The revitalization project, which city planners hope will begin by this time next year, will cost an estimated $6 million.
City Council members don't want the plan to lose momentum during the four to six weeks it will take to arrange a bond sale to raise the money. So they're looking for a faster way to get started.
This week they gave city planner Robin Walsh permission to negotiate with residents and businesses to put up their money for the plan now. If businesses along U.S. 441 are eager for construction to begin, Walsh said, they could band together to fund the project's initial stages. After the bond sale, the city may be able to reimburse some property owners.
"I've had a lot of people express a great deal of interest in this plan," Walsh said. "They're really enthusiastic. It's just a matter of getting the money and going ahead with construction plans."
The ambitious plan, initially funded under a $190,000 state grant, would close neighborhoods to traffic from U.S. 441 and replace strips of parking lots with frontage roads, trees, fountains and arches. It targets the stretch of U.S. 441 from Sunrise Boulevard to Peters Road.
But without needed money for construction, the New York consultant's drawings of attractive complexes that could line the deteriorating 2.2-mile strip may never be more than pictures.
Residents of Country Club Estates on the west side of
U.S. 441 have already offered to pay the cost of closing their streets, Walsh
said. Each of the eight street closures in the neighborhood is expected to
cost about $8,000, but the city
hasn't determined how much each resident would have to pay.
If homeowners reach an agreement with the city soon, the construction could be completed as early as the end of this year, Walsh said.
He has also recommended that part of the district's tax revenue be earmarked for the U.S. 441 improvements. The city will hold a public hearing on the budget Sept. 14.
"We've been trying to get this done for 14 years," said Mayor Frank Veltri. "We've had ideas before and they've died. But this time people really seem excited about it, and I think we're really going to get somewhere."