Cimmaron Drive is one of those collector roads that ITT designed in Palm Coast as if to give engineers nightmares, like Florida Park Drive: it’s narrow, single-family residential homes almost hug the road in close succession, and there’s not much you can do with rights of way because there barely are any. There’s no room for sidewalks, and even swales seem to have a hard time soaking it in.
Stretching among some of the city’s more walkable areas between Palm Harbor Parkway and Cimmaron’s entrance to The Sanctuary, the gated community, it was a matter of time before residents would start complaining about the road’s degradation and its impact on their ability to walk it, ride it or skirt its often indifferent traffic. That time is now.
Residents are clamoring for a sidewalk.
For the past couple of Palm Coast City Council meetings, residents along the road, or those who like to ride their bikes and walk their dogs along it, have been imploring the council to address the road’s literal fraying at the edges: the asphalt in part turns to miniature cliffs of Dover rather than slope into the grass, and in rainy days, the narrow swales make it difficult to step off the macadam. For bikers skirting the edge of the road, its sudden fractures can be unnerving. (See the brief video of the length of Cimmaron Drive below.)
Deborah Sines moved to Palm Coast in 2018 and assured the council earlier this week that she’s “not one of those northerners that wants to come down here and change anything.” But she had to stop walking her dog on Cimmaron Drive, where she lives, and now has to drive her dog to a preserve, because the swales on both sides of the road make it “dangerous.” She described a close call with a truck in March.
“This situation has just gotten to be so dangerous,” another resident and walker said. “The roads deteriorate as they get to the edge, they do slant down. So we’re walking kind of out of tilt. If you go off the road you might hit a ditch or a dip where it’s lost a lot of the dirt. Sometimes the grass is even with the road, sometimes it’s a 4-, 5-inch drop.”
A third resident who moved to the city in 2001 and for 15 years walked and biked along the road, “no problem.” The problem arose in the last two years. He attributes the deterioration to the ongoing building boom, particularly at The Sanctuary subdivision. “There are 170 lots in the Sanctuary,” he said, “100 have been built on, so that’s going to be another 70 homes with all the traffic going in and out. The other thing that’s going to happen along with all the buildings going on, once people move in, you’re going to find out that you’re going to have all the lawn mowers coming in and all the maintenance coming in, that’s going to put more stress on Cimmaron Drive.”
He asked for the council to consider building a pedestrian walkway along Cimmaron “and maybe use this as an experiment for other parts of the city because I’m sure it’s going to be coming up in parts of the city that do not have sidewalks,” the resident said.
A woman phoning in her comment said she’d been biking along Cimmaron since 2008, but that road “has been getting increasingly more dangerous over the years with increased traffic and speeding drivers. “We’d like to see a minimum of a bike pedestrian lane on one or both sides of the busy street. To ride on the side of the road which is now deteriorating terribly, as mentioned by earlier speakers, is getting very dangerous, and there is going to be an accident.”
Based on the street’s layout, however, a pedestrian walkway would be possible only if residents were willing to see their driveways and front yards encroached to accommodate the path.
At a council workshop last week a Cimmaron resident spoke of the road’s hazards to school children, as they wait for their buses. “It’s an accident waiting to happen. It’s just a matter of time,” he said.
Getting a sidewalk is complicated, though–grimly, inexcusably–it has taken pedestrian fatalities to get the concrete pouring in the past: it was only after the death of a 16-year-old Matanzas high school student, struck by a car at night in 2017 as the student was walking there with a friend, that the city finally moved to build a sidewalk and add lights to Lakeview Parkway at the north end of the city. The current council has been more active than its predecessors in lighting up the city.
“There is a rhyme and reason why sidewalks are put in place some of them are restricted for certain reasons so I’m not familiar with Cimmaron and what those restrictions would be,” Mayor Milissa Holland said at a workshop earlier this month, after hearing the Cimmaron complaints. She said a needs analysis was the first and necessary step. If at that point the council deems a sidewalk necessary, the proposal is added to the city’s capital projects list and funding is sought. If the Transportation Planning Organization or the Florida Department of Transportation is the funding source, other requirements kick in.
Holland directed Morton to “meet with your staff and determine what conversations have taken place, and any studies that have been done historically in that part of our community,” and report back. “And the TPO director, by the way, lives over in that area, so I’ll be sure to make sure that she goes out there and takes an extra look at it as well,” Holland said, referring to the Transportation Planning Organization.
