Enraged about the coming clogged roads and commutes increasing by over an hour, dozens of residents from Palm Beach County’s semi-rural communities west of State Road 7 turned out June 24 for an emergency meeting on how to handle the upcoming temporary closure of Northlake Boulevard.
All lanes of Northlake Boulevard at the CSX railroad crossing by Beeline Highway will shut down for what is likely to be five days, starting the evening of either July 18 or July 25, Indian Trails Improvement District board members told residents of The Acreage and neighboring communities. Public notice will be sent out three weeks prior.
The freight rail company, which owns the track, will upgrade its train signals there. And, Indian Trails board members said, a special road north of the crossing would be free for ambulances, fire trucks and police.
Still, locals vented frustrations and fears over increased traffic and losing access to emergency services if local traffic proved too much for them to get through. Residents of the 34-square-mile community of The Acreage, along with nearby municipalities and neighborhoods, already have longer drives to work than anyone else in Palm Beach County.
“I just find it incredulous, with all of the traffic we have endured with this construction to the west and to the east, we are suffering as taxpayers,” Palm Beach Gardens resident Ben Pincus said. Officials from that city, which borders the lane closure site, have also been talking with CSX.
Speaking to the Indian Trails board, Pincus lamented that Gardens officials are “allowing a public company to push us around and not coming up with a suitable solution to this because the ones you have are terrible, respectfully.”
Behind the tension was long-simmering anger at West Palm Beach city officials who have opposed connecting State Road 7 to Northlake Boulevard, which would relieve traffic in the area. Only Seminole-Pratt Whitney Road provides a direct connection between Okeechobee Boulevard and Northlake Boulevard. It’s seven miles west of State Road 7.
Closure will cost residents ‘quite a bit of money’
District board President Elizabeth Accomando told the audience of stone-faced, cross-armed locals at the start of the meeting that the board, which governs The Acreage, has no power to stop CSX from shutting down the crossing. She also dispelled misinformation she said she saw on social media claiming all local roads between Northlake Boulevard and Okeechobee Boulevard would be shut down.
Board members unanimously approved setting up LED roadside traffic signs warning drivers of dead ends and directing them only to the local roads they can take to get through to The Acreage and Loxahatchee, such as Coconut Road and Orange Boulevard.
The district also plans to publish the latest information it gets from state transportation officials, CSX or other sources to its social media pages. It will offer a text message service that people can sign up for online, district Executive Director Burgess Hanson said.
The district will seek reimbursement for these expenses from the state Transportation Department or CSX, Hanson said.
The district is funded through taxes levied on residents of The Acreage. It gets no money from the county gasoline tax. Landowners also pay for maintenance of roads along their property, Accomando said. The Northlake Boulevard closure, she said, “is going to cost the residents quite a bit of money.”
To help avoid crashes, Palm Beach County’s engineering and public works department will add a camera to the traffic light at Seminole-Pratt Whitney Road and Northlake Boulevard, said Jon Carter, a staffer for Palm Beach County Commissioner Sara Baxter. She represents the district covering the area. The light, which currently blinks yellow only, will switch to blinking red, Carter said, which should cause drivers to stop instead of slowing down.
Police and fire department tell residents to be polite, be patient
“We are going to be moving approximately 70,000 vehicles through our community on very few roads, and the roads are very narrow,” Accomando said. “Please be patient and be courteous” with fellow drivers, she said.
An Acreage resident board President Accomando recently spoke with had to wait nine minutes one morning to get out of his own driveway, she said. “If you see someone coming out of their driveway, stop and let them out,” she said. “It’s about courtesy to your neighbors.”
Other local officials echoed the plea for politeness on the road. “Show each other some grace,” said Amanda Vomero, chief for the local district of Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. Her district’s firefighters and paramedics would stand at the ready to respond to emergencies during the road closure, she said.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is making a plan to help deal with the traffic spike, Capt. Robert Sandt said. “Please,” he urged, “Patience, patience, patience. And we’re going to get through this.”
How should residents deal with the upcoming closure?
Accomando recommended that residents ask their employers to reschedule their work shifts during the closure, work from home if they can and reschedule doctors’ appointments. With a slight chuckle, she added, “If you can take a vacation, that would be ideal.”
CSX originally planned to shut down the crossing for eight days but are aiming now for five days, state Rep. Meg Weinberger told meeting attendees. Rail crews also plans to work round-the-clock, district board members said.
Residents, board member, fume over State Road 7 extension setback
“The State Road 7 extension, the Roebuck (Road) extension, would be tremendously helpful right now,” Indian Trails board member Richard Vassalotti said.
State transportation officials have tried to complete the State Road 7 extension since the 1990s, but West Palm Beach city officials have fought those efforts every step of the way. A state administrative law judge on May 1 rejected the city’s arguments against an environmental permit from the South Florida Water Management District. But the city filed an objection with the district, which will issue a decision this summer.
Residents of the Ibis Golf and Country Club gated community, neighboring The Acreage but in West Palm Beach, have long opposed extending the road. West Palm Beach city commissioners who cross them suffer politically, as they vote in higher numbers than just about every other neighborhood in local elections. In 2017, then-City Commissioner Shanon Materio voted for a pro-extension plan, then lost reelection the next year when her support among Ibis voters collapsed.
When Ibis resident Madelyn McGovern voiced concerns that clogged roads will be tough for emergency vehicles to navigate, and said that big roads in the area should be widened, Vassalotti replied, “This started decades ago because of the city of West Palm Beach, because of the Ibis neighborhood.”
“You guys have been lied to for years from the politicians in your city,” Vassalotti told McGovern, and invited her and her neighbors to speak with him in the near future about West Palm Beach’s fight against extending roads such as State Road 7.
Other residents of The Acreage voiced their frustration against the forces that have kept their roads from going as far as they want them to.
“Ibis should’ve been put under control years ago,” Acreage Landowners Association Treasurer Lou Colantuoni said. “The county should have put pressure on West Palm Beach, their biggest city, to get off what they’re doing with these crazy, never-ending, made-up lawsuits that we all know are a joke.
“They’ve tortured western communities, and I for one, say the people of The Acreage must unite, come together, form committees. If our voices aren’t heard at the county commissioners’ meetings, they will continue to take advantage of us and treat us like second-class taxpayers.”
While Indian Trails district board members could not put money toward such a cause, Accomando said, she invited anyone interested to connect with the Acreage Landowners Association, whose email address is info@acreagelandowners.com, and whose phone number is listed as 305-975-4392 on its website, AcreageLandOwners.org.
Chris Persaud covers transportation in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email news tips and ideas to cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: How Acreage, Loxahatchee area will cope with Northlake Boulevard closure at the Beeline
Reporting by Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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