Sunday, December 29, 2019

The SW 136th Street Plans are posted for your review. Currently your only source to view as Palmetto Bay officials continue to fail to post these documents

Here is a link to the current plans for the SW 136th Street Road Project. These drawings are not mere proposals, they are the working plans for the improvements. 

CLICK HERE to download and view the detailed plans (105 pages). Included in the plans are:
  • landscaping plans (note the difference between the extent of the landscaping planned for the Pinecrest side versus Palmetto Bay.
  • Placement of the meandering multi-path.
  • Utilities
Fair Question: Which Palmetto Bay residents had any input in this project subsequent to December 5, 2018?

I requested a public town hall meeting including voicing concern back on November 8th (Time is past due for a Public Meeting to engage and update residents regarding the SW 136th Street Projectwhen those requests continued to be ignored. Deadlines are running. It is more than strange that Pinecrest had their meeting on December 18, but Palmetto Bay's has been put off until mere weeks prior to the proposed design deadline of February, far too late to have any significant impact on this project.  I provided an update of the Pinecrest meeting back on December 20, 2019.

Why are Palmetto Bay's current elected officials not promoting public participation in this project? What is wrong to give those living along 136th street a voice?
More areas are available to view through downloading the complete 105 page document
The sad facts about the lack of transparency regarding this project:
Transparency and public involvement matters to those Elected Officials who want their fellow residents to trust their government. Residents should be able to expect transparency from their elected officials.

The time is long past due for our elected officials to update and involve our fellow Palmetto Bay residents on the Howard Drive "bike lane" project.  As background, please review  a PRIOR RELATED POST of January 25, 2017: Update on the 136 improvement meeting held at Howard Drive Elementary & Temporary Traffic Tables coming to Farmers Road during County Pilot Program. Significant information was provided then and an update is long overdue, especially as the wheels appear to have come off the tracks for this project.  Transparency counts.

People who feared loss of trees for a simple bike lane will now face a much greater impact from a 10 foot 'multi-use path' (a/k/a a MEGA sidewalk) in front of their homes (OK, I understand that the MEGA sidewalk may be reduced a 'mere' 8 feet in some sections). Regardless, there will be much less room to park without violating the ADA by parking on a sidewalk. There will be significantly less room for trees. 

I am waiting to see how this MEGA sidewalk impacts the 136th Street student drop off in front of Howard Drive Elementary.  We need answers.

What happened to this project?  Other important questions include: 
  • Did any of our village council members work to change out the agreed to bike lanes to a 10 foot MEGA path placed solely on the Palmetto Bay side? And, if so, why wasn't the public updated. 
  • Or were they caught unaware? 
  • Why weren't our residents consulted in advance of this major change, did our representatives not know, or do their voices not matter?
  • Is the MEGA path a 'done deal' or can our residents still have input? 
  • Which residents were provided inside knowledge and if so, why were other concerned residents neither not invited to meetings or at least provided a timely update?
And still, the current Palmetto Bay Mayor and other officials still remain unaware, or unwilling, to update the facts of the project as the Village Website continues to incorrectly mislead the readers that the "136th St. Improvement Project remains as follows (as of 10:00 AM, Sunday, 12/29/2019):
136th St. Improvement Project
This project is currently under design. Improvements include minor widening of the roadway to add bike lanes on both sides of the road and milling & resurfacing the existing roadway. We are looking to replace the existing 5’ sidewalk on the South side of SW 136TH Street (Village of Palmetto Bay Side) with a new 7’ wide sidewalk. Other improvements will include pavement markings, ADA Compliant pedestrian ramps, and landscape improvements. This is a LAP Project between Miami Dade County and FDOT, and Village of Pinecrest and Village of Palmetto Bay are also stakeholders.
(this is how the web notice read as of 10:00 PM, Sunday, December 29, 2019)
CLICK HERE if you want to see if the website has been altered as a result of this blog post.
Why is the above information important? See PRIOR RELATED POSTS and other background information including:

I have uploaded (former) Item 10E from the February 4, 2019, agenda setting the scope (details) for this project. Note the differences between what was contained in the Staff Report (remember when those were made available to the public?) and the current MEGA sidewalk. This is a 31 page document relating to this issue I will be discussing at a later date. Please consider this part of your SW 136 Street Improvement 'tool box' for now. (CLICK HERE) to download and view.

The Joint Agreement with Miami-Dade County and Palmetto Bay - specifically resolution 2018-47.  And once again, please note - neither of these documents appear to be available online on the official Village of Palmetto Bay web site, but you can find it here as it is posted to my Googledrive. (CLICK HERE) to view this Miami-Dade County Memorandum of October 23, 2018 (17 pages). This County Memo includes Palmetto Bay Resolution 2017-47 (contained on the last two pages, at pages 17-18 of the 17 page document).


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