In a letter (provided below) dated August 21, Leon County Commissioner Christian Caban informed his colleagues on the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency (IA) that he will propose revisions to the Airport Gateway project at their next meeting.
Caban represents District 2, the southwest section of Leon County which includes the Airport Gateway project.
The Airport Gateway project creates a road between Downtown and the Tallahassee International Airport. Phase one includes improvements to Springhill Road, a proposed new roadway through FSU property, Stuckey Avenue improvements, and improvements at the intersection of Orange Avenue.
Caban wrote, “At our coming meeting, I plan on proposing we direct staff to come back to us with an agenda item that consists of an analysis that does not utilize segment C or D of the planned Airport Gateway. This would remove the completely new road, avoid the costly and draconian use of eminent domain, speed up the project timeline, and allow us to allocate more resources to the redevelopment of our existing travel corridors.”
Caban highlighted the costs and the impact of the new road on residents who would be displaced.
Caban notes the cost of the project will increase from $82 million to $123 million. Caban is also concerned about the lack of detail provided to the IA related to these costs.
“We are the public stewards of these funds. It is our duty to be fiscally responsible with our decision making and I am uncomfortable blindly approving such a significant cost increase without seeing a detailed breakdown of the cost overruns”, said Caban.
Caban proposes that rather than creating a brand-new road through existing neighborhoods, the IA should focus on beautifying and increasing pedestrian mobility on Lake Bradford Rd, Orange Ave, and Springhill Rd, from the airport to the urban core.
“I believe this will better serve our community and create more economic development, while simultaneously saving tens of millions of dollars in Blueprint funds,” said Caban.
The next Blueprint IA meeting is Thursday, August 24.
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Leon County Commissioner Caban Proposes Major Revisions to Airport Gateway Project added by Staff on
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Every Blueprint project needs this treatment. Enough waste, subsidy and Ghazvini giveaway to solve homelessness and gun violence in this billion-dollar Chamber/Vancore sales tax side project
Mr. Weed, Ben Pingree is now at the County. Cabal strenghtened.
Leave the Neighborhoods out of it. Just widen Spring Hill from Lake Bradford to Capital Circle to match the design of how Lake Bradford is now, meaning, NO over spending and don’t over design it. Concentrate on Sidewalks and Lighting.
What a clever way to be a proactive for your next reelection campaign. Just add $40 million of taxpayer dollars to be funneled into construction entities so the kickbacks may commence. Bravo!
I see Kickback Enterprise COT has now merged with the county. The only Improvement I see here is in Mr Caban’s re-election campaign account.
Did Mr Caban spend taxpayer dollars to attend the Amelia Island junket?