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By Sharon Aron Baron

The corner of 64th Avenue and Commercial Boulevard drives me crazy whenever I go by it. My husband doesn’t understand why I can’t just look away when we pass this neglected corner. So many people pass by the Woodlands on their way to work each morning. Indeed someone else besides me notices this.

I don’t understand why the crew at Prestige Landscaping, which is run by the City of Tamarac, stops short at this corner and fails to maintain this tiny area. The landscapers once maintained this area for the development down the street, but once they stopped, the city never did the same job because they insisted they didn’t keep the right-of-way.

Last June, I brought it up to our WHOA President, who turned the matter over to Peyton at code enforcement. Nothing was being done or followed up.

Leny Hixon brought this up at our Homeowner’s Meeting in February to City Manager Michael Cernech. I wrote about it here, but it didn’t go very well.

The bottom line was the city refused to maintain that area, saying the homeowner needed to keep the right-of-way. It was part of Section 20-112 of the Municode, which states:

All property owners within the city are required to maintain at a height not to exceed six (6) inches from the ground all unpaved public right-of-way abutting their property by cutting grass, weeds, and other vegetation on the unpaved public right-of-way. For this section, the term “property owner” means the person or persons shown on the county real estate tax records as the owner of the property. The term “public right-of-way” means all streets, roads, alleys, lanes, waters, or other public ways where the public has the right to travel or is open to the public’s use.

I requested the vacation information from the City of Lauderhill, which clearly stated that it was all city property. Yes, that we knew. I also received property records showing that the city expected the residents to maintain an area clearly outside their property line.

The Corner of 64th Ave and Commercial Blvd in Tamarac. Not the best photo, but if you look closer, it’s highly neglected and weedy.

I didn’t understand why a property owner would have to maintain land that didn’t belong to them. What didn’t make sense is if the city thought that the adjacent property owner was supposed to keep the right-of-way, why weren’t they being cited for code violations for not doing so?

This past week, I attended the city commission meeting and presented this information to the Mayor, Commissioners, and City Manager about the corner. I didn’t expect any response, but I was glad to see that Mayor Talabisco seemed to agree that the area also needed attention.

City Manager Cernech did speak and said he recalled this being brought up at our homeowner’s association meeting and said the response he gave “was not a good answer and not a fair answer.” He noted that other communities want their right-of-ways maintained by the city, and if they maintained ours, they would need to maintain the others.

Cernech said that he would sit down at budget time beginning in late June thru adoption in mid-September to see the costs of maintaining it. These are public meetings, and they will be posted.

He also added that The City is currently completing a corridor study, providing some specific recommendations regarding streetscape and appearance issues throughout the city’s major commercial corridors. The intersections at Rock Island and 64th will be evaluated as a part of the study.

Cernech expects to have some recommendations about improvements to both. He wants to emphasize that the upgrades will be prioritized and implemented over several years. Still, he hopes that something could be done at the 64th and Commercial intersection sooner than later, but not immediately.

With this next budget coming up, they will realize that the cost of maintaining this tiny right-of-way area will be minuscule, and hopefully, our side of the street will look as beautiful as Lauderhill’s.