PSA: school zones

This morning we had a student hit by a car in a school zone. Fortunately the student is okay. Please look out for posted signs for school zones and slow your speed to 20 mph!!!

You should not be speeding or passing cars in a school zone. This is very dangerous and an increasing problem in our community. Everyone has somewhere to be, so please be patient, look out for our children waiting for their school buses or walking or riding their bikes to school, or crossing in our school zones, drive safely!!!

FDOT Driving manual

Vote for Joni Martin

I endorse Joni Martin for Indian Trail Improvement District Seat 3. She has integrity and a passion to preserve our community.  She will support the renewed focus of the Board of Supervisors on our drainage and road infrastructure improvements. She will utilize her communication skills to engage and educate our community and to help create cohesiveness on the Board. Joni will advocate for a focus on planning, a more efficiently run District, ensuring our tax dollars are utilized appropriately and minimizing the budget where possible. I look forward to working with Joni with a teamwork approach.

Please join me in casting a vote for Joni Martin!

Follow her at Elect Joni Martin Facebook Page

Why are the ITID taxes going up?

I have had many residents ask why our taxes are going up this year. The main reason is that we are doing infrastructure improvements that are critically needed throughout the District. Those improvements are critical to improve and protect drainage and our roads.

Over the past year, we have had many culvert failures. These are the large culverts that go under our roads to connect canals. In the past, these projects were only done when needed. Meaning when there was a failure and it was an emergency, it would be contracted out.

Under the guidance and leadership of our new District Manager, Rob Robinson, as well as direction from the ITID Board of Supervisors we are now able to do these projects in house. This year, we have had to take staff from other projects in order to do the repairs meaning that other work is delayed.

An inventory of the culvert conditions has been made. A new crew has been created to do only culvert replacements and canal reclamations. This crew will be ready to begin work on the new plan once the new budget is in place October 1st.

Other improvements that will be made this year will include clearing canals and easements that have been overgrown for years, reclaiming canals, swale retrofits, all will improve drainage. Our roads require the road rock material to be replenished in order for grading to be effective.

So while I realize tax increases are not popular, I believe it was absolutely necessary for the District. Your tax dollars will be wisely invested to improve infrastructure thereby protecting your investment in your home.

Below are pictures of a culvert failure just identified by a resident last night. Staff will be working today to begin the culvert replacement.

HOA to hold vote of Santa Rosa Groves landowners before Indian Trail Can Help Santa Rosa

The HOA Board has agreed to hold a vote of the landowners of whether to activate as an ITID unit. If there 50%+1 of the landowners who agree, they agree to assign the Santa Rosa easements to ITID so that ITID can provide roads and drainage under the existing drainage permit with SFWMD.

http://gotowncrier.com/2018/08/referendum-needed-before-indian-trail-can-help-santa-rosa/

Memorial and Community Garden Dedication for Gary Dunkley

Snippet “By Ron Bukley-August 10, 2018

“ITID President Betty Argue welcomed a room full of Dunkley’s family, community members and elected officials from state and local municipalities. She thanked ITID staff for organizing the memorial.

“Gary would be honored by this memorial,” Argue said. “The garden was a vision he advocated for and helped come to fruition. His hope was that residents would use this garden to come and learn, teach people to grow their own vegetables to share with others, and encourage other residents to take all they have learned to their own backyards and have their own gardens.”

She said the garden is fitting, since The Acreage is a designated agricultural and equestrian community. “The board of supervisors has supported this vision,” she said. “My hope is to continue to work to bring Gary’s vision fully to life for generations to come.””

 

https://gotowncrier.com/2018/08/itid-memorial-service-honors-late-supervisor-gary-dunkley/

 

60th Street North ROW Widening between 140th and 120th

I want to give a thank you to Mayor McKinlay and the Palm Beach County Commissioners for listening to the residents along 60th and ITID and unanimously voting not to move forward with increasing the right of way on the long range thoroughfare map for 60th Street from 80ft to 100ft as well as, giving direction to staff to review and respond to ITID’s letter submitted.

Hopefully moving forward serious consideration will be given to how to address the overwhelming traffic from more development with the least amount of impact to the ITID road network, as well as including ITID in these efforts.

Below is the letter we sent:

INDIAN TRAIL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

13476 61ST STREET NORTH

WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33412-1915

Office: 561-793-0874

Fax: 561-793-3716

Established 1957                                                                 www.indiantrail.com

April 25, 2018

Hon. Melissa McKinlay, Mayor & Commissioner, District 6

Hon. Mack Bernard, Vice Mayor & Commissioner, District 7

Hon. Hal R. Valeché, Commissioner, District 1

Hon. Paulette Burdick, Commissioner, District 2

Hon. David Kerner, Commissioner, District 3

Hon. Steven L. Abrams, Commissioner, District 4

Hon. Mary Lou Berger, Commissioner, District 5

Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners

301 North Olive Avenue

West Palm Beach, Florida 33401

Re: Palm Beach County Comprehensive Plan, Initiation of Proposed Amendment to Thoroughfare Right-of-Way Identification Map TE-14.1 60th Street North, BCC Meeting of May 2, 2018

Dear Mayor McKinlay, Vice Mayor Bernard and Commissioners:

The Board of County Commissioners (BCC) will consider the above-referenced matter at its Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. The County Engineer proposes to amend Thoroughfare Right-of-Way Identification Map (TIM) TE-14.1 to increase the ultimate right of way from 80 to 100 feet for the segment of 60th Street North between 140th Avenue North and 120th Avenue North.

