Sanford wants to improve a stretch of U.S. 17-92 by putting in new landscapes, widening sidewalks and making other changes.
Ed Bashlor’s bowl of grits was nearly empty as he sat at the counter at Café Perks Diner in Sanford on a recent morning.
But he was full of thoughts on Sanford’s plans to beautify a rundown stretch of busy U.S. Highway 17-92 leading into the city’s downtown district.
“Anything they can do to improve it — planting trees, building better sidewalks — anything would help to bring in more businesses,” said Bashlor, 61, a Sanford resident for more than two decades. “People are going to keep moving here. Population is going to keep growing. So they need to do something to bring in more businesses [along U.S. 17-92].”
In the coming months, Sanford will launch a series of improvements along a twomile stretch of U.S. 17-92 between Park Drive and First Street, long considered this city’s main drag.
The $2 million project — expected to be completed in a year — will include erecting ornate streetlights, widening sidewalks, installing decorative pavers, upgrading crosswalks and burying utility lines.
In short, the project is an effort by the city to beautify the road to lure more pedestrians, shops and businesses into the long neglected area.
U.S. 17-92 — a north-south road — is used by nearly 30,000 cars and trucks a day in that area.
But it has long been
considered an eyesore by city officials and residents. Empty stores, buildings in disrepair, broken sidewalks and vacant lots dot the road.
“There’s a lot of blight along the highway,” said Jeffrey Davis, a project manager with Sanford’s public works department, and who is overseeing the beautification effort. “So when this is completed, I think people will take notice and build a business or bring their business into this area.”
Davis pointed to the downtown streetscape projects that the city recently completed along First Street and Sanford Avenue, that repaved the roads with bricks, widened sidewalks and added fancy streetlights.
In turn, new shops, restaurants and offices have recently opened along both roads and surrounding streets.
“I think it’s a good thing,” said Sedrick Buckner, about the U.S. 17-92 beautification project. He is the owner of 407 Audio, Video and Security on U.S. 17-92 near West Sixth Street. He moved his business to U.S. 17-92 about six years ago from downtown Sanford because of the higher number of traffic along the road.
“We could use some improvements in this area. But as long as the city spends the money in the right way and the money isn’t wasted.”
The 17-92 beautification will be funded through Seminole County’s 17-92 Community Redevelopment Agency. The agency uses tax revenue from properties along U.S. 17-92 between Lake Monroe in Sanford and the Orange County line in Fern Park to make improvements along the corridor. Those improvements will eventually raise property values, according to city and county officials.
But not everyone is in support of the improvements.
Lisa Leonard, a waitress at Café Perks, said the money would be better spent on other projects.
“I think they should focus more on parks and on providing more activities for children, such as after-school programs or even something like building basketball courts,” Leonard said as she cleared dishes off the counter left behind by breakfast diners. “That would reduce crime, because many of these kids would have somewhere to go and something to do.”
Just south from Café Perks, Emad Baker looks out the window of his store, B&B Discount Beverage and Liquor, and watches cars zip by on U.S. 17-92.
“I don’t know all the details about it,” he said. “But I think anything to make 17-92 more appealing will certainly help businesses and bring more people. And that will lead to more busi- nesses.”
That’s the point of the 17-92 beautification effort, city Commissioner Art Woodruff said.
“It’s a major road into the city that has seen better days and needs a face lift,” Woodruff said. “And we hope that private businesses will want to invest in the area along and around [U.S.] 17-92.”