Bike Lanes Proposed for Pinehurst Road

An unpopular multiuse trail won’t be going onto Pinehurst Road, city officials said Thursday.

But officials are pushing up a workshop to explore different uses for the federal money that would have funded it before it disappears forever.

The hitch: The deadline to accept the federal grant is Dec. 5, two months before commissioners were scheduled (in February 2012) to review the city’s full bicycle connectivity plan.

“Is it humanly possible to have a workshop in November so people can see … [and] we can deal with this holistically?” Julie Ward Bujalski asked city planners. "So we're not building a bike path to nowhere."

Officials are tentatively proposing putting a one-mile stretch of bike lanes along Pinehurst Road, as opposed to the unpopular multiuse trail proposed in July.

The proposed bike lanes would stretch along the road from Michigan Boulevard to San Christopher Drive. The project would cost the city $50,000, which is still untouched from the budgeted multiuse trail, officials said. And about $447,000 of the complete cost would be funded through the federal Safe Routes to School grant and matching Penny for Pinellas funds.

The Safe Routes to School grant money was originally slated to go to the multiuse trail, but angry neighbors, many from Pinehurst Village, .

All officials, except for Commissioner David Carson, expressed reluctance at losing the grant monies without exploring Dunedin’s full bicycle connectivity plan for possible alternate uses.

“If it doesn’t [work out], then at least we’ve done our homework,” Mayor Dave Eggers said.

“If it’s the commission's wish to have a workshop at any time, we’ll be as prepared as we can be,” said Rob DiSpirito, city manager.

At the commission’s request, the workshop was bumped up to Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. It is open to the public.