News

By Mary Thurwachter

The Town Council made some revisions to its 12-year-old polices and guidelines, even though the old policy had generally provided good guidance, according to Dave Thatcher, Lantana’s development services director.
“It was incredibly wordy and confusing,” he said at the Feb. 25 meeting. “The new one is a more user-friendly document and should be easier to understand by the public and easier to use by staff.”
Town staff worked with several groups of residents in a variety of situations in adopting the new policies, Thatcher said.
Since the guidelines were first adopted in 2007, there were 10 requests for calming projects. Three failed to meet the criteria.
Those applying for traffic-slowing measures must provide a petition signed by at least 66 percent of area property owners before a traffic study is done.
Due to pending litigation, Mayor Dave Stewart handed over the gavel to Vice Mayor Ed Shropshire to preside over the discussion.
In October, the Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause that the mayor violated state statutes after a resident alleged he said he’d “make sure” her neighborhood would get the speed humps for which she petitioned the town if she had sex with him.
Stewart is fighting the claim and the case is headed for an evidentiary hearing this year.
Stewart voted with the rest of the council in favor of the guidelines. He said the goal was to trim them from 15 pages to 5.
The town agreed to take a look at speed bumps already in place on South Lake Drive beside the Old Key Lime House after restaurant owners Wayne Cordero and his son Ryan said the traffic-calming measures there were not performing well. Ryan Cordero said he had been struck by a car on South Lake and worried about children being hit.