PANAMA CITY — City commissioners set a nearly half-million-dollar sidewalk project in motion Tuesday.
Panama City commissioners, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board, approved a $469,311 sidewalk project for the Downtown North CRA district, but residents from one neighborhood slated for a sidewalk requested to be left out.
A three-block stretch along Louisiana Avenue was pulled from the project, decreasing the cost by $69,993, following public safety concerns from residents. The sidewalk initially was intended to run along the west side of Lousiana Avenue, from north of 15th Street to the dead end.
Though drainage issues mostly contributed to the CRA’s decision to remove the street from its plans, district program manager Toni Shamplain said residents did not want additional foot traffic from Foxwood Apartments, a nearby low-income housing development.
“They did not want to encourage the walking of those residents on their street,” she said. “But the sidewalk project opens up a chance to address some of those issues in that community.”
CRA Director William Whitson said sidewalks in the area would be postponed only until drainage issues can be resolved and lighting can be put in place to act as “crime prevention through environmental design.”
However, funding those projects would not be possible until the creation of next year’s budget.
“We plan to take a very aggressive posture in the north and swing back around when we get some of this infrastructure moving … so we can start more aggressively lighting these areas, which should help in these discussions with the neighbors,” Whitson said.
Construction of sidewalks in the vast district will span the south side of Ninth Street, from Harrison Avenue to Martin Luther King Boulevard; the east side of Oak Avenue, from Seventh Street to Eighth Street; the south side of 12th Street, from Harmon Avenue to Wilson Avenue; and the north side of 14th Court, from Palo Alto Avenue to MLK Boulevard. Gulf Coast Utilities Contractors will perform the construction.
Completion of the project was set for 180 days.