Spruce up

A major facelift is in the works for the gateway to Winter Park.

A new sewer system, traffic signals, pedestrian crosswalks and street lighting are part of a $9 million Fairbanks Avenue corridor renovation set to start construction next summer.

About 30 city officials and community members gathered to get a glimpse of the project plans at the Rachel D. Murrah Civic Center on Sept. 14.

Maps and diagrams lined the room, displaying plans that will impact Fairbanks Avenue from Highway 17-92 to Interstate 4, Cambridge Boulevard, Salisbury Boulevard and Wymore Road. The city should complete the project within a year from the start date.

“I’m very excited about what we’ll be doing in the Fairbanks corridor,” Winter Park Mayor Ken Bradley said.

Most notable, he said, is the switch from the current septic tank system to a more modern gravity sewer pipeline. This and the other beautification initiatives are designed to encourage high-density development along the corridor and promote economic activity.

In order to “beautify” the corridor, the plans call for improved landscaping, decorative street lighting and grassy medians.

Winter Park Water and Wastewater Utility Director David Zusi said the $9 million project will be paid for by a sewer impact fee, general city allocated funds, bonding initiatives and about $1.4 million from Fairbanks property owners. The city will divide the cost among the owners based on how much property each owns.

Between $1.2 and $1.5 million will also be funded by the Florida Department of Transportation for the milling and resurfacing of the roads, FDOT Public Information Officer Steve Olsen said.

Olsen said that in addition to overseeing the reconstruction of the roads, FDOT is working with Winter Park to reconfigure the traffic patterns in both the project’s final design plans, as well as those during the construction process, to limit construction-related traffic inconveniences.

“The goal is to take away what we call ‘conflict points’ — where accidents are usually likely to occur,” he said.

While this all sounds great to Lisa Smith, owner of Orlando Vintage, and Marcia Sundberg, co-owner of Pookie’s Pet Nutrition and Bow Wow Bakery, whose businesses are near the intersection of Fairbanks and Formosa Avenues, they worry about how the construction will affect them.

“As a small business owner, I’m all for the sewage updates, and the beautification I think is great, but not at the cost of all the road construction and what it’s going to do to the flow of traffic,” Smith said. “What if it causes even more businesses to close, how beautiful is that going to be with even more vacant stores in the area?”

Smith said city officials and the Florida Department of Transportation need to restudy the traffic flow in the area and how it has changed since the opening of 4Rivers Smokehouse. The young barbecue restaurant overflows at lunchtime and has limited parking. Patrons constantly use the church lot across the street.

Sundberg also voiced concern over the current traffic patterns that restrict left-hand turn lanes. “It’s predominately a safety issue,” she said.

Mayor Bradley said he heard the concerns of Smith, Sundberg and other business owners and residents in attendance and plans to address them accordingly.

“We certainly heard citizens’ and shop owners’ concerns about what construction will do and the way that the turning lanes will work, and our staff, as well as the design team, are seriously considering them,” he said.

Bradley said the plans for the renovation are about 60 percent complete and the city will continue to modify them according to public feedback.

“Fairbanks is a very important corridor, as well as the entry point to our city,” Bradley said, “I think that a lot of people are interested in that it will be preserved that way and that their businesses thrive through it, and I share those same interests.”