On Tuesday night City Hall was packed with lots of unhappy Delray folks.

Most of them not even in the chamber.

When the public was finally allowed to speak, the mayor and commissioners were asked why meetings are held in such a small space when they are aware the topic is a hot one and many people will attend.

If there was an answer, I didn't hear it.

Currently the first 150 to arrive are seated. The rest (of the voters/taxpayers) have to stand out in the hallway with the doors to the chamber closed.

Talk of banning bikers from driving on Atlantic Avenue and a proposed development - or as those of us who love the area call it, over-development - of Blood's Hammock Groves off Old Germantown Road were the big draws.

The bikers were a colorful group. And there was no doubt they weren't happy making the residents who live off Old Germantown seem, well, tame by comparison.

But opposition to the Blood's project runs deep and has united residents who previously didn't know one another, up and down the road.

For decades the 10-acre site was home to a citrus grove and a charming fruit and vegetable retail store. After it was sold area residents knew development was inevitable but didn't see this coming.

One-hundred and sixteen, 3-story townhouses and a 3-story medical building will be built on the once bucolic site. Traffic on Germantown Road will be a nightmare.

Sandwiched amidst the traffic is a school and a fire station.

Before voting, the commissioners and mayor had their say. One commissioner talked about "Germantown Avenue."

And one (who lives in the area) talked about the high rises already there. He failed to mention how very deep the set backs are and that they exit on to Congress Avenue or Homewood Boulevard, not Germantown.

Fortunately for the bikers, the outcome was positive.

I was happy for them. Not because I'm a biker but I don't want to see quirky Delray turned into a sterile, perfect “Stepford Town as in “Stepford Wives.”

Commissioners decided bikers have 90 days to clean up their act and to pass the word that roaring up and down "the avenue" is not nice.

Bikers left the meeting smiling but those who came about Blood's left concerned.

Unless they find a legality to prevent it, one of the few area's in Delray that still retains much of it's original character will be bulldozed away forever. It really is a tragedy.

If you've never been to a City Commission meeting, you owe it to yourself to go.

But don't forget - bring a chair.

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