Providing relief to residents

Tamarac plans buffer walls along major roadways

Tamarac is planning to address noise and privacy concerns of residents who live near major roadways.

City officials recently approved going ahead with a plan to construct buffer walls along sections of major arterial roadways, including University Drive, Commercial Boulevard, McNab Road and State Road 7.

The buffer wall analysis is part of a comprehensive corridor study by Keith and Schnars; the firm looked at 34 potential sections before coming up with a shortlist of 10 locations. Constructing walls at these locations would cost the city about $ 5 million.

“Each of these locations is like a separate project onto itself,” said Frank Zickar, the city’s planning and zoning manager. “They have their own unique challenges.”

The city wants to begin work at the busiest locations first.

“We are going to look to start out east andwork down Commercial Boulevard. Then we will look to move to McNab Road and then to other locations,” City Manager Michael Cernech said. “If you look at the way that certain roads, particularly Commercial Boulevard and McNab, have grown over the years, these roads have encroached significantly into people’s lives by coming closer to their homes.”

City staff will soon start talking to neighborhood and homeowners’ associations that are affected by the project.

“They haven’t had any input into this,” Cernech said. “I don’t think we will get any significant objections to these proposals, but we could. If, for some reason, a neighborhood doesn’t want this, then we have other places to go.”

The corridor study, whichis ongoing, will also provide recommendations on gateway treatments and streetscape improvements. Theidea is to create a sense of place and entice private developers to invest in the city.