In a 9-8 vote that left some members unsure of the way they voted, the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency on Thursday, Dec. 12 removed the long-planned State Road 7 extension from its long-range transportation plan.
The Jog Road and Roebuck Road extensions previously up for consideration were also dropped from the plan. The change is a victory for West Palm Beach, which has long opposed the roadways, and a defeat for west-area officials.
The SR 7 extension to Northlake Blvd. has been a point of controversy for the past two decades, pitting residents and elected officials of the western communities against those of West Palm Beach, who have objected to the planned route between the Ibis Golf & Country Club and the West Palm Beach Water Catchment Area.
The meeting was held at the newly renovated Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center. Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said she hoped the members’ trip to Royal Palm Beach on crowded roads gave them an idea of the need for long-awaited road improvements in the western communities.
Stewart Robertson of Kimley-Horn & Associates said all transportation agencies are required by the federal government to review their long-range plans every five years.
Indian Trail Improvement District Executive Director Burgess Hanson said the SR 7 extension to Northlake Blvd. was on his district’s list of roadways that are badly needed to relieve congestion expected to increase as new developments such as Westlake are built.
“We definitely want to see that happen,” Hanson said. “We also want to see the widening of 60th Street North, which is an east/west roadway, and work with the TPA and staff on that.”
He added that ITID strongly supports the construction of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and its eventual connection to the Beeline Highway and opposes the widening of Okeechobee Blvd. through the Town of Loxahatchee Groves. ITID also opposes the widening of district roadways to facilitate through traffic to and from future developments outside the district.
West Palm Beach Commissioner Joe Peduzzi said he would not support approval of the long-range transportation plan if the SR 7 extension was included and made a motion the remove SR 7 from the plan.
“The city has consistently opposed State Road 7 due to the expected environmental impact,” Peduzzi said. “We believe that there are better alternative routes that we would be able to support. We ask also that our municipal and county partners stand with us in preventing State Road 7 from moving forward due to the significant environmental impact on the water for the citizens of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach, who all receive water from Grassy Waters.”
McKinlay said it would be irresponsible for TPA members to alter projects that have been on the long-range plan for years, pointing out that many workers in the county come from outside the county, and that home buyers purchase homes based on future mobility. She added that numerous projects in the western communities have been removed from the transportation plan, including the completion of Roebuck Road, Jog Road and the widening of Okeechobee Blvd. through Loxahatchee Groves.
“If we end up not getting the State Road 7 extension, something has to happen on Jog or Roebuck,” McKinlay said, adding that increased traffic in the western communities was due in large part to new developments approved outside the purview of the county.
“You wouldn’t have Baywinds, you wouldn’t have Riverwalk… Ibis, that’s the big elephant in the room, you wouldn’t have any of those developments within your municipal boundaries right now if it weren’t for the fact that when those plans were made, and those transportation studies were done, Roebuck Road, the extension of Jog Road and the State Road 7 extension were committed to be able to allow those projects,” McKinlay said. “You can’t come here 20 years later and say, ‘Thank you for our projects, we no longer want the roads.’ That is not fair to my constituents in Wellington, in The Acreage and in the western communities.”
McKinlay said that the assertion that the roadway would imperil the city’s water supply has been proved to be without substance during drawn-out hearings initiated by the City of West Palm Beach to stop the road. She pointed out that there are numerous roads that line the water catchment area, including Northlake Blvd., that have fewer safeguards than those planned for the SR 7 extension.
Joining West Palm Beach officials in the vote to remove SR 7 from the plan was Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer and Vice Mayor Andy Thomson, Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant, Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia, Port Commissioner Joe Anderson, Riviera Beach Councilman Douglas Lawson and Palm Springs Commissioner Joni Brinkman.
Voting against the removal of SR 7 from the plan were McKinlay, Royal Palm Beach Mayor Fred Pinto, Wellington Vice Mayor Michael Napoleone, Greenacres Mayor Joel Flores, Palm Beach Gardens Councilwoman Maria Marino, County Commissioner Hal Valeche, Lake Worth Beach Mayor Pam Triolo and Jupiter Vice Mayor Jim Kuretski.
McKinlay said that she has asked staff to bring back an amendment for consideration that would add SR 7 back into the plan. The next TPA meeting is set for Thursday, Feb. 20 at the agency’s new offices in downtown West Palm Beach.
The issue is also likely to come up at the next meeting of the Western Communities Council (WCC), an agency that has long supported the SR 7 extension, on Monday, Jan. 27.
Napoleone thanked TPA members who voted against the removal of SR 7 from the plan.
“Those of us in the western communities understand the need to complete the long-planned and crucial extension to SR 7, as well as the need to preserve and protect the Grassy Water Preserve from potential negative environmental impacts of that construction,” he wrote in a statement advising WCC members of the next meeting. “Every development, every inch of asphalt and concrete that is approved and poured, has an environmental impact. But the western development has already been approved. People are already here, and more are coming. It is a matter of public safety to ensure that we can efficiently move those people around the county.”
Loxahatchee Groves Councilwoman Laura Danowski, who attended the meeting, was shocked by the vote.
“During this presentation, there was long-winded, very heated, very confusing discussion about whether this board was going to keep the State Road 7 extension on or off the long-range plan,” Danowski said at a council meeting on Tuesday. “The vote ended up 9 to 8. As people were leaving there was, ‘Oh, my God, I voted the wrong way. We should have left it in.’ They meet again in February, and it’s probably going to get put back in.”
