By Steve Plunkett
The first look at a city consultant’s ideas for reimagining part of Palmetto Park Road was not a good one.
First off, Boca Raton City Council members did not get backup documents for the Feb. 26 presentation by Alta Planning + Design — but enterprising residents called them with questions before the meeting after getting copies via a public records request.
“I just want to know why the public had access to this and we did not,” Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte said.
Then, Alta engineer and principal Alia Awwad gave council members, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, a “very quick, high-level overview” of the firm’s timeline, starting with data collected after it was given its first work order in late September and running through a planned summary report of its efforts to come this summer.
The firm, which has a $431,645 contract, has already spent time creating a branding identity and logo for its campaign.
“We just received the peak season traffic counts that were just done in January and that’s going to be really beneficial for us,” Awwad said.
In March and April “is when we’re going to really roll out the engagement process” with stakeholders and residents, she said, “and that will lead us to start to develop those mobility strategy and ideas — what’s feasible and what’s not.”
Council members were impatient for results and underwhelmed by the progress.
“I just feel like it should be moving faster,” Mayotte said.
Council member Yvette Drucker wondered whether the “Make Connections/East Palmetto Downtown” slogan should be changed to “Make Connections/Downtown Boca” instead.
“I don’t want a deliverable that is not effective after we spent all this time and money,” she said.
Council member Marc Wigder, who chairs the CRA, noted that the redevelopment agency was established 40 years ago.
“And so when we, all the public says we’re waiting, we’re not just waiting for the last two years. We’re waiting for the activation of Palmetto Park Road for 40 years and it has still yet to occur,” he said.
Alta is looking at the road from City Hall east to just before the Intracoastal Waterway bridge. It will host virtual meetings with various stakeholder groups in March and is preparing to put an informational website and a voluntary survey online, Awwad said. Two meetings open to the public are planned for April 10 and April 17.
Her firm’s goal, she said, is to “create a place that is beautiful, that people would love to visit and stay at, not just pass through. And that is essentially what Alta specializes in.
“We don’t just build streets. We would never build highways and interchanges. We specialize in building communities.”
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