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County Plans Ensley Gateway Beautification Project; Public Comment Being Accepted
September 6, 2020
A gateway beautification project is planned for the an open parcel north of the intersection of North Palafox Street and East Johnson Avenue in Ensley. It’s in the area that remained after the realignment of West Detroit Boulevard and East Johnson Avenue.
The proposed concept plan includes pedestrian walkways and seating walls that will provide a pleasant passive use park for neighborhood use and enjoyment. A plaza at the intersection is planned and it will provide access to the existing safe pedestrian crosswalks.
The site concept proposes landscaping with native trees and grasses along a bioswale/rain garden that will handle stormwater management in a low impact, natural, sustainable form.
A sidewalk along North Palafox Street is proposed to connect the site to space for an ECAT transit stop.
The public is invited to view the preliminary design concepts for the District 3 Ensley Gateway Beautification Project and provide their comments. The public comment period will open through Wednesday, September 30. Public comments can be submitted in the following ways:
- Mail: Atkins, 2114 Airport Blvd., Suite 1450, Pensacola, Florida 32504
- Phone: (850) 378-6961
Comments
26 Responses to “County Plans Ensley Gateway Beautification Project; Public Comment Being Accepted”
This area in Ensley is full of drug dealers and those looking to buy drugs. Seems to me if you want to improve the community you would start by fighting against the drug problem in Ensley otherwise the “beautification” won’t last long.
Absolute waste of money. If you’ve got that much to spare, clean up the streets. Huge pile of fast food bags, beer bottles and used condoms just dumped in the middle of my street last night.
While we’ re on the subject of Johnson Av, and spending tax money. Could someone please survey the intersection of Johnson Av and University Pkwy. These are county roads behind West Florida Hospital. With the influx of more traffic between Davis and Nine Mile, there needs to be some left turn signals for east and west bound traffic (especially east bound) attempting to enter University Pkwy from Johnson Av.
I live on Palafox just to the North and would love to walk to the park that is already there, but don’t because there are no sidewalks! Crawl be before you walk, walk before you run. Focus priorities.
Instead of this grandiose project to show where Ensley is put in sidewalks. NO ONE cares about the entrance to Ensley.
That is LUMAN MAY for you, waste money, You just reelected him for four more years.
Put new side walks in wedge wood and they still walk in the street.
There are more pressing needs of public safety. Such as:
1. Bridge maintenance and/or replacement.
2. Adding lanes to Pine Forest north of I-10 to Nine Mile Rd,
3. Repaving existing roads in north end of county.
4. Building a homeless shelter/facility in Ensley on this parcel.
5. Sidewalks because pedestrian traffic has quadrupled in Ensley.
Taxpayer that is fed up with the way our taxes are spent.
This is dumb idea get rid of the drugs, and speeders that have come through my fence 3 times,only got 1 of them the others got away in the middle of the night.I have no one to help me I am 72 years old I have cancer but I would love to have help when the beautification project comes through
Got a notice in the mail hours after the trucks were running I got a lot of junk I would like to get rid of to make my place look nicer It’s dangerous to get people you don’t know to help I did that 1 to help you and I was scared to death
No more places for druggies to hang out and homeless to sleep
Feel free to copy and paste as an email
To Whom It May Concern:
While I am not a citizen or constituent in or of D3, I am a taxpaying citizen of Escambia County. I am in complete opposition of this project.
I do agree with the need for beautification however, this is complete overkill and fiscally irresponsible. If something like this is to be done, place an MSBU/TU on the residents of D3 after taking a vote from them. I know it will be expensive but less expensive than this complete waste of taxpayer’s money.
This “gateway” is a gateway to nothing but a crappy, patched pothole ridden, curvy, and bumpy two-lane road. The initial cost is ridiculous enough. Now we have to maintain this “park”. How will that happen? Hire more employees, purchase more equipment, spend more fuel, spend more on cleaning it annually.
