Bodge - 18th Street1
Bartle, Donna
From:Kevin Bodge <kbodge@olsen-associates.com>
Sent:Thursday, October 25, 2018 3:36 PM
To:Gerrity, Joseph
Cc:Hogencamp,Kevin; Steven C. Howard, P.E.
Subject:18th Street parking {Atlantic Beach, Duval County}
Joe,
So as not to diminish State cost‐share eligibility of Duval beach nourishment per public beach parking requirements, the
following might be concluded at 18th Street Atlantic Beach. That street‐end, with no public restrooms, is considered a
“secondary” access per State definitions.
Simplest math: Cost‐sharing benefit for a secondary access maxes out at 50 car parking spaces.
The census at 18th Street is 52 car spaces + 9 bike spaces (bikes count as 2.25 cars) = 54.25 spaces total. That is 4.25
spaces greater than the 50.0 maximum credit one can gain at a secondary access. So, by that math, one could eliminate
4.25 parking spaces.
(The argument that one could eliminate 5 spaces while adding 3 bike spaces, to achieve net change of 4.25 spaces, is
poorly founded in my opinion, because the added ability to count bike spaces is to promote bike racks at public beach
access points, not to remove parking spaces.)
Harder math: Through some tricky graphical calculus (not detailed here), one can conclude that up to 5 spaces are extra
‐‐ but that’s the maximum, and it is more difficult to demonstrate.
With the exception of the ~4 (maybe 5 at most) surplus spaces described above, all of the rest of the parking at 18th
Street is required to “fill out” the eligibility along the adjacent shorelines . . . that is, to cover locally less‐dense (shortfall)
parking at Coral, 17th, 19th, 20th Streets, etcetera.
Now, that’s the engineering math answer.
I cannot and do not advocate reduction of public beach parking given that all of the funds for the beach renourishment
come from the fed, State, and City of Jacksonville – because the beach is a public asset. It is unspeakingly difficult to
get these combined funds, concurrently, from all these three sources, amounting to tens of millions of dollars. And
efforts to reduce bonafide public beach access make that task all the more difficult, sometimes impossible. Period.
Further, the State does not count ‘golf cart’ or other restricted parking spaces as “public beach parking spots”. So,
proposals to restrict parking to what would be essentially local (golf cart) vehicles will not likely fly with the State or City.
Likewise, replacing vehicle spots with bicycle racks will not likely fly. And, what some people think is a parking spot
doesn’t count, unless it is clearly marked or striped or signed, and/or otherwise clearly recognizable by a stranger as a
public beach parking spot.
Generally, if in doubt on any of the policies or rules, contact Ms. Alex Reed with FDEP: Alex.Reed@dep.state.fl.us
Kevin B.
________________________
Kevin R. Bodge, Ph.D., P.E.
Olsen Associates, Inc.
2618 Herschel Street
Jacksonville, FL 32204 USA
Office (904) 387-6114 / Fax (904) 384-7368
kbodge@olsen-associates.com
From: Gerrity, Joseph [mailto:jgerrity@coab.us]
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2018 1:11 PM
To: kbodge@olsen-associates.com
2
Cc: Hogencamp,Kevin
Subject: 18th Street parking
Kevin‐We are discussing parking on 18th Street and know that it ties into beach re‐nourishment funding. There are
currently about 50+ spaces at 18th now, and there is some talk of reducing that number. Any guidelines we should
follow or can you give us any advice?
Thanks,
Joe Gerrity
Joe Gerrity
City Manager
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 247‐5806