Breeze Transit staff says plan would not include extra expense
Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith has won the unanimous support of his colleagues in requesting that the county’s Breeze Transit staff discuss with the board a proposed pilot program that would extend the route of the Siesta Key trolley to the northernmost area of Siesta Village.
Smith made a motion to that effect during the commission’s regular meeting on June 2, in Venice. No definitive timeframe for that discussion was discussed.
What is known as the Route 77 Siesta Islander circulates between Turtle Beach Park and Morton’s Siesta Market, which stands at the intersection of Canal Road and Ocean Boulevard in Siesta Village.
On April 7, as the commission was conducting a regular session in Venice, Smith won full support of his colleagues that day, too, in seeking a Breeze Transit re-evaluation of extending the trolley route from the stop at Morton’s, so the vehicle could drop off and pick up passengers close to the northernmost Village businesses.
The trolley had begun circulating between the Key and downtown Sarasota on Nov. 2, 2024, at the board’s direction. Jane Grogg, director of Breeze Transit, had proposed that longer route in an effort to add more visitors as riders, based on the potential noted in research that staff had undertaken.
However, in an effort to pare expenses in the county budget this year and in future fiscal years, the commissioners agreed in late February to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis’ plan to halt that downtown connection and keep the trolley on the barrier island. The downtown portion of the route ended on April 24, Breeze Transit staff told The Sarasota News Leader.
The report that Commissioner Smith asked for in early April was completed on May 15. In it, Smith noted during his June 2 report to his colleagues, the Breeze staff recommended that if the commissioners wanted to allow the trolley to travel farther into Siesta Village, that would not add to the county’s expense for the service. However, the staff also recommended that a pilot program be implemented for 12 months — “to account for seasonal variation,” as the report put it — before the commission decided whether to proceed with a vote formally approving the longer route. That pilot program would allow for staff “to test the conditions and the potential constraints along the route,” the report adds.
Moreover, it says, the pilot program could be halted “if unsafe traffic conditions are encountered” with the extended route.
After making his motion — which Commissioner Joe Neunder seconded — Smith pointed out, “There is a need for the trolley [to enable riders to reach the businesses in the northern part of the Village].”
When the route was lengthened from the Key to downtown Sarasota, he added, the trolley “was successfully dropping folks up there.”
Potential obstacles
After Smith proposed the staff assignment in early April, County Administrator Lewis told the commissioners he would send them a report resulting from a similar assignment that the Breeze Transit staff handled in 2022.
The May 15 report references that earlier work, pointing out that staff evaluated allowing the trolley to proceed as far as what was then a newly approved, four-way stop at the intersections of Ocean Boulevard, Whispering Sands Drive and Avenida Milano.
The findings were as follows:
- “The proposed extension was minor enough that it would not significantly alter service frequency and would not require additional trolleys or funding …”
- “The proposed extension would require the trolley to travel on three new roads, each of which sees high levels of on-street parking. On-street parking reduces the width of the travel lanes and [makes it necessary for] vehicles to drive into or reverse into travel lanes at unmarked locations, increasing the likelihood of collisions with oncoming traffic or parked vehicles.
- “The proposed extension would require installation of a new trolley stop, potentially including the removal of on-street parking and the addition of a trolley stop sign, [a] sidewalk connection, and [a] concrete pad for ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance.”
The May 15 report also notes that, on April 1, Breeze Transit Director Grogg and the acting senior manager of the department “met with several members of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, accompanied by [Commissioner Smith], at the proposed extension path. The conditions noted in the 2022 report remain accurate,” the report continues. “It was suggested that ‘No Parking’ signs could be posted,” though Siesta Village “has seen limited success enforcing ‘No Parking’ regulations.”
One other point the staff makes in the report is that if the board agrees to allow the pilot program to be implemented, the Transit staff believes it would be “preferable to build a stop and layover point on Avenida Milano, with a flat area for wheelchair lift deployment and sidewalk connection between the new stop and existing sidewalk.” The report does say that staff had no estimates for the expense of that work, adding that the plans would have to be added to the county’s Capital Improvement Plan. The latter is a five-year schedule of initiatives, with the commissioners voting before the start of each new fiscal year on any rearranging of priorities.
The report also points out, “Amenities such as a trash can and bike rack could be considered for installation,” as well. However, before the garbage receptacle could be put in place, the report explains, the board of the Siesta Key Village Maintenance Corp. would have to sign an agreement with the county to ensure that that trash can would be emptied by the corporation’s contractor, along with all of the other garbage receptacles in the Village.
The Maintenance Corp. represents all of the property owners in the Village and its environs who pay an annual assessment to the county for upkeep of the areas that the county upgraded through a project that ended in early 2009. The goal of that initiative was to give the Village a more resort-like appearance, county staff pointed out, in light of Siesta’s popularity as a tourist destination.
Leaders of the Maintenance Corp. confer with designated county staff on a proposed budget each fiscal year for the Village maintenance.