New fences, FDOT-funded beautification to define corridor

Gary Michaels, Bess Abernathy, Rishy and Quint Studer, and Mark Lee visited Ashville, NC in early December to analyze real estate and the success of development in the area and downtown. Thanks to a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) grant of $350,000 for highway beautification, the Gulf Breeze business corridor could look very different in 2010.

Though the original grant plan submission was for nearly $750,000 in improvements, the grant still will fund a significant beautification for the median and both sides of U.S. 98 from Andrews Jackson Trail to Daniel Drive.

The FDOT funding of irrigation and plantings along the highway does not include fencing improvements, but the FDOT grant could free up budgeted beautification funds to complete school fencing along U.S. 98 along with funds from the Community Redevelopment Association (CRA).

At Monday’s City Council meeting, staff was directed to get bids on fencing the corridor area.

“The original grant application does not include funding, and the grant cannot pay for the fencing. The fence should go in before the landscaping and irrigation improvements,”

City Manager Buz Eddy explained. “We’ll price it out and see where we stand.”

Since beautification of the Highway 98 corridor was listed as a community priority during CRA goal-setting meetings in 2005 and 2006, members of the council and city staff have been looking for an affordable way get the job done.Citizens listed the school fencing as “eyesores” within the gateway of the community during redevelopment meetings in 2006, and prioritized installing an improved, attractive fence to match the brick column and metal fence erected at the high school in 2004. Santa Rosa County School Board funds and CRA monies were used to purchase the high school fence. In Spring 2008, Santa Rosa County School Board conveyed an 8- foot strip of property to the city so a brick column and metal upright fence could be built by the city on Gulf Breeze Elementary School property.

“We will make sure we build it to last; we will get estimates for fencing out of steel as well as aluminum,” Eddy said, referring to the damaged sustained by the aluminum

fencing around the high school after the 2005-2006 hurricane seasons. “We’ll put out an RFP (Request for Proposals) ad on a regional basis and look for motivated contractors with experience.”

The City of Gulf Breeze established the CRA in 1989. It encompasses the core business area of Gulf Breeze and affords special funding for development of blighted areas. The CRA generates more than $800,000 per year of tax-increment revenue. As improvements drive values up, the income opportunity goes up as well, according to Eddy.

The CRA has earned at least $800,000 each year since 2007. Since its inception, CRA revenues total $7,836,459, with $6,787,691 contributed from tax allocations, and $1 million in total reimbursements.

After a total of $5,976,028 in expenditures, the CRA balance currently stands at $1,860,431, leaving over $1 million for improvements after $843,105 in budget 2010 CRA expenses.

Projects already funded by the CRA include the Daniel Drive Extension and improvements for Moulton Properties’ Sea Shell Collections, the Hospital Road behind Andrews Institute, and the fencing surrounding Gulf Breeze High School.

The FDOT grant must be used along the U.S. 98 corridor, and the city must provide maintenance for the project created with the funds. Improvement to the overpass is not included in the plan, but a separate FDOT project plan was approved last year and funded this year to paint and maintain the walkover. Staff estimates for an aluminum and brick fence runs close to $300,000 and $350,000 for steel, according to Eddy.