Public Comment, Town of Palm Beach Admin
admin
10 months ago
Received via email 6.25.24:
Good morning,
Thank you for your time and effort in protecting our Town of Palm Beach and for maintaining its ambiance and guarding its value. I recognize the responsibility that your vote holds and I trust that you will safeguard our cherished town.
I agree 100% with Tony Stepanski’ s email to you dated yesterday, June 24 at 6:48 pm. Please reject the Corradino report which is misleading and inaccurate. Please have the fortitude to do the right thing for Palm Beach’s residents. My family has been part of the Palm Beach community since 1951.
With utmost respect,
David Mack
Received via email 6.25.24:
Dear Wayne,
I read your comments on the Corradino Group Traffic Study and agree. The "regionality" of so many projects being proposed and existing in Palm Beach will be ruinous to our Town. And the West Palm TCEA plus the number of living and commercial units on line there is truly frightening. At the risk of sounding cranky, we do not need any more people living here or visiting here. We are over capacity.
Without strength of purpose now there will be no way to stem this tide. Thank you for your clear directive.
Gratefully,
Susan Watts
44 Cocoanut Row
Received via email 6.25.24:
You must REJECT The Corradino Group’s Town of Palm Beach Traffic Analyses & Commercial Areas Parking Study dated June 2024
The Corradino report must be rejected because it is materially FLAWED. It FAILS to adequately dimension the significance of the threat of: a) the massive current, near-term, and future property development underway in West Palm Beach and how it will negatively impact our Town of Palm Beach, and b) the significant intensification that planned development in West Palm Beach and several areas of the Town of Palm Beach and c) does not include both the very consequential WEG Paramount project, the Palm Beach Orthodox Synagogue project, or other several projects already under review.
I have read the Corradino Group’s most recent ‘REVISED” submission to Palm Beach, dated June 2024, which has three components:
a 122-page Primary Report,
a 440-page supplement entitled "Appendices Part 1", labeled as: TOPB Downtown Study v5 UPDATE 6.10.24 Volume I Appendices r Part1 (1) pdf and
a 431-page supplement entitled "Appendices Part 2," labeled as: TOPB Downtown Stud v5 UPDATE 6.10.24 Volume II Appendices r Part2 (1)
When faced with the need to review and carefully consider any 993-page document (the total number of pages Corradino submitted), one is inclined to focus on the primary report (122 pages) and not on the appendices (871 pages in total). In this instance, such an approach would be grossly inadequate and misleading to the reader. Nevertheless, my partner Cindy and I read the vast majority of the report, including its Appendices and want to share the following observations and conclusions with you:
This Corradino Group's Study SHOULD BE REJECTED by PB Staff, PB Staff leadership, and the Town Council because it is materially flawed. The fact that PB Staff has not already rejected it, is absolutely stunning!
Here are some reasons why:
1) The Corradino report was provided to PB staff on or about June 11th and released to the public on or about June 18th. How could PB Staff, the Town Council, or the Publicundertake any meaningful or intelligent review of Corradino’s Report in time for your June 25th Town Council Hearing? IT COULD NOT AND CANNOT!
2) Page 379 of the 440-page document that Corradino provided the Town (which carries the label Volume II, Appendices, Part 1 (1).pdf ) is mislabeled. It reads CITY OF WEST PALM BEACH – Committed Trips for Projects Under Review/Approved/Under Construction. This page should read TOWN OF PALM BEACH because the pages that follow deal with the TOWN of Palm Beach.
3) Conspicuously missing, however, is any mention of two very significant projects that are currently before the TC and under REVIEW: the WEG Paramount Project and also the Palm Beach Orthodox Synagogue Project. Why have these been omitted?
4) In pages 426 to 440 of that same 440-page Appendix and in pages 1-78 of Appendices Part II, the Corradino Group provides "snapshots" of current and future planned development and/or redevelopment projects in West Palm Beach but fails to adequately and accurately quantify the magnitude of the West Palm Beach development projects, currently underway, approved, about to be undertaken, and/or planned and appending approval and how these will impact (negatively) a radius that includes Palm Beach.
The Corradino Report uses the following numbers on the left below to dimension Development in West Palm Beach. We believe the numbers on the right are more realistic.
