In 2015, the Town Council passed Resolution 15-1333, adopting the Town's 2015-2025 Strategic Plan. The 2025 Strategic Plan identifies goals and strategies, which help to guide the Town's planning efforts toward becoming a vibrant community that is safe and friendly to all ages and provides mobility options, which inspire the Town to continue “Growing Beautifully”. Under the Strategic Plan, enhancing vehicular and non-vehicular mobility, was identified as the Town's number one priority. To meet this goal, several objectives were identified, one of which is to improve transit mobility through the construction of a Park-and-Ride facility at the Par 3 site.
Park-n-Ride facilities are designated areas, where automobile drivers can park their vehicles or commuters can be dropped off and then board public transit vehicles. The goal of the Park-and-Ride project is to provide the Miami Lakes community with access to regional public transportation and to reduce traffic congestion by encouraging the use of alternative modes of transportation. The Par 3 Park-and-Ride is located off NW 154th Street/Miami Lakes Drive and NW 77th Avenue, right of the Palmetto Expressway and will be providing future express bus service from Miami Lakes to the Palmetto Metrorail Station during morning and evening peak hours.
The Town has been coordinating with Miami-Dade County Transportation and Public Works to allocate County Road Impact Fee funding for the construction of this facility. Under the road impact fee ordinance, impact fees may be expended on select transit capital improvements provided that the Board of County Commissioners, after recommendation from the Mayor in consultation with theTransportation and Public WorksDirector, and after a public hearing determines that such transit use of roadway trust funds would be effective as part of the County's strategy for providing roadway capacity and would provide a benefit to the impact fee district. In order to demonstrate the benefit this project will have to the roadway network per the requirements in the County's ordinance, the Town has agreed to conduct a traffic assessment study for the Par 3 Park-and-Ride facility. The result of the study will assist to justify the County impact fee expenditure for the design and construction of this project, which is valued at $1.8 million.
The cost of the traffic assessment study is $62,396 and funding has been identified in the Town's PTP 20 -Transit budget.