VERO BEACH — A plan to reroute traffic along interior streets in Central Beach as a way to ease the traffic snarl along Indian River Drive and Beachland Boulevard when parents go to pick up their children at Beachland Elementary School was met with a resounding “No” on Wednesday. More than 50 parents and residents in the Central Beach area told school officials, the architect of the plan and two school board members that there must be a better way for school buses and parents to get into the school without having to interfere with the lives of those on Date Palm and Mockingbird roads.
The plan to reroute the traffic on the two roads that border the school board property was put together after a huge public outcry when residents and parents learned last month that large swaths of the neighboring oak hammock would be cut down and roads would be built through it for the new parent- and bus pick-up spots.
Instead of hearing support for the plan, which would have meant saving the trees, school officials heard opposition.
More than a dozen people spoke, telling officials that the plan would do more harm than good to the safety of children who walk to and from school and would unfairly jeopardize those not affiliated with the school because of the additional traffic along Date Palm and Mockingbird roads.
Architect John Binkley, of Edlund, Dritenbas and Binkley Architects and Associates of Vero Beach, told the residents after the two-hour meeting at the school that once again, their concerns came across loud and clear.
It now appears that the school district is back to square one: Coming up with another plan.
