New Home Depot approved

Posted on Thursday September 08, 2005

PEMBROKE PINES | 3-2 COMMISSION VOTE

New Home Depot approved

City commissioners have agreed to a Home Depot for Pines Boulevard and Hiatus Road.

BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@herald.com

The Home Depot can build a new store in Pembroke Pines, the City Commission decided Wednesday.

Some residents fear that the new store -- slated for the northeast corner of Pines Boulevard and Hiatus Road, across from the Pembroke Lakes Mall -- would bring too much traffic to Hiatus.

''I just feel Home Depot at that intersection is going to be a disaster,'' resident Bob Hendry told the commission Wednesday night. ``It's going to add traffic to that intersection.''

But other neighbors supported the project, saying it was better than alternatives, such as a Super Wal-Mart.

''This property is going to get developed,'' resident Beth Adler said. ``It's not Home Depot or nothing.''

Commissioners approved the store in a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Frank Ortis and commissioners Angelo Castillo and Ben Fiorendino voting for it. Commissioners Bill Armstrong and Iris Siple voted against it.

The company wants to sell its 11-year-old store at Pines Boulevard and 129th Avenue and move to the new location.

The company has proposed a 152,000-square-foot store, with an additional 82,000 square feet of retail space.

The new development would generate about 8,000 car trips a day, less trips than other big-box retailers, according to a traffic consultant for Home Depot.

Ortis met with the developer and a representative from the Pembroke Lakes homeowners' association, where many residents oppose the store, to discuss their concerns.

The company's attorney told Ortis that ''all delivery trucks, both Home Depot and other vendors, will go out on Pines Boulevard, not through the neighborhood,'' he said. ``They were concerned about traffic going through the neighborhood, so we're trying to alleviate that.''

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