Effort to influence city’s planning hits wall, so far
Conceptual ideas for a redesigned East Palmetto Park Road call for a reduction to two travel lanes that could become three to allow for emergency vehicles and evacuations, wide sidewalks and crosswalks, and many shade trees. Rendering provided
By Mary Hladky
Although they have been rebuffed so far in their effort to be part of planning to transform East Palmetto Park Road into an iconic Main Street, members of Workshop 344+ are not giving up.
Prominent architect Juan Caycedo has created a video that shows the group’s vision of what the road could be that invokes original city architect Addison Mizner’s ambitions for Boca Raton.
It pans from Palmetto Park Road as it exists today to what the group believes it could become with wide sidewalks, shade trees, flowers, trellises and generous pavered crosswalks. The current roadway does not fare well in the comparison.
The video notes that six people died on the road from 2018 to 2024, and 466 were injured.
Amy Lang, a former member of the Citizens’ Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board, appears on the video to say that the road needs to prioritize pedestrians.
“We want to make it a place you want to meander through,” she says. “Getting from Point A to Point B isn’t really the point. It is enjoying the journey between Point A and Point B.”
Workshop 344+, which reflects the 344 acres in the core downtown area, was formed three years ago by then-Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke and 14 other influential residents, including Caycedo and land use attorney Ele Zachariades, to champion improving a five-block section of East Palmetto Park Road between Federal Highway and Northeast Fifth Avenue.
That’s still their focus, although they would like to see improvements expanded farther east and west.
Beyond Palmetto Park Road, the group emphasizes walkability, connectivity and placemaking throughout the downtown.
At O’Rourke’s urging when she served on the council, the city hired a consultant, Alta Planning + Design, to reimagine the road.
But when Alta presented three options on Nov. 18, City Council members sidestepped a decision on which they preferred and instead said the matter needed more study.
Unimpressed with Alta’s ideas, 344+ members are on the move. They have presented the video to the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations and the City Council, and plan to do the same to the Chamber of Commerce and other civic groups.
They also have a website and will be using social media in hopes of creating a groundswell of support for their ideas.
And they have reached out to Alta, which shared with them data the firm had gathered that they have incorporated into their ideas.
But they are not content to cede the ground to Alta.
“We just don’t think Alta has a creative plan,” O’Rourke said.
She is heartened, however, by one recent development. The city has hired as a consultant noted urban planner Jeff Speck, author of the book Walkable City and widely considered the guru for creating such places.
Whether 344+ will be able to influence the city’s planning is an open question. But its members have their work cut out for them.
Council members said nothing after O’Rourke presented in November.
On Feb. 10, she asked council members to invite 344+ to participate in future planning after she showed them the video.
“We have tremendous added value and years of experience and nothing personal to gain,” she said after outlining the credentials of 344+ group members. “We are not sure why you wouldn’t champion community participation and involvement.”
She was greeted with silence.
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