Title
NW 1st Avenue Streetscape: Project Update (B)
Explanation
NW 1st Ave, between NW 16th St and NW 20th St, is an important mixed-use corridor located just a block away from the University of Florida and the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The NW 1st Ave Streetscape project has been a top priority Community Initiative for the College Park / University Heights (CPUH) redevelopment area, and is part of the District’s approved work plan and budget for FY15-16.
From its inception, the project team has been extensively involving the local community in the project development and creation. Through extensive stakeholder engagement, the design team developed a desired scope of improvements and created a conceptual street layout. 15% and 50% Construction Documents sets were approved by the CRA board in April and September 2014, respectively. In November 2015, CRA Boards approved engineering and design contracts to complete the design and permitting for the full scope of the project, including two separate efforts: NW 1st Ave Project 1: Underground Infrastructure and Roadway Improvements, and NW 1st Ave Project 2: Utility Conversions and Streetscape Improvements. In 2016, the project team has been extensively coordinating with stakeholders to finalize the proposed design, including holding four stakeholder meetings dedicated to each of the four project blocks, numerous one-on-one stakeholder meetings, and many cross-departmental meetings with City staff.
To complement the physical impact of the streetscape project, staff has been working closely with local property and business owners to encourage façade improvements via expansion of the CPUH Façade Grant program. Staff will discuss these proposed program changes along with other efforts to support the local businesses during construction.
On May 9th, Tree Advisory Board members unanimously voted in favor of recommending to the City Commission to dedicate an amount of $285,000 of Tree Mitigation Funds to support NW 1s...
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