By Mary Hladky
County Commissioner Marci Woodward’s recent offer to help Boca Raton improve East Palmetto Park Road received a noncommittal response from Deputy City Manager George Brown.
Woodward, whose commission district includes the city, has met twice with members of the Riviera Civic Association who for years have sought changes that would improve the appearance, walkability and safety of the short stretch of the road from the Intracoastal Waterway to State Road A1A.
So far, however, their requests have been rebuffed. In November, city Traffic Engineer Naresh Machavarapu said a city study concluded that no crosswalks are warranted and installing them could create safety hazards.
That frustrated both City Council and homeowner association members. Association president Katie Barr MacDougall said at the time her group would continue to press for improvements.
Woodward told council members on July 24 that the county is willing to add a crosswalk near the 7-Eleven store that sits at about the midpoint of that section of road and to remove parking spaces on the road’s south side so that bicycle lanes could be added.
“Our county engineering department had no objections,” she said.
Brown said city engineers would contact their county counterparts, but did not elaborate.
Collaboration between the two governments is needed because the county owns that section of the road and the city controls traffic along it.
Barr said Brown’s response was “less than enthusiastic.”
“He barely looked up from whatever notes he was taking,” she said. “I felt he was rude to the commissioner.”
Barr promised her organization would not give up.
“We will be the fly in the ointment until everything gets done,” she said. “It is an uphill battle, but we are in it for the long haul.”
While beachside East Palmetto Park Road improvements languish, the city is slowly moving forward with a project to upgrade the five-block section of the road from Federal Highway to Northeast Fifth Avenue.
The city hired Alta Planning and Design on March 28 and the company has embarked on data collection and analysis, a process that will take one year to complete. After that, planning for a road makeover will begin, city officials told council members at the same meeting.
Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte has suggested hiring another consultant, Jeff Speck, author of the book Walkable City, to also advise on this project. City staff members are open to that idea, but they said elements of his thinking already are being incorporated into their planning.
They also said the council will be updated regularly and resident input will be solicited.
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