GREEN COVE SPRINGS – City council members discussed a potential plan to improve more of the city’s scenery at Tuesday night’s meeting.

According to Assistant City Manager and Public Works Director Mike Null, the city is currently looking to design a project to landscape the two medians on Orange Avenue (U.S. Highway 17).

“[We’re] basically looking just to beautify those two medians. Crape myrtles, maybe some larger trees, shrubbery. Whatever DOT will allow us to do,” Null said.

The landscaping will enhance one median north of Harbor Road and the other south of Harbor Road. Null said there is no immediate necessity to the project, just an act to make the area more appealing.

“That’s the front door to the city, as you’re coming south on 17. So, just to make it look nicer when folks are driving in,” Null said.

If approved, funding for the potential project may come from the Department of Transportation. Null said that the city’s match for the budget would require providing utilities and maintenance for the medians moving forward.

Null said plans regarding the beautification project have been in the works for a while. He added about three weeks ago, an engineer notified the city about an FDOT Beautification Grant application cycle.

“Part of that process is to get with DOT personnel to make sure that the project is a good fit. To make sure they would sign off before we go through the grant process,” Null said.

Null furthered that in coming to scope out the potential project, the DOT concluded that a grant wouldn’t be necessary to complete it.

“The funding in the grant program is very limited,” Null said. “So, for our district, the landscaping folks came out, looked at the project, they liked it, and said most likely they have money [that’s] available in their regular annual budget.”

In not pursuing the grant any longer, Null said it would hopefully leave the money to other districts that don’t have the funding available.

Currently, there is no set time frame on when the project will come to fruition. Null said the project’s development depends on near-future arrangements with DOT.

“So, the question is are they going to fund the design, [or] do we – and then construction. [We] don’t know any details on that yet. Hopefully, in the next few days, we’ll know,” Null said.