Corradino Numbers The Numbers Supported by our Research **
Office Space: 2,522,323 Sq. Ft.
4,500,000 Sq. Ft.
Multi-Family Units:* 8,958
14,000 Units
New Hotel Rooms: 981
3,000 Rooms
Note: * Apartments/Condominiums (Does not include single-family residences)
** Estimates are reasonable and have been derived from information in the Public Record
5) The Corradino Group's report fails to consider the impact of the drawbridge openings of the three bridges that connect the Town of Palm Beach with the City of West Palm Beach. When the bridges are open, all roads and key intersections within a significant radius of the bridges, including Royal Poinciana Way and North County Road, North County Road & Sunset Avenue (Currently an EB "F" LOS), North County Road & Sunrise Avenue, Bradley Place Sunrise Avenue, Bradley Place & Sunset Avenue as FAILURES. Even with reduced drawbridge openings coordinated between the U.S. Coast Guard and the FDOT, traffic comes to a standstill for blocks every time the bridges are open. With an increased traffic flow from the City of West Palm Beach, the gridlock has worsened over the last several years, especially in Season. There are no hospitals in the Town of Palm Beach - first responders must take one of the three bridges to get to a hospital.
6) The Corradino report states that they are using a 1.5% annual growth rate for their traffic analysis. That is a materially inadequate number, It’s much higher than that.
7)
I do not understand how the Town Council could expect PB Staff to conduct a competent evaluation of the Corradino report in nine (9) days. Maybe that is why Mr. Bergman, in his June 20th memo to Town Council, wrote: “Staff recommends that the Town Council review the Traffic and Parking Study, and if found complete [by you], accept the study." I interpret this to mean that Mr. Bergman has passed on to the Town Council the responsibility of determining the veracity and completeness of the study.
One needs adequate time to review the data and analysis presented in this document for completeness and accuracy. The consequences of not doing so will affect current and future residents of the Town and likely become the basis for the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan, currently under review by the Planning and Zoning Commission ("P&ZC"). The P&ZC should review and evaluate the Corradino report. The P&ZC should be reviewing this so that they can make a recommendation to the Town Council, as this will be the basis for the revised Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan.
There is much more.
You must reject the Corradino report and engage a firm to conduct a peer review that accurately portrays the threats to all that we cherish about the Town of Palm Beach.
The threats are REAL.
Tony Stepanski
The Sun & Surf
130 Sunrise Avenue, Palm Beach
Received via email 6.25.24:
Dear involved parties.
Agree with Mr. Stepanskis’s below email. (Congratulate his and Cindy’s dedication)
A. An addition point, is the incomprehensible rating, in my neighborhood, of the signalization and roadway evaluation, D, acceptable, which is the Royal Poinciana, North County Road, Sunrise Ave and Bradley Place Catchment area where my residence and office are located.
I cross North County Road from my home on Sunrise Ave to my office on North County Road, which is over the location where Evelyn and Arthur’s used to be daily.
The traffic can be only characterized as terrible gridlock several times a day.
The police chief has described it as chaos. He is correct.
It is a F Rating…not a D…
Southern Blvd and South Ocean Blvd, roundabout, at Margo Lago gets a A rating…really?
These 2 examples, report pages 36 and 37, make all the traffic evaluations unreliable as they are inaccurate.
B. The Report also negligently fails to take into account the effect of bridge openings, as Tony’s email discusses in his number 5.
These two Gross omissions, A &B, make the whole report not reliable and unacceptable.
A sad situation, when we need, and have paid for, accurate and sensible guidance.
This negligent report provides neither, and must not be approved.
Kelly: Please put this e mail in the official TC meeting record. Thank you.
Rick Smith
Livable Palm Beach
130 Sunshine Ave.
Received via email 6.25.24:
Dear Mayor Moore and Town Council Members,
Property Values:
The consistent gridlock traffic in various places in our Town, has, and will continue to have a negative effect on our property values,
BECAUSE,
people are less inclined to buy property from which they cannot freely exit and travel to and from their destinations…on a daily basis…
Rick Smith
130 Sunrise Ave…
PB
Received via email 6.24.24:
To the Mayor and all members of the Town Council;
The traffic study recently submitted to the town by the Corradino Group is deeply flawed, the equivalent of giving a glass of warm milk to someone who's lactose intolerant. As any one who lives or works on Palm Beach knows first-hand, the traffic on the grid surrounding Publix is nothing short of horrendous, creating not just unpassable gridlock, but hazardous driving and pedestrian issues. The conclusions in the report totally be-lie these facts, as if the actual conditions we all experience simply don't exist.