We appreciate the BCC’s previous deferral of this proposal so its impacts could be more fully assessed. County Staff met with ITID representatives on January 26, 2018 and with the Board of Supervisors on April 4, 2018. Our discussions were professional and positive. While ITID disagrees with the County Engineer’s assessment that this roadway expansion is justified solely on the basis of traffic generated by Acreage residents, we share the County’s goal of improving 60th Street North as a vital regional transportation link. This roadway improvement can benefit both the Acreage and the wider community the BCC serves.

As a special district, ITID is a service provider and has no legislative authority to engage in comprehensive planning. County development decisions impact the Acreage Community and the road and drainage facilities the District provides. ITID relies on the County to reflect our interests in its planning. Based on our discussions with your Staff, we respectfully offer the following suggestions with regard to initiation of this proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendment:

1. Take a broad, regional approach to roadway expansion that explicitly considers and gives priority to enhancing benefit to the more than 40,000 residents of the Acreage, to the adjacent landowners immediately affected and to ITID’s road and drainage system. County Staff should look beyond the narrow technical issues of adding 20 feet to a two mile segment of 60th Street right-of-way. Consider instead plausible alternatives for an area-wide thoroughfare network that reduce or redistribute traffic demand or defer the need to improve 60th Street or ITID roads, such as Persimmon Boulevard. These alternatives should include continuing Seminole Pratt Whitney Road north to Beeline Highway using the right-of-way the County acquired through the Mecca Property.

2. Persimmon Boulevard is an ITID road maintained exclusively by District landowners. It is not and will not be available to accommodate traffic from outside the Acreage. Future land use proposals should therefore be required to analyze the Thoroughfare Roadway Network with this assumption in mind and be required to adjust their density or intensity accordingly. The expansion of 60th Street should be viewed as the exclusive alternative to Persimmon. Persimmon Boulevard should therefore be removed from the Thoroughfare Plan between 140th Avenue and State Road 7. If this approach to traffic analysis cannot be accomplished within the current structure of the County Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations, these ordinances should be amended as necessary.

3. With regard to the 2-mile section of 60th Street currently under consideration, the design of the roadway section in the additional 20’ should respect the legitimate concerns of the adjacent homeowners whose land is going to be taken and whose homes and lifestyle are directly affected. ITID understands the need to protect the City’s water resources, but the additional 20 feet requested by the County Engineer is not required to provide surface water filtration; it is needed because the M Canal meanders outside its legal limits, constraining and making roadway design more difficult. The design process should consider the City’s interest in protecting its drinking water supply of equal but no greater importance than the adjacent homeowners’ interest in being buffered from the effects of having their rural front yards transformed into a major regional transportation corridor.

To accomplish this balanced goal, ITID suggests the expanded, 100 foot roadway section should be designed generally as follows — from north to south:

• The “M” Canal;

• A concrete buffer wall to prevent vehicles from entering the “M” Canal. The wall need only be 2 to 4 feet high and should not require more than two feet in width;

• An 80′ road section, beginning with a 3-lane section expandable ultimately to 5 lanes, as currently planned. Roadway drainage will be designed to slope away from the M Canal and can be accommodated in ITID’s system with a permit, as it currently is on 60th Street between State Road 7 and Royal Palm Beach Boulevard;

• The remaining +18 feet planted as a landscape buffer between the road and adjacent homes.

This design should be considered an interim, “short-term” response.  Development to the west, including the City of Westlake, GL Homes and Iota-Carol Properties, will increase traffic on 60th Avenue in the long-term far beyond any demand generated by the Acreage. In ITID’s opinion. this demand, funneled eastward to State Road 7 along 60th Avenue, will require more radical solutions, including but not limited to expanding the right-of-way beyond 100 feet to accommodate a rural parkway. We understand the County Engineer will continue our dialogue regarding long-term traffic impacts and area-wide solutions that reflect ITID’s and the Acreage Community’s concerns.

4. As part of any analysis of this Plan Amendment, the County should include amending its Land Development Regulations as necessary to assure that, following any taking through eminent domain, lots along 60th Street North between 120th Avenue North and 140th Avenue North are not treated as non-conforming as to minimum lot size, setback or other code requirements. This can be accomplished by adopting an overlay zone specific to this limited area.

ITID appreciates the courtesy of the Board of County Commissioners and County Staff, and remains prepared to work closely with the County as the design of 60th Street North advances.

Sincerely yours,

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

INDIAN TRAIL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

By: ____________________________

Betty Argue

Its: President

cc. Verdenia Baker, County Administrator

David Ricks, P.E., County Engineer

Patrick W. Rutter, Executive Director, PZB

Lorenzo Aghemo, Planning Director

Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors

                Betty Argue ▪ Jennifer Hager ▪ Ralph Bair ▪ Carol Jacobs ▪ Gary Dunkley

ALA gets update

This is our community, please get involved! A few clarifications to this article, there is no meeting on March 12th.

