County responds to Estero Boulevard acquisiton proposal
Lee County Department of Transportation has responded to a proposal from Fort Myers Beach Mayor Larry Kiker to acquire Estero Boulevard. In an effort to expedite efforts for the long-awaited Estero Boulevard project, The suggested possibility of the town acquiring the county-owned road occurred at a recent Town Council meeting.
County DOT Planning Manager David M. Loveland said of the acquisition, it is “certainly possible we can give them that piece of road” and offered answers to a few questions about the money allocated to the Beach’s main passageway.
According to Loveland, the state of Florida owns the portion of San Carlos Boulevard leading up to Matanzas Pass Bridge while the County possesses the Estero Boulevard stretch from Bowditch Point Regional Park to Big Carlos Pass. He said the County is working with the Town on major improvements to Estero Boulevard, but those improvements need to wait until the Town completes its utility work.
The Town is moving closer to construction commencement with its North Estero Boulevard renovation project. It will include the installation of storm water drainage infrastructure and storm water quality improvements; replacement of the potable water mains, associated valves, service connections and relocation of fire hydrants; and a new street section, with new pavement, sidewalks, curbs, bike lanes, trolley stops, driveway entrances, landscaping and signage.
“We’re working with the Town,” said Loveland. “We’re waiting to see what is going to happen with the utility work and to see if they get into a major replacement (that might require tearing up the road.)”
n Q. Did the county plan for Estero Boulevard originally had a $5 million
allocation for repairs and beautification?
n A. Over the years, the County has worked with the Town on various options for improvements to Estero Boulevard, including jointly funding an evaluation of the feasibility of establishing a dedicated trolley lane.
Different Town Council members had different ideas of what should be done. In 2007, the Town suggested the County look at a complete reconstruction of the County-maintained portion of Estero Boulevard (six miles from Matanzas Pass Bridge to the Big Carlos Pass Bridge), to address mainly drainage improvements and bicycle/pedestrian improvements.
That year, the County added a project to its CIP entitled “Estero Blvd Phase 1,” which included $1.6 million in FY 2007/2008 to evaluate the whole six-mile corridor, determine the first section to do, and define a typical cross-section. That funding was half County gas tax money (which comes from the unincorporated County’s share after the Cities get their share), and half City gas tax money from a special set-aside the County agreed to in 2003, which was originally intended to fund transit-related improvements to Estero Boulevard.
That CIP project also included $8.3 million in FY 2009/2010 as the funds to construct the first mile segment, but that funding was very nebulous, because it assumed half was coming from the Town and such a deal had not yet been negotiated. Therefore, it couldn’t really be counted on as a definitive allocation, and in fact, in the 2008 CIP update, those construction funds were moved out of the five-year window because they were so nebulous.
n Q. Has only $115,000 has been spent on that main road since the allocation?
n A. No, the County completed the preliminary evaluation of the first section of Estero Boulevard and defined a typical cross-section (which was approved by the Town Council) at a cost of about $600,000 out of the original $1.6 million budget.
The plan had then been to use the balance of the budget to design and permit the improvements to the first section, but because the County did not have the funds for construction, the Town asked the County to reconsider. Instead, we mutually agreed to spend about $850,000 of the remaining budget to do a detailed right-of-way survey for Estero Boulevard, so we would have a clear idea of the room available to make improvements and whether any existing businesses were encroaching in the right-of-way and might be affected by large-scale improvements.
About $150,000 remains unallocated for now in that project budget; to cover any added work or cost overruns. The survey work is currently underway, so funds are being expended. The $115,000 is in addition to the expenditures noted above, and was spent this last year out of the countywide re-surfacing budget to resurface some problem areas on Estero Boulevard.
n Q. Was $1.8 million pulled from Beach gas tax money to do a survey?
n A. The mutually-agreed upon joint funding arrangement totaling $1.6 million is described above.
n Q. Was roughly $300,000 for 2010 based on Beach gas tax money?
n A. No. As an alternative to the complete reconstruction of Estero Boulevard, which at an estimated $8 million a mile was going to be difficult for the County to program, the Town last year sent to the County a list of interim improvements it would like to see along the road, which included some spot drainage improvements, sidewalk improvements, trolley pull-offs, and putting utility lines underground.
The Town was hoping the County would budget $1.5 million a year to fund the interim improvements, which County staff indicated was not likely given our declining revenues, and the County said it would not fund the request to put power lines underground.
However, the list of interim improvements (which included estimated costs) gave the County a basis for considering them in the 2009 update of the CIP. That update, as drafted by staff and which will be considered for adoption by the Board of County Commissioners in September, includes $1.7 million in County funds towards a portion of the interim improvements. Those funds are split up into $300,000 in FY 2009/2010 for designing the interim improvements, and $1.4 million in FY 2010/2011 for constructing them.
The County’s expectation is that these funds would be focused on the drainage and trolley pull-off improvements, because the County funded the requested sidewalk improvements separately, using funds from the Countywide annual bicycle/pedestrian program (mostly County gas tax dollars, plus some impact fees). The sidewalk funding includes $170,000 in FY 2012/2013 for design, and $1,290,000 in FY 2013/2014 for construction. The County would have liked to fund the sidewalk improvements earlier, but that was the soonest the project could be funded from that bike/pedestrian budget.
Besides these budgeted funds for the interim improvements, the County budgets $3.5 million a year in County gas tax funds for re-surfacing roadways throughout Lee County. Those funds are allocated based on a pavement management system that rates roadway conditions and we are in the process of updating the rating system and re-evaluating Estero Boulevard. We have committed to the Town that if the pavement management system indicates a problem on any portions of Estero Boulevard, we will use our Countywide re-surfacing funds to address them.
One key unknown in relation to moving forward with any of the interim improvements is whether a project to replace water and sewer lines by the Town and County will be moving forward anytime soon; we have to be careful about spending limited funds for improvements that might get torn back out again. Coordination will be critical, and we continue to coordinate with Town staff.
n Q. There is no money allocated for Estero Boulevard in 2011 and 2012?
n A. Based on the description above, the only fiscal year that doesn’t have separate funding allocated is FY 2011/2012. However, the focus shouldn’t be on whether there is funding every year, but on the total amount over the CIP window. The funds we’ve spent and have budgeted for Estero Boulevard as described above total $4.875 million, not including any additional re-surfacing funds we might spend.