Clearly, the metrics used to arrive at passing grades for these (and other) key intersections are incorrect. One can't simply count cars to make an assessment-other critical considerations are the traffic light sequencing; the number of cars which can pass through an intersection per light change; the speed of the traffic; how many intersections the traffic is backed up; what are the available alternate routes? And not to be overlooked, (which it was in the report, not appearing until page 426 of Appendice-Part 1, when it was mentioned, but given no details regarding the sizes, numbers of residential units and hotel rooms of those projects), are the inevitable effects that the burgeoning development in West Palm Beach will have on Palm Beach. The vast numbers of people from these apartments, hotel rooms and offices will flood Palm Beach as the "Wall Street of the South" denizens may live in West Palm Beach, but they will surely want to eat, shop, and use the beaches of Palm Beach. How many thousands of cars does that represent?
It needs to be noted that the Paramount Project is not even included in the list of Palm Beach projects under review, which is being heard before the Town Council on July 10, 2024. This project alone, should it be approved, will have devastating consequences on the traffic and parking on Palm Beach. How can they account for this "convenient" ommission?
As Groucho Marx wisely said, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's a duck." All of us know exactly what the traffic situation is here on the ground-it's bad, and only getting worse even if we have no new development on the island. The Corradino Group Traffic Study is flawed to the point of appearing compromised, failing to include proper assessment of all the grids and the effects of the avalanche of traffic soon to hit Palm Beach. This traffic study CANNOT be accepted without these most critical facts.
Respectfully,
Elaine Bedell Hirsch
130 and 100 Sunrise Ave.
Palm Beach
Received via email 6.23.24:
Wayne and Jennifer,
TRAFFIC REPORT FATAL FLAW
Below page 41…
Please call me asap any time.
The Traffic Report as reviewed does not seem to take into consideration bridge openings.
When they occur, traffic conditions go to F for intersections and roadways.
Depending on the traffic and duration of bridge opening, traffic conditions can and do extend outward from the closest intersections well beyond that radius to create additional F conditions.
Thank you, Rick
Received via email 6.24.24:
Dear Wayne and Staff, Council Members, Mayor, Town Manager,
A very big thank you to Wayne Bergman and his staff for a succinct and clear distillation of the massive report from Corradino. Wayne’s summation of the path forward is clear and imperative.
You, the Town Council, with the guidance of staff, decide how specifically the Zoning Code can be amended to do exactly what the Comp plan envisions. What teeth can be added to ensure that Councils follow the Comp Plan and code? Our zoning code is only broken in certain aspects -too many definitions for height,, too large ccr for R-B districts, for examples. The Vision of the Comp plan is NOT broken. Enforcement of the zoning code which must comply with the Comp plan IS broken.
Wayne cites 3 elements from Comp Plan which must form the action plan to deal with traffic and parking congestion which is choking our Town..
1. How to discourage region-serving commercial development?
How to enhance town-serving? Should the percentage be higher than 50%? Yes-How much higher and how to monitor and enforce Town-serving to perform as desired?
2. What ordinances can be put in place to control the pace, type, intensity, I’d add scale ,of redevelopment in older areas of Town? Could number of permits per year, per street, per area, per type be limited? Enforce limits on size of establishments. No variances, No fantasy parking. Increase fines for infractions?
3. Encourage development and redevelopment at lower density levels.. Should lower density levels be mandated rather than ‘encouraged’? The quality of life for which Palm Beach is known and for which we residents moved here cannot be maintained without a strong commitment to the residential nature of the Town. The fragility of this small barrier island, its historic and architecturally significant architecture and its village-like character must be preserved. This can only be accomplished by making specific changes to the code that will halt the destruction that greed, overdevelopment, and lack of enforcement are wreaking on our Town.