It wasn’t ITID Officials that met with the 7-Eleven representatives, it was the ALA Board President, Tim Sayre who invited me and board members Perry Williams and Michelle Floyd to have a discussion with them. Thank you to the ALA for inviting me.

ITID discussed the text amendment at our meeting in February and the BOS instructed staff to send a letter to the planning commission and the BCC opposing the text amendment. This letter has not yet been sent because of the postponement and possible amendments.

The owners advised me on the way to the ALA meeting and formally requested Wednesday to postpone their application an additional month to allow them the opportunity to look at alternative locations as a result of  discussions. (Of course the PLC staff recommendation of denial did not help them). I appreciate that they have listened to our concerns and will take them into consideration while looking at alternative locations.

Regarding 60th Street widening, at this time all the County is attempting to do is add an additional 20ft to 60th Street (between 140th and 120th) on the Long Range Thoroughfare map. However, having that additional 20 ft will allow them to build a 5 lane road with no protections / bufferings for our residents along 60th. The County ownership rights is currently only 80ft which allows them to build a 3 lane road similar to what was built East of 120th. In most cases, when they want to widen the road to 5 lanes, that is when they would have to obtain (purchase from the residents or eminent domain) the additional 20ft. However, they could not do that without the Long Range Thoroughfare Map being amended first.

The point is that ITID residents need to be involved in the design of 60th, especially the residents along 60th who are going to be most directly impacted. Even the 3 lane road they intend to build in the near future, will be a very busy road once it is opened to Seminole Pratt Whitney Road. This is our opportunity to have our voices heard and ask that it be designed with our residents and our community concerns addressed.

How to get involved:

  1. Attend the ITID workshop on 60th with the County, tentatively set for April 4th at the ITID office;
  2. Attend the County public meeting on 60th Street to hear their plans and express your concerns, desires, vision etc. tentatively set for April 10th;
  3. Attend the Board of County Commissioners meeting on May 2nd for the initiation of the plans for 60th Street;
  4. If you are unable to attend meetings, you may send me an email and I can incorporate your concerns into my discussions
  5. Send emails to the County Commission, our District 6 Commissioner is Mayor McKinlay, mmckinlay@pbcgov.org. To reach all commissioners, email bcc-allcommissioners@pbcgov.org;

Future dates regarding the application for the 7-Eleven, I will let you know when it is confirmed they are moving forward.

http://gotowncrier.com/2018/03/ala-learns-about-60th-street-widening-and-7-eleven-store/

 

Proposed Text Amendment to the Exurban Tier

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I wrote yesterday about an application submitted to the County for a 7Eleven. Today, I want to share with you the details and how these changes come about so you understand the full implications to our community. Many people have asked over the past couple of years, “how did Westlake happen?” or “how did Minto get approved?” Let me tell you how!

It starts with a privately initiated text amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, usually made by developers and sometimes supported by County staff, to allow uses in a specific area or designation that is now currently prohibited. Once the County approves the text amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, now it allows for a specific application for land use change on a property, which use is previously prohibited. Once land use change is obtained, now a zoning application is completed to allow the project. In most cases, these applications and amendments run concurrently.

Regarding the 7Eleven application at the corner of Seminole Pratt Whitney and Orange, this is what the first phase of the application (Comprehensive Plan Text Amendment) states:

“The purpose of the overall application is to provide for the development of neighborhood scale commercial at an established major intersection where a CRALLS Intersection designation has been previously established as follows:

1. Amend the language in Policy 1.3-f to create a new “Commercial Node” criteria to provide for new Commercial Low future land use designation at the intersection of an Arterial Road and Collector Road which contains an active CRALLS Intersection designation as listed on Map TE 15.1.”

This text amendment to the Comprehensive Plan has far reaching implications throughout our community. Immediately, it would allow land at the following corners to be changed to commercial low (convenience stores, gas stations, etc.) properties that are currently agricultural residential land use:

  1. Northlake and Seminole Pratt Whitney;
  2. Northlake and Coconut (South side already approved for commercial);
  3. Orange and Coconut;
  4. Orange and Royal Palm Beach Blvd.;
  5. Orange and Seminole Pratt Whitney west side;
  6. Royal Palm Beach Blvd. and 60th;
  7. Royal Palm Beach Blvd. and Persimmon;
  8. SR7 and 60th;
  9. SR7 and Persimmon;
  10. 140th Avenue and 60th;
  11. 140th Avenue and Persimmon;

The above list only looks at existing roads that are designated on the County’s Thoroughfare map, MAP TE 15.1. Please note that several of these roads (Orange Blvd. west of Seminole Pratt Whitney, 140th Avenue and Persimmon Blvd.) the County does not have easements or Rights of Way to and they are not deemed County Roads even though they are on the County’s Thoroughfare Map.

I need to get ready for a meeting, so more commentary later.