The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council on Tuesday approved the final reading of comprehensive plan amendments that constrain commercial activities on Okeechobee Blvd.
The council approved the first reading of the ordinance on Jan. 17 to require that properties zoned commercial low and commercial low office be required to have frontage on and access to an arterial road, which in the Town of Loxahatchee Groves is only Southern Blvd. Okeechobee Blvd. is classified as an urban collector road.
Planning Consultant Jim Fleischmann said the changes are oriented to better define the function and character of Okeechobee Blvd. within the town, and direct future commercial development to the Southern Blvd. corridor.
After council approval in January, the amendments were sent to the state agencies that are required to receive them and possibly comment on them. The agencies made no comment on the plans.
The Treasure Coast Regional Planning Agency commented that it supports the town’s effort to maintain its rural character, Fleischmann said.
The Florida Department of Transportation had no formal comments, but an official e-mailed that it is the department’s belief that Okeechobee Blvd. is in a better position to serve the commercial demands of town residents.
“They also felt that keeping Okeechobee Blvd. two lanes would create greater demands on Southern Blvd. and affect Southern’s ability to handle traffic, but they didn’t have any formal objections or any formal comments,” he said.
Palm Beach County did not object to the amendments, which include that Okeechobee Blvd. will remain a two-lane road. However, the county did remind the town that Okeechobee is a county road and that any decision to four-lane the road would be the county’s, Fleischmann said.
Mayor Dave Browning said the question of where to allow commercial development in Loxahatchee Groves goes back years before incorporation when the Loxahatchee Groves Landowners’ Association developed a Neighborhood Plan to submit to the county.
“We have been kicking this around for years,” Browning said.
The LGLA spent years trying to get the county to see what they wanted Loxahatchee Groves to look like, he said.
“We said we would like the commercial to be on Southern Blvd. and not in the middle of our community,” Browning said, but pointed out that a county advisor at the time told them that they would not have the power to do that. “We came up with ‘low-impact non-residential’ for Okeechobee. Some of us could understand maybe what low-impact non-residential looked like. We soon realized that nobody else could because a lot of people thought five-story office buildings were low-impact non-residential.”
Browning added that the amendments do not take away the rights of people to come to the town and ask for other uses on Okeechobee Blvd.
“If it’s something we can agree with, we can go forward with it,” he said.
Fleischmann added that at the first reading, the council changed language regarding roundabouts on Okeechobee Blvd. to indicate that they would be used at all lettered roads.
Councilman Ron Jarriel said he believed in roundabouts, and pointed out that a traffic light had already been approved at D Road, as well as at Folsom Road when the Day property begins construction.
However, Councilman Todd McLendon said that the council had never talked about roundabouts, but the amendment talks about a roundabout at every lettered road.
Browning said that a traffic light was agreed to with Minto/Westlake paying for it.
“That depends on how honorable our neighbors to the north are,” Browning said, adding that he felt it strange that a traffic light should cost $500,000 when the town paid $500,000 for its town hall.
Underwood said the combined cost for traffic lights at D Road and Folsom Road would be more than $1 million, not including signalization and turn lanes if deemed necessary.
Underwood said a complicated roundabout runs about $630,000, and added that a roundabout does not require ongoing maintenance and electric bills.
“Someone might run into it, but you’d go after their insurance companies,” he said.
After additional discussion, Jarriel made a motion to put language back in that stated “up to but not limited to roundabouts” as traffic control devices, which carried 4-1 with McLendon dissenting.
Councilman Dave DeMarois, who was sitting at his first council meeting that evening, asked legal staff what would have to happen if the county chooses to four-lane Okeechobee Blvd. Town Attorney Mike Cirullo answered that the county attorney’s position is that the county has the exclusive right to decide what to do with Okeechobee, notwithstanding the town’s comprehensive plan amendment.
“If the county were to move forward, they could challenge it now if they actually believe that,” Cirullo said. “It is kind of inconsistent with the letter you got from [County Engineer] George Webb that said you’re in charge of striping because you did the speed limit.”
He added that if pressed into a legal contest, a judge would decide.
Browning pointed out that the recent reduction of the Okeechobee Blvd. speed limit from 45 to 30 mph has resulted in much less traffic.
“Anybody who drives that road, including myself, has noticed a lack of traffic,” he said. “There is much less traffic going out there. I’ve got friends out west of us and north of us who say, ‘I’m not driving down Okeechobee anymore.’ I’m tickled to death because… the county’s decision to four-lane will be determined by the amount of traffic.”
The council approved the ordinance unanimously.
