Don't railroad downtown Vero Beach, motorists by closing another key railroad crossing
The Twin Pairs, which allow traffic to flow smoothly through downtown Vero Beach, isn’t the only roadway a vocal minority has attacked the past 50 years.
Motorists’ ability to get around effectively in our growing community is under threat just up the avenue.
Recently, Florida Department of Transportation consultants said FDOT and Florida East Coast Railway want to close the 14th Avenue railroad crossing in Vero Beach in exchange for widening Aviation Boulevard as it crosses the railroad tracks at U.S. 1. FDOT says the intersection must be improved to keep motorists' wait times from increasing to 3.5 minutes by 2045 from 1.5 now.
Earlier this year, FDOT told Indian River County that in exchange for widening the crossing at County Road 510 and U.S 1, a less-used crossing on Old Dixie Highway south of Sebastian would be closed.
As I noted in questioning that proposal, I was told the Florida East Coast Railway has a policy requiring a crossing lane closure for every one added. Neither the county, FDOT or FEC could provide me a copy of the policy, even though this has been going on for years, at least along the Treasure Coast.
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Indian River County commissioners agreed to the closure. What makes no sense, though, as I noted in a column discussing it, is the county’s population is expected to increase ― from about 160,000 to 267,000 by 2050, according to John Titkanich, county administrator ― but it will never be able to add a lane of traffic at a railroad crossing unless it gives one up somewhere else.
That’s a recipe for trouble.
Not necessarily safety, as FDOT and FEC would like you to believe.
There’s that old saw about unintended consequences. Well, the state’s proposed design for Aviation and U.S. 1 would solve delays by having two right-turn lanes southbound.
But: Would downtown motorists turn right on Aviation when they could no longer turn right on 14th Avenue to go downtown? If so, what neighborhood would they traverse?
In the Oct. 10 Vero Beach City Council meeting, councilman Rey Neville mentioned seeing a lot of traffic traveling north and south on 20th Avenue through downtown.
Important to protect downtown Vero Beach
“He said this could be greatly mitigated if 20th Avenue went all the way through to Aviation Boulevard,” according to minutes of the meeting.
Residents of that 20th Avenue neighborhood railed against such a connection before the county built an access road from Aviation to its administration complex when it opened in 2007. Neighbors feared an increase in traffic from the complex and along 20th and into McAnsh Park.
Let’s say folks heading downtown don’t go that way. There are no other right-turn lanes into downtown. All the other potential rights could lead to backups. The beauty of the 14th Avenue right turn is, except when a train crosses, vehicles on the one-way southbound section into downtown always have the right of way, mitigating backups on U.S. 1.
It’s why in 2015, when Brightline, then called All Aboard Florida, floated the idea of closing the crossing ― along with the 21st Street one ― the city opposed it. (Admittedly, I was ambivalent about the issue at the time.).
City council ought to go to bat for motorists and neighborhood residents on this one.
History shows they should.
In 1975, attorneys for FEC and FDOT, calling 14th Avenue a “high-hazard crossing,” sought an FDOT order to close the crossing, then a two-way road, according to Press Journal files.
The newspaper urged city council to fight the closure, as did two women (in letters to the editor, at least) who would become leaders in Indian River County: Ann Robinson, future supervisor of elections, and Ruth Stanbridge, who became a county commissioner and historian.
Other opponents included local chamber of commerce officials J.B. Egan Jr. and Butch Redstone.
Councilmen successfully fought the closure.
“I feel like we’re being had,” Art Neuberger, a councilman who later became a commissioner, said at the time.
Councilman Stuart Campbell threw down the gantlet, not just proposing the crossing become one way, but arguing if FDOT and FEC persisted, the city should take the matter to the Supreme Court.
“I would urge the council to use its full efforts to prevent the closing of 14th Avenue,” Mayor David Gregg Jr. concurred.
Their efforts prevailed, proving you can fight the railroad, at least sometimes.
Coincidentally, the conversations came at a time when a 17th Street Bridge was being planned. So were the one-way pairs of roads of State Road 60 through downtown, and when a crossing was planned for 19th Place (by what’s now American Icon Brewery) and one closed just to the south.
Consider average daily traffic
In a March 20, 1975, article, Police Chief Sam McCall was quoted as saying 10,458 vehicles used the two-way 14th Avenue crossing one week in February. That was comparable to traffic over the old Barber drawbridge, Neuberger said.
Assuming half those people went just southbound at the 14th Avenue crossing, only about 747 vehicles used it per day.
Compare that to average daily traffic measured there Sept. 22-Oct. 6 of about 1,800, according to Matt Mitts, city public works director, who said the count in snowbird season likely would be higher.
On March 30 and 31, 2022, for example, Indian River County counted an average of 2,544 vehicles.
How else would those vehicles get downtown? Or would they avoid downtown?
“I think you’re going to create more problems than you solve,” said City Manager Monte Falls, who has seen issues pop up like this in the city for decades. He added the crossing sees relatively few crashes.
It's good FDOT planners have eliminated overpass and underpass proposals that would dramatically affect properties east of U.S. 1. Even FDOT's simpler proposal will have a dramatic impact.
Forgetting history would be a mistake
But it likely won’t derail a plan to redevelop some of the area affected. Bill Mallon, an eye doctor who also owns Big Shots Golf, showed me plans earlier this year for a mixed-use neighborhood, inspired by Memphis’s Mud Island, he’d like to build around Big Shots.
The bottom line: FDOT should keep the Aviation-U.S. 1 design as simple as possible, and avoid unintended consequences.
And city and county officials should insist that continuing to close rail crossings is a non-starter.
The city prevailed almost 50 years ago and should remember that history when looking toward protecting its neighborhoods and downtown.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach City Council must fight to save RR crossing near downtown
