Important Ag Reserve vote imminent
On Wednesday, the Palm Beach County Commission gets another chance to do what is best for the Agricultural Reserve Area: nothing.
In 1999, voters taxed themselves $100 million for a plan to make the reserve’s 22,000 acres more farm-friendly. Part of the approach involved buying land for preservation. Part of the approach involved buying farmland and then leasing it back to the former owners to be farmed. Part of the approach involved setting aside just two parcels for commercial development, to keep non-agriculture businesses from encroaching onto farmland.
Yet three landowners want the county to change their land use from agricultural to commercial, so they could make more money by selling for development. They could make millions under the current system, but they want to make more millions. Another proposal would increase development rights for some small landowners.
Conservation groups correctly argue that there is no need for more commercial development in the Agricultural Reserve. In addition, some of the proposals would put that development west of State Road 7, beyond which all land is in farming or preservation. Another proposal initially would have threatened the reserve with more development, supposedly to increase the supply of affordable housing.
The landowners who seek this favor want to have it both ways. For years, they have paid low property taxes because the land is zoned for agricultural use. Now, they want to sell the land for a much higher use without having to repay any of that tax revenue.
Some landowners try to argue that this is a property rights issue. Lisa Interlandi, a staff attorney with the Everglades Law Center, responds that no owner is entitled to a land-use change. Those voters who taxed themselves, however, are entitled to consideration from the commission. The commission should be promoting and encouraging agriculture in the agricultural reserve.
iPic Review
Delray Beach’s review of the iPic project last week got down into the weeds and the trees.
Specifically, the city’s site plan review and appearance board wondered why the landscaping proposed for the project looks like that for so many other developments. One board member referred to a certain planting as “the cheapest thing you can get at Home Depot.” And why date palms. Why not foxtail palms? How would iPic irrigate the “green wall” landscaping feature? Without enough water, one board member said, Delray Beach would be more likely to get a “brown wall.”
Such comments might seem picky. Of course, iPic touts this as a signature project for downtown Delray, with a design that some—including Mayor Cary Glickstein—have praised as exciting and unique. The point about the trees was that you can’t advertise something as iconic and then make it pedestrian.
Still, the board approved the site plan, with some nominal conditions. The plan will go to the city commission for final review. The vote was 5-2, the dissenters being Chairman Jose Aquila and Andrew Youngross. Aguila, a Delray Beach architect, is a Glickstein appointee. When the commission last summer approved conditional uses for iPic, Glickstein was the most vocal in asking for a smaller, more compatible project.
Aquila said the project is “a little better, but not enough. It’s too dense.” In addition to the eight-screen theater, Fourth and Fifth Delray would have nearly 8,000 square feet of retail space and 42,400 square feet of office space. Andrew Youngross, whom former commissioner Adam Frankel appointed to the site plan board, called the project simply “too big” for the roughly 1.5 acres once home to the city library and chamber of commerce.
We did learn at the meeting that iPic’s corporate offices would take up roughly 30 percent of that office space. IPic attorney Bonnie Miskell said the company “absolutely, unequivocally” would move from Boca Raton if Delray approved the project.
Another interesting aspect of the meeting was the near-absence of public comment, especially in opposition. Robert George, who formerly owned the block on East Atlantic Avenue in front of where the project would go, did not attend to make the case against approval even after he obtained legal standing to do so. Perhaps the opponents have surrendered. More likely, they are waiting until iPic gets to the commission.
Aquila was “not buying” the idea that a security guard could prevent drop-offs of people onto Fifth Avenue, which could cause traffic problems. Of the project, Aquila said, “It just doesn’t work” for the site. At this point, however, iPic only must persuade three commissioners that it does. The decision should come next month.
More traffic study
Having studied for months one of the city’s most congested intersections for months, Boca Raton will continue to study it.
The city reported Monday that even though the consultant has lots of information about the intersection of Northeast Fifth Avenue and Palmetto Park Road, the consultant would collect data in February “to verify that the existing data is appropriate and representative. . .” After analyzing that information, the consultant will offer suggestions for easing that congestion.
You can assume that the call for more study came from residents of the Golden Triangle who live north and west of the intersection. They have urged against Boca allowing a restaurant on the Wildflower property near the northeast corner of that intersection. With luck, discussion of what the city should do at Fifth and Palmetto Park will involve the restaurant as a reality, not a possibility.
Atlantic Crossing cease-fire
Atlantic Crossing’s developers have called a 60-day pause in their lawsuit against Delray Beach, City Attorney Noel Pfeffer told me on Monday. That break could offer a chance to resolve the lawsuit, but now there’s another potential problem.
The developers contend that the city has deliberately delayed final approvals of the mixed-use project. On Wednesday, a new Atlantic Crossing site plan goes before the site plan review and appearance board. It includes an access road into the west side of the project from Northeast Sixth Avenue that the commission, based on comments from residents, has asked the developers to include as a way to relieve traffic congestion.
This one isn’t the commission’s choice, because the commission hasn’t taken a vote. A traffic engineering firm recommended this option—a one-way driveway connecting Northeast Seventh Avenue and Northeast Sixth Avenue.
City planners, however, want the site plan review and appearance board to deny the new plan at Wednesday’s meeting. A different consultant, which the city hired, concluded that the one-way driveway is not the best option. The staff report says the road would cause “too much internal conflict” on the main entrance at Seventh Avenue.
After the site plan board reviews the project, the commission will have a chance. It’s been six months since the commission had any formal discussion of Atlantic Crossing. During that time, the lawyers have been talking. That has made for a lot of billable hours but not much progress toward a resolution. A trial date is set for May in federal court. The pause would push back that date.
Critics of Atlantic Crossing will not be pleased to hear that the city’s consultant believes that the existing intersections can handle new traffic from the development. The commission brought some of this problem on itself by ducking a decision on the road last summer. Now city staff is opposing what might have been a solution.
If the site plan remains stalled, Atlantic Crossing and the city would go to trial. The pause would push the date back roughly two months from May. It’s time for the commission to re-engage.
Boca salary increases
At tonight’s meeting, the Boca Raton City Council will debate the new proposal for raising the mayor’s and council members’ salaries, which have not increased in three decades.
Under the new proposed ordinance, the mayor would get about $38,000, up from $9,000. The council would get nearly $29,000. Those figures are 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of a Palm Beach County commissioner’s salary. Voters would have to approve the raises in an August referendum.
About the Author
Randy Schultz was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He has lived in South Florida since then, and in Boca Raton since 1985. Schultz spent nearly 40 years in daily journalism at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, most recently as editorial page editor at the Post. His wife, Shelley, is director of The Learning Network at Pine Crest School. His son, an attorney, and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren also live in Boca Raton. His daughter is a veterinarian who lives in Baltimore.
