Council OKs road behind post office
BY BRADLEY "B.J." DAVIS, JR. Gulf Breeze News bjdavis@gulfbreezenews.com

Gulf Breeze City officials conceptually approved a plan to facilitate traffic flow ensuing from a future 32-unit townhouse development. Driftwood Townhomes, which will be located on Duncan Avenue behind them United State Postal Service office (USPS), is planning to procure a strip of land from adjacent property owner Dr. Robert Andrews to assist in an interconnection to from Duncan to Northcliffe Drive.

"The city council passed a resolution indicating that the Driftwood Townhomes project should have an exit only onto Northcliffe," said City Manager Edwin "Buz" Eddy. When the project began last year, city staff worked with the developers, Foret Builders, Inc., to provide additional roadway access for the increased number of vehicles anticipated with the development. City Council agreed on a one-way road exiting onto Northcliffe. The question arose of where that road would be. USPS denied an initial request by Foret to utilize the back parking lot of the post office to allow an interconnection to Northcliffe.

"They did not want that. They were concerned about traffic coming through their parking lot," said Sam Lundy of Foret. After the request was turned down, Foret went to neighboring resident Andrews inquiring about the purchase of a 200-foot long strip of land with a width of around sevenand a-half feet. There is currently a 15-foot easement between the two properties, which would bring the total width for the oneway road, planned landscape buffering and fencing to around 22-and-a-half feet.

"The easement is for drainage and access purposes," said Eddy, who added that the developers would be responsible for stormwater mitigation if that easement were used as a roadway. Both parties are still awaiting approval from the postal service. Developers have also considered landscape buffering.

"My concern was with the landscaping requirements that we're going to have," said council member Beverly Zimmern. According to a boundary survey done by Southern Surveying, a six-foot fence will run the entire length of the exit roadway and will include a buffer of over five-and-a-half feet on each side. In addition, a gate near Duncan Avenue is planned to further limit traffic to exit onto Northcliffe. Zimmern also inquired about what type of sign would be used to denote the exit.

"I guess a tasteful sign versus a metal sign is what I'm asking," she added. Eddy said that shouldn't be a problem.