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Deck the Chairs urges wider sidewalks, accessibility changes for Latham Plaza redevelopment
Summary
Deck the Chairs told the Jacksonville Beach CRA that Latham Plaza’s current redesign should add a secondary sidewalk or increase pedestrian circulation space to improve safety and accessibility during large events, citing visitor counts and elderly and stroller-bearing visitors.
Curtis Loftus, founder and executive director of Deck the Chairs, told the Jacksonville Beach Community Redevelopment Agency on March 24 that the planned Latham Plaza redesign should include additional sidewalk capacity to improve accessibility and safety during large events.
“I'm here on behalf of Deck the Chairs. I'm the founder, and also the executive director,” Loftus said as he opened public comment. He said the group had monitored park use over 12 seasons and provided data they said supplements city visitor counts.
Loftus said the organization believes city-sourced phone-ping visitor counts undercount some daytime programming and children; “we firmly believe the 47,000 that is, during the run of deck to chairs is accurate for those adults,” he said, adding that Deck the Chairs estimates total attendance including children may exceed 100,000 during the event’s run.
Why it matters: Latham Plaza is the site of seasonal, high-attendance events. At the CRA meeting, Loftus and a board member, Kara Scrimmon, urged planners to consider how people enter and move through the plaza — especially older adults and parents with strollers — and to add pedestrian capacity where feasible so foot traffic does not create safety or access problems.
CRA staff said the agency previously approved a phase 1 design for Latham Plaza and that the design team is now preparing construction (engineering) documents. Taylor, CRA staff, said staff will review the construction documents when they reach substantial completion and will update the agency then. “What they're working on now are the actual construction documents,” Taylor said during the meeting.
Board member Megan Edwards asked about earlier joint-session options that had included alternate pedestrian flows and sidewalks; staff answered that phase 1 will include perimeter sidewalk replacements and an additional sidewalk on the back half of the plaza, but that other elements remain undecided pending later phases.
The public comment did not result in a formal action; Loftus said his remarks and the data Deck the Chairs provided were intended to inform the design team and CRA planners.
The agency did not set a new public meeting on the design at this March session but staff said members would receive an update when the construction documents reach a substantial completion milestone.
