Lynn Haven unveils $4.3 million streetscape concept for Florida Avenue; residents raise parking, maintenance and stormwater concerns

Mrs. Gaynor, a city staff member, opened a public presentation Tuesday on a grant-funded streetscape redesign for Florida Avenue and connecting corridors in Lynn Haven, saying the project grew from a grant application filed about February 2020 and that the consulting team was ready to share concept drawings.

Joe Sorci, of Florida Architects, told attendees that “design is a process,” and described concepts meant to create a distinct identity for Florida Avenue and to link it with Ohio Avenue and Sheffield Park. The plans show widened sidewalks on Florida Avenue, new tree plantings where overhead utilities allow, parallel parking, patterned paving at Ninth Street and concrete pavers for sidewalks and parking zones. Designers said the proposal aims for “low cost, low maintenance, high impact” while encouraging private investment and infill development.

The plans were developed with input from a public charrette and meetings with affected business owners, the consultants said. Antonio Odessi, designer and planner for Florida Architects, described Ninth Street as a “hallway” linking City Hall and the downtown core to Florida Avenue and said the team designed different streetscape treatments for higher-speed Ohio Avenue and slower, pedestrian-oriented Florida Avenue.

Consultants and city staff identified utilities and stormwater as implementation issues. Sorci and partners said they would pursue undergrounding of lighting and communications lines “wherever possible” but that additional funds would be needed beyond the current grant. Morgan Hurst of Dewberry (engineer) and others were named as partners to coordinate with AT&T and Florida Power on which overhead lines can be removed and how costs might be shared.

Ben (city staff, economic development) told the meeting the grant award is $4,300,000. He said the grant area includes three blocks of Florida Avenue, four side streets between Florida and Ohio avenues, and landscaping and lighting on Ohio Avenue from Seventh to Twelfth streets. Ben said the grant funds have been reserved but that exact construction costs were not yet known and that the project likely will be phased depending on final estimates.

Attendees raised several concerns during a question-and-answer period. Business owners and a café operator asked how the reconfigured on-street parallel parking and the removal of some curbside parking would affect customers who prefer to park close to storefronts. Consultants said they had worked with owners whose parcels would be directly affected; they also described parking reconfigurations (including a redesigned Grocery Outlet lot) that they said could yield a net gain of roughly 10 spaces in the larger grocery parking area but would remove some curbside head‑in spaces.

Several residents pointed to past streetscape attempts and said maintenance and irrigation had been problems in earlier efforts. One commenter urged the city to show the “as-built” streetscape that would be constructed with grant funds, rather than conceptual images showing future infill buildings; the design team agreed to prepare images that remove the hypothetical infill so the community can see only what the grant will deliver now.

Stormwater and impervious-surface treatments drew technical questions. Consultants said the design includes use of pervious concrete pavers in parking and sidewalks and underground exfiltration chambers beneath paver areas to attenuate and treat runoff. They also noted that some intersections along the state highway (U.S. 77 / FDOT jurisdiction) will use a DOT-approved colored, textured asphalt rather than unit pavers because FDOT will not permit pavers in those sections.

Public infrastructure director Bobby Baker confirmed that golf-cart parking and operation are already permitted in parts of the city and said small, designated golf-cart parking could be added to the design if the city chooses.

On schedule, the consultants said they would collect written public comments, produce a second set of images (including views without the speculative infill buildings), start preliminary engineering to locate lighting and utilities, coordinate with AT&T and Florida Power, and develop preliminary cost estimates. Sorci and staff estimated several weeks for preliminary refinements, “several weeks” to finalize engineering with utility partners, and a ballpark of about three months to get to refined engineering and cost estimating; one city speaker said he hoped plans would be completed by the end of the year and construction could start next year, contingent on final funding.

There were no formal votes or ordinance actions at the meeting. The presentation treated the project as a design and public‑comment phase for a grant-funded streetscape; city staff said additional grants and funding strategies will be pursued to cover elements beyond the current grant scope.

Residents asked for written documentation of the responses and for additional public meetings; the city pledged to provide revised images and to take further public input before finalizing engineering and construction phasing.