Houston’s, we have a problem.
The hope was to get the proposed site plan and lease agreement for a Houston’s restaurant on the Wildflower property to the Boca Raton City Council this month. That won’t happen.
A city spokeswoman confirmed Monday that approval review and other negotiations are taking more time than anticipated. The project first must go to the Planning and Zoning Board. Like the council, it meets twice a month. The board meets Thursday and then on Sept. 17 for the final meeting of the month.
The city and Hillstone Restaurant Group, which would build and operate the Houston’s, want the council to consider the site plan and the lease agreement at the same time, which makes sense. Hillstone also operates the Houston’s near Town Center Mall.
Glenn Viers is Hillstone’s general counsel. He told me on Monday that the company and the city “are making substantial progress” on the site plan and lease. Hillstone’s dealings with the city have been “very positive. We are very close to finalizing” the proposal and “we remain very optimistic.”
The company’s architects have been working most with the city on the site plan, the main issues being traffic and Silver Palm Park on the south side of Palmetto Park Road from the property. In January 2014, Hillstone estimated that design and construction would cost roughly $7 million.
Viers has been the lead negotiator on the lease. “There are more points of agreement than not,” he said. “The two sides are seeing how we can get to the same spot.” As presented in January 2014, the city was seeking a minimum lease of 20 years, with annual payments of at least $500,000 with potential increases every five years and a potential 5 percent of sales.
Some who live near the site still are demanding that the council convert the site to a park. That won’t happen. If the city and Hillstone can’t agree, the city will try for another developer, even though Hillstone was the only company to answer the request for proposals.
Viers will speak today before the Federal of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations. The plan had been to bring the architects, who can best discuss the site plan. The emergency declaration last week by Gov. Rick Scott, when Erika looked like a threat, changed those plans.
Said Viers: “We feel that we will be able to create a restaurant the city of Boca Raton can love.” The city spokeswoman said the two sides are “generally in agreement” and are “fine-tuning the lease document.”
Because the lease would be longer than five years, Boca’s code would consider it a “sale of property,” which requires planning and zoning review. It then would go to the council for a public hearing and final approval.
Police pension settled
As expected, at last week’s meeting of the Boca Raton Police and Firefighters Pension board the Fraternal Order of Police accepted the city’s version of the new contract on cost-of-living adjustments to pension payouts. The dispute that flared up last month is officially over.
Boca Regional on the rise
Tom Chakurda, Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s director of marketing, emailed last week to say that Fitch and Standard & Poor’s have raised the hospital’s credit rating for the second time in 12 months. The companies now rate Boca Regional BBB+. U.S. News and World Report just ranked the hospital fourth in South Florida.
Bedner’s in December
I reported in April that Bedner’s, the famously popular fresh farm market near State Road 7 west of Boynton Beach, planned to open a store this fall in Delray Beach. According to Lane Brooker, who runs retail operations for Bedner’s, the company remains on track for the store’s planned December opening “at the peak of growing season,” Brooker says.
The path through the approval process has shown the unique nature of the project. It is planned for a former warehouse in what Delray calls the Railroad Corridor, at Northeast Fourth Street and Northeast Third Avenue on the edge of Pineapple Grove. Artists Alley is just to the east.
In July, the Bedner’s application went before the Site Plan Advisory Review Board. Though the area is funky and eclectic, a representative said Bedner’s has been working with artists on a look for the building, according to minutes of the meeting. Some of the discussion centered on the company’s wish to make the building resemble the store in the Agricultural Reserve Area and the neighbors’ wish that it look at least enough like the Arts District.
The request at the meeting was for a waiver that would allow Bedner’s to have a roughly 16-foot covered front porch where the limit is 12 feet. Again, Bedner’s believes that the change would allow a design that calls to mind the existing store. The board unanimously recommended approval, and the item is before the city commission tonight for final approval.
Reading the minutes, you can sense the anticipation. As one board member put it, Bedner’s will draw a different crowd—people who don’t know about Artists Alley or the surrounding areas—and from a wider area. Another board member pronounced the arrival of Bedner’s “awesome.”
Now, if only the Palm Beach County Commission will take note and do nothing to further let development into the Agricultural Reserve that would threaten Bedner’s farm operations, without which there are no farm fresh stores.
Get your facts straight.
Among the best innovations in journalism have been the many fact-checking sites that rate the truth, or lack of it, from politicians, candidates and talking heads. PolitiFact.com is one of the best. Another is factcheck.org.
Today, I offer a fact check on a comment from Jeb Bush, Florida’s former governor who’s running for president. Recently, a reporter asked Bush about the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law, which Bush signed in 2005 and almost two dozen states have copied. The law allows citizens to claim self-defense when using deadly force almost anywhere, not just in one’s home. All the person need claim is “great fear of bodily harm,” even if the person provokes the confrontation. The law also shields those who use deadline force from civil lawsuits by victims of that force or their families.
Bush claimed that the legislation had been “sponsored by a Democrat.” That’s not true.
The legislation did pass the Florida Senate 39-0. One of the many Democrats voting for it was Dave Aronberg, now Palm Beach County’s top prosecutor. The record shows, however, that the sponsor of the House version was Republican Dennis Baxley and the sponsor of the Senate version was the late Durell Peadon, also a Republican.
Budgets not likely to budge
Today begins budget month for local governments, and if anti-tax sentiment is out there, I don’t see it.
On Thursday, the Delray Beach City Commission will hold the first of two hearings on the 2015-16 budget. There likely will be no controversy. According to a recent survey, those who pay the Downtown Development Authority’s tax—$1 per $1,000 of assessed value—also mostly are happy.
Similarly, no one anticipates organized opposition when Boca Raton and the Boca Raton Beach Taxing Districts approve their respective budgets. The federal government may face a shutdown this month if Congress and the White House can’t agree on a budget, but at the level closest to the people, all is calm.
Iran Deal dealings
On Monday, President Obama picked up a notable local endorsement of the Iran deal.
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy represents Florida’s 18th District, which includes northern Palm Beach County, Martin County and St. Lucie County. A Democrat, Murphy had been undecided until Monday. Though he called the agreement “flawed,” Murphy cited the “immediate benefits,” which shrink Iran’s nuclear capability.
Murphy’s decision is notable because he’s running for the Senate next year, and last week’s Quinnipiac Florida Poll found that 61 percent of respondents oppose the deal while just 25 percent favor it. The poll, though, likely reflects all the emails and commercials from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee critical of the agreement.
With Murphy’s backing the deal now looks more likely to survive Republican attempts to block it.
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.
