ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. — An informational meeting via Zoom by the Palm Beach County Planning Division about road widening on the northern border of Royal Palm Beach drew a lot of pushback.
Around 130 residents logged in with many sharing their concerns and opposition to a proposal of widening 40th Street North and 140th Avenue North.
"I am taking this meeting on horseback coming from the preserve that you're about to consider completely decimating the access in the area," said one resident named Rose as she rode her horse through the area that would be impacted.
Staff said the goal would be to mitigate traffic in the area after deleting the Persimmon Road portion of the project.
"Staff does not have a formal recommendation at this point and it's important that we hear from you to help formulate that," Joanne Keller, the Palm Beach County deputy county engineer, said. "The 60th Street project connect ultimately from Seminole Pratt east to State Road 7 is under design today, so that is moving forward hopefully in the next five to 10 years as well."
The proposal would widen 40th Street to 80 feet from 140th Avenue North through State Road 7, which would need to be connected.
"First of all, if you try to expand 40th, what are you doing with my house that's only 30 feet from the road, 35 feet from the road? What would you like to do with my house?" asked concerned resident Carolyn Abbey.
Staff said they haven't set an alignment on what that would look like, but if it goes forward it'll be looked at on a land-by-land basis and could require eminent domain.
"It's hard to guess if we'd need a few feet or a whole parcel from anybody, but the point was that whatever is needed, the state law does protect the property owners and requires the county in those cases to make them whole however they may be," said Keller.
Jeff Gagnon, with the Planning Division, said the project is just in an initiation phase, so if the county commissioners do motion staff to proceed into the next phase, they would then proceed into environmental analysis.
"What we would like to see and we have repeatedly said is that the county needs to improve the county roads for the traffic and to solve the problems that they've created and not rely on our roads to carry that traffic," one resident who only identified herself as Betty said.
WPTV contacted Commissioner Sara Baxter, who released the following statement:
"After the completion of 60th Street if traffic demands deem it necessary, it (40th Street) would be the preferred alternate to using Persimmons Boulevard as an auxiliary route."
For people like Steven Ayoub, who is flipping a home near the canal on 40th Street, he's not opposed to the idea.
"Already, we have cars going back and forth, especially the city doing all this extra stuff, so, honestly, it'd be better for all of us," Ayoub said.
He is worried about possibly losing some of his land but said opening up his dead-end road will make it quicker to get to the east side of town.
"You'd get to downtown a lot faster too, so that'd be good," Ayoub said.
He did express traffic concerns around his house, which includes school traffic.
Ayoub is also concerned with how long the project would take to complete.
Staff wants people to attend a public hearing on March 8, when the advisory board will make its presentation to county commissioners.
That will take place at 9 a.m. March 8 at 2300 N. Jog Road, Vista Center.
The next county commissioners meeting is 9:30 a.m. March 28.
Any questions, support or concerns leading up to the meetings can be emailed to staff:
Khurshid Mohyuddin, principal planner
KMOHYUDD@pbcgov.org
Morton Rose, division director
MROSE @pbcgov.org
Motasem Al-Turk, division director
MALTURK@pbcgov.org
Joanne M. Keller, P.E., deputy county engineer
JKeller@pbcgov.org