WPB Continues To Oppose State Road 7 Extension

The City of West Palm Beach is continuing its years-long opposition to the proposed extension of State Road 7 from 60th Street North to Northlake Blvd., on a route which connects to Northlake on the east side of the Ibis Country Club.

On Monday, Dec. 13, West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James sent out a post asking anyone who opposed the extension to send a note to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stating their opinion.

The Army Corps is accepting public comment regarding the extension by e-mail to Randy.L.Turner@usace.army.mil or by submitting written comments to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, District Engineer, Jacksonville Permits Section, P.O. Box 4970, Jacksonville, FL 32232.

Residents of the western communities, especially the Indian Trail Improvement District, have long advocated for the extension to ease local vehicular pressure and to provide alternate routes out of the area.

“I continue to support State Road 7 going through to Northlake,” ITID President Betty Argue said. “If it’s not built, then the traffic will continue to cut through our community and put traffic on residential roads with driveways, where it shouldn’t be.”

West Palm Beach has opposed the extension route on grounds that it threatens the health and wildlife of its Grassy Waters Preserve, despite concessions by the Florida Department of Transportation to protect the preserve.

“There have been a number of modifications that FDOT had made to try to address the concerns of the City of West Palm Beach, but they continue to oppose the road being built through to Northlake,” Argue said.

She pointed out that FDOT has agreed to limit the road to four lanes in perpetuity, has elevated the road and design over the M Canal to force runoff elsewhere and not into Grassy Waters. It has also removed the segment north of Northlake Blvd. connecting to the Beeline Highway.

“Yet West Palm Beach continues to argue that it will affect their Grassy Waters Preserve, all while approving developments and traffic that surely impact their water,” Argue said. “This road needs to be built, or the traffic will continue to increase, cutting through our community. We are a residential community and should not be used to accommodate traffic for outside development.”

A public notice from the Army Corps dated Nov. 29 sent to the FDOT and Palm Beach County Engineer David Ricks stated that the corps has received an application for a project that would affect waters of the United States associated with the M Canal, the Pond Cypress Natural Area and the Grassy Waters Preserve. The project site is along State Road 7 and its proposed extension.

The overall purpose of the project is to provide a north-south transportation corridor between Okeechobee and Northlake boulevards in order to improve regional connectivity, improve hurricane evacuation response and meet traffic demands in northeastern Palm Beach County.

SR 7 is an existing two-lane undivided roadway that currently terminates at 60 Street North. The existing road runs north-south between the Pond Cypress Natural Area to the east and residential communities to the west. The proposed extension would be a new four-lane divided roadway from 60 Street North along the south side of the M-Canal with the Pond Cypress Natural Area to the south, then turning north, bridging the M-Canal and the Ibis Spillway, to one mile south of Northlake, and the widening of the existing one-mile northern section of SR 7 from two to four lanes up to Northlake Blvd.

The project includes the paving of two previously permitted lanes at the southern segment of SR 7 from Okeechobee to 60th Street. The proposed project design includes the creation of stormwater management facilities within the existing right-of-way for water quality treatment and flow attenuation.

The design includes restoring and enhancing 47.35 acres of native habitat, removing nuisance and exotic vegetation from the project right-of-way, construction of a shared use path and wildlife passageways, and fencing for wildlife protection.