When Arden residents leave their community’s single exit onto Southern Blvd., it’s not merely a grocery store run or trip to the office or school, it’s an expedition, homeowner Ben Brown said this week.
“We pack cold drinks and extra [phone] batteries because we never know if we’re going to have to sit in traffic and not be able to get back home,” he said reflecting the community’s widespread frustration with the highway’s frequent slowdowns and shutdowns.
Because Arden’s only entrance and exit is on Southern, residents can be stuck in or out.
When Southern is closed, “the traffic is so backed up within Arden that we can’t get out,” resident Tracey Stevens told Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Sara Baxter during a recent town hall meeting on road issues held in Royal Palm Beach.
And with the planned August opening of the West Acreage Elementary School next to the Arden entrance, it could be “a tragedy waiting to happen,” added resident Corey Kanterman, a stay-at-home dad who will have a student at the school.
“It’s a public safety issue,” he said, pointing out that the nearest Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue station is more than five miles away on Greenview Shores Blvd. in the Village of Wellington. “It’s imperative that we get a secondary access point. Even a dirt road that could be used in emergencies.”
Arden’s situation was sadly highlighted on Nov. 21 when the driver of a Jeep SUV struck and killed three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office motorcycle officers parked on the shoulder of Southern Blvd., east of Arden. Rescue and recovery efforts, plus the accident investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol, shut down all or part of Southern for hours.
Because of the road’s narrow shoulders, even a broken-down dump truck or tractor-trailer rig can cause massive traffic tie-ups between the Arden entrance near 20-Mile Bend and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, three miles to the east, Brown said. Even then, an Arden resident wanting to go around and approach the development from the west would have to travel approximately 80 miles — looping around north and west through Martin County — to do so.
The obvious answer, according to Arden residents, is the extension of Okeechobee Blvd. from its current terminus at Cheetham Hill Blvd., west to the northern part of Arden, which will be 2,300 homes at buildout.
Others in the area, particularly the Town of Loxahatchee Groves, are dead set against the idea. The town has sent letters to the county objecting to the extension.
A four-mile, two-lane, 35-miles-per-hour stretch of Okeechobee runs through the middle of Loxahatchee Groves. Town officials believe the extension will create a major increase in traffic and congestion through their semi-rural community.
In terms of funding road projects, “We have to look at the priorities. In many ways, it’s a numbers thing,” said Baxter, pointing to the 17,000 homes in The Acreage, some 6,500 homes that likely will be in the City of Westlake at buildout, 4,000 homes in Avenir and another 4,000 likely to be built by GL Homes in the northwest corner of the Indian Trail Improvement District.
Also, now that Wellington has annexed the area near the intersection of Southern Blvd. and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, more commercial and residential developments are expected there.
“There is a lot of need for projects in The Acreage and Loxahatchee,” said Baxter, an Acreage resident. “The residents of those areas feel trapped now, and it’s only going to get worse.”
Kanterman said that Arden homebuyers were led to believe that the Okeechobee extension was “on the horizon.”
“I’m pretty sure everyone had that expectation,” he said.
Although the extension has been on the county’s Thoroughfare Identification Map (TIM) for decades, and the county already possesses approximately 90 percent of the needed rights-of-way, it is not on the county’s current five-year road plan.
The Palm Beach County Commission likely will look this summer at whether to add the extension to the five-year plan, Baxter said, but it won’t be easy or cheap.
Deputy Palm Beach County Engineer Joanne Keller said the cost of constructing a two- to three-lane, 5.8-mile extension connecting to Southern west of 20-Mile Bend would be approximately $40 to $60 million in today’s dollars.
“Let’s not talk about what can’t be done,” said Stevens, who is administrator and finance director for the Town of Haverhill. “What you can do with staff is to work with developers on good, common-sense, traffic-related solutions.”
Brown said county officials have told him that the first phase of the project — a two-lane road from Cheetham Hill to an egress point on the north side of Arden — could be done for $12 to 18 million.
Behind the scenes, Brown said, county officials have been encouraging, and he expects to see “shovels in the ground” within the next 36 months.
Baxter’s District 6, which encompasses most of the county west of State Road 7, already accounts for $220 million of the county’s current $558 million Five-Year Road Program.
At the December town hall meeting, Keller gave updates on several road projects in the western communities:
- The four-laning of Seminole Pratt from Orange Blvd. to Northlake Blvd. is underway, and after several delays, is expected to be completed in 2026.
- The four-laning of Northlake from Seminole Pratt to Hall Blvd. is expected to go to bid early this year and be completed in 2028, at a cost of $11 million.
- Design and permitting for the widening of Northlake from Hall to Coconut Blvd. is underway. Keller said she hopes the project will go out to bid this year with completion anticipated in 2029, at a cost of $24 million.
- The county will be seeking rights-of-way this year for the widening of Coconut from 78th Place North to Northlake. Some $3 million has been budgeted for the acquisition of those rights-of-way, with $10 million set aside for construction in fiscal year 2028.
- Design work to pave and five-lane 60th Street North from 140th Avenue North to 120th Avenue North is expected to begin early this year, with an ultimate construction cost of $23 million.
- Five-laning 60th Street from 120th to State Road 7 is planned for 2029 at a cost of $9 million.
Meanwhile, the county continues to negotiate with Minto Communities USA — the primary landowner and developer in Westlake — to build a two-mile, four-lane stretch of 60th Street North from Seminole Pratt to 140th Avenue North.
“We have design funding for 2025,” Keller said, “but we hope to work out an agreement with Minto for them to do the construction.”
The only major thoroughfare for Westlake runs north and south between Southern and Northlake boulevards. The construction of 60th Street across the northern edge of Westlake connecting at 140th would give Westlake residents a much-needed east-west outlet.
