WESTLAKE, Fla. — With development comes traffic.
"When the building started, when that started, those developments, that's when things started to change drastically," a resident of the Ibis community tells WPTV.
Growth in and around the Westlake area has added hundreds of cars to the roads which take drivers to and from Interstate 95.
"It is a struggle to get down Northlake [Boulevard]," a resident said.
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District 6 County Commissioner Sara Baxter, who represents the western communities in Palm Beach County, said the county is well aware of the community's traffic concerns.
"Traffic relief is huge right now to focus on," Baxter said. "We really need to focus on it to help everyone out here."
Baxter hopes to soon see more through roads in the area.
"The more roads, the less congestion on any one road and not to mention if we have traffic issues or a big accident," she said. "There needs to be alternative routes."
The director of the county's traffic division said widening projects for parts of Northlake Boulevard and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road are already underway.
Residents who live out west said these projects can't be done soon enough.
"It used to take me about maybe 15 to 20 minutes [to get to I-95], now it takes me 45 to 50," another resident said.
But for Azmatis Matov, the manager at Avanti Pizza & Pasta, located at the corner of Northlake Boulevard and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, the growth comes with benefits.
"It helps us a lot," Matov said.
Matov said they now serve about 30% more customers than they did a few years ago. But even more noticeable, he said it seems people are sticking around through the summer months.
"We used to get like 50% less during the off-season," Matov said. "Now it's like 30% down."
