Today I get to share an important update on our hoped-for Frederica Road project! At yesterday’s County Commission work session, the Commissioners voted to officially apply for funding from the Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP) to help fund the relocation of Frederica Road. The vote was 6-1, although the no-vote also spoke in favor of the project and potential future funding. As it is, the resolution passed, and included $50,000 of funding from Glynn County in addition to the in-kind costs associated with Glynn County staff time. This is an important step as we pursue shifting Frederica Road and creating safe and ample parking on the same side of Frederica Road as the Church. We expect to know the outcome of the FLAP application early in the fall at the latest.
If the FLAP funding is not awarded, the project will be reevaluated. As of right now, this is a $1.3 million dollar project. Ft. Frederica is putting up $37,500 towards improvements on their property; Park Service dollars for projects like this are rare, which indicates the value of this project. Glynn County is putting up $50,000, largely to offset improvements to the intersection at Stevens Road. Christ Church has pledged $500,000 to make up the rest of the “local match” that is required to give the project the highest chance of receiving matching funds from FLAP. Christ Church’s funding was unanimously approved at the January meeting of the Vestry. While we have the funds available today in our Endowment, we anticipate raising these funds, and additional funds to create a parking area, through a future capital campaign.
There is no disagreement that this project is a large and costly one. The Vestry realizes, however, that our safety issues along Frederica Road will only get worse with time. With a one-hundred-year vision for our campus, this project is the best way to solve our challenges once and for all, and hopefully prevent a terrible tragedy; something we have been blessed to avoid thus far. In time, we will look back on this project (should it all move forward) and recognize the wisdom of planning far in advance and taking action when we had the opportunity. This aspect of the Master Plan has moved ahead specifically because the federal FLAP funding is “on the table”. The chance to have those funds help with this project could not be wasted.
For those who may not know how or why we began to pursue this project, let me summarize where we’ve come from. Christ Church has been concerned about public and parishioner safety along our Frederica Road frontage for years, predating my tenure here, which will be five years in May. Years ago, the church worked with Glynn County to install speed humps on Frederica Road in an attempt to slow traffic down, a project that wasn't well received, to say the least. The humps were removed, and few are brave enough to speak of them publicly! During my time here, we continued the conversation with the County about safety on Frederica Road. After two years of effort, and at our expense, the County agreed that a crossing device could be installed at our crosswalk to help both parishioners and tourists cross safely. We paid for the hardware and the installation of the crossing device once the County approved it. The crossing device was approved because Christ Church presents a unique challenge in Glynn County; the sheer number of visitors to our campus, combined with the lack of parking on our property, means that a lot of people cross Frederica Road between two blind curves. Other areas with such traffic and pedestrian numbers are in more "formal" areas where there are red lights, crossing devices, safe parking areas, and ninety degree intersections, by and large.
While the crossing device has helped some, it has not eliminated traffic dangers. We continue to have close calls, as drivers are not paying attention or choosing to ignore the flashing lights. Not all tourists use the crosswalk. There are buses that still unload into the street because of a lack of adequate parking - sometimes we have four to six buses unloading at the same time during peak tourism. We are in the process of retaining off duty police presence for traffic safety again, a service we funded for years on Sunday mornings. We are truly concerned about parishioner safety and are responding to several requests to reinstate the police presence.
For these reasons, when we engaged in a master planning process, begun in 2016, we asked our planners to help us address parking and safety along with our need for more physical space for our growing congregation. Ultimately our planners settled on the idea of shifting Frederica Road north and east onto land the Church also owns (an idea our own Ed Cheshire once suggested!), creating a "land swap" which would allow us to use the new room created south and west of Frederica Road to get all the parking, cars and buses, off the road and the right of way, and dramatically reducing the number of pedestrians crossing Frederica Road. At the same time, we had already been in touch with our neighbors as a part of the master planning process. We knew of the concerns our neighbors had for safety along Frederica Road and heard as much from leadership at the Fort and local churches to our north. For this reason, we immediately began receiving positive feedback for the project.
Our planners also discovered a Federal program, the FLAP program, which helps fund projects that improve access, and safety while accessing, federal lands. We engaged the Fort to see if they would want to partner with us to pursue this program and they agreed. We also went before Glynn County Commissioners last fall for an initial presentation of our plan to assess County reception to the project. Initial response, without commitment, was supportive. We were given a "green light", so to speak, to investigate the project. At Christ Church's expense, surveying and basic engineering was completed.
Our plan addresses safety and parking, and also gives us an opportunity to fix drainage issues as well, given the scope of the project. Storm water management will be key to the project's success, which was also appreciated by the Fort. To date, Christ Church has paid for all the work done on this project, with the exception of some County staff time as we have worked together to create the FLAP application. Glynn County did a small amount of survey work around the Stevens Road intersection at their cost, after Commissioners asked staff to investigate improving safety of that intersection and bringing it up to modern standards while work might already be going on.
The application is being submitted with letters of support from Christ Church, Fort Frederica; Wesley, UMC; Wesley Garden Trustees; Brunswick Area Transportation Study (BATS) MPO; Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau; St. Simons Island Land Trust; GA DOT and Senator Isakson’s office. There may be other letters before the application is submitted next week.
There will not be much to report in the coming months, but as updates are available, we will pass them along. Please continue to keep our parish in your prayers as we continue to discern what our future looks like and how we can help it take shape.
Tom+
Father, we pray for safety on our roads, for those who design and build our highways and streets, and for all traffic-control systems. We pray for faithful design and maintenance so that all road-users may travel with confidence. We pray for all who make and administer our traffic laws, so that the highest of standards are set and maintained, ensuring safety for all drivers who travel the network of our road system. We pray for all those who use our roads for work or for leisure, in all forms of road transport, and for all pedestrians who traverse our streets, so that all of us may be alert to our responsibilities one to another. We pray for those who suffer the traumas of roads crashes, for the maimed, and injured in body or in mind, and we also pay for the families and loved ones who suffer distress as a result of injury. We pray all of this through your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
Adapted from Roadwise, Australia