By Henry A. Stephens
staff writer
April 22, 2005

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The county's only real solution to honoring its approvals of development along 43rd and 27th avenues, while still keeping traffic moving, is to widen the roads, county planning advisers say.

"We have to widen 43rd, but do it with taste," Donna Keys, chairwoman of the county Planning and Zoning Commission, said Wednesday.

Faced with public opposition, county commissioners in November dropped plans to widen the two-lane 43rd Avenue to five lanes between Eighth and 26th streets.

The latest plan calls for three lanes from Eighth Street north to 16th Street, but keeps the planned five lanes from 16th Street north to 26th Street.

In a 5-1 vote Wednesday, the planning board rejected a proposed change to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan that would have, in part, let congestion on 43rd and 27th avenues increase without triggering road-widening projects.

Planning and Zoning Commissioner George Gross dissented, saying he favored the proposal. Commissioner Norman Hensick was absent.

The panel's recommendation heads to the County Commission for consideration before possibly going on to the state Department of Community Affairs for approval.

"The Board of County Commissioners made the political decision not to improve 27th and 43rd avenues," Planning and Zoning Commissioner Craig Fletcher said. "This (proposal) reflects that political decision."

State law requires counties and cities to set and maintain minimum levels of service for local roads. The county Comprehensive Plan sets the minimum level of service at "D," which state officials liken to the congestion of a busy urban highway.

Maintaining that service level, in the face of several subdivisions approved along 43rd Avenue, would mean widening the two-lane road to five lanes, county planners have said.

Traffic on 43rd Avenue already is so busy that the county must either widen the road, turn down building permits there or let the congestion increase to "F," a grade characterized by stop-and-go traffic, county Community Development Director Bob Keating said.

"We'll have a (43rd Avenue building) moratorium if we don't go to F," Keating said.

County Commission Chairman Tom Lowther in July started the push for an F service level.

He said he could support a landscaped median for a widened 43rd Avenue — if residents were in favor.

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