What is needed to solve these problems is commitment and courage by our staff and our elected leaders. You are up to the task. Just do it!
Sincerely,
Anne and Charlie Pepper
333 Seaspray Ave
Received via email 6.21.24:
Dear council members and Mayor Moore:
As a lay person looking at the revised traffic report, it is inconceivable to me to see various intersection labeled D, as acceptable, it makes no at all.
As a long time Palm Beach visitor and now resident, personally observing the changes in traffic, that have occurred, there is No Way it can be considered “acceptable.”
When you observe specifically the line of cars waiting to move on North County, Royal Ronciana, Sunrise, Sunset and Bradley Place, at many times during the day and at varied times, having these intersections and roads classified as D makes no sense at all.
Based on the comprehensive plan, the strategic plan, that govern Palm Beach and direct us forward, Nothing about the revised traffic Evaluation makes any sense to me.
You are encouraged and responsible to do everything possible to mitigate the current unacceptable traffic conditions that we are all experiencing .
Those of us fortunate enough to live in Palm Beach rely on the countless service providers to make Palm Beach what it is. Because we have a responsibility to do everything we can to make their commuting to work lives better…they are coming to serve us….unless you want to cut your own grass, wait on your own table, fix your plumbing or AC, etc etc, you know the list….
Just like us, they don’t want spend countless hours a week stuck in traffic, they also want to be home with their families.
They are not compensated for commuting time…
We see them every day in their cars and trucks, waiting to get to their jobs or go home…
Without them we would be up the creek…
And also for our fellow residents…
would need to drive around town and to West Palm and beyond…
And, our Emergency Services Responders….
We don’t need to be Traffic Experts, to judge the traffic we see day in and day out…in our real world.
DICTATED NOT PROOFED…
Respectfully,
Livable Palm Beach
Rick Smith
Received via email 6.25.24:
Good morning,
Thank you for your time and effort in protecting our Town of Palm Beach and for maintaining its ambiance and guarding its value. I recognize the responsibility that your vote holds and I trust that you will safeguard our cherished town.
I agree 100% with Tony Stepanski’ s email to you dated yesterday, June 24 at 6:48 pm. Please reject the Corradino report which is misleading and inaccurate. Please have the fortitude to do the right thing for Palm Beach’s residents. My family has been part of the Palm Beach community since 1951.
With utmost respect,
David Mack
Received via email 6.25.24:
Dear Wayne,
I read your comments on the Corradino Group Traffic Study and agree. The "regionality" of so many projects being proposed and existing in Palm Beach will be ruinous to our Town. And the West Palm TCEA plus the number of living and commercial units on line there is truly frightening. At the risk of sounding cranky, we do not need any more people living here or visiting here. We are over capacity.
Without strength of purpose now there will be no way to stem this tide. Thank you for your clear directive.
Gratefully,
Susan Watts
44 Cocoanut Row
Received via email 6.25.24:
You must REJECT The Corradino Group’s Town of Palm Beach Traffic Analyses & Commercial Areas Parking Study dated June 2024
The Corradino report must be rejected because it is materially FLAWED. It FAILS to adequately dimension the significance of the threat of: a) the massive current, near-term, and future property development underway in West Palm Beach and how it will negatively impact our Town of Palm Beach, and b) the significant intensification that planned development in West Palm Beach and several areas of the Town of Palm Beach and c) does not include both the very consequential WEG Paramount project, the Palm Beach Orthodox Synagogue project, or other several projects already under review.
I have read the Corradino Group’s most recent ‘REVISED” submission to Palm Beach, dated June 2024, which has three components:
a 122-page Primary Report,
a 440-page supplement entitled "Appendices Part 1", labeled as: TOPB Downtown Study v5 UPDATE 6.10.24 Volume I Appendices r Part1 (1) pdf and
a 431-page supplement entitled "Appendices Part 2," labeled as: TOPB Downtown Stud v5 UPDATE 6.10.24 Volume II Appendices r Part2 (1)
When faced with the need to review and carefully consider any 993-page document (the total number of pages Corradino submitted), one is inclined to focus on the primary report (122 pages) and not on the appendices (871 pages in total). In this instance, such an approach would be grossly inadequate and misleading to the reader. Nevertheless, my partner Cindy and I read the vast majority of the report, including its Appendices and want to share the following observations and conclusions with you:
This Corradino Group's Study SHOULD BE REJECTED by PB Staff, PB Staff leadership, and the Town Council because it is materially flawed. The fact that PB Staff has not already rejected it, is absolutely stunning!
