- April 18, 2024
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The overhead utility lines will be put underground by the end of May.
BY WAYNE GRANT | STAFF WRITER
Victoria Jones, owner of Frame of Mind on West Granada Boulevard, says the trees in the sidewalk are short and stubby and block her window.
“They are a little sad-looking,” she said.
She likes the new palm trees in the median, though, and says they give the area an “elegant” look.
“When you come over the bridge, you go, 'Oooh,'” she said. “I’ll be glad when they take the support beams off.”
That’s why she’s in favor of current city plans to remove the small trees from the sidewalk and plant medjool date palms beside the sidewalk. The Ormond Beach City Commission approved an easement deed last week with Highlander Corp., which owns several businesses along the corridor, to allow room for the palm trees. The next step will be for the property owner to sign the deed.
An FDOT grant will help pay for the landscaping, according to city documents. The agency will pay for the plants, but not for the labor to install or maintain them.
The landscaping is part of an overall project on Granada Boulevard that includes road resurfacing, median construction, placing utilities underground, decorative lighting installation and landscape improvements from Orchard Street to State Road A1A. Utilities were placed underground on East Granada Boulevard several years ago.
The city can now place the palms beside the sidewalk because overhead utilities will not be in the way. The trees in the sidewalk, crape myrtles and hollies, have not worked out well.
“They block signage, building storefronts and are obstacles for pedestrian traffic,” said City Manager Joyce Shanahan.
The overhead utilities will start coming down around the end of March and work will continue through May. Shanahan said the city hopes to remove the existing small trees by September, but that may prove to be an “aggressive schedule.”
Jones said removing the small trees with their wire cages will also make navigating the sidewalk easier.
“The sidewalk is already narrow,” she said. “When you walk with a group, you have to weave in and out.”
But Jerry Papi, owner of Unisex Salon, said he hasn’t seen a problem.
“Nobody walks on the sidewalk,” he said. “I haven’t seen them bother anybody.”
Karen Cote, a stylist at the shop, said Granada Boulevard could have more foot traffic if it were more like St. Augustine.
“They have cobblestone streets, people sitting at tables at little, outdoor restaurants,” she said.
City Commissioner James Stowers has a law office on West Granada Boulevard, and he said Cote’s idea might be possible on side streets, such as the New Britain area. He pointed out Lulu’s Oceanside Grill as a business located off the main corridor.
He said Granada Boulevard is a constrained area because it’s a street that has expanded over the years from two to four lanes.
“We’re doing a good job of supporting a pedestrian environment bisected by an important corridor,” he said. “We need a free flow of traffic from I-95 to the beachside. But it’s our downtown.”
He said the new landscaping plans are part of a “collection of things” being done to enhance the downtown area.
Placing the wires underground will be an aesthetic improvement and will also “relieve some of the power concerns” during storms, Stowers said.
