Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
U.S. 1 TO GET A MAKEOVER
Hollywood plans $12 million project for Federal Highway stretch known for drugs, prostitution
HOLLYWOOD – It ain’t pretty, but it will be.
Federal Highway — a key corridor that ushers 36,000 drivers a day through the heart of downtown Hollywood — is in line for a $12 million makeover from Sheridan Street to Pembroke Road.
The gritty 4-mile stretch, with a reputation as a haven for drugs and prostitution, will boast fancy paver sidewalks, elegant landscaping and well-marked bike lanes.
So far, Hollywood is the only city in Broward County with big plans to redesign Federal Highway, also known as U.S. 1.
“That’s our gateway from the north and south,” Hollywood Commissioner Debra Case said. “We want to connect the dots from city to
“We want to ... have a stretch of beautiful landscaping, clean buildings and things to do.” Debra Case, Hollywood commissioner
city, to go from the airport to Dania to Hollywood and have a stretch of beautiful landscaping, clean buildings and things to do.”
The plan aims to make the road not only prettier but safer, said Greg Stuart, executive director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. The redesign calls for wider sidewalks and bike lanes where there are none now, he said.
The project should begin in 2021 and take up to three years, with the MPO funding $7.5 million and Hollywood and its redevelopment agency paying the rest.
Construction crews will tackle the project in sections, Stuart said.
“The whole idea was to soften the harsh look of Federal Highway through Hollywood,” he said.
Other redesigned roadways throughout the region have gone from four to two lanes. The idea is to slow down traffic and make things safer for bicyclists and people on foot, Stuart said.
That happened in Fort Lauderdale along a four-block stretch of A1A north of Sunrise Boulevard. The $11.8 million redesign — completed in 2015 — added turn lanes, a wider sidewalk and landscaped medians.
Before the redesign, that section of A1A averaged 14 accidents a year, Stuart said, and now it’s down to none.
In Hollywood, Federal Highway will keep its four lanes.
“Some roads can’t go on diets,” Stuart said. “It depends on the traffic volume and there’s a lot of traffic [on Federal].”
Hollywood leaders are hoping the redesign — along with new zoning that allows mixed-use projects along Federal Highway — will help trigger a redevelopment boom along the struggling corridor. It’s already happening in Fort Lauderdale and Miami’s Wynwood community.
“We feel like we’re the last belle at the ball,” said longtime resident Clive Taylor Jr. “As soon as you cross south of Sheridan Street you run into abandoned buildings. And first impressions are lasting impressions. They’ve got to clean up that gateway or we are never going to evolve into what we see happening around us.”
For years, residents and Hollywood officials alike have griped about this homely stretch of asphalt.
Many blamed a homeless shelter for blocking development along Federal Highway after it established a presence on the crowded thoroughfare in 2002.
In 2015, Hollywood paid owner Sean Cononie $4.8 million to close up shop and promise not to come back for 30 years. The city demolished the shelter and put the land up for sale, but so far has had no buyers.
“That was just one piece of the puzzle — and it did help,” Commissioner Peter Hernandez said. “Calls for service along U.S. 1 have dropped and so has the vagrancy.”
Commissioner Dick Blattner has high hopes the redesign will help purge the area of the more grimy storefronts and motels that rent rooms by the hour.
“The value of those properties will increase and hopefully investors will come,” Blattner said. “The owners of those motels that rent rooms by the hour will make out like bandits. Their properties will be worth more.”
Richard Clavet, the owner of a well-run motel on Federal Highway., said Hollywood has a long way to go before its section of Federal Highway is on par with Fort Lauderdale’s.
“The worst place used to be in Fort Lauderdale north of Broward Boulevard,” he said. “But now that’s one of the nicest sections [of Federal Highway]. It’s like night and day.”