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Art Bowles says
I drive that road on my way to the Sanctuary every day. It’s an accident waiting to happen. Walker’s, bikers, landscape trucks blocking the road, sunrise, 90 degree curve, bus stops, potholes and water filled swales!!! All a recipe for disaster. I don’t think sidewalks are feasible but would be nice. A bike lane maybe, but for starters lower the speed limit to 25. Then have the FCSO traffic unit stop by once in a while. I have never seen speed enforcement on that road in 15 years. And last but not least, start writing tickets for all those who NEVER stop but just roll through those STOP signs.
where the sidewalk ends says
Old kings took like 12 years to get a sidewalk, Cimarron will be a dirt road, by natural degradation from wear and tear, before a walk is installed. BTW why install a walk on old kings a year or so before it is scheduled to be widened? Has that plan, too, kicked the bucket, yet again?
Dennis C Rathsam says
Its sad to see this happening again, when the city was established by ITT many years ago, the plan was severly flaud. 95 % of our streets are way too narrow, with 2 way traffic, mail boxes,close to the street,2 cars cannot pass, one has to stop, or fear taking out a mail box or two. Now if there’s a car parked, on the side of the road, its another obsticle, to get around. This problem will be with us forever, unless the swales are replaced by sewers, & sidewalks.
Lnzc says
Parkview drive needs sidewalk for school kids walking in the street
cgm says
PC was design as a retirement community not a works community. My mother bought a condo in 1980 at Shangrila.
there was only 1 way into the F/C sections by car, you had to come through the guard house at Old kings rd and SR100 (no entry after 6PM.)
There was no overpass over 95 on Palm Coast parkway, and no access coming south on Old Kings Road from RT1.
Palm coast Parkway was 1 lane in each direction.
once the PCP overpass was installed the traffic started into the F section, Florida Park was spared a lot of traffic because Old King didn’t go all the was to rt1, once Old Kings was open that all changed. Then came the hammock toll bridge- that destroyed the quite F section and the Hammock! Then came the Matanzas overpass and the end to the quite F section.
GOVERNMENT ALWAYS KNOW (WHATS BETTER FOR US) HOW TO SCREW THINGS UP!
MRC says
I have strongly advocated for SIDEWALKS, STREET LIGHTS, AND STORM SEWERS, ever since moving here. Until residents unite and demand it get done, nothing will ever happen. All of this la, la, la about the past history of Palm Coast and “preserving the character” of the town are outdated, and seriously flawed from the get go. We need basic infrastructure to make the city safe and functional. With all of the building going on, stress on the current structure is untenable in the long run. In other words, things will get much worse unless the city totally focuses on the infrastructural needs rather than these “fluff” projects like expanding park amenities and such. That can be done later. With the legislation that the federal government is putting forth for infrastructure repair and replacement, the city needs to hop on the band wagon and pursue grants like there is no tomorrow. This will not only improve the safety and quality of life of the residents, but will fuel more employment opportunities. Get with it City of Palm Coast!
Street Beat says
You mean ITT pitched Palm Coast as a retirement community. It never really even lived up to that. There’s more to retiring than golf courses and tennis courts, which incidentally wasn’t enough to pacify the retires that came here. ITT never planned on sticking around anyway. They deliberately built and constructed in a way just to get by and then bailed.
TR says
Why they’re at it why not stop traffic from driving down that road. 25 mph that’s ridicules, minus well push your car.
Inthenameofunity says
They did the same thing for both phases of the widening of Belle Terre Pky. They had to tear up miles of new sidewalk.
Deborah Sines says
The article spelled Cimmaron Drive incorrectly. Since the article was about Cimmaron Drive, someone should have checked the spelling. My name was also misspelled, but that’s not important. Other than the spelling, the article was accurate.
FlaglerLive says
Our apologies about the misspellings, especially your name, and thank you for alerting us to correct them. We would flog the offender–a repeat offender if there ever was one–but even his rather thick skin has all but withered from previous floggings. We are in the market for a pillory.
Deborah Sines says
While I am not the grammar police, I’m glad you corrected the spelling errors. Please don’t flog your reporter. Sounds like you’ve already taken care of the problem!
TR says
I agree 100%. Now how can we get the citizens with logic to push for these changes?
Celia M Pugliese says
Don’t we have more important fish to fry than “spelling”. We should appreciate that Flagler Live gave such a good report to all the concerned C,,,on residents and users (can’t remember the spelling either . God help anyone that may try to spell my first or last names correct, much worse even to pronounce it as no one could ever even pass the first three letters. I just smile and do not duel over it as life is too short. Thank you FlaglerLive as you mentioned Florida Park Drive as well, yet only partially resolved due to Covid we think, but we respectfully keep the faith and the issue alive!