DAPHNE, Ala. — The Planning Commission at its business meeting Thursday tabled for 30 days a Safe Routes to School grant-supported project — that would lay sidewalks connecting Daphne middle and high schools — to allow city planners and developers time to redesign the sidewalk’s path.

The Safe Routes to School grant will cover all of the project’s $148,250 cost, city Finance Director Kim Briley said.

Commissioners raised concerns over a network of ditches that line either side of County Road 13 in the proposed sidewalk area.

The plan originally called for students to walk the first half of the sidewalk, cross County Road 13 to avoid a ditch and then continue down the second half of the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.

Commissioner Victoria Phelps recommended delaying the project until the sidewalk’s path until has been redesigned and necessary easements or rights of way have been acquired.

“We could do it (all) on the other side of the road if that’s what the city wants,” developer Tim Lawley, of Hutchinson, Moore and Rauch, said.

Mayor Fred Small said he’d like to see the sidewalk run parallel down one side of County Road 13.

“Of course, money’s always a problem,” Small said. “But we’ve got a lot of small kids in the area. I would like to keep it on one side. It wouldn’t bother me so much if we didn’t have such a high volume of traffic there.”

“Have we looked at potentially bridging that area?” Commissioner Cathy Barnette, also a City Council member, said.

Lawley said a right-of-way would have to be acquired and piping laid, costing approximately $60,000.

Commissioner Don Terry — serving in his last meeting on the commission before he moves to Georgia — said that the students would eventually have to cross the street to get to school if the sidewalk stayed on the west side of County Road 13.

Commissioners agreed they’d feel safer for the children crossing if it was done at an intersection such as Whispering Pines Road and County Road 13.

In August 2005, the U.S. Congress designated $612 million in Federal transportation funds to be distributed through each state’s Department of Transportation to help build sidewalks in school zones, according to Saferoutesinfo.org.

In other business, commissioners:

The project also entails repaving the roads after the sewer lines have been installed.

“All of the roads will be repaved, some wider than before in order to meet the city’s standards,” developer Doug Bailey, of Hutchinson, Moore and Rauch, said.

Bailey said he expects a six- to eight-month timeline but that the project could be completed sooner if the plans’ depth is edited.