Information for the Transportation and Parking Committee
for its SW 24th Avenue agenda item

Approved by a vote of the Natural Area Advisory Committee [NAAC] and prepared with the help of its members
T. J. Walker (NAAC chair), 7 April 2003

This web page has four parts:
Background: What NAAC is and why its members hope you will read this.
Information: Eleven items of information that are relevant to the proposed ROW donation for a four-lane 24th Avenue. (Most are linked to documentation; all are verifiable.)
Conclusions: Two conclusions that follow from the information items.
Recommendation: If you grant the conclusions, what T & P should recommend.

Background
The Natural Area Advisory Committee [NAAC] is charged with recommending how the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory [NATL] should be managed. It reports to the Lakes, Vegetation, and Landscaping Committee, which advises on the "management and well being of natural areas containing non-domesticated plants and animals."

In October 2000, NAAC was surprised to learn that, based on the 20th Avenue Charrette, the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization [MTPO] was proposing a two-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue aligned with NATL's southern border. Because such a road would severely degrade an irreplaceable outdoor teaching laboratory used by 76 courses in environmental science and biology (taught in eight departments and one school in four colleges), NAAC sent a letter opposing the extension to the MTPO and UF's Administrative Affairs.

Nonetheless, in December 2000, the MTPO listed a two-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue from SW 34th Street to Archer Road as part of its 20-year transportation plan. Because projects with higher priorities than this extension would cost more than $12 million and the County had scant money for roads, the NAAC concluded that the final decision on the extension was probably at least a decade away.

On 1 February 2003, NAAC was shocked to learn (from an article in the Gainesville Sun) that Ed Poppell, UF V-P of Finance and Administration, had told the County Commission that the University would support a four-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue by donating right-of-way through NATL.

Since that date, NAAC has been assembling and posting information about the academic and environmental impacts of a four-lane road through NATL's academic area and UF Preservation Area 1. It has also tried to learn what benefits UF expected from donating the land and the procedures used to decide that the benefits of the donation would exceed the costs.

NAAC professes no special expertise in traffic related matters but believes that information it has gathered (summarized below) and two conclusions it has drawn will be helpful to T&P as it considers what to recommend relative to UF donating land for a four-lane road through the southern edge of its campus.


Information
(Most items below are documented with links; all can be verified.)

  1. A two-lane, eastward extension of SW 24th Avenue to Archer Road, aligned with the southern border of UF property, was part of the MTPO's 20th Avenue Charrette.

  2. This two-lane road segment was incorporated into the MTPO's 20-year transportation plan (adopted in December 2000) and was assigned a Priority Ranking of 2 in the Cost Feasible Plan [see the table that is page 11 of the plan].

  3. Priority 1 ranking in the Cost Feasible Plan went to the SW 20th Avenue Charrette Projects, except for the eastward two-lane extension of 24th Avenue and a two-lane extension of Hull Road westward to SW 62nd Boulevard.

  4. The first Priority 1 project that Alachua County undertook was to construct SW 62nd Boulevard to SW 43rd Street and its continuation as SW 24th Avenue from SW 43rd Street to SW 34th Street. This road was to be a two-lane divided road with bus bays and ample bike lanes and sidewalks. By December 2002, the design of the road and the preparation of construction documents were 90% complete, at a cost of $500,000.

  5. The first official mention of a four-lane SW 24th Avenue was at the 12 Dec 2002 MPTO meeting, when Cynthia Chestnut moved to amend the agenda of that meeting to include a discussion of Butler Plaza Transportation Issues. Later in that meeting, the MTPO approved a motion to schedule a public hearing to consider amending the long range transportation plan to include the four-laning of SW 24th Avenue and/or SW 62nd Boulevard.

  6. The first public mention of the University of Florida donating right-of-way for a four-lane SW 24th Avenue was on 31 Jan 2003, at a special meeting of the Alachua County Commission. At that meeting, Ed Poppell, UF V-P of Finance and Administration, told the County Commission that the University had "a new vision of SW 24th" that included a four-lane extension east of SW 34th Street on right-of-way donated by the University (map illustrating the new vision, official minutes of the meeting, Poppell's notes.)

  7. The material for the 20 Feb 2003 meeting of the MTPO included a 22 Jan 2003 report by Renaissance Planning Group entitled "Analysis for Potential Amendment to the 2020 Transportation Plan." The Summary on page 12 of this report states, "The results of this analysis clearly indicate the adequacy of a two-lane cross-section for SW 62nd Boulevard and SW 24th Avenue and that a four lane cross-section for either road in not warranted." [Butler Enterprises and the MTPO jointly funded this report at a cost of $14 thousand.]

  8. The 20 Feb 2003 meeting material also included a 14 Feb 2003 memo to the MTPO from Marlie Sanderson, Director of Transportation Planning. In this memo, Sanderson reported that MTPO's Citizens Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee had not found the four lane cross-section warranted and that the MTPO staff's recommendation 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."

  9. Disregarding the results of the traffic analysis and the recommendations of MTPO committees and staff, the MTPO narrowly approved amending its Long Range Transportation Plan to specify a four-lane rather than a two-lane SW 24th Avenue. At this meeting V-P Poppell assured the MTPO that the University would take the necessary steps to donate the right-of-way for a four-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue through University property.

  10. At its 25 Mar 2003 meeting, the Alachua County Commission voted that County staff should cease planning a two-lane SW 24th Avenue and begin planning a four-lane SW 24th Avenue. This followed the reading of a letter from UF President Charles Young assuring Commissioners 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."

  11. The proposed expansion of Butler Plaza includes 1,200,000 sq ft or retail uses (see page 5 of 22 Jan 2003 report). [Oaks Mall has 898,000; the current Butler Plaza has 1,112,000). Adding as little as 100,000 sq ft of retail space to the Butler Plaza area will trigger the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review process. One of the most demanding aspects of the process is a thorough study of the transportation needs of the area. Through traffic monitoring and traffic modeling, additional roads or lanes are specified and these must be constructed concurrent with development.


Conclusions
The University is promoting a change in the 20th Avenue Charrette and the MTPO's long range transportation plan that is not based on sound evidence and is counter to the recommendations of professional transportation planners.
[See information items 2, 3, 7, and 8.]

This change was initiated by Butler Enterprises in connection with a proposed commercial development that will more than double the retail space in the Butler Plaza area.
[See information items 5, 6, and 11.]

Recommendation
Traffic and Parking should recommend to the Administration that UF should withdraw its offer to proceed to amend the Campus Master Plan to provide the right-of-way for a four-lane extension of SW 24th Avenue east of 34th Street and await the traffic analysis that is required in the Development of Regional Impact review that the proposed Butler Plaza North will trigger.

This web page has four parts:
Background: What NAAC is and why its members hope you will read this.
Information: Eleven items of information that are relevant to the proposed ROW donation for a four-lane 24th Avenue. (Most are linked to documentation; all are verifiable.)
Conclusions: Two conclusions that follow from the information items.
Recommendation: If you grant the conclusions, what T & P should recommend.