West Villages Improvement District: River Road Widening Gets a Little Closer!

From North Port Sun Newspaper article 10/13/18

River Road funding agreement OK'd
By Warren Richardson Sun Correspondent Oct 13, 2018

VENICE — The first part of getting improvements to River Road, from U.S. 41 to Interstate 75 is now in place.

With a unanimous vote on Tuesday, Sarasota County commissioners accepted a grant agreement in the amount of $3.5 million with the Florida Department of Transportation and the accompanying budget resolution to appropriate the funds.

The funds from FDOT represent the agency’s share to update existing plans regarding that portion of River Road that have remained in limbo since 2012. The county, pursuant to a pending agreement with the state to make that portion of River Road a state road, will chip in $3.5 million to make up the entire $7 million needed to update the plans.

Tuesday’s action by commissioners came during the presentations upon request portion of the meeting, and no commissioner made such a request. The vote came without discussion.

In a memo to commissioners, Public Works Director Spencer Anderson indicated that work on a formal agreement with the state on the road swap is still progressing. That agreement, Anderson wrote, will likely come to commissioners in late 2018 for their action.

Under the state’s offer, which commissioners accepted in May, the county will take over responsibility for two existing state roads on or near Siesta Key, in return for the state taking River Road.

The county, during negotiations with the state, attempted to get the state to take all of River Road to Winchester Boulevard, but the state refused to accept the western portion. County officials said at the time, they would continue attempts to make that section part of the state road too.

The tentative timeline calls for the plans update and acquisition of the remaining right of way to be completed by August 2020. A contract to construct the first portion of the improvements, from U.S. 41 to just north of West Villages Parkway, would then be let in December 2020. Actual construction, currently a county responsibility, would occur in 2021.

Before the state can appropriate any funds toward its share of the project, the road must be in state ownership, which could come with passage of the formal jurisdictional documents later this year.

The state, under the May agreement, would then start the improvements from West Villages Parkway to I-75 in 2024. [end article]

Very good news.
Ali

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate
REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964