By Mary Hladky
The City Council has given a formal go-ahead to hire a consulting firm that will create a vision for a reimagined five-block stretch of East Palmetto Park Road from Federal Highway to Fifth Avenue.
At a June 13 workshop, the council approved a staff proposal for the scope of the work for which the consultant will be responsible. The city will seek a firm with urban planning, engineering and architectural expertise that is capable of handling a complex project.
Deputy City Manager Mike Woika estimated it could take four to six months to select the consultant and that the project could take several years to complete.
The firm’s work will include projecting future traffic patterns, volume and speeds and pedestrian patterns and volumes; providing recommendations for mitigating pedestrian/vehicle conflicts; recommending revisions to current urban design regulations; providing parking analysis and recommendations; designing the corridor, and managing construction projects.
The consultant also will be responsible for studying evacuation options for barrier island residents and access to and from the island by fire-rescue units.
City staff was responding to Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke’s campaign to improve the five blocks, which was supported by her fellow council members in May.
Work also is progressing, albeit slowly, on improving the section of Palmetto Park Road from the Intracoastal Waterway to State Road A1A.
Katie Barr MacDougall, president of the Riviera Civic Association, asked the council for changes more than one year ago that included better walkability, the addition of bicycle lanes and safety improvements that included crosswalks.
She pressed her case again at a June 1 council goal-setting session, which prompted O’Rourke to ask city staff for a project update.
Since the county owns that section of the road, the city can’t act on its own. It has been coordinating with the county, said Municipal Services Director Zachary Bihr. The county should be able to start improvements this summer that will eliminate some of the on-street parking on both the north and south sides of the roadway.
With the extra space that makes available, sidewalks on the south side that now are very narrow because Florida Power & Light poles jut out will be widened. The elimination of spaces also will improve visibility for drivers.
A decision on whether more crosswalks can be added for pedestrian safety should also be coming soon, Bihr said. Barr MacDougall had proposed installing them at Olive Way and Wavecrest Way.
The city has not been dragging its feet, City Manager Leif Ahnell said. The slow progress is the result of the need to coordinate with the county, whose priorities can differ from the city’s.
Working with the county “takes a lot of time,” he said. “There is a lot that has been going on behind the scenes.”
He offered as an example plans to add crosswalks with flashing lights along A1A, which he said would be installed by the end of this year.
That road is controlled by the state, which must approve any changes, and originally the Florida Department of Transportation said it could study the idea “in a couple of years,” Ahnell said. That would have meant crosswalks could be installed in 2025.
Not wanting to wait that long, the city negotiated with the state to take over the project. The 11 crosswalks along A1A between Highland Beach and Deerfield Beach will be installed by the end of 2022, Ahnell said.
“It took a year just to get all that figured out with another jurisdiction,” he said.
In other business, the council on June 14 voted 4-0, with O’Rourke abstaining, to reimburse her $1,625 that she spent on an attorney after an ethics complaint was filed against her.
Boca Raton resident Dario Gristina filed the complaint, contending that O’Rourke had acted improperly when she endorsed candidates in last year’s city election.
The Florida Commission on Ethics found that she had done nothing illegal or improper and that Gristina’s complaint was “legally insufficient.”
Florida law allows elected officials to be reimbursed for legal defense costs that arise out of their performance of official duties when they are found innocent or there is a finding of legal insufficiency.
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