It’s a busy time for our city. Our projects continue to move forward.
We continue to expand Foley’s sidewalk program. The North Cedar Street section is under construction. We hope that the Mills Community sidewalk project will soon be ready to go to bid and our TAP Grant application to complete walkways on sections of South Highway 59 area will move forward.
We are also planning other projects to tie Foley together.
Foley has started its Access Management Plan Upgrade for County Road 20 between Highway 59 and Juniper Street. The plan’s goal is to add lighting and to reduce traffic hazards.
Several signals are being upgraded along Highway 59. Foley is adding mast arms at the Foley Beach Express, Tanger Boulevard and County Road 10. The city also plans more signal upgrades at Myrtle and 59 and at County 20 and the Foley Beach Express.
All of these improvements are the result of our partnership with the Alabama Department of Transportation. Plans began more than a year ago with the goal of upgrading 27 signal intersections in South Baldwin County.
Other street upgrades include new four-way stops on Alston Street at the intersections of Peachtree, Myrtle and Roosevelt. These stops will increase traffic control and pedestrian safety.
Foley is also adding more street lighting in areas such as South Pecan Street on a new stretch of the road.
Downtown, our Mainstreet partners will create painted crosswalks to help identify pedestrian crosswalk areas and reduce traffic speeds.
On the business side, several projects are going vertical. The BJ’s Wholesale Store, Cook Out, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and U-Haul stores are all well on their way. All these will give our citizens the opportunity to have more goods and services without having to leave town. Additional service stations are also being proposed around town.
One important topic that I will add is our efforts to make Foley the best it can be.
Our city has always had a detailed sign ordinance. This ordinance can be viewed on our website.
The only change made in the last few years was to modify the “temporary sign” section. This change actually made the section more flexible for the citizens. The misunderstanding is that the change made the ordinance stricter. That is not the case.
Enforcement was the issue. Our city began informing citizens and business owners last fall that a uniform enforcement would start in January. It has already made a visual difference ,but we will work with businesses.
That’s it for now. We will talk again in the spring.