Road,"

Whereas the extension under consideration at each of these occasions was a four-lane extension totally on UF property rather than the two-lane extension of unspecified alignment in the 20-year transportation plan adopted by the MTPO in December 2000,

Whereas the four-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue was proposed as a segment of a "4-lane east/west corridor" whose western end was to be a four-lane SW 24th Avenue and SW 62nd Boulevard,

Whereas amending the 20-year transportation plan to change the number of lanes for SW 24th Avenue and SW 62nd Boulevard from two to four was found "not warranted" by a 22 Jan 2003 analysis by the Renaissance Planning Group authorized by the MTPO,

Whereas two MTPO advisory committees agreed that the change was unwarranted and the recommendation of the MTPO staff was to "keep the existing two-lane divided configuration for the SW 62nd Boulevard and SW 24th Avenue corridors as described in the adopted SW 20th Avenue Area Charrette Plan and not amend the long range transportation plan,"

Whereas this extension of SW 24th Avenue would significantly degrade the academic value of the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory, which is used in more than 70 courses taught by nine schools and departments, in four colleges,

Whereas this extension of SW 24th Avenue is counter to the Conservation Element of the Master Plan in that it will fragment wildlife habitat and have many other direct and indirect deleterious impacts on Preservation Area 1,

Whereas Alachua County Public Works has contracted, for $388,286, to have SW 24th Avenue from SW 43rd Street to SW 34th Street designed as a four-lane divided roadway that shifts northward to align with the proposed right-of-way through the UF campus and this design is 30% complete and will be 100% complete in May,

Whereas the more northerly alignment of the four-lane SW 24th Avenue will cost Alachua County an estimated $2.2 million because of businesses that will need to be condemned,

Whereas on Tuesday, 14 Oct 2003, the Alachua County Commission approved by a three to two vote an agreement with Clark Butler to put the construction of SW 24th Avenue from SW 43rd Street to SW 34th Street on a fast track, with a proviso that Butler begin the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process within 180 days of the agreement,

Whereas Clark Butler has not signed onto the agreement and does not want to proceed with the DRI process unless he is sure that SW 24th Avenue will be constructed as a four-lane divided roadway,

Therefore, the Faculty Senate asks the UF Administration to withdraw its 20 Feb 2003 and 25 March 2003 endorsements of the donation of right-of-way for a four-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue through the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory and Preservation Area 1. Otherwise the donation may become a fait accompli and the intent of the Master Plan amendment process will have been thwarted."