Here are some reasons why:
1) The Corradino report was provided to PB staff on or about June 11th and released to the public on or about June 18th. How could PB Staff, the Town Council, or the Publicundertake any meaningful or intelligent review of Corradino’s Report in time for your June 25th Town Council Hearing? IT COULD NOT AND CANNOT!
2) Page 379 of the 440-page document that Corradino provided the Town (which carries the label Volume II, Appendices, Part 1 (1).pdf ) is mislabeled. It reads CITY OF WEST PALM BEACH – Committed Trips for Projects Under Review/Approved/Under Construction. This page should read TOWN OF PALM BEACH because the pages that follow deal with the TOWN of Palm Beach.
3) Conspicuously missing, however, is any mention of two very significant projects that are currently before the TC and under REVIEW: the WEG Paramount Project and also the Palm Beach Orthodox Synagogue Project. Why have these been omitted?
4) In pages 426 to 440 of that same 440-page Appendix and in pages 1-78 of Appendices Part II, the Corradino Group provides "snapshots" of current and future planned development and/or redevelopment projects in West Palm Beach but fails to adequately and accurately quantify the magnitude of the West Palm Beach development projects, currently underway, approved, about to be undertaken, and/or planned and appending approval and how these will impact (negatively) a radius that includes Palm Beach.
The Corradino Report uses the following numbers on the left below to dimension Development in West Palm Beach. We believe the numbers on the right are more realistic.
Corradino Numbers The Numbers Supported by our Research **
Office Space: 2,522,323 Sq. Ft.
4,500,000 Sq. Ft.
Multi-Family Units:* 8,958
14,000 Units
New Hotel Rooms: 981
3,000 Rooms
Note: * Apartments/Condominiums (Does not include single-family residences)
** Estimates are reasonable and have been derived from information in the Public Record
5) The Corradino Group's report fails to consider the impact of the drawbridge openings of the three bridges that connect the Town of Palm Beach with the City of West Palm Beach. When the bridges are open, all roads and key intersections within a significant radius of the bridges, including Royal Poinciana Way and North County Road, North County Road & Sunset Avenue (Currently an EB "F" LOS), North County Road & Sunrise Avenue, Bradley Place Sunrise Avenue, Bradley Place & Sunset Avenue as FAILURES. Even with reduced drawbridge openings coordinated between the U.S. Coast Guard and the FDOT, traffic comes to a standstill for blocks every time the bridges are open. With an increased traffic flow from the City of West Palm Beach, the gridlock has worsened over the last several years, especially in Season. There are no hospitals in the Town of Palm Beach - first responders must take one of the three bridges to get to a hospital.
6) The Corradino report states that they are using a 1.5% annual growth rate for their traffic analysis. That is a materially inadequate number, It’s much higher than that.
7)
I do not understand how the Town Council could expect PB Staff to conduct a competent evaluation of the Corradino report in nine (9) days. Maybe that is why Mr. Bergman, in his June 20th memo to Town Council, wrote: “Staff recommends that the Town Council review the Traffic and Parking Study, and if found complete [by you], accept the study." I interpret this to mean that Mr. Bergman has passed on to the Town Council the responsibility of determining the veracity and completeness of the study.
One needs adequate time to review the data and analysis presented in this document for completeness and accuracy. The consequences of not doing so will affect current and future residents of the Town and likely become the basis for the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan, currently under review by the Planning and Zoning Commission ("P&ZC"). The P&ZC should review and evaluate the Corradino report. The P&ZC should be reviewing this so that they can make a recommendation to the Town Council, as this will be the basis for the revised Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan.
There is much more.
You must reject the Corradino report and engage a firm to conduct a peer review that accurately portrays the threats to all that we cherish about the Town of Palm Beach.
The threats are REAL.
Tony Stepanski
The Sun & Surf
130 Sunrise Avenue, Palm Beach
Received via email 6.25.24:
Dear involved parties.
