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Cycle of Life: Residents, Planners Pedal Abacoa

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Contributed by: Wendy Harrison on 5/12/2009

What has 100 legs, more than 100 wheels, a few dozen helmets, and 50 water bottles? The first ever A-bike-coa Planner's tour attracted residents of this planned community within the Town of Jupiter and more than 25 land planners from throughout southeast Florida. The Tour was organized by the nonprofit Abacoa Partnership for Community, established in 1997 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to increase understanding of new urbanist principles and encourage a sense of community within Abacoa.

Tour leader Raphael Clemente, a former bicycle/pedestrian planner with Palm Beach County (currently Associate Director of the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority), practices what he preaches. During a lunchtime talk on how to make our communities more bicycle-friendly, he told the group how he commutes by bicycle, even transporting his daughter to school, only using the car for essential errands like hauling 30-pound bags of mulch. Considerable food for thought after cycling the perimeter of Roger Dean Stadium, through single family and townhouse neighborhoods with front porches and street trees, past the 18-hole golf course, parks, and community centers, then a brief guided nature walk in part of Abacoa's 260-acre habitat before braving one of the traffic circles on the return trip to Town Center. About a dozen residents of the neighborhoods took advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the origins of their hometown, and land planners from as far away as Fort Lauderdale and Fort Pierce rode the 10-mile route.

Lifelong Learning Professor Tom Poulson familiarized the cyclists with typical native plants of the upland pine forest and wetland cypress habitats, pointing out nearby anhingas and cormorants flying by, and snail eggs on a shoreline plant. Town of Jupiter Planning and Zoning Director John Sickler discussed the issues involved in approving this planned development back in 1996 and now, such as requiring multiple architectural styles and the need to balance access to commercial uses with limited traffic through residential areas. Woolbright Development's Stephanie Young talked about the challenges of attracting and sustaining desirable retail shops in a town where not enough residents "shop at home". And closing this memorable excursion was Raphael, showing how cities like Amsterdam and Portland Oregon are living proof that driving less means less pavement and pollution, more community interaction.

Abacoa Partnership's survey forms offered tour participants the chance to get involved in regular bike tours and in an educational exhibit they are creating about the community and its design features/philosophy. Several tourists said they had such a great time they look forward to returning to downtown shops and restaurants. Proof that getting around more on two wheels, life can be as sweet as the samples of fresh-baked watermelon mincemeat pies and other temptations at the summertime Abacoa Green Market.

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