News

By Willie Howard

    The Lantana Town Council will listen to residents Jan. 9 on the long-standing problem of service trucks parking on Hypoluxo Island, in some cases narrowing roads to one lane.
    The council discussed the island’s traffic woes at its Dec. 12 meeting following several emails to Town Manager Deborah Manzo about vehicles blocking travel lanes.
    Construction and landscaping trucks often park on both sides of Atlantic Drive, creating bottlenecks for island drivers.
    In some places, trees planted in the public swale area along the sides of island roads force service vehicles to park in the travel lanes instead of pulling off to the side.
    Hypoluxo Island resident Sueann Nichols said in a Nov. 17 email to Manzo that parked vehicles have turned island roads into “dangerous one-lane streets” that force cars to meet head-on.
    The Town Council in February considered an ordinance that would have required service vehicles to park on odd-numbered sides of roads on odd-numbered days and even-numbered sides on even-numbered days, but the proposal failed.
    At the Dec. 12 meeting, the council agreed with Police Chief Sean Scheller’s suggestion that island road blockage problems should be handled on a case-by-case basis. Scheller noted that roads must remain open for emergency vehicles.
    Because the parking discussion was added to the agenda Dec. 12, Mayor Dave Stewart said he wanted the issue to come up again for discussion Jan. 9 so residents could comment.