To its residents, Miami Lakes is widely recognized as a welcoming community with “extraordinary beauty” where state of the art planning concepts create vibrant hubs that are safe and friendly to all people.
And that’s the town’s vision for the next nine years, as town officials and residents established their goals and objectives for Miami Lakes’ Strategic Plan during a workshop last month at Miami Lakes Town Hall.
Town Manager Alex Rey and his staff gave a presentation on the initiatives, programs and funding the town needs to make the Strategic Plan a success by 2026.
The initial steps in accomplishing the town’s goals in nine years include achieving universal environmental sustainability in public and private environments; operations and infrastructure; achieving better communication, transparency and public participation on town-wide issues; and achieving national recognition as a model town for creativity, education, innovation and use of technology.
0002000005AC000003E65A6,Town staff outlined the initiatives, programs and funding to further make Miami Lakes the best community to live, work and play in South Florida.
Creating and maintaining a public-private partnership to market the town is part of Strategic Plan, costing around $50,000, which was approved by council members earlier last year.
Miami Lakes wants to provide better safe routes to area schools, especially along Miami Lakeway South, by implementing the Greenways and Trails Master Plan. The project is estimated at $550,000 and the designs are almost complete.
The only achilles heel for Miami Lakes is traffic congestion.
Town officials are seeking to improve mobility including allowing left turns from southbound on Montrose Road to eastbound Oak Lane.
The town is also targeting other locations for traffic gridlock by conducting studies to come up with solutions to be reviewed by the county for approval.
Miami Lakes also wants to add a traffic light at the intersection of N.W. 79 Court and 154 Street to ease gridlock, and improve traffic flow from the east to west direction with an adaptive signalization along 154 Street between N.W. 82 Avenue and Palmetto Expressway. The cost estimate for the latter project is $360,000.
To address some ADA issues, Miami Lakes has designed a sidewalk master plan to improve transit and pedestrian mobility for $2 million, and a sidewalk system in the business parks for a cost of about $1.1 million.
0002000002E60000098C2E0,For beautification, Miami Lakes is seeking to upgrade its Beautification Master Plan with gateway improvements near N.W. 154 Street and 77 Court ($200,000); at N.W. 67 Avenue and 138 Street ($200,000); and at N.W. 87 Avenue and 138 Street ($100,000).
The West Lakes Reforestation program is also part of the town’s Strategic Plan, as the park’s beautification project is estimated to cost $500,000.
About $100,000 was allocated this year to initiate the program which includes removing and replacing canopies in Miami Lakes.
The Miami Lakes Optimist Park is slated for a major beautification makeover, as the town is planning to spend $2.5 million on the park’s master plan, and develop the bridge park between Miami Lakes and Hialeah.
00020000018100000C6C17B,Also as part of the Strategic Plan, the Town is implementing a Complete Streets at Town Center program to improve transit and pedestrian mobility.
The town has already been granted a $50,000 award by the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the program.
In addition, the town is seeking to replace and upgrade lighting infrastructure in one year for a cost of $360,000.