ROYAL PALM BEACH - Residents cheered and applauded last week after the Royal Palm Beach Village Council voted 4-1 to not build a connection that would have linked Madrid Street to a reliever road providing quicker access to U.S. Highway 441.

However, not everyone was happy with that decision. Councilwoman Martha Webster was the only the one to vote against the decision.

"This neighborhood is short sighted in understanding the inter-municipal partnerships that breed harmony and cooperation in coming to practical solutions. We are going to need to work with our neighbors in creating a mid county north south exit way for emergencies," she said.

Webster said there were 71 against and 60 people for the connection who either spoke or filled out comment cards at the meeting last week.

"The four [council] members voting against the connection were obviously convinced that the overwhelming comments were going to be against the opening and had positioned themselves for that argument only," she said.

The road would have added more traffic through the neighborhood of La Mancha and many of its residents showed up to oppose the connection even though it would have given them easy access to U.S. Highway 441.

The reliever road was opened in April to help relieve traffic in Royal Palm Beach and provide residents of the Acreage a by-pass to Royal Palm Beach. Eventually there are plans to extend the road an additional mile to 60th Street North with in the next five years. Currently there are only two connections on the road, one at Persimmon and a half-mile further south at Orange Grove Boulevard. Madrid would have added a third connection.

Michelle Damone, president of the Indian Trail Improvement District, was also disappointed with the vote.

"I was disappointed," she said. She went on to say that she didn't believe Acreage residents would have utilized that connection. Why would they when they had two connections of their own, she said. She also pointed out that about 2,000 trips made on both of the Acreage connections each day are Royal Palm Beach residents. She said all of the Western Communities pushed for the reliever road to be built and therefore it would have been nice for Royal Palm Beach to take their fair share of the traffic.

Damone said that she understands that it was a difficult decision. It was a difficult for her to approve the connections at Persimmon and Orange Grove Boulevard. She said the people living on those streets have forever been impacted. But she felt the connections were for the greater good of the community.