On Thursday, February 28th, the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency Board is expected to authorize Blueprint staff to proceed with the procurement of planning and design services for the Lake Jackson and Lake Jackson South Greenways project.
Once completed, the project will create a 3.3 mile connection from Lake Jackson Mounds State Park to Lake Ella at Fred O. Drake Park in Midtown Tallahassee.
Approximately $900,000 in funds is necessary to proceed with the requested procurement activities and is currently available in the 2020 Sales Tax Project Planning fund.
At the April 1, 2015 meeting, the Board directed staff to advance fund, at a rate of $300,000 per year for three years, the planning and design of the 2020 Bike Route System and Greenways Master Plan projects.
At the February 21, 2017 Board meeting, Blueprint presented a list of five bike route and greenways projects and recommended those projects be advanced for planning and design to implement the “shovel ready” strategy.
These five projects are listed below:
• Project #1: Updated Leon County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
• Project #2: Capital Circle Southwest Greenway (including Debbie Lightsey Nature Park)
• Project #3: Lake Jackson Greenways
• Project #4: Thomasville Road Trail
• Project #5: University Greenway
About Blueprint
On November 4, 2014, voters overwhelmingly supported the extension of the Blueprint 2000 penny sales tax.
The ballot language for the tax described how the funds raised will improve and expand local roads, build new sidewalks to local schools, commercial areas and recreational amenities, expand green spaces, parks and create and promote jobs in our community.
The Board of County Commissioners and the City Commission constitute the Board of Directors for the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency.
Sidewalks are a huge waste of money when you could put a Mutli-use paved trail in their place that everyone including cyclist would utilize. Tallahassee will never become bike and recreation friendly as long as it keeps wasting money on concrete sidewalks instead of paved trails.
Great to see Tallahasee moving forward with new bike and walking trails. This is coming from a guy who survived a bike-car accident as a kid and spent 30 days is traction and then a body cast.
Great Idea…lots of beautiful landscape between Mounds SP to Lake Ella….but Meginnis Arm Canoe Launch?
Does that mean we canoe our bikes across the lake there? I can’t find any detail info about the project. Please post if you have any.
I support many projects involving using tax dollars to encourage public recreation. There are also opportunities to encourage recreation/exercise by constructing sidewalks in those older subdivision which do not have them now but would be required to have them if being developed today. Constructing sidewalks in these subdivisions also are a good public safety measure because folks wanting to walk around a neighborhood don’t have to walk in the street and children waiting on school buses, sometimes in the morning darkness, wouldn’t have to stand in the street either.
Seems victory gardens won’t be getting the side walk we were promised.