More on midtown Boca center overhaul
On Tuesday, I wrote about Crocker Partners’ ambitious plans for a new “mini-downtown” in Boca Raton. Once those plans get onto paper, the city will decide if they become reality.
What Crocker Partners’ Angelo Bianco calls Boca’s “next great thing” would be roughly between Boca Center and Town Center Mall, and between Glades Road and Town Center Road. Crocker bought Boca Center last December, along with three other nearby properties.
Though Bianco envisions a major retail makeover for Boca Center, the change that will matter most at first to city staff is proposed residential development for what is now Boca Center’s main parking lot on Military Trail. Bianco has no number of units yet, but creating the “24/7” atmosphere he seeks obviously would require a lot of new people living and additional people visiting.
“There are serious traffic concerns (with the project) regarding Military Trail,” Mayor Susan Haynie told me. It’s a county road, so the county will examine traffic projections, but development requests go through the city.
The Florida Department of Transportation classifies roads as having levels of service ranging from A—free-flowing most all the time—to F. The lowest level, according to the DOT handbook, “means travel demand exceeds capacity and the roadway is operating in oversaturated conditions.”
The DOT also notes, however, that such conditions may exist for only short times. That’s why all ratings are based on average daily traffic. Anyone who has tried to get through the intersection of Glades Road and Northwest 15th Avenue near Interstate 95 at rush hour or on a Saturday night would assume that Glades is an F. It’s an E. At 2 p.m., getting through is much easier.
What may come into play with Crocker’s plan is the designation local governments in Florida can seek when trying to promote redevelopment. The designation is Constrained Roadways At Lower Levels of Service, and has the fitting acronym CRALLS. The designation frees the city or county from having to provide the infrastructure to improve the level of service. The city accepts that the level of service will be F and judges that the tradeoff for targeted redevelopment is worth it.
Boca Raton, Haynie said, has made it policy not to allow any CRALLS designations within the city. There are no F-rated roads. Boca has several of what the state calls “constrained” roads. The level of service is E, but the roads can’t or won’t be widened. Federal Highway downtown, for example, won’t be wider because the city has made a policy decision to keep it at four lanes.
Only after Crocker submits an application, however, can the city analyze the potential traffic impact. Crocker wants to reduce it by making this new downtown a Planned Mobility Development, which provides alternatives to car travel. University Village filed its application under a similar designation.
In an interview, Bianco said Boca Raton has about 90,000 residents and about 90,000 jobs, but that about 90 percent of those who work in the city commute from outside the city. Bianco wants to make public transportation a key part of the project: “It’s getting bigger and bigger everywhere.”
One advantage for Crocker is the planned second Tri-Rail station. According to County Commissioner Steven Abrams, the “working location” is just north of Boca Center, behind where Kings Market once stood.
That decision is not final, but all the proposed locations are near Boca Center. Construction could begin in two or three years. The draw for Tri-Rail is the number of jobs in that area, especially at the mall. Bianco talked about a shuttle that would stop at the station, Boca Center, the mall and other points. “A nine-minute loop,” he said.
Unlike major downtown projects, Crocker’s would not face height issues. There already are other tall buildings in the area; Crocker owns two of them. Boca Raton Airport is just to the northeast, but a spokeswoman said the company is working with the Federal Aviation Administration and plans nothing outside “the existing parameter” under the flight path.
As for neighborhood opposition, the area has comparatively little residential. That’s why Crocker wants to build some. The existing residential is on the east side of Military Trail, across Town Center Road from the south end of Boca Center.
Crocker is not the only property owner in the area proposing to add residential. Jupiter-based Cypress Realty owns the roughly two acres across Military Trail from Boca Center land that is now home to the Strikes at Boca bowling lanes and Nippers Bar & Grill. Cypress has not filed an application with the city, but principal Nader Salour told me that he anticipates doing so “within the next few months.” His project will be “pretty compatible” with what Crocker is proposing. The companies have talked.
Nippers is one of only two places in the city that serve alcohol until 5 a.m. Elsewhere, it’s 2 a.m. When the city annexed the land from the county, Nippers got to keep the county-designated late closing. The same went for Blue Martini, which is in the mall.
Indeed, it’s hard to believe that the county once planned auto dealerships along this stretch of Military Trail. Boca famously doesn’t allow them. Now the plan is to make cars less important.
Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Director Ty Harris has “seen some ideas” from Crocker, but a formal application won’t come until next year. For Harris, who started in July, it will be his first major project—and one of the biggest in the city’s history. Cocker changed that part of Boca Raton when he built then-Crocker Center in 1990. Having bought back the center last December, Crocker wants to make those earlier changes seem small.
Delray court updates
There are updates on Delray Beach’s two big court cases.
— The first involves the 152-unit Auburn Trace affordable-housing complex. The owner has filed for bankruptcy protection, and Delray Beach bought out the first mortgage from IberiaBank. Delray lent the developers about $4 million in the late 1980s.
This week, Auburn Trace Ltd. filed a motion asking the bankruptcy judge for permission to hire a broker and put the roughly 18-acre property up for sale. The price would be $11.75 million—in a cash deal.
This is a good development. If the judge agrees, as expected, Delray will be a step closer to getting a new owner/operator for Auburn Trace and to getting repaid. Whatever the seller pays, the property would have to remain as affordable housing.
— The second involves Atlantic Crossing. Because the developers filed a counterclaim, alleging among other things that Delray violated the U.S. Constitution in delaying final approvals for the project, the city got the lawsuit moved from state court to federal court.
This could be a good development. A federal judge could get to the case quicker than a state judge, and his or her early rulings could show both sides where they stand. The reasonable outcome remains the developers adding back to the project an access road from Federal Highway.
Delray beach parking
If you want free parking at Delray Beach’s public beach, go very early or very late.
Starting Friday, the city will enforce metered parking from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. If you don’t have coins or a city smart card, the meters accept Visa, Master Card and Discovery.
Dog as wingman
New research argues that taking the family’s best friend to the dog parks in Boca and Delray can be good for the owner, not just the animal.
According to a study in the journal Leisure Sciences of pet owners in Montreal, dogs served as “avatars, allowing owners to meet people and navigate space through their pets.” Researchers compared the effect to individuals who become a community playing games online. Nor do demographics matter. Apparently, love of dogs unites old and young, male and female, white and black.
What can matter, however, is the kind of dog. Those who fear pit bulls and Rottweilers will avoid their owners—even if the dogs get along. If the study is correct, the irony is that the dogs are off their physical leashes while some of the humans’ social leases stay on.
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.
