After reviewing the staff’s excellent
background materials for our January 7 workshop, I wanted to pass on these thoughts.
Besides the issues these materials cover, I hope that our discussion
will include the broad context of this proposed project, such as other important road
needs, the project’s role in promoting high-value-added economic growth, and its
consistency with such growth management goals as limiting urban sprawl and the Southern
Strategy.
This can help us avoid the tunnel vision that would direct all of our
discussion to road-building details with no regard to the underlying rationale. Here are
some questions I hope we can address during the workshop:
1. What share of projected and actual collections of the penny sales
tax does the Blair Stone Northern Extension represent? What are and will be total
collections and what major projects have or will be funded by the penny sales tax? Part of
our discussion should be about how we’re spending this source of funds in light of
our many urgent infrastructure needs.
2. What economic development does the project support that other
planned roadways do not? Probably our single biggest economic development need is
large sites for the types of commercial and light industrial businesses we want to
attract, as stated in the Comprehensive Plan and by the Leon County Economic Development
Council. However, concurrency limits in southern and western Leon County are a barrier.
How does Blair Stone help open up such large sites for timely development?
3. Are there other major planned road projects that must wait for funding
behind Blair Stone? Some I’m aware of include widening the remaining segments of
Capital Circle, widening Crawfordville Highway, and building the Orange Avenue Corridor.
How would these and other road projects help us fulfill our economic development and other
community goals?
4. One of the institutional barriers we face is a state ceiling on advance funding
of FDOT road projects. How can we seek raising that limit? One of the strongest
arguments for funding the Blair Stone Northern Extension seems to be that it is not
affected by the advanced funding ceiling, thus biasing our road-building strategy against
what may be higher priority road and other infrastructure projects. Are we spending scarce
money to build the project just because it’s easier than higher-priority road
projects?
5. There was barely any mention of the project’s connection to a future
Welaunee Parkway and I-10 interchange. When would these developments take place and what
relation does Blair Stone have to them? If this is a major reason for the project, how
do we justify the expense of the project and its impacts on urban neighborhoods and
fragile environmental areas?
6. How can the County Commission reconcile the Blair Stone Northern Extension with
our most important stated Comprehensive Plan goals? These goals (as described in the
"Land Use Element Summary") are:
Limiting urban sprawl New development should pay for itself Attract desirable development that has a synergy with existing economic resources Redirection of quality development and redevelopment to south Leon County Maintaining the historical growth rate of Leon County Channeling development to locations that protect our environment "and do not
require expensive environmental retrofitting paid for by the general populace"
[emphasis mine] Maintaining the integrity of existing neighborhoods
This project is included in the Comp Plan, but its glaring
inconsistencies with our most important stated goals and competing infrastructure needs
beg the question of why it deserves to remain such a high-priority road project.
8. Is the Blair Stone Northern Extension cost-effective? Is
building the most expensive three miles of local roadway in Leon County’s history a
prudent way to spend our scarce penny sales tax dollars?
9. What are the legal and institutional consequences of refusing to provide county
right-of-way to the City for Blair Stone? |
Leon County Home Page
Activities-
