Installing sidewalks on both side of Andrews would mean that a lot of driveways, landscaping and utilities would need to be modified. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By John Pacenti
The Delray Beach City Commission threw cold water on a proposal to put in sidewalks and bike paths along Andrews Avenue, where beachgoers continue to snarl traffic and cause safety hazards as residents are forced to walk in the middle of the road.
There seemed to be no appetite for transforming the street that runs parallel to State Road A1A, a project that would require the city to reclaim right-of-way by bulldozing picturesque trees and removing homeowners’ walls on a stretch of road that conveys undeniable beachside charm.
The commission would need to pursue funding through a grant from the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency for the project.
The Coastal Star spoke to a handful of residents in the area — none of whom were in favor of the project. But Public Works Director Missie Barletto told the commission at its Jan. 10 meeting that a survey showed that residents liked the idea.
Barletto said 75% of the 114 responses to the survey favored building sidewalks and a majority wanted a bike path of some sort. She shared a comment from a resident who said it was “a terrific idea” to calm traffic.
But another resident responding to the survey called the proposal ridiculous. “These are quiet residential streets, which on weekends are already packed with beachgoers illegally parking and jamming the streets,” the resident wrote.
Jack Barrette lives on Seaspray Avenue and would see his manicured ficus hedge meet its demise if the road improvement project commenced.
“I don’t think anyone understands what a ‘complete street’ project really means. It would take away old-growth trees, hedges and all kinds of other stuff that may be on easements,” he told The Coastal Star.
Barrette said the survey was poorly worded and included part-time residents, so that it did not reflect the unified disdain by homeowners of a project that would turn the quiet neighborhood on the narrow street into a construction zone from Atlantic Avenue to George Bush Boulevard.
At the Jan. 10 meeting, the prior night, Vice Mayor Adam Frankel expressed a similar viewpoint: “This seems to be an area where residents want less traffic and less people. This is just inviting the opposite.”
Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale said that while campaigning in the neighborhood for the March 14 election, she could not find one homeowner in favor of the project.
Commissioner Ryan Boylston said an Andrews Avenue revamp is a low priority for him.
The Beach Property Owners Association is taking a wait-and-see approach, wanting to see more details on any plan.
Mayor Shelly Petrolia said she was taken aback by the proposed scope of the project, claiming that the idea of putting in sidewalks started when former Mayor Cary Glickstein spoke to the commission last April and proposed sidewalks just near Atlantic Avenue.
“He was talking about a shorter area, I understand,” Petrolia said. “This body has not asked for this. I question whether the previous mayor actually asked for this because when he was up here speaking, I heard something very different.”
Glickstein told The Coastal Star he never asked for an overhaul of Andrews Avenue as was proposed, adding the survey was “a complete waste of time and lacked context.”
“I never asked for bike paths. There is no room for bike paths,” said Glickstein. The former mayor said he envisioned a sidewalk on one side of the road from Beach Drive to Atlantic Avenue where there is simply no room for pedestrians if there are two cars traveling in opposite directions on the road.
Andrews Avenue area residents who spoke to The Coastal Star didn’t want to give their names but said rogue parkers camp in front of their homes for hours, blocking service vehicles from entering and exiting the neighborhood.
And, indeed, while a Coastal Star reporter asked questions of residents, a bottled water truck was forced to back up on Seaspray Avenue, negotiating the space left by a parked SUV with Michigan plates that neighbors say is a daily beachgoer.
Commissioner Shirley Johnson said that the issue on Andrews Avenue encapsulates the entire problem on the barrier island with parking, forcing beachgoers to park on people’s lawns, hoping they don’t get towed.
“We haven’t done anything to resolve it,” said Johnson, proposing the city build a parking facility near the beach.
In the meantime, commissioners said the city needs to explore erecting “No Parking” signs to keep beachgoers from parking on the easement and residential property on Andrews.
“Then you don’t have that very narrow road where people are walking and biking. There are probably easier things we can do that could both accommodate the residents of the neighborhood and help alleviate some of the problem,” Casale said.
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