Go for Easy or Solve the Problem?

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April 22, 2016

Residents in the Shady Lakes and surrounding subdivisions have raised concerns about plans for the Shady Lakes Drive Extension for a long time. They have submitted petitions, come to Council meetings and spoken in an organized fashion, and proposed alternatives. Last night’s special City Council Meeting began with a presentation of conceptual proposals for the road in Phase 1 and Phase 2 along with attractive landscaping proposals, followed by Public Comment. Of the roughly 30 folks who spoke, 23 spoke against or had major questions about the implementation. Citizen questions were followed by responses by the staff/consultants. And finally, the Council took a vote on Vice Mayor Jablin’s proposal to proceed with Phase 1 construction and authorize the City Manager to pursue the Phase 2 components addressing aspects of the PGA/Shady Lakes Drive intersection, voting 3:1 with Council Member Premuroso opposed and David Levy absent.

Premuroso, during Council discussion, had suggested that his preference was to focus on solving the 117th Court issues prior to doing anything with Shady Lakes, and then determining what should be done with that later. Most residents in Shady Lakes would probably have agreed with that.   See Sarah Peter’s article  on the meeting in the Palm Beach Post here.

One should ask – what problem is being solved? And does the approved portion of the project solve it? Editorializing, if the problem was Central Blvd/117th Ct traffic issues and Safety, then does the Shady Lakes Extension solve that issue? Or was it just the easiest thing to approve because the road is entirely owned by Palm Beach Gardens, and the City has budgeted for it already and everyone involved (staff/consultants) are eager to make progress? Whereas getting FDOT/County/School Board issues resolved in fixing traffic management will be a much longer process and difficult. Time will tell….

See the Shady Lakes plans on the City of Palm Beach Gardens website.