City favors parking over bicycles on Atlantic Ave.

By Angela Daughtry, News-Leader



Fernandina Beach Commissioners agreed Tuesday that parking spaces should not be removed along Atlantic Avenue for a proposed island bicycle trail.

Instead, the street should be designated a "shared-road segment" of the trail for both bicycles and cars, commissioners told representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation and Amelia Island Trail team.

Mayor Susan Steger said the consensus to keep parking on Atlantic Avenue "in no way reflects that the trail system doesn't need our support," but she said at least one house on Atlantic would have "serious problems" if there was no parking on the street.

The Amelia Island Trail is being created to provide pedestrian-friendly modes of transportation on the island. Phase I of the project uses existing roads and sidewalks, trails, the Fort Clinch State Park trail system and a ferry service to provide 48.6 miles of paths in 2010-11.

Planners have designated $2.5 million in federal funding to provide at least five miles of off-road trails and other improvements in 2014 to link the trail from the south end of the island to the city marina downtown.

It would course along South Fletcher Avenue, requiring the removal of some mailboxes on that street, and continue east along Atlantic Avenue to downtown.

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