Venice council to take up local funding agreement for Laurel Road widening
VENICE – The Venice City Council will be asked Tuesday to finalize a local funding agreement to widen Laurel Road between Knights Trail Road and Jacaranda Boulevard – an $11 million project that residents along the county-owned thoroughfare have been pushed for over the past several years.
The council voted last September to designate widening the 1.5-mile section of road a priority.
Related: Venice council designates Laurel Road widening a priority project
The agreement is based on an April 22 response by Assistant Sarasota County Administrator Mark Cunningham to a variety of road priority requests made by city staff.
Cunningham’s letter also touched on several other regional transportation priorities.
The proposed agreement would allot $1 million in mobility fee funding for the final design and permitting of the Laurel Road widening project.
Another $700,000 in park impact fee funding is being considered for construction of a linear park – popularly known as a multi-use recreational trail – along the widened road.
Earlier: Venice council closes on purchase of park for Northeast Venice
Developer Pat Neal and his associates with an organization he put together called the Economic Stimulus Working Group have offered to complete the project.
The city of Venice recently completed a $1.5 million purchase of a 4.9-acre parcel from Border Road Investments, LLC – which is affiliated with Neal and his associates – on the south side of Laurel Road that would be developed as a public park.
Neal would likely oversee the construction of that park as well.
Should the City Council approve the agreement Tuesday, it is scheduled to be placed on the agenda for the May 24 Sarasota County Commission meeting – which would allow the funds to be available this fiscal year.
Cunningham’s letter also discussed several other key priorities that are not scheduled for a Tuesday vote. Chief among them is the improvement of the intersection of Pinebrook Road with Ridgewood Avenue and East Venice Avenue.
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A $5.6 million project – which would include $3.9 million in construction costs – would replace traffic signals at Pinebrook Road’s intersection with both Ridgewood and East Venice avenues with a roundabout.
In his letter to Assistant City Manager James Clinch, Cunningham noted that a 2018 project report has enough information to skip a project design and engineering study and could be used to bid the task out as a design-build project.
Cunningham’s letter also discusses allocating $500,000 in mobility fees for traffic signal timing adjustments and $1.5 million in mobility fees to design the extension of Lorraine Road from Knights Trail Road to State Road 681.
Ultimately transportation officials envision connecting Lorraine and Knights Trail roads. That thoroughfare, dubbed the “missing link,” would also be built by the Environmental Stimulus Working Group.
County officials also envision making the S.R. 681 – currently a southbound exit off of Interstate 75 with an entrance ramp to northbound I-75 – a full-fledged intersection.
S.R. 681 had been a terminus for I-75, prior to the completion of the interstate through to Miami.
The council meets at 9 a.m. in chambers at Venice City Hall, 401 W. Venice Ave.
The meeting can be viewed through Granicus at https://www.venicegov.com it can also be viewed on Zoom. The meeting ID is 853 0049 7964.
Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice council to discuss agreement for Laurel Road design financing
