With just a few days left before the public comment period ends for the Navarre Community Access Road project, several residents of Holley By The Sea showed up for Monday’s County Commission meeting to oppose Leisure Street as a western route for the planned but yet unfunded future thoroughfare.
On the board’s agenda was a discussion to approve a second extension to the current deadline for the related Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study, being performed by Volkert, Inc.
Assistant County Administrator Jared Lowe told the board the study was funded 50/50 by the county and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), which approved extending the Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP) grant deadline.
Subsequently, the board unanimously approved pushing the PD&E deadline back to September 25.
During the project process, Leisure Street emerged as the “preferred” route for the community road, which is aimed to alieve traffic off U.S. 98 by providing an east-west connector parallel to the highway from Panhandle Drive to Edgewood Drive.
Steve Walker, who lives on Leisure Street, presented the board with a petition containing around 1,300 signatures against using that road as the “preferred” route, questioning the method used to select it and suggesting instead using the Broadmoor Street option.
Walker went on to assert that he doesn’t believe there is a need for the access road to extend west of 87 S, citing FDOT traffic analysis data which shows the segment of 98 east of its intersection with 87 S is eight times more dangerous.
The deadline for comments on the project is Thursday, August 28. To provide a comment visit this link: https://www.santarosa.fl.gov/DocumentCenter/View/9677/Navarre-Community-Access-Road-Comment-Form?bidId=
Lee Williams, a newly elected director for the Holley By The Sea Improvement Association, gathered with HBTS residents following Monday’s public forum. Williams’ stated he would like to set up a town hall meeting to discuss the matter further, and the gathered crowd expressed support for his idea.
Final design, right of way, and construction of the Navarre Community Access Road are currently not funded.
