Friday, June 7, 2013
Saturday, June 1, 2013
There Goes the Neighborhood
Land use designations are the MOST important decisions a city
makes when thinking about the quality of life of its residents.
Look at the graphic of Deerfield Beach’s land use. Look where the purple (industrial) areas are,
they were placed away from residential (yellow, brown) areas. Contrast, on the
map, how little open (green, teal) space, there is compared to the purple and red
(commercial).
Each city has a comprehensive plan in which uses of property
are set out. It puts industrial sites as
far away from residential housing as possible.
The plans are well thought out, include residents’ input, and steer (with
any luck) common-sense future development in the city.
In Deerfield Beach, you will find problems cropping up where
developers convinced some former commission that the plan should be changed, so
we have residents complaining about the dirt and noise of industry and the
smell of Mt. Trashmore. Housing should
never have been allowed in those places.
The Deerfield Country Club golf course must not be allowed
to turn into an industrial park. Future traffic
problems will be overwhelming and the loss of open space in our city will be
irrevocable. Future commissions will be
beset with complaints from residents, the residential area’s property values
will take a serious hit, and the quality of life in the neighborhood will decline
year after year. What then?

Look at the green Deerfield Country Club golf course land at
the top of the graphic. The golf
course, designated recreational use, acts as a buffer between the residents on the
right and the industrial area on the left.
It was planned that way.
Notice the purple area next to the golf course; it only has
one road leading out to Hillsboro Boulevard, this road already serves 14 or
more large businesses and a large hotel in a smaller space than the golf course
area. Workers tell me it is a long
painful process getting out of there after work especially if one needs to go
west on Hillsboro.
No matter what the hired traffic experts the developer
brings in tell us, adding a lane or even two will not mitigate the
traffic. No way, no how!
And, if the change is made, I predict that the traffic
problems will be so bad in a few years that NW 3rd Street or NW 2nd
Court will pressed into service as an exit, right through the residential
area. No matter what promises are made,
when businesses put pressure on some future commission they will cave in, further
trashing the property values in the area.
Look again at the map, look at the wealth of purple and red,
anyone who wants to bring a business to Deerfield Beach has acres available;
along the railroad and out west away from our congested city center and away
from residential properties. Where they should be, where it makes common sense,
where the planners put them.
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