VERO BEACH — Residents of Central Beach scored a victory Thursday when the city’s Planning and Zoning board refused to allow a conditional use permit that would nearly double the amount of cars on residential streets from parents coming to and from Beachland Elementary School each day.
For some two years residents of the quaint oak-lined area of the barrier island have been gathering to collect information on the School District’s plan to change the current flow traffic off Beachland and Indian River roads. The two roads typically come to a stand still in spots as more than 100 parents shuttle their kids back and forth to the school.
The School District has maintained that a change in the traffic flow was necessary to keep kids safe. Three plans had been presented to parents over the past year including one that wold have cut down oak hammock that is adjacent to the school.
The plan brought before the planning group entailed changing the parent pick up location which would have had more than 200 cars traveling down Date Palm and Mocking Bird roads each day.
Members of the planning board voted unanimously to not approve the plan. The several-hour long meeting was attended by numerous Central Beach residents including a lawyer for the group.
Speaking on behalf of the island’s only public school were engineers, designers, the school’s principal and Board member Matt McCain. Many on the school’s side said the latest plan was a compromise in an attempt to continue to be good neighbors with the residents in Central Beach.
“I’m a big property rights person,” said Board chairman Larry Lauffer. “I don’t know what they (the Central Beach residents) got as a compromise.”
It was not immediately clear following the meeting if the School District would attempt to bring the matter forward to the Vero Beach City Council to weigh in on.