Nassau County, the City of Fernandina Beach and a number of community partners have made great strides over the past decade to develop a non-vehicular transportation network on Amelia Island consisting of paths, trails, sidewalks, bike lanes and other similar facilities. As part of the greater planning effort several trail corridors were identified that had the potential to provide cross-island access (east-west axis) connecting paralleling trail segments running on a north-south axis. One of those opportunities is known as the Orange Avenue Trail which connects the trail segments running on a north-south axis along First Coast Highway and Amelia Island Parkway. Further, the Orange Avenue trail provides connectivity to the 'Summer Beach' public beach access.
Recently, the BOCC executed an easement/agreement with the Enclave at Summer Beach HOA to construct roughly half of the Orange Avenue Trail (1,200lf +/-) on BOCC controlled lands (fka the Enclave Segment). The intent of BOCC staff is to explore utilizing regional park impact fees to construct the remaining 1,200lf +/- of the Orange Avenue Trail concurrent with construction of the Enclave Segment. This allows impact fees to be leverged to provide maximum level of service to residents.
However, an opportunity has been brought forward by the Sumerwoods HOA to explore an alternative route to make the trail connection. The proposal includes utilizing the ROW of Orange Avenue (public) and Sabal Palm Road (private) along with interceding property owned by the BOCC to facilitate trail construction. The Summerwoods HOA would prefer the alternative route over the current alignment. The alternative route proposed by the Summerwoods HOA would reduce the length of trail segment constructed by the BOCC from 1,200lf+/- to approximately 450lf +/- and provide a more efficient route.
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