- The construction of a new roadway connecting Welaunee Boulevard and Centerville Road is moving along.
- The Northeast Park is in the design stage. The City of Tallahassee broke ground on a second senior center off of Welaunee Boulevard.
- Watch the video to hear from a neighbor who is excited for the amenities, and another who has concerns about traffic.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Extending Welaunee Boulevard to meet Centerville Road. That's a part of the Northeast Gateway Project, a plan to add another access point to the area and ease traffic on nearby roads.
It will connect to the Northeast Park, a planned project people like Fred Markham are excited about. He's a member of the Tallahassee Pickleball Association. Markham said more athletic facilities are needed in the area.
"Most of our pickle ball players in the northeast part of town and there are no courts up there whatsoever," Markham said.
Four will be at the Northeast Park and six will be at the new second senior center off of Welaunee Blvd.
The city has broken ground on the center and it's going to be ready around 2026.
Markham said he doesn't know much about the roadway extension, but said "The area is growing you've gotta have a way to get around."
Growth is something Gus Soto said he has noticed in his years living off of Centerville Road.
He has concerns about the traffic near Roberts Elementary and Montford middle during pick up and drop off time.
"It's just a bottle neck and it's a bottle neck that causes a problem," Soto said.
Project leaders with blueprint say the project aims to "…protect canopy roads by reducing transportation pressures on surrounding roadways."
While Soto hopes the road helps... "What it's going to do is take some of these people, and take them that way and then they're going to come back. The turn lane there is only for six or seven cars. It's going to cause the same issue there."
While there are protections against widening the road here on Centerville to protect the tree canopy, he said extending the turn lane here would help.
"The common sense solution would be to extend the turning lane out a couple hundred yards," Soto said.
Markham said he's confident Blueprint will plan all three of the projects carefully.
"I feel they're highly competent in knowing what's needed and they build their projects well," Markham said.
Out of the three projects, the senior center is expected to be the first to be completed. It's expected to be done in Fall of 2025.
