Downtown DOT project draws complaints from business owners over curbside access, landscaping and timeline

Business owners and residents raised concerns about a Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) downtown renovation project during public comment at the June 5 City Commission meeting.

Daniel Olavani, who identified himself as a local business owner, asked the commission to “make some accommodation with regard to his curbside pickup” for a downtown pharmacy, saying the pullover lane is important for an anchor tenant and multigenerational businesses. “It is valuable to us as a community to have a drugstore downtown,” Olavani said.

Pharmacist George Warren of Bay Pharmacy also addressed the commission. He said he had asked for adjustments to preserve a pullover lane for curbside pickup but that those requests were not granted. “I would like to ask you to make the DOT stand up and be responsible for their sloppy work,” Warren said, describing incomplete bulb-outs, unfinished planting and stretches of work left open.

Warren and Olavani also complained about the new flashing yellow caution lights at a crosswalk and about a recent excavation at the corner of Orange Avenue and Grove Street that had sat unfinished for more than a week.

City staff and commissioners responded: Commissioner Holland noted she sits on the transportation board and said the project is not complete, that plantings are scheduled for the end of the project and that staff expects the project timeline to continue through the fall. “They still have to finish the one bulb outs, and then they’re gonna do the plantings at the end from what I’ve been told with the timeline,” she said; a timeline referenced in the meeting ranged to the fall.

The complaints were made during the meeting’s public‑comment period; no formal action by the commission was taken at that time.