What comes after US 90 expansion in Milton? Community leaders start planning.

The "collective mind" of Milton leadership gathered in one place Saturday to create a vision of their downtown in a post-US Highway 90 widening world.

The mayor and city council huddled with members of the Community Improvement Board, Planning Board, Historic Preservation Board and the Community Redevelopment Agency and conducted a hands-on exercise in community planning.

With City Manager Randy Jorgenson serving as director and city staff as mentors, members of each of the organizations were randomly placed on teams that were instructed to put together a concept of what they believed the six-tenths of a mile stretch of US 90 between the Blackwater River bridge crossing into the city and Stewart Street (State Road 87) should look like after the roadway is widened.

Widening US 90 through Milton has been discussed since 2014, and the city remains on the record as opposing the plan. On Jan. 30, the Florida Department of Transportation served notice that, at the request of the Florida Alabama Transportation Planning Organization, it would proceed with a limited version of design phase work for the segment of its U.S. 90 widening project that runs through downtown.

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The plan is to conduct about 60% of the design phase work to determine right of way, said FDOT spokesman Ian Satter, then to set that work aside and huddle with the TPO to determine next steps.

Milton officials held their Highway 90 Design Charrette to make sure FDOT heard the city's thoughts as it entered the design phase.

Somewhat surprisingly, given the divergent interests of the groups taking part in the exercise and the notable differences of opinion expressed by many in the room on the subject of US 90, a pretty clear consensus emerged of what the community wants.

"People might have assumed there was much more division than there was," Mayor Heather Lindsay said as she left the Highway 90 Design Charrette.

Strong majorities emerged in favor of leaving the speed limit through downtown Milton at 25 miles per hour and establishing travel and turn lane widths of 10 feet. The narrower lanes help keep a driver's attention focused on the road and thus reduces the urge to speed or become distracted, said Jorgenson, the city's planner before he became city manager.

Cassandra Sharp, who sits on the city's Historical Preservation Board and chairs its Community Improvement Board, said keeping both the roadway's design speed and speed limit at what they are now is key to maintaining a pedestrian friendly downtown.

She said the requested lane widths, as well as moving bike and pedestrian traffic off of the Blackwater River Bridge, will allow DOT to accomplish its road widening without moving the historic Fisher Hamilton Building from its location just south of the span.

"Everybody agreed we don't want to lose buildings downtown. We want to work within the street scape that we have," she said. "It was pretty exciting to see everybody come together and want the same things."

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The organizations also came out the meeting in favor of establishing five- to six-foot sidewalks and moving bicycle lanes off of US 90. The groups agreed that, rather than creating two retention ponds to collect storm water, the Florida Department of Transportation should construct one pond in a park setting and use an underground storm water collection tank known as a vortex chamber at another location.

It was also agreed that Willing Street, which intersects US 90 just off the western end of the bridge entering the city, should be closed to vehicle traffic north of the bridge. The plan would be to make the roadway pedestrian friendly and consider construction of a pedestrian-only bridge that would run from US 90 "essentially" to Berryhill Road, Jorgenson said.

Jorgenson said closing Willing Street could be accomplished, but doing so "creates new challenges" for city planners that include finding parking for businesses along the short stretch of road and providing access for delivery to the impacted businesses.

"That's probably going to have to be further discussed," Smart said.

Provided a list of several "project aesthetics" the council, boards and CRA would prefer in their future Milton downtown, the teams spoke as one in favor of all the suggested amenities to include trees along the street, trees and landscaping in the roadway median, street lights, brick crosswalks, benches and gathering places.

Following the exercise in road development, Jorgenson informed the community leaders that the data gathered from probing their "collective mind" would be summarized and shared with the public at a second outreach meeting.

"We will invite the public and start the meeting by Telling people what you told us, and we're going to receive input from these people about what we were told," he said. "That way you get input that will be critical to the success we have here. This is your message."

Following the second meeting, the recommendations compiled will be forwarded to the Florida Department of Transportation. The state agency, which has incorporated federal guidelines to create a "complete streets" approach to planning that attempts to use design to make roadways safer, should be receptive to the suggestions, said Ed Spears, Milton's economic development director.

"All they've ever said, was 'come to the table and tell us what your desires are.' Now these boards and the entire city is saying 'OK, you've asked us. This is what you asked us to do.' "

Among the 50 or so in attendance at the Highway 90 Design Charrette were Austin Mount, the executive director of the Emerald Coast Regional Council, and Tiffany Bates, the council's community relations liaison.

Bates said following the meeting she had not previously encountered a community planning event quite like the one she'd just witnessed.

"This is wonderfully unique," she said. "This is the kind of thing that we wish every community would be doing, and to get this much engagement is impressive."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: US 90 expansion in downtown Milton: Officials begin to form vision