Letters

    iPic’s present plan for an eight-screen cinema and a 279-space parking garage with 43,000 feet of office and 8,000 feet of retail is too much building, squeezed into too small a space, near the busy intersection of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach.
    Their image shows no drop-off/pickup space for iPic’s pedestrian entrance on Federal. Instead, drivers will be stopping in the travel lane.
    The Florida Department of Transportation has told Safety as Floridians Expect that the sidewalk that is just now being widened as part of the Federal Highway beautification project will need to be narrowed by eight feet for a distance of 60 feet in length to provide for a temporary parking aisle. Also, there will be a conflict with the existing Palm Tran bus stop.
    Why should Delray let iPic reduce sidewalk space that was just widened, for iPic’s business use?
    The city should also consider iPic’s plans to convert an existing alley into a street without safe pedestrian and bicycle facilities. iPic wants to use it for its valet service and movie patrons’ egress, and possibly ingress.
    Delray’s master plan calls for ground-floor retail to encourage pedestrian circulation in order to attract business activity to streets parallel to Atlantic Avenue; otherwise, Delray will continue to be a one-street town. Instead, iPic wants to erect a showy billboard on Federal to attract customers — with no ground-floor retail.
    Traffic is already a mess at this intersection, and it will only get worse when Atlantic Crossing and all the other already-approved projects are completed.
    Delray should reject iPic’s plan. iPic should choose a more suitable location.
Jim Smith
SAFE Chairman
Delray Beach