City denies Ringling College street vacation request

Over a three-hour period during Monday’s City Commission meeting, speakers with ties to Ringling College of Art and Design repeatedly asked the city to vacate a portion of Old Bradenton Road, allowing only pedestrians and cyclists to use the thoroughfare.

Despite the passion of students, faculty and parents at the school, however, the city denied the college’s request. Still, the commission said its eyes had been opened to dangerous conditions along Old Bradenton Road, and it vowed to work with the college to improve the streetscape.

That stretch of road, located between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and U.S. 41, is unsafe, according to speakers at Monday’s meeting. The road is mostly used as a cut-through to the north for people trying to avoid traffic on U.S. 41, they argued, and people speed through the Ringling campus as a result.

“My big concern is I'm scared to death about our students getting hit. It's very, very, very dangerous.”

As Ringling College plans to grow over the coming years — a new library and filmmaking complex are both slated for construction in 2016 east of Old Bradenton Road — the increase in pedestrian activity will greatly outpace the increase in vehicular traffic, Ringling President Larry Thompson said. Although he knows he has to live with city roads cutting through the campus, Thompson said he was hopeful he could foster an environment focused on pedestrian and bicycle transportation.

More importantly, between the growth of the college and the dangerous driver behavior on that segment of Old Bradenton Road, Thompson is worried about the safety of his campus.

“My big concern is I'm scared to death about our students getting hit,” Thompson said. “It's very, very, very dangerous — that is the concern.”

City staff was sympathetic to the issues raised by Thompson and echoed by more than a dozen speakers, but still recommended against the requested street vacation. That’s because, according to senior planner Courtney Mendez, the request didn’t meet any of the city’s established criteria for vacating a street. Staff concluded that the road benefits the general public, and vacating the street would put additional burden on the surrounding traffic network.

According to a traffic study conducted by Tindale-Oliver and Associates, the road sees an average volume of 923 vehicles per day. Speakers from surrounding neighborhoods attested that the road was used to travel to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way without cutting through a more pedestrian-heavy portion of the Ringling campus.

Although staff did not rule out the eventual closure of the street, it suggested implementing traffic calming elements before resorting to that measure. Mendez said a variety of improvements — including completed sidewalks, protected bike lanes and pedestrian crossings similar to those that already exist on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way — could help address the issues raised by the college.

“There are relatively simple things that can be part of it,” Mendez said. “It doesn't have to be all of these major structures that are added.”

The commission sided with staff, denying the requested street vacation in a 4-1 vote. Vice Mayor Susan Chapman said that the advice offered by city staff — and echoed by the city’s planning board and the engineering design criteria manual — was too important to ignore.

“Just because we like somebody doesn't mean we should make a decision that is contrary to what the planning principles are.”

“We like Ringling College, but we still have to follow the law, and the law is something different,” Chapman said. “Just because we like somebody doesn't mean we should make a decision that is contrary to what the planning principles are.”

Commissioners Eileen Normile and Stan Zimmerman also voted to deny the request, but expressed an interest in following up with the college to improve the roadway and enhance the safety of the area in question.

“You definitely need help, and you definitely need safety measures,” Normile said. “There's no doubt that something can be done to make this better.”