Slideshow: Lake Worth Transit Oriented Development Charrette - 6/21

The group - about 30 or so I would guess - showed up around 9 a.m. and listened to Dana Little of Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council go through a Powerpoint presentation on the relationship of land use and mass transit. More broadly put, he explored the built environment's relationship with mobility - how people get from here to there.

This is done in the backdrop of record prices for oil and gasoline, along with the prospect of transit service eventually being offered on the FEC railroad. This eastern railway currently serves only freight; the State of Florida is in the process of buying the right-of-way from the private company that owns it. An on-going study is underway that is dealing with all the issues related to the establishment of a transit rail use, in addition to maintaining freight operations. By clicking here you will be taken to the site that outlines all the details of the on-going study.

A total of 5 groups went to work over aerial photos and tracing paper to come up with ideas and concepts in a "what if" scenario involving transit rail on the FEC. Certain parameters were given - the platform for the station needed to be a minimum of 500 feet long, station spaces is generally not encouraged closer than 1/2 mile apart, etc. With that sort of basic information, each group came up with different approaches with some surprising commonalities.

You can inspect the work of the groups at the Shuffleboard Court building - west room, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. now through this coming Thursday. A final presentation will be made this coming Friday. I will provide more details as the day gets closer. During the week, they will also have other experts available. One notable expert in particular is Robert Gibbs, an expert in downtown and traditional development retailing.

So, please, sometime during the week, drop by, chat with the Treasure Coast planning staff and review our work from Saturday. FYI - my group was #5. Your input and direction is needed as this is an important strategic consideration for the City of Lake Worth!