Agree with Mr. Stepanskis’s below email. (Congratulate his and Cindy’s dedication)
A. An addition point, is the incomprehensible rating, in my neighborhood, of the signalization and roadway evaluation, D, acceptable, which is the Royal Poinciana, North County Road, Sunrise Ave and Bradley Place Catchment area where my residence and office are located.
I cross North County Road from my home on Sunrise Ave to my office on North County Road, which is over the location where Evelyn and Arthur’s used to be daily.
The traffic can be only characterized as terrible gridlock several times a day.
The police chief has described it as chaos. He is correct.
It is a F Rating…not a D…
Southern Blvd and South Ocean Blvd, roundabout, at Margo Lago gets a A rating…really?
These 2 examples, report pages 36 and 37, make all the traffic evaluations unreliable as they are inaccurate.
B. The Report also negligently fails to take into account the effect of bridge openings, as Tony’s email discusses in his number 5.
These two Gross omissions, A &B, make the whole report not reliable and unacceptable.
A sad situation, when we need, and have paid for, accurate and sensible guidance.
This negligent report provides neither, and must not be approved.
Kelly: Please put this e mail in the official TC meeting record. Thank you.
Rick Smith
Livable Palm Beach
130 Sunshine Ave.
Received via email 6.25.24:
Dear Mayor Moore and Town Council Members,
Property Values:
The consistent gridlock traffic in various places in our Town, has, and will continue to have a negative effect on our property values,
BECAUSE,
people are less inclined to buy property from which they cannot freely exit and travel to and from their destinations…on a daily basis…
Rick Smith
130 Sunrise Ave…
PB
Received via email 6.24.24:
To the Mayor and all members of the Town Council;
The traffic study recently submitted to the town by the Corradino Group is deeply flawed, the equivalent of giving a glass of warm milk to someone who's lactose intolerant. As any one who lives or works on Palm Beach knows first-hand, the traffic on the grid surrounding Publix is nothing short of horrendous, creating not just unpassable gridlock, but hazardous driving and pedestrian issues. The conclusions in the report totally be-lie these facts, as if the actual conditions we all experience simply don't exist.
Clearly, the metrics used to arrive at passing grades for these (and other) key intersections are incorrect. One can't simply count cars to make an assessment-other critical considerations are the traffic light sequencing; the number of cars which can pass through an intersection per light change; the speed of the traffic; how many intersections the traffic is backed up; what are the available alternate routes? And not to be overlooked, (which it was in the report, not appearing until page 426 of Appendice-Part 1, when it was mentioned, but given no details regarding the sizes, numbers of residential units and hotel rooms of those projects), are the inevitable effects that the burgeoning development in West Palm Beach will have on Palm Beach. The vast numbers of people from these apartments, hotel rooms and offices will flood Palm Beach as the "Wall Street of the South" denizens may live in West Palm Beach, but they will surely want to eat, shop, and use the beaches of Palm Beach. How many thousands of cars does that represent?
It needs to be noted that the Paramount Project is not even included in the list of Palm Beach projects under review, which is being heard before the Town Council on July 10, 2024. This project alone, should it be approved, will have devastating consequences on the traffic and parking on Palm Beach. How can they account for this "convenient" ommission?
As Groucho Marx wisely said, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's a duck." All of us know exactly what the traffic situation is here on the ground-it's bad, and only getting worse even if we have no new development on the island. The Corradino Group Traffic Study is flawed to the point of appearing compromised, failing to include proper assessment of all the grids and the effects of the avalanche of traffic soon to hit Palm Beach. This traffic study CANNOT be accepted without these most critical facts.
Respectfully,
Elaine Bedell Hirsch
130 and 100 Sunrise Ave.
Palm Beach
Received via email 6.23.24:
Wayne and Jennifer,
TRAFFIC REPORT FATAL FLAW
Below page 41…
Please call me asap any time.
The Traffic Report as reviewed does not seem to take into consideration bridge openings.
When they occur, traffic conditions go to F for intersections and roadways.
Depending on the traffic and duration of bridge opening, traffic conditions can and do extend outward from the closest intersections well beyond that radius to create additional F conditions.
