Chabad approved
Opponents of the Chabad East Boca project attended Tuesday night’s Boca Raton City Council meeting in hopes of getting a different outcome than they did in May.
They did, but it wasn’t the kind of different that they wanted.
Two months ago, the council agreed to give Chabad East Boca an extra 10 feet of height for the exhibit hall portion of the project that also would include a synagogue and social hall. The added height is allowed as a conditional use on the site, at 770 East Palmetto Park Road. The vote was 4-1, with Jeremy Rodgers dissenting.
This time, the council voted unanimously to uphold the Planning and Zoning Board’s approval of the project’s site plan. (The height was not on the agenda.) So the opponents actually did worse, despite arguments from two lawyers who represent neighbors-to-be of the chabad.
Though the project will take up less than an acre, the hours of public debate outnumber those in a Ken Burns documentary series on PBS. The show still may not be over. The opponents can file a legal challenge with the circuit court. A three-judge panel would hear it. Based on two recent cases, however, the opponents’ chances of reversing the approval are slim.
One of the lawyers argued that the council should send the project back to the planning and zoning board for “further guidance.” In fact, the council did that once already, to clarify a question about the project’s floor-to-area ratio (FAR). Projects that exceed a designated ratio for a certain site are considered too dense. After that review, the board reaffirmed its approval.
According to city staff, Chabad East Boca is under the ratio for its location. So the opponents laughably tried to argue otherwise by claiming that air space in the atrium of the exhibit hall should could as floor space. They tried to argue that the underground parking area should count toward the ratio because it’s a basement. Deputy City Manager George Brown rebutted that claim, noting that as a “parking structure” it doesn’t count.
Finally, attorney Art Koski suggested that there was a secret conspiracy to put Chabad East Boca where La Vielle Maison Restaurant once stood. The city pulled this off, Koski more than implied, in 2008 by directing places of worship away from residential neighborhoods and onto more heavily-traveled roads, like Palmetto Park. Yet the city’s rules did not protect his clients’ neighborhood. “Would you do this for anybody else at this location?”
In an interview, Mayor Susan Haynie said the 2008 change came not from the council but from City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser. She based her recommendation, Haynie said, on court rulings. Haynie also said other areas have similar zoning and abut residential neighborhoods.
Boca Del Mar residents challenged the county’s approval of development on the former Mizner Trail Golf Course. They were armed with a 2008 court ruling that development wasn’t allowed on the site. They lost. West Palm Beach residents challenged approval of a luxury condo on what had been a waterfront chapel. They won only on a procedural issue that the city rectified.
Mitch Kirschner, who represents the chabad, was more on point than Koski when he suggested that if the Art Guild or the Symphonia had wanted a similar project, most neighbors would have not have objected. Chabad congregants, though, would not wear evening gowns. They would wear “black jackets and have beards.” Said Kirschner, “But for the fact this is a chabad, it would be well on its way to a building permit.”
Instead, it may well on its way to a lawsuit. Don’t expect the outcome for the plaintiffs to be different.
Pensions
The Boca council knew for a while that Chabad East Boca would be on Tuesday’s agenda. The council didn’t know until the last minute about an item dealing with public safety pensions.
Late last year Boca Raton struck deals with its police officers and firefighters on new contracts that include pension reform. The contracts are estimated to save the city at least $90 million in pension costs over the next 30 years.
But the police/fire pension fund is administered not by the city but by a separate, independent board. That board must implement the council’s agreement with the unions. A key variable in calculating pension benefits—and thus expense to the city—is the annual cost-of-living adjustments retired police officers and firefighters receive.
According to City Manager Leif Ahnell, at its meeting last week the police/fire pension board wrongly interpreted when the new cost-of-living-adjustments should kick in. The details are beyond technical, but Ahnell sent a letter to Lee Sommer, the pension board chairman, requesting that the board reverse its decision at the next meeting in August. In an email Monday, Sommer told the pension board’s actuary that the board would not make any changes. “As you are aware,” Sommer said, “and just to reiterate, the Board is your client—not the city, therefore, you are only to take direction from us.”
Sommer’s response prompted Ahnell to add an item to the Tuesday agenda. The council approved a resolution criticizing the board for using an “erroneous method” of implementing the contracts that is in “direct conflict with the clear and unambiguous terms of the deals. The resolution demands—no more requesting—that the board “reverse their prior decision and direction” to the actuary. If the board refuses, the city will go to court. As the resolution says, “there is an immediate danger to the health, safety or welfare of the public. . .”
In an interview, Mayor Susan Haynie said the board’s action could raise pension costs beyond what the city has planned for. City staff, she said, is calculating what the impact would be. The board, Haynie said, is supposed to “carry out” the council’s policy, not interpret it in a different way.
Boca’s police/fire pension board is relatively independent— only two council appointments among the eight members —because the city accepts $3 million from the state toward the police and fire pensions. With that money come rules about the board’s workings. Boca could have a board that is more accountable to the city if it left the state system, but that would mean giving up the $3 million. Delray Beach intends to break from the state system to achieve that control.
Haynie wants to resolve the issue “amicably.” That can happen only if the members of the pension board remember that, yes, they do work for the city.
iPic
This post seems to be all about legal issues. Here is another.
This month, the Delray Beach Planning and Zoning Board rejected the plan for a downtown iPic theater that would be part of a retail-office project. iPic CEO Hamid Hashemi issued a statement saying that his company “will continue to engage with the community to ensure iPic will become a vital part of Delray’s vibrant downtown life. . .”
According to an iPic representative, that engagement will continue when the company appeals the board’s decision to the city commission. Delray has a system similar to Boca Raton’s, which enabled the Chabad East Boca opponents to appeal an approval. The next scheduled commission meeting is on Aug. 11.
Ag Reserve
Today, the Palm Beach County Commission holds another meeting on the future of the Agricultural Reserve. The issue is whether to allow more development. There’s a lot at stake, and I will have an update next week.
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.
