Residents concerned about corridor project
An aura of resignation filled the banquet hall, as hundreds gathered at Deerfield Beach’s Doubletree Hotel for another Florida Department of Transportation meeting discussing the possibility of a new thoroughfare.
The so-called kick-off meeting for the Southwest 10th Street Connector Project was anything but a kick off considering potential construction wouldn’t begin until 2020 at the earliest.
Instead, FDOT employees with name tags hung on strings around their necks stood at the ready at banquet tables spread with 10-foot maps. Every one showed a massive road bisecting Deerfield Beach, and running from the Sawgrass Expressway to I-95 - essentially a widened 10th Street that will run right past Century Village, as well as residents the Waterways, Independence Bay, and Waterford Homes communities.
A coalition of residents had lobbied for less intrusive remedies such as traffic light coordination. But after years of meetings, many residents realized a roadway was inevitable and settled for a list of 18 conditions including that the new plan include a depressed roadway to help insulate Century Village from traffic noise.
“[The roadway] will be obsolete before it starts,” said former city commissioner Richard Rosenzweig. “It is not big enough to handle a population the county projects will double by 2030 and the way it is now, it divides Deerfield Beach in half. Not only that, they promised us a depressed roadway. I don’t see it.”
The project is now headed for an engineering analysis, among many other stages.
“Just remember that those of us who live near Southwest 10th Street need to be able to live there,” said Century Village resident Dan Rice. “It is not all about cars.”
“I hope it comes out the way you want it,” he said.