- September 24, 2024
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The conundrum of who owns Longboat Key’s only pedestrian underpass was one of many questions still under discussion by commissioners at their Sept. 23 workshop.
But all involved parties had one idea in common: The pedestrian underpass should stay.
At the recent workshop, Director of Public Works Isaac Brownman led the town’s part of the presentation which gave commissioners an insight into current discussions between the town and the Bay Isles Association, which represents the homeowners of Bay Isles.
The discussions are centered around the pedestrian underpass located near the 2100 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive, a couple hundred feet south of the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Station 92.
This underpass has provided safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists on Longboat Key since its construction in the 1970s. It’s also fairly hidden.
“Unless you look for it, you actually will likely miss it,” Brownman said.
According to the Bay Isles Association’s history review, when Arvida had plans to develop much of Longboat Key in the 1970s, the underpass was constructed in 1978 as a main crossing for the intended interconnected facility on both sides of GMD.
The underpass was built with enough width to fit golf carts to travel between the interconnected facilities. But the plans never fully came to fruition.
The Bay Isles Association found an agreement from July 1990 that stated the association was responsible for maintaining the underpass. But, so far, the association’s outside legal review has not found documents to show that the Bay Isles Association has ownership of the underpass.
President of the Bay Isles Association H. Joseph Reiser said the association has been evaluating its assets, and found the association had invested much in terms of maintenance costs and insurance liability into the underpass which is skewed toward public use.
Essentially, the association is questioning if it should continue maintaining and being liable for something that is outside of its gates and is heavily used by the public.
The association also brought up a similar situation in late 2023 when speaking to the commission about Bay Isles Parkway, one of the island’s busiest roads under the ownership of Bay Isles.
Anyone in the town can use the underpass under the state-owned GMD. The crossing provides for a safe crossing on GMD, a valuable asset in that area of the road where crosswalks are limited.
“There aren’t too many crossings across Gulf of Mexico Drive that are safe like the tunnel,” Reiser said.
The Bay Isles Association has been in charge of maintaining the underpass since at least the 1990 agreement. This means regular cleaning and lighting replacements as needed. The association also recently replaced the stormwater pumps and, at the same time, replaced the electrical panel.
According to the association, the underpass also doesn’t flood much due to the effective pump system. After then-Tropical Storm Debby bushed past the area, Reiser said flooding in the underpass was minimal.
When bringing the underpass issue up to the town, Reiser said the town was very receptive.
“I think we’re more and more working very effectively as a team and a partnership,” Reiser said.
The Bay Isles Association’s ideal solution would be to hand over ownership to the FDOT, the town or a partnership between the two entities. But that isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Brownman said the FDOT isn’t historically interested in the idea of underpasses, but the department has acknowledged that it’s a useful crossing. The department has also noted that it probably wouldn’t support a crosswalk in that section of GMD, according to Brownman.
Another complexity in the FDOT taking part in ownership of the underpass is compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Right now, the ramps leading down to the tunnel have grades of up to 19% in some areas. The ADA standard is 8.3%.
Though there’s still some things to figure out, the Bay Isles Association is looking to give up ownership by Dec. 31. That’s because the association is looking at new insurance options with the start of the new year, Reiser said.
Insurance and liability is the main reason for wanting to give up ownership, Reiser said. According to Reiser, if a catastrophic event were to happen — like a collapse of the underpass — the association would have difficulty dealing with a situation like that.
But with a timeline of a couple of months, Commissioner-At-Large BJ Bishop shared some concerns over getting questions adequately answered.
“This is the first opportunity that this commission has had to see any discussion on this issue,” Bishop said. “We have a lot of unanswered questions…I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect us to be ready to give you an answer by Jan. 1.”
Reiser claimed the association reached out to the FDOT months ago but did not receive any word from the department until only recently. He tried to assure Bishop and the rest of the commissioners that this was something that could be accomplished, and he has seen good progress so far while working with the town.
“We’ve done a tremendous amount of background in a year…we will be very helpful in getting the town up to speed,” Reiser said. “Having said that, I’m truly impressed how quickly the town has responded recently, and to me, that’s a good sign.”
The association also recently hired an outside company for a structural analysis of the underpass, which will help all parties gain some insight into the longevity of the structure.
Another question remained: How many people use the underpass?
Though neither the association nor the town have conducted actual studies, accounts from commissioners seemed to say the underpass is important for residents.
District 2 Commissioner Penny Gold lives at Seaplace, which is at one of the ends of the underpass. She said the underpass is an important, safe crossing for residents, including those in Seaplace’s 461 units and across the road at Bay Isles.
“And a lot of people use that to walk to either Bay Isles or they walk to Publix…Bay Isles folks come over for the beach,” Gold said.
Still, all parties — the Bay Isles Association, town staff and commissioners — didn’t think that filling in the underpass was the ideal next step.
By the end of the discussion on Sept. 23, commissioners agreed that town staff should continue working with the Bay Isles Association and FDOT to get more answers and discuss ownership possibilities.
