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I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Tuesday, October 20, 2020

What is the Hiccup with our Bellview Library Project? A 2+ YEAR delay is UNACCEPTABLE!





After weeks and weeks of no movement whatsoever on the fully-funded, District 1 Bellview Library project--I requested a meeting this week with staff to go through the issue in detail to figure out what the holdup is.

Apparently the parking on the facility as it sits has been deemed insufficient and so additional parking has been contemplated and added to the project.

But the addition of this additional parking apparently triggers the requirement for the addition of stormwater mitigation--due to the creation of an additional, impervious surface.  And this, in turn, is triggering a cascade of delays that could push this project back by more than 2 YEARS!

After the meeting, a new timeline flowchart was provided, (above) illustrating what could be up to a yearlong delay ----if additional parking is tied to the project---before any of the project could even be put out to bid!!

I believe this is unacceptable and I am having staff research two possible work arounds so that we can get this project jumpstarted:

1.  Beginning the work on the facility alone---with the parking/stormwater project continuing on a separate track and as a standalone project.

2.  Making the overflow parking (over and above what is currently on the property) of a type that is porous and therefore not a feature that would trigger the necessary stormwater mitigation that an asphalt parking lot would.

I'll make a follow-on post that details what the new plan going forward will be.

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