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Kurt

Admin
Staff member
Oct 15, 2004
2,233
4,925
SoWal
mooncreek.com
I saw a passage in there about special care if it is a high traffic area for bikes and pedestrians but no specifics.

The part you quoted doesn't take into account paths like the Timpoochee Trail (bike path) which I see as a separate and special entity. For normal bike traffic on the road (spandex wearers), yes you would expect them to merge and follow all other rules of the road appropriate for bicycles.

If the county owns the vacant lot then I think it could be done right. Might even be able to move bike path to south side.
 

Lake View Too

SoWal Insider
Nov 16, 2008
6,862
8,298
Eastern Lake
The county doesn't own the vacant lot, as far as I know. It would have to seize it from the Stephens family, but I thought I heard something, quite a while back, that they might be agreeable to it. If the design gave them more area on their gulf side properties, and an adequate way to access the circle, it might be a win-win.

I just have apprehensions about things looking good on paper, theoretically by the book, and being not all that practical in the real world. This seems like an extraordinarily important move by our County and Public Works Department that has had almost no public input and no details forthcoming from the County.

Whether you like it or not, SoWal has become the defacto news source for many of the residents of South Walton County. I seldom ever tune to Panama City local TV stations.They seem ever more irrelevant. Our newspapers are, shall we say, "sparse". It is a very invigorating thing to know I can find out, almost instantaneously, about very local events, and get feedback about these events, right away. I've got a lot of confidence that you will keep up well informed about this issue, and everything else. (Don't let it go to your head, and watch out for them Seminoles this year.)
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
The article in the Defuniak Herald said that the roundabout property needed would be 230 feet west of the intersection, 1000 feet east, and 230 feet north of it. It would need the vacant property in the northeast corner and would cost over a million dollars to build.
Doesn't that mean Veridian is in the area of the roundabout?
 

Lake View Too

SoWal Insider
Nov 16, 2008
6,862
8,298
Eastern Lake
I understood it to mean it would need those dimensions to complete the approaches, which I took to mean the striping, and possibly, the merging of the bike path.(at least the 1000ft east part) Perhaps, this is taking into account a detouring of the bike path.If this thing is really encompassing that much land, it really will be a big deal.
The Viridian, very early on, offered to donate some of its land for this cause. I don't know if this happened or not.
 
I understood it to mean it would need those dimensions to complete the approaches, which I took to mean the striping, and possibly, the merging of the bike path.(at least the 1000ft east part) Perhaps, this is taking into account a detouring of the bike path.If this thing is really encompassing that much land, it really will be a big deal.
The Viridian, very early on, offered to donate some of its land for this cause. I don't know if this happened or not.
See my post #76 http://sowal.com/bb/showthread.php/28995-Scenic-30A-and-395-Intersection?p=771204#post771204. I measured it out on Goodle Earth.

I hate to be critical when I don't have a solution, but I don't really have an answer. We may be forced to have another access road from 30A to 98 or 30A to 395. The middle beach road makes no sense. I'd hate to lose property values if I lived on one of the streets on a Seagrove back road proposal. We may be forced to violate the state parks to get another route from 30A to 98 between 395 and Camp Creek. I really don't like that idea because the state parks are a special part of South Walton. But of all of the proposals, I think that's the best.

But the BCC has already voted on the roundabout. So I think we're wasting our time complaining at this point. I for one didn't attend the Planning Commissiona and BCC meetings, and I regret that.

Even if the bike path is moved south of 30A, there are a lot of people who live in neighborhoods on 395 who will have to cross the intersection on bikes to get to their closest beach access at the currect 30A/395. Have you been back to the Watersound development near Publix? There are some really nice homes in there, and a lot of building activity.
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
Quite often of late massive public outcry has changed items already voted on. Since we usually only find out about stuff after the vote, we cannot let the fact that it has been voted on stop us from discussing it. Better to critique before rather than after.
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
Would buying the NE corner property and making a right turn lane for those heading north on 395 from westbound 30a be a better solution?
 

Lake View Too

SoWal Insider
Nov 16, 2008
6,862
8,298
Eastern Lake
That doesn't solve traffic on 395 trying to turn east onto 30-A, crossing 30-A traffic heading east. The way I see it, with a roundabout, 30-A traffic turning north on 395 would flow almost unimpeded,except for bicycle traffic headed east to west. I'm not sure why they haven't just tried to re-route the bike path and see if this doesn't improve the flow. What bothers me most about this thing is that 99% of the time, the existing system works just fine. It only backs up, severely, for maybe 30 minutes, on maybe a dozen days out of the year. This will be the most drastic thing to happen to 30-A since pavement...
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
It backs up much more than that, and it continues to get worse, so we should address it, but I think the issue is volume, which a roundabout won't fix. A right turn lane, getting rid of the V street parking spaces (that require traffic to stop), stopping parking on the edge of the road (which is dangerous because it completely blocks a driver's view of oncoming traffic ), and another connection between 30a and 98 east of 395 would be better solutions.
 
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