City looks to become more pedestrian and bicycle friendly as it continues to grow.
As Plant City continues to grow towards its proposed population of more than 70,000 by 2040, commissioners and planners are looking for ways to make the city friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians.
The City and the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization partnered to commission the study, carried out by consulting firms Alta and Atkins. The study cost about $50,000 and was paid for using planning funds from the Florida Department of Transportation.
The master plan presented to the city includes a number of infrastructure and safety enhancements to existing city facilities as well as the creation of new sidewalks and trails.
“There’s not a whole lot of bicycling and walking activity (in Plant City), but the opportunity to increase that is here,” Wiatt Bowers of Atkins said.
According to the presentation, nearly 83% of commuting in Plant City is single drivers, about 1.5% is walking and less than half of a percent is biking. Towns the size of Plant City, Bowers said, are ideal for maximizing walking and cycling activity.
The planners said they took public feedback from a February open house meeting at Bruton Library into consideration when coming up with a final design. The plan currently
incorporates a spine network that would connect the north, east, south and west portions of the city in historic downtown, maintaining the current character vision and development in the city.
The proposed plan creates an outline of projects that would be carried out over many years, Wade Reynolds of the MPO said. Now that a plan is in place, its up to the city to decide how it will be implemented. The MPO, he said, could then help secure funding.
Reynolds said plans like the Walk/Bike plan requires coordination of government on the municipal, county and state levels and can often require a champion to see it through. Plant City, he said, seems to have many champions.
“It appears to have widespread support from staff and elected officials,” Reynolds said. “It seems like there’s a lot of support and that support will be maintained.”
Mayor Rick Lott said the city commission is reviewing the plan and is looking forward to working with city planners on how to implement it into current and future projects, including ongoing efforts to resurface many city streets. Brian Boucher of Alta said incorporating safety features and improvements to ongoing city infrastructure projects is a way to get the project going.
Lott said the city is looking forward to implementing the plan and instructing the planning staff to review it shows the commitment to improving Plant City’s walkability and bikeability.
“It’s well in the works,” Lott said. “It’s the first time we’ve had this kind of plan. The commission needs the opportunity to get our arms around it and work with planning staff to figure where to implement the plan.” However, he said, “it takes money to make it a really.”
Reynolds said the Plant City Walk/Bike Plan is included in both its long and short term goals. While the plan consists of certain aspects that could potentially take decades, he said significant progress on funding “catalyst” portions of the project could be funded within five years.
Among the catalyst projects would be pedestrian safety improvements including clearer identification markers and enhanced crosswalks. Establishing a minimum bike grid that could connect all four quadrants of Plant City to major destinations and the downtown core would also be a catalyst project.
Different forms of signage, reduced-speed zones and clear indication of roads used for bicycles could be part of the bike grid, Boucher said. The specific type of safety feature would depend on the context of the area where it’s being used, he added.
Boucher also said the open house meeting proved Plant City citizens have a desire for more walking trails. Another catalyst project, he said, could be canal connector trails improving existing trails and creating a larger network of trails throughout the city. Benches, interpretation signage featuring Plant City history and gardening projects for area schools could be incorporated to existing trails as part of the catalyst project, he said.
Catalyst projects, Reynolds said, could see funding in the next five years, but the entire plan, with continued efforts could take 10 to 20 years. Still, he said, it would be quite the accomplishment.
“With reasonably modest investment levels, a good portion of this plan could be implemented within 10 to 20 years,” Reynolds said. “Getting a robust sidewalk grid within that time period, that’s a big accomplishment.”
