Group Pushes to Preserve Scenic Edgewater Drive

A citizen committee is expected to take a preliminary draft of its longterm plan for preserving Edgewater Drive to city leaders at an upcoming commission meeting.

Pending feedback, the group would then present its plan in a neighborhood meeting, and continue fleshing it out as it awaits funding over a six-year period. The committee is also pushing leaders to preserve a waterside,  as a public park. The property features a partially-constructed nine-bedroom home that neighbors feel diminishes the character of the scenic road, but the city has no plans to purchase it.

Edgewater Drive, at approximately eight-tenths of a mile from Union Street to President Street, is Dunedin's longest stretch of waterside roadway.

The Edgewater group is seeking to preserve it in these five major ways:

1)   Remove the Alt 19 designation.

The committee believes the two-lane road is insufficient for the traffic backup it attracts. The group is advocating for a study to be conducted that looks at the possibility of moving the designation to an existing four-lane highway such as County Road 1.

2)   Enhance the overlay.

The committee wants to take down unnecessary signs, ensure a 70-foot setback from the roadway for future buildings, disallow the subdivision of big lots, set a schedule for routine trimming, and other maintenance, revamp Edgewater Linear Park’s bench areas, and add lighting. The group presents its long-term overlay ideas to the city commission next week. Pending approval to proceed, the group will continue fleshing out its plan.

3)   Protect the flood zone.

The group wants to mitigate the threat of hurricanes and erosion with a possible seawall, retaining wall, or stabilization modules (currently being tested in the Dunedin Municipal Marina). Greg Rice, planning and development director, is expected to ask to test the stabilization modules on a 100- to 200-foot area along Edgewater Drive's waterway at the upcoming March 1 commission meeting.

4)   Maintain the mangroves.

“Twelve to 15 years ago, [the mangroves] weren’t there,” said Charlotte Abington, the committee's longterm plan chairwoman during a meeting on Wednesday. Mangroves act as natural erosion control, and per Pinellas County guidelines, 30 percent of the mangroves may not be touched. However, the Edgewater group wants to protect what’s left of the scenic drive’s view by preventing lateral growth.

5)   Monitor the waters.

The group wants to protect the waterway from contamination. It wants regular reports on the quality of the overflow into the Sound so that the city can identify impending threats to the area.

[Updated 9:18 a.m., Feb. 25, 2012]