By Chris Wilson

Alachua County growth management staff and the Alachua County public works department has prepared a draft “Long Term Concurrency Management System” to address by 2020 roadways that are either currently over capacity or will be over capacity in the not to distant future. In February, the staff presented its plans to the Board of County Commissioners. Most of the corridors that are going to be addressed are located in west Gainesville and Jonesville.

The plan is complex in terms of both its subject matter and how it will be funded. However, it is important to note that there has not been a timeline set for any of these projects and there is a possibility that they will not be addressed through action for several years.

According to growth management transportation planning manager Jonathan Paul, Alachua County is required to maintain a level of service on county roadways and there are some developments along the Archer Rd.and Newberry Rd. corridors that cannot move forward without additional road capacity.

Paul says the county staff came up with what it thinks is a list of the priority roadways that will help address over-capacity roads. The staff aimed to identify under utilized roads, minimize impact upon both the environment and residential areas and identify rights of way that the county may need to proceed with improvements.

Newberry Rd., Archer Rd.and NW 23rd Ave. are all considered to be operating over-capacity, when already-approved (but not necessarily constructed) development is taken into account. In addition, NW 39th Ave. is operating at its capacity and C.R. 241 (NW 143rd St.)?is approaching its capacity.

Addressing Newberry Rd.
The segment of Newberry Rd.from I-75 west to Jonesville has received serious consideration by the county staff. The staff plan calls for the connection of the missing portions of SW 8th Ave. from Parker Rd. (SW 122nd St.) to C.R. 241. That portion of the road would run behind the Town of Tioga and the Jonesville activity center. In addition, the plan would have the portion of SW 8th Ave. extended east of Tower Rd. to SW 24th Ave.
Another recommendation for Newberry Rd.is intersection improvements at both NW 98th St.and Fort Clarke Blvd. Paul says the county staff is hoping the state will fund improvements at the I-75 interchanges on Newberry Rd.

Staff also is recommending the section of NW 83rd St.between NW 23rd Ave. and NW 39th Ave.be widened to four lanes.

In addition, the commissioners asked the staff to look  into both bus-dedicated lanes and high-occupancy vehicle lanes as an alternative. “When you look at a corridor like Newberry Rd., there is plenty of capacity,”?said commissioner Paula Delaney. “It’s in all of those empty seat belts you see in the cars next to you.” Delaney urged the staff to look at some incentive to having motorists use more of their vehicle’s capacity.

Cost & Funding
Paul says the county will need about $75 million to construct the planned improvements (additional improvements were recommended for the south side of Archer Rd.and SW 62nd Blvd.that are not detailed in this article).

In terms of all of the developments that are approved to-date, the county is expecting approximately 5,000 single-family residential units, 1,000 multi-family units, 485,000 square feet of commercial space, 700,000 square feet of office space, 152,000 square feet of industrial space, 120,000 square feet of religious areas and 550 hotel rooms in the affected corridors. If all of that expected development is built and no new development is approved, Alachua County would expect to receive about $60.5-million in impact fees.

“These won’t be the only needed roadway improvements in Alachua County,”?says Paul. He adds that growth in area will cause additional roadway needs sometime in the future, including the addition of the Springhills Development of Regional Impact and some of the other proposed developments on the west side of I-75.

The staff recommendation that was approved by the Board of County Commissioners was for public participation in the process. The staff will review the plans with the North Central Florida Builders Association, the Sierra Club, the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, Women for Wise Growth, the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors, the Southwest Alliance For Planning, the Newberry-Jonesville Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for Responsible Growth. A number of government entities also will review the plans. The comments from all of those groups then will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners.

There also will be at least three public workshops to hear opinions on the various plans. Paul says the meetings likely will be held at a school or library in the Haile Plantation area, Jonesville and the Millhopper area.

For more information, visit www.alachuacounty.us.