I have an idea! Put that money towards repair of the road I mentioned. Put the money toward a public safety project.
This is utterly ridiculous. This needs to be readdressed and nixed.
Questions
1. Where would the funding for this project be coming from?
2. What happened to the Restore project(s) and the funding given to this community from the BP oil spills?
3. Who proposed this building plan?
4. Who would be constructing the project?
This seems like one of the many projects that the county proposes that fails to solve any of the underlining issues. We need sidewalks in District 3 and the county knows this, however, they continue to ignore this need. There is a school within 2 miles of my home and yet no sidewalks for the children to walk safely to and from school. The sidewalks that are in ace are heavily damaged and have become saftey hazards for anyone using them. There is no handicap accessability anywhere in this area. It’s an insult to the taxpayers of this community. Escambia County Commissioners owe it to the people of this community to do better than this. If the commissioner can not do better than this than perhaps the state representative can. I’m fed up as a taxpayer of this community. Get it together ECBC.
How about using the money for sidewalks! Old Palafox is a death trap for pedestrians and bike riders. The park idea will just be a place for drug trafficking!
I totally agree with everyone else’s opposition to this project. The logistics of this site for this purpose is crazy! First and foremost, is the safety of everyone! The pedestrians trying to navigate the vehicle traffic is scary & dangerous! This is a VERY busy intersection as it is. And the vehicle traffic trying to navigate this oddly shaped intersection is already a challenge.
If you just have money to spend why not utilize it for more improvements on the Ensley children’s park on East Detroit Blvd. Upgrades to a children’s park would never be a waste of money!
Just read comment by barrineau that’s a wonderful idea sidewalks would be a great improvement and would keep people from walking in the streets at night.
Just giving the homeless another place to sleep? We need more sidewalks that benefit everyone because it takes people walking off the streets and allows the cars to actually drive. – There should be a bikeway also. Bikes do not belong on the streets with their backs to oncoming cars so they have no chance to move out of the way.
Please put the money toward sidewalks for safe foot and bicycle travel in the Ensley, Cantonment and Gonzalez communities. Too many deaths have occurred for lack of these useful paths. Another recommendation would be affordable housing for the homeless, help those resources that are currently making an honest effort to help the homeless or those whose homes are in such disrepair as to be dangerous to their health, with some accountability of course, such as ‘home not being a source for drug distribution’, etc.
One option the public is asked to utilize to comment is by mail to “Atkins” on Airport Blvd. Unless I am mistaken, this is an engineering consulting firm. Does that mean that the Escambia County taxpayers are already paying consulting fees for this project? If so, it probably indicates that it’s already a “done deal” and that it IS going to be built, it’s just a matter of what it is going to look like (the design). So, to all of those totally opposed, like me, it’s a no win. I only hope that the County Commissioners, county Planning Board and other County personnel involved in this project, read North Escambia!
Dear County Commissioners; please use your bloated salary to pay for this stupid idea. DO NOT use tax payer funds.
I live right near this corner and have for many years, this is such a bad idea, we already have alot of homeless here and they sleep at the kids” park, not only is this a waste of money but will also be more of a nuisance than its worth, put that money to better use please.
The county already has enough things to maintain, way more than can be maintained in a timely manner, if you can’t maintain it don’t get it. Most departments have the same resources they had 16 years ago. When does this county start being responsible? All new homes, sidewalks, parks, ponds etc and the routine maintenance is stretched so thin now. …
MAYBE NEED TO LOOK AT WHO IS GETTING A KICK BACK?
I totally agree with dishearted just a waste of money.It will turn into another site that will not be taken care of. I remember the beautification project in Warrington where they planted crape myrtle trees in the median and sodded it for miles and now they can’t take care of that.Take the money and buy food for the needy.
This is stupid, what a waste of money.
Another park for the homeless
Put that money towards helping them get off the street
They should use that money for sidewalks on old Palafox.
Why? The entire neighborhood needs a cleanup.
what a waste of tax money…put money towards more needed projects