The Royal Palm Beach Village Council last week authorized Village Manager Ray Liggins to enter into contracts with the engineering firm Simmons & White to provide consulting services to develop a new traffic-calming policy.
Residents on Sandpiper Avenue recently complained about speeders in their neighborhood, which led the council to put out a request for proposals on a traffic-calming study. Councilman David Swift added that there are also issues on La Mancha Avenue and other streets in the village.
At the Oct. 20 meeting, Liggins said that the agreement is in two parts, a professional services agreement for $15,000 and consulting services for $35,000. Four bids were submitted.
The consulting work will include the development of a traffic calming-policy to be applied villagewide.
Village Engineer Chris Marsh said that part of the process was ironing out the scope of the first phase of traffic calming.
“The first thing we’re going to do is review traffic calming best practices,” Marsh said. “After that, they’re going to prepare a draft of a villagewide traffic-calming policy.”
The policy will take into account traffic volumes, 85th percentile speed, posted speed limits, proximity to intersections, traffic control devices, cut-through percentage, classification of roadways, safety and neighborhood support, Marsh said.
The consultants will coordinate with staff to go over those findings and then make a presentation to the council about the different traffic-calming devices.
After receiving direction from the council, the consultants will put together a public workshop to get feedback from residents, then prepare a final draft, as well as a list of roads that should be studied for traffic-calming devices.
Marsh said that a policy would be developed before employing traffic calming in order not to show favoritism to any particular road.
Liggins said that the reason for such a detailed process is that residents are often unhappy with the results after traffic-calming devices are installed.
“If it’s not done with a policy we can defend that’s consistent with national standards and acceptable standards, then a lot of times when these are put in place without using those type of standards, there’s enough complaints from the neighborhood where they end up being removed,” he said. “This is the best way to assure their continued use.”
In other business, the council conducted an unusual third public hearing on the 2016-17 budget after learning that the final total appraised value for the village was several million dollars higher than preliminary figures.
The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office announced on Oct. 11 that the final tax rolls had been certified.
“Tonight, we have to once again do our final budget hearing,” Mayor Fred Pinto said. “We thought the final was done, but it turns out it’s not quite as final as it needs to be.”
Pinto explained that every year, the Property Appraiser’s Office issues assessed property values to all municipalities.
“Based on that aggregate number, we build our budget around that number, and we determine all the things, like what the millage rate will be,” he said.
The timing of that number coincides with the budget cycle, but the appraiser’s office does one final adjustment to close out its year when the final numbers are in.
“When we do this every year, we have a leeway of about $5 million, or 95 percent of the actual number,” Pinto said.
In the past, the final number has never been $5 million more than the initial estimates.
“We’re a little bit over that number, so what that required us to do by state law was to have the final budget hearing again, even though the consequence of that final amount has no material impact on our budget,” he said.
Liggins told the Town-Crier on Wednesday that the village’s final total aggregate value, which is about $1.2 billion, came in about $2 million more than anticipated, which put the total value at 94.8 percent of the budget calculations, amounting to about $5,000 below the 95 percent minimum valuation required by state statute.
“We’re not allowed to budget more than 95 percent below the available tax value,” he said.
Finance Director Stanley Hochman said that the approved millage rate is 1.92 mills for the general fund. “We have redone the budget, we have re-advertised the document, and the numbers have been changed to reflect 95 percent,” Hochman said.
There was no public comment.
Swift made a motion to approve the millage rate, and Vice Mayor Jeff Hmara made a motion to approve the adjusted budget.
Both motions carried unanimously.
What about all the speeders on the section of Crestwood Blvd that is between Royal Palm Beach Blvd and Okeechobee Blvd going through Madison Green? A lot of drivers use that section as a cut thru and now there is a new development being built which will add more cars. And we cannot forget that there are two elementary schools in that area, one right on Crestwood, that have young children walking and riding bikes to school as well as middle and high school students doing the same.