The path to a sidewalk on San Juan Drive is now in motion after the Ponte Vedra Municipal Service District approved a sidewalk project along the road that will stretch from Solana Road to Miranda Road during its Aug. 14 meeting.
The project was approved with a 6-1 vote, with Trustee Charles Callaghan as the lone opposing vote.
As part of the project, the MSD will pay $150,000 for the survey and engineering test portion of the project, while St. Johns County will be funding the construction portion of the project and will also maintain the sidewalks once they are constructed.
“The survey is going to be expensive because it takes into account all of your topo (topography), and not just the topo on a five-foot segment,” Wester said. “They take it out 10 to 15 feet on either side of that, because they have to calculate and understand where all the drainage is and where it’s going.”
Five feet is the expected width of the sidewalk, which is the standard size of most sidewalks being constructed.
There were a handful of residents that live along San Juan Drive were in attendance that stated their concern for the project and informed the board that they did not believe they should go forward with it.
Some of the reasons for their concerns raised included the sidewalk presenting a safety issue due to it running so close to the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club’s golf course, which could result in people getting hit by errant golf balls while walking on the sidewalk.
One of those residents voicing this concern was Kathy Gleason, who said she had sent a couple of different letters to the board members stating those concerns about putting a sidewalk so close to an active tee box.
According to chairman Al Hollon, the goal behind the sidewalk project is to navigate people from walking on the road and give them a safe place where they will not be in danger of getting hit by a vehicle.
“We have vetted this, and I know we’ve talked about this for my six years on the board,” Trustee Brad Wester said. “We’ve had numerous discussions on this, including having numerous workshops. We don’t discuss anything about sidewalks outside of this room, so it has been 100% advertised, legally noticed and publicly vetted.”
Kimley-Horn, a planning and design consultant firm, did a feasibility and baseline construction cost estimate study more than a year ago now.
Residents who live along the westside of San Juan Drive also voiced that they do not want a sidewalk passing in front of their house and asked why it is not going on the east side.
According to Wester, when completed, the sidewalk will be in front of 21 homes on San Juan and one home on Miranda as it turns the corner and meets up with the bridge.
“That is roughly 10 less homes than it would be if it was built on the other side of the road,” Wester said.
Now that the project has been approved, the next step is for Kimley-Horn to do a survey of the area to take a deeper dive into what the project would entail.
