The city of Anna Maria might have bitten off more than it could chew in previous attempts to improve Pine Avenue.
So city officials hope breaking improvements to its “Main Street” into bite-size pieces will help get the job done.
City commissioners reached a consensus May 23, authorizing Mayor Dan Murphy to work on the piecemeal planning.
Commissioner Charlie Salem recused himself from the discussion due to his ownership of a commercial condo on Pine.
The city budgeted $3,349,634.46 in fiscal 2023-24 to improve Pine, Magnolia and Spring avenues, including $2,698,440 in state appropriations and $283,412.96 from the U.S. American Rescue Plan Act.
Proposed improvements for Pine Avenue would include the addition of pervious brick paver meandering sidewalks, as well as the creation and enhancement of crosswalks and lighting along the corridor.
Commissioners recently voted to reject Sarasota-based C-Squared CGC, Inc.’s $1,426,849.39 bid to complete an improvement prototype from south of Gulf Drive to Pine Avenue’s intersection with North Shore Drive.
That was the fourth round of bids rejected by the city, which has been working on a new strategy for moving forward since.
Murphy presented his ideas for such a strategy — complete improvements step-by-step, block-by-block.
Such improvements would begin with the addition of meandering sidewalks and enhancement of crosswalks from Pine Avenue’s intersection with Gulf Drive to North Shore Drive.
The city would then move to completing the same improvements for the next block of Pine, from North Shore Drive to Crescent Drive; then the third and final block, from Crescent Drive down to the Anna Maria City Pier.
The city would then go back over each block to improve preestablished sidewalks, then once more to enhance lighting — which will be funded separately from other improvements.
Murphy said three local contractors had expressed interest to him with participating in a piecemeal improvement process.
Murphy added that he needed commission consensus so he could bring the proposal to an engineer and the Florida Department of Transportation for review.
Commissioner Gary McMullen said he did not believe pedestrians use Pine’s meandering sidewalks — which he called unsafe — but often walk along the street.
He agreed to the commission’s consensus to move forward with Murphy’s plan but clarified that he would not support meandering sidewalks until he saw for himself that people use them.
There was no public comment.
Commissioners also unanimously voted to adopt a resolution accepting a state-funded grant agreement with the DOT for $1,288,440 toward improvements along Magnolia and Spring avenues.
The city plans to improve the two roadways as a second phase of work following Pine Avenue enhancements.
Murphy said the city will conduct a study to determine the needs along the corridors and hold public workshops before moving forward with improvement plans.
The commission will meet next at 2 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.
Directions to attend via Zoom can be found on the city’s website, cityofannamaria.com.