INSET BELOW: Barbara Sella’s vizsla, Ridley, was killed seven years ago by a car speeding around a curve and past her house.
By Mary Thurwachter
On Hypoluxo Island, residents can watch palm tree-framed sunsets from their front porches and bird watching is always in vogue. Yet the tree-lined roads curving around mansions and cottages also tempt some drivers to move much too fast. Safety concerns ensue.
That’s why, for many years, some members of the Hypoluxo Island Homeowners Association have lobbied the town of Lantana for traffic calming assistance.
One of the leading advocates is Barbara Sella, who lives on the island with her husband, Daniel, and their 7-year-old vizsla, Mako. Seven years ago, Sella’s 10-month old vizsla, Ridley, was hit and killed by a car that came speeding around a tree-lined curve past her house. Sella thought all the gates were closed, but roofers apparently left one open and Ridley bounded out to greet her.
“He was the love of my life,” Sella said. “I was heartbroken.”
Sella’s sorrow moved her to get involved with an already-in-progress push by the Hypoluxo Homeowners Association for traffic calming on the island.
“We were pretty close to getting them years ago, but then the economy died and there was no money,” Sella said. “I wasn’t about to ask people for money when homes were being lost to foreclosure.”
This year support for the effort resurfaced and, as part of the process to secure speed bumps of some sort for the island, a few dozen residents recently went to Lantana Town Hall for an informational meeting with Community Planner Nicole Dritz.
“Now the project is under review,” Dritz said. “Our town manager was out of town for a few weeks and we’ll proceed after she returns.”
Dritz said the types of traffic-calming measures for the island could be speed humps, speed tables or raised intersections.
Installing traffic-calming measures can be costly, Dritz said. So if the Town Council agrees to the project, funding would have to be found. Funding sources may include the annual capital improvement program, special assessments, local grants or neighborhood funding.
If the town council agrees, temporary traffic-calming devices would be installed for six months and data on effectiveness and placement would be collected. Then residents, who already petitioned the neighborhood once to get signatures from 66 percent of homeowners, would need to do it again before permanent speed bumps could be installed.
“Those who went to the informational meeting were overwhelmingly for it,” Sella said. “It’s a safety concern. It’s not all about me and my dog. It’s for everyone. I don’t like to see anybody get hurt.”
Town staff said traffic calming will likely be discussed at the July 14 town council meeting.
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