To encourage construction of more affordable housing, the Legislature this year cut out local officials from the approval process in certain cases. Tonight, Boca Raton will start to decide how this new process might work.
Under the so-called Live Local Act, cities and counties “must authorize” developments in which at least 40 percent of the units are considered affordable under the law and would be in areas zoned for commercial and industrial uses or multi-family housing. The law restricts the ability of staff members—who will be making those decisions—to make changes regarding height or density.
Deputy City Manager George Brown has been working since April on Boca Raton’s ordinance to “establish procedures and regulations” for implementing the law. That proposed ordinance goes to the planning and zoning board at tonight’s meeting and to the city council Tuesday night.
The is “one of the strongest pre-emptions [by the Legislature] into the area of home rule and development,” Brown told me this week. Tallahassee in recent years repeatedly has undercut cities’ ability to set their own rules.
As Brown notes in his memo accompanying it, this ordinance addresses just part of the law. It covers mixed-use projects that would be at least 65 percent residential, with 40 percent of those units deemed affordable housing. Other projects with just 10 percent affordable housing also could qualify. They will be part of a separate ordinance.
In Boca Raton, two of the areas where the law applies are along Federal Highway and Dixie Highway. Others are the city’s northwest and the Town Center Mall neighborhood. It also would apply to much of downtown Boca Raton.
Supporters say the law is timely, given pandemic-related vacancies in office buildings that developers could repurpose for housing. Critics say it gives too much power to unelected officials and bans cities and counties from enacting rent control.
The units must remain affordable for 30 years, with enforcement supposedly through a state agency and local code enforcement. To qualify, developers must set mortgage payments or rents no higher than incomes for individuals and households set out in a state formula.
Examples: In Palm Beach County, a “low-income” person is defined as making between $34,000 and $54,000. A similar family of four makes between $49,000 and $78,000
The law may affect Boca Raton differently than it does other cities.
If less than 20 percent of the area within a city is zoned for commercial and industrial, all multi-family projects submitted under the law cannot be stand-alone development. They must be part of a mixed-use project. Only 17.5 percent of Boca Raton is zoned for commercial and industrial. Thus, we get the acronym MUMF, for mixed-use multi-family. Only in government.
In addition, Brown said, Boca Raton’s demographics could lessen the impact. The city is more affluent than almost all its neighbors. Developers need a strong market for affordable housing, even with the shortcuts under the law.
Still, the reach of the law is potentially vast. It has become clear during the last two years that the region’s housing shortage has become a crisis for employees and employers. Live Local seeks to isolate decisions on affordable housing from the influence of Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) residents who like the idea in principle, just not near their houses.
City Manager Terrence Moore said Delray Beach is waiting to see what other cities do “and will propose something accordingly.” I’ll have more after the meetings.
More drama in the search for FAU president
Another day, another drama in the search for Florida Atlantic University’s president.
To review:
Two days after the search committee chose three finalists, the chancellor of the State University System “paused” the search as the finalists were preparing to visit the Boca Raton and Jupiter campuses. The chancellor then said that the system’s general counsel will investigate the search.
Around FAU, the fear is that allies of Gov. DeSantis intend to sabotage the search because the governor’s preferred candidate—right-wing State Rep. Randy Fine—is not a finalist.
This week, one of those finalists—Vice Admiral Sean Buck, who retired this month as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy—came under attack from right-wing websites. One called him a “radical, Left-wing military leader.” The man who once led the Atlantic Fleet, based near Jacksonville, somehow had become “woke.”
Buck apparently drew that criticism because he denied all requests from midshipmen to skip the COVID-vaccine on religious grounds. A DeSantis ally said Buck had been “lead signatory” on the academy’s “radical” diversity, equity and inclusion program. An unnamed midshipmen said Buck had been a poor superintendent.
Speaking to Congress in March 2021, Buck said the current plebe class had the third-highest percentage of students in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes in the academy’s history. With a record 30.5 percent female plebes, the class was “the most diverse ever.”
The right-wing attacks clearly are an attempt to torpedo Buck’s candidacy. I’ll have more as the saga continues.
Bible will not join list of banned books
The Palm Beach County School Board on Wednesday rejected the attempt by Barry Silver to ban the Bible at Olympic Heights High School.
There were impassioned arguments on both sides. School board members, who voted unanimously to accept Superintendent Mike Burke’s denial of Silver’s appeal, agreed that the district provides copies of all religious texts. They noted that the state requires the teaching of religious studies. Erica Whitfield thanked Silver, a rabbi and former legislator, for raising the issue of book banning in Florida.
Funding for Thomson’s return to Boca council
Andy Thomson has raised $46,000 for his attempt to return to the Boca Raton City Council.
Most of Thomson’s contributions through June 30 have come from people and entities that are part of the development industry. He received $10,000 from CP Group, which is seeking to redevelop the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, and $5,000 from Boca Raton-based Compson Associates.
Thomson served on the council from 2018 until last year, when he resigned to make an unsuccessful run for the Florida House. The other candidate to succeed term-limited Monica Mayotte is Brian Stenberg. He serves on the housing authority board and lost to Mayotte in 2021. Stenberg has raised $620.
The election is March 19.
Boca ranks high for first-time homebuyers
The financial website WalletHub has ranked Boca Raton 17th among 300 cities nationwide for first-time homebuyers. Boca is sixth among cities with fewer than 150,000 residents.
That ranking might seem counterintuitive, given the complaints about new buyers being priced out of the market. Indeed, Boca Raton scores low on affordability. But it ranked high for the strength of the city’s real estate market and came in second for quality of life, behind only Tampa.
Palm Bay, in Brevard County, ranked first. Boca Raton was one spot behind Peoria, Ariz., and one spot ahead of Reno, Nevada. The rankings did not mention Delray Beach.
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Correction: Last month, I wrote about contributions that financed mailers in support of the charter amendment that voters rejected in March to lengthen the terms of Boca Raton’s mayor and city council members.
In that post, I wrote that an entity of Pebb Capital had donated to that political action committee and to another formed to support Mayor Scott Singer. That donations came from PEBB Enterprises, not Pebb Capital.
