Title
Depot Avenue Rail Trail Design in the College Park University Heights District (NB)
Explanation
As redevelopment grows along the Depot Avenue Rail Trail, the College Park University Heights (CPUH) Redevelopment Advisory Board is concerned about the way redevelopment interacts with the trail and the way the trail will be used in the future. During their recent workshop, the CPUH Board defined the trail as a cornerstone project for the district.
At the June 1, 2004 meeting, the CPUH made a motion to "request authorization to prepare a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a firm to develop a design for the Depot rail-to-trails within the CPUH district. Since the CPUH meeting, staff has learned that the City of Gainesville is planning to use Federal funds to redesign the Depot Avenue Rail Trail as part of the Depot Avenue reconstruction. This work will include portions of the Trail from SW 11th Street to SE 7th Street. This plan will not cover the remaining portion of the Rail Trail in the CPUH district from the end point near Southwest 11th Street to the end of the South 13th Street bridge overpass. This area of the trail does not run along the roadway and Federal funds can not be used for this portion of the Trail. The City does not have any funds budgeted for this project other than the Federal Funds.
As the area along the SW 9th Avenue corridor of the trail redevelops with housing, the Rail Trail has the potential to become a major pedestrian and cycling connector to move people to UF and the major job centers at SHANDS and the VA hospital. The CPUH Board is anxious that this area be upgraded.
Staff is requesting CRA authority to work with the Public Works Department to include the section of the Rail Trail in the CPUH district that is not covered by Federal funds in the RFQ that Public Works Department staff is preparing, and to also request in the RFQ response that the cost of the work of that portion of the pla...
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