Thank you, Rick
Received via email 6.24.24:
Dear Wayne and Staff, Council Members, Mayor, Town Manager,
A very big thank you to Wayne Bergman and his staff for a succinct and clear distillation of the massive report from Corradino. Wayne’s summation of the path forward is clear and imperative.
You, the Town Council, with the guidance of staff, decide how specifically the Zoning Code can be amended to do exactly what the Comp plan envisions. What teeth can be added to ensure that Councils follow the Comp Plan and code? Our zoning code is only broken in certain aspects -too many definitions for height,, too large ccr for R-B districts, for examples. The Vision of the Comp plan is NOT broken. Enforcement of the zoning code which must comply with the Comp plan IS broken.
Wayne cites 3 elements from Comp Plan which must form the action plan to deal with traffic and parking congestion which is choking our Town..
1. How to discourage region-serving commercial development?
How to enhance town-serving? Should the percentage be higher than 50%? Yes-How much higher and how to monitor and enforce Town-serving to perform as desired?
2. What ordinances can be put in place to control the pace, type, intensity, I’d add scale ,of redevelopment in older areas of Town? Could number of permits per year, per street, per area, per type be limited? Enforce limits on size of establishments. No variances, No fantasy parking. Increase fines for infractions?
3. Encourage development and redevelopment at lower density levels.. Should lower density levels be mandated rather than ‘encouraged’? The quality of life for which Palm Beach is known and for which we residents moved here cannot be maintained without a strong commitment to the residential nature of the Town. The fragility of this small barrier island, its historic and architecturally significant architecture and its village-like character must be preserved. This can only be accomplished by making specific changes to the code that will halt the destruction that greed, overdevelopment, and lack of enforcement are wreaking on our Town.
What is needed to solve these problems is commitment and courage by our staff and our elected leaders. You are up to the task. Just do it!
Sincerely,
Anne and Charlie Pepper
333 Seaspray Ave
Received via email 6.21.24:
Dear council members and Mayor Moore:
As a lay person looking at the revised traffic report, it is inconceivable to me to see various intersection labeled D, as acceptable, it makes no at all.
As a long time Palm Beach visitor and now resident, personally observing the changes in traffic, that have occurred, there is No Way it can be considered “acceptable.”
When you observe specifically the line of cars waiting to move on North County, Royal Ronciana, Sunrise, Sunset and Bradley Place, at many times during the day and at varied times, having these intersections and roads classified as D makes no sense at all.
Based on the comprehensive plan, the strategic plan, that govern Palm Beach and direct us forward, Nothing about the revised traffic Evaluation makes any sense to me.
You are encouraged and responsible to do everything possible to mitigate the current unacceptable traffic conditions that we are all experiencing .
Those of us fortunate enough to live in Palm Beach rely on the countless service providers to make Palm Beach what it is. Because we have a responsibility to do everything we can to make their commuting to work lives better…they are coming to serve us….unless you want to cut your own grass, wait on your own table, fix your plumbing or AC, etc etc, you know the list….
Just like us, they don’t want spend countless hours a week stuck in traffic, they also want to be home with their families.
They are not compensated for commuting time…
We see them every day in their cars and trucks, waiting to get to their jobs or go home…
Without them we would be up the creek…
And also for our fellow residents…
would need to drive around town and to West Palm and beyond…
And, our Emergency Services Responders….
We don’t need to be Traffic Experts, to judge the traffic we see day in and day out…in our real world.
DICTATED NOT PROOFED…
Respectfully,
Livable Palm Beach
Rick Smith
⭐️PROPERTY VALUES⭐️
Dear Mayor Moore and Town Council Members,
Property Values:
The consistent gridlock traffic in various places in our Town, has, and will continue to have a negative effect on our property values,
BECAUSE,
people are less inclined to buy property from which they cannot freely exit and travel to and from their destinations…on a daily basis…
Rick Smith
130 Sunrise Ave…
PB
⭐️PROPERTY VALUES⭐️
Dear Mayor Moore and Town Council Members,
Property Values:
The consistent gridlock traffic in various places in our Town, has, and will continue to have a negative effect on our property values,
BECAUSE,
people are less inclined to buy property from which they cannot freely exit and travel to and from their destinations…on a daily basis…
Rick Smith
130 Sunrise Ave…
PB