The plan, less than a week old, would dramatically alter the character of a 2.2-mile strip of U.S. 441 from Sunrise Boulevard to Peters Road.
Concrete walls and eight-foot iron fences would go up between neighborhoods and businesses along U.S. 441 and at least 23 residential streets -- most south of Broward Boulevard -- would be barricaded. Plantation General Hospital and a nearby cluster of medical offices would be closed to through traffic and fenced in.
No one knows how much it would all cost -- although it would certainly run into the millions -- or who would pay for it. But as word of the project spread last week, residents and business owners, eager to stop deterioration, said they hoped it's not just some grandiose scheme.
"The concern that we have is that they're going to dillydally and waste time and not do it," said Bill Cuthbertson, a resident who wants to form a neighborhood association to lobby for redevelopment.
The plan's creator is city planning consultant Oscar Newman, president of the Institute for Community Design Analysis in New York. If all goes well, Newman said, the project could be complete by 1991.
"We're moving ahead fast," he said. "Some of the residents want to start closing the streets with temporary barricades now."
Newman, who has done similar projects in St. Louis and Hartford, Conn., unveiled his plan to a redevelopment committee on Thursday. The City Council won't see it for several weeks.
City officials are paying Newman's not-for-profit institute with a $190,000 grant they received through the state Safe Neighborhoods program, designed to fight crime and clean up neighborhoods through urban design and landscaping.
The redevelopment plan targets not only U.S. 441 but neighborhoods on both sides of the highway, including Country Club Estates on the west side.
"It would do a great deal toward turning that whole neighborhood around," Plantation Mayor Frank Veltri said.
Resident Susan Streicher said Country Club Estates was quiet when she moved onto Southwest Third Street nine years ago. That's all changed.
"The traffic is so bad," she said. "People who are trying to avoid 441 and Broward cut through our neighborhood."
Ed Madge, a Broward sheriff's detective who lives in the neighborhood, moved in five years ago.
"I've been trying to get the roads closed for over five years," he said. "My prime concern is the safety of these kids."
Traffic isn't his only worry.
"Half the stores along State Road 7 here are closed," Madge said. "They're deteriorating. We've got the hookers, too. They're walking between the Clock Restaurant and Broward Boulevard -- on our side of the street. Next there will be crack dealers and more businesses will close."
West of the highway, on Southwest First, Second and Third streets and other streets, "For Sale" signs dot the front lawns of many homes. Residents say their neighbors are moving west.
With redevelopment, city officials hope to stop the flight
from the area.
"Our primary objective is to reestablish an identity for the area," City Council President Rae Carole Armstrong said. "To do that, we all recognize it's going to take something creative, major and dramatic."
The only problem is paying for it, council member Ralph Merritt said. Through the Safe Neighborhoods program, the city can collect up to $200,000 a year in taxes from residents to pay for redevelopment, but, everyone agrees, that won't be enough.
Financing questions aside, the city will have to gain the cooperation of scores of businesses and hundreds of residents to pull off the plan. While many residents have signed petitions to close their streets, not everyone is happy.
Under the plan, Southwest Sixth Street would be one of the only roads open to traffic from U.S. 441. Residents there fear it would be a busy, dangerous thoroughfare.
Dr. Howard Neer, who has had a medical practice along U.S. 441 for 33 years, has another concern. He said the highway isn't wide enough for frontage roads.
"They would just totally wipe out the parking," he said. "It would destroy the business areas."
Still, other business owners along U.S. 441 are optimistic.
"It's an exciting thing," said Herb Yardley, owner of Massey-Yardley Chrysler Plymouth. "I would like to see it work."