Singer And City Council Just Do Not Care How Long You Wait In Traffic
Can You Picture This Street With 550 Cars Trying to Get By? It will be a disaster! But Singer and City Council will believe a computer algorithm rather than their own eyes.
This is the street leading to Sanborn Square where the Mayor and City Council approved Aletto Square’s 550 car parking garage. In addition to that, they approved letting valets drive back and forth on the street to park cars.
Two cars can’t even pass each on this street or make a turn without someone pulling over and stopping. The hundreds of cars from Aletto Square will congest downtown beyond reason. But the Mayor and City Council JUST DO NOT CARE!!
This monstrosity is being built by the same people that brought you the disastrous Tower 155, which took 5 years to build. Singer and City Council might not be around when this is done. But they all will have to suffer the political consequences long after.
The Mayor’s Disinformation
The Mayor has been talking about disinformation. He is sort of right, except the disinformation is coming from the city. He would claim that calling it “fast tracked” is incorrect because it has gone through almost two years of review. So not true! It went through two years of review because of the applicant, not the city staff. When the applicant felt he could bypass further review and take the political way, he told the city when he wanted it to be heard. And the city was happy to jump at their command.
This thing was decided long before the hearing. If you were there, you would see that the totally ignored those speaking in opposition. They could not have looked more bored and uninterested. They asked no questions, answered any questions, and did any followup.
The Mayor’s Height Fixation
The Mayor consistently states that our opposition was just because of the tall buildings. He has been saying this for years. It only proves one thing: the Mayor has never listened to us, has no idea what our issues are, and had his mind made up. If you read the June 1st City Watch on BocaMag, he again raised the building size issue. He is just fixated on height. And if you have been following our opposition, you’ll know that it is not a core issue that we have.
Over time, we will reveal some startling observations that we made over the past two years.
THE WORST IS YET TO COME
UPDATE: Now over 1700! signatures on our petition opposing this project! Join the opposition.
Change.org/alettosquare
Aletto Square has been planned with total disregard for a number of important issues. It just does not fit nor belong on that parcel. If you look at this project with open unbiased eyes, you will see how ridiculous and contraindicated it truly is. When you really see the location of this project, and understand our opposition, you’ll understand why it doesn’t belong.
Once this project is scheduled to appear before the Planning and Zoning Board, this website will explain in precise detail why it should not be approved. Until that time, let’s look at just one aspect: its disastrous impact on Downtown traffic and the safety and pedestrian nature of Sanborn Square.
Boca Raton spent a great deal of public funds transforming the area into the award winning feature it is today. Aletto would destroy everything that the public expects and enjoys about it.
Aletto would result in 6 times the number of daily traffic trips, according to the applicant’s traffic report:
Yet the streets are so narrow that vehicles coming in opposite directions have difficulty passing each other: usually one vehicle must pull over to make room for the other to pass.
When there are deliveries being made, they are basically one-way streets. Even if Aletto makes arrangements for its own deliveries, trucks are still entering the streets, and there are other properties on the streets receiving deliveries.
When there are special events in Sanborn Square, East Boca Raton Road and NE 1st Avenue are often used as staging areas, and sometimes closed to traffic. These events will be severely hampered by the office and restaurant traffic that Aletto would generate.
Vehicles leaving the area via NE 1st Ave to Palmetto Park Road will encounter the typical backup created by the traffic light at Federal Highway or the train crossing west of Dixie Highway. This will create a backup on NE 1st Ave further exasperating traffic, congestion, and pedestrian frustration in Sanborn Square.
One major point of the problem is the narrow intersection at NE 1st Ave and East Boca Raton Road.
This is the situation into which the developer hopes to flood with traffic if the city approves. This could become the legacy for an entire administration.
There are five points of congestion with this project. Because of the close proximity of these points, Aletto creates an unconscionable traffic situation that fundamentally destroys the nature of Sanborn Square.
The developer’s traffic report estimates that 70% of the inbound traffic would be coming from Palmetto Park Road to NE 1st Avenue. Because eastbound traffic on Palmetto can not turn left across the divided road, many would be making u-turns at Mizner Blvd backing up at that turn and possibly extending the queue onto the travel lanes.
This is a known situation. The tragic consequences that Aletto would create are open for all to see.
Over 1600 people have signed our petition opposing Aletto. People from all over Boca Raton. Here are just a sample of their comments on social media.
