News

By Jane Smith

    A primary entrance to Boynton Beach will be more inviting after Boynton Beach Boulevard undergoes a makeover.
    City commissioners, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, selected a plan that includes 9-foot-wide sidewalks between the interstate and Seacrest Boulevard. East of Seacrest to Federal Highway, they want the sidewalks to be 12 feet wide.
    They also agreed at their October meeting to have a blue wave pattern in the sidewalks.
    Conscious of the cost, the board members want to wait until December when Kimley-Horn and Associates, the project designer, has about 60 percent of the drawings complete to select the material used for the blue pattern.
    Landscape architect Jonathan Haigh, of Kimley-Horn, gave these per-square-foot choices to the CRA board members: bonded aggregate overlay on the sidewalks will cost $8; blue pavers with coquina shells and mirror pieces will cost $12; blue glass aggregate concrete will cost $12; colored concrete with blue tones will cost $15; and blue glass aggregate pavers will cost $20.
    Mayor Steven Grant said the city might be able to pay for the portion west of Seacrest. “I’m hoping the Town Square developer would pay for Seacrest to Federal,” he said.
    The Town Square development is planned to create a 16.5-acre downtown-like area with a hotel, apartments, condos, townhouses and shops, just south of Boynton Beach Boulevard and between Seacrest Boulevard and Northeast First Avenue.
    As to the streetlights, four liked a traditional lamppost similar to the ones on Ocean Avenue. Vice Chairman Justin Katz favored the nautical-looking ones. “To fit in with our marina theme,” he said.
    CRA board member Christina Romelus said, “We want to make sure our main street looks inviting.”