Houston’s at sea?
We want a dock.
That was one message Glenn Viers got Tuesday morning from the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations. Viers is general counsel for Hillstone Restaurant Group, which is negotiating with the city to build and run a Houston’s on the former Wildflower property. Access by boat is not on Hillstone’s menu, but the city wants the company to add it.
Boats and docking were a big part of the discussion that drew about 100 people to the community center. In addition to the fact that the Wildflower site is public property—the city bought it in 2009 for $7.5 million—the city’s only boat launch, Silver Palm Park, is just south of the site across Palmetto Park Road. As Golden Triangle resident Stephen Alley said, the city owns two pieces of waterfront property “and we’re developing one of them.” Public access is an issue.
One fear among some residents was that diners arriving by boat would encroach on the park. From the start of negotiations, Hillstone and city officials said Silver Palm would not serve as backup parking space for boats or cars. Wishing to allay those fears may have made Hillstone overreact. Viers heard criticism for the plan to close off even pedestrian access from the park to the restaurant.
He heard even more, though, about providing access from the water. The city council made that a priority when seeking a tenant. Viers told the crowd that Hillstone has met resistance from the Army Corps of Engineers. The company hired an environmental engineer, Tyler Chappell of Pompano Beach. Hillstone’s lawyer, Bonnie Miskel, said Chappell had found that there was just a “slim chance” the corps would approve a dock because of issues related to navigation and protected sea grass.
Though Hillstone’s Houston’s in Pompano Beach (above) has a dock, Viers said docks “can be hard to manage.” Indeed. Minimally skilled boaters trying to function after maximum cocktails—or even sober—could be problematic.
Mayor Susan Haynie, however, said, “The statement ‘there will be no docks’ is premature. The city is pursuing solutions. . .” If one doesn’t emerge, a compromise could be to let diners use Silver Palm Park starting in the late afternoon or early evening, after day boaters depart. The city’s Marine Advisory Board was to discuss the issue at its meeting Wednesday night.
Viers also heard a lot about traffic, which is more the city’s responsibility to work out. Haynie said Boca Raton is also “pursuing solutions” on the dicey issues: congestion at the Northeast Fifth Avenue-Palmetto Park Road intersection and the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue.
Boca Raton is about to begin a study of traffic in the area. Miskel said Hillstone will improve the sidewalk so that someone coming across the bridge from the beach can travel unimpeded to Fifth Avenue going north. Hillstone also plans a bike rack at the restaurant. Haynie wants pedestrian access from Silver Palm Park. There already is a planned walkway along the Intracoastal. Several speakers expressed their wish for a mobility-friendly project.
Viers called the meeting “beneficial.” He will “talk to my folks, and then we will talk with the city.” Both sides still hope to have the first formal city review next month.
Here’s my takeaway from the meeting: The project will get done. Hillstone wants it. The city wants it.
Sure, there are problems. Fifth Avenue is misaligned. The bridge complicates things. There’s vacant property between Fifth Avenue and the restaurant site.
But as I have written, the city didn’t buy this land for a park. Despite what some no-growthers want, the city can’t impose so many conditions that Hillstone walks. Hillstone didn’t buy property and come to the city like Elad, seeking a 22nd-century-looking condo project twice as high as the rules allow. Hillstone responded to the city’s offer, and has put considerable money into site development.
Hillstone would be an experienced, reputable partner. One speaker praised the consistent quality of the company’s restaurants. Still, the project has to benefit the public, not just Hillstone. That was the main theme on Tuesday. Agreement seems more likely than not.
iPic downsizing
Attorney Miskel also represents iPic Theaters in its application for the Fourth and Fifth Delray project. The city commission just gave it preliminary approval, but clearly told iPic to make the project more compatible.
On Tuesday, Miskel told me that her client is “deflating the tire,” to use Mayor Cary Glickstein’s expression when he asked for a smaller project. One change, Miskel said, will be to increase the width of the east-west alley that would be at the north end of the project. It is planned to be 20 feet wide, but business owners and city officials have worried about congestion from trucks that must park to make deliveries to businesses that face Atlantic Avenue.
IPic CEO Hamid Hashemi, Miskel said, will offer to widen the alley. That would mean losing some theater seats, which obviously would mean losing some revenue. But it also would address a main concern, even if the theater won’t generate much traffic in the morning, when many deliveries arrive.
Hashemi and the city “are close” on a revised plan, Miskel said. She hopes that the company can submit a new version early next week. Miskel confirmed that iPic will ask for an extension past the October deadline for obtaining all approvals. Still, if the commission likes the new version and there are no appeals, Miskel said the project might get final approval by the end of the year.
And iPic review
At tonight’s meeting, the Delray Beach City Commission meeting will pick two people for the review panel that will examine iPic’s site plan. According to City Manager Don Cooper’s office, though, the review process will be different.
Cooper routed my question about the Site Plan Advisory Review Board—which goes by the wonderful acronym SPRAB—to Planning and Zoning Director Tim Skillings. He responded in an email that under the city’s Land Development Regulations, “SPRAB has approval authority for all site plans. SPRAB is limited in its authority to approve any waivers (relief) required for a site plan.” The panel, Skilling said, can only grant “parking relief” and waivers for landscaping. The commission has to approve any other waivers.
“Past practice,” Skilling said, “has been to take the site plan to SPRAB first and condition any approvals on the waiver approval. We are changing this process and will be bringing all waivers to the commission first” before SPRAB considers a site plan.
The SPRAB members whose terms are up—Alice Finst and Terra Spero—are the only two who don’t have professional backgrounds applicable to the board’s work. The others have backgrounds in architecture, contracting, engineering and planning, as city rules specify. Finst and Spero both want another two-year term.
Mayor Cary Glickstein, who’s a developer, and Commissioner Jordana Jarjura, who’s a land-use lawyer, have the appointments. Both voted for iPic, but both stressed that they want changes.
Still, the board members no doubt have followed the iPic debate and understand all the public interest. City boards also have been warm-ups for aspiring commission candidates. Some applicants also are applying to serve on the planning and zoning board, where three seats are up.
I would expect Glickstein and Jarjura to pick applicants who are long on expertise and short on political aspirations.
Atlantic Crossing settlement?
It’s an especially busy day for the Delray commission. Before the regular meeting at 6 p.m. is an executive session update on negotiations with the firefighters union and a special meeting—also closed to the public—about the lawsuit filed against the city by the Atlantic Crossing developers. City Attorney Noel Pfeffer said the purpose of that meeting is to discuss “settlement strategy.”
The discussion probably won’t take long. The lawsuit, which the developers filed in June, demands that the city approve the site plan that doesn’t include an access road from the west off Federal Highway. The city wants the road included, as it was in the original site plan.
The city commission did approve the new site plan in January 2014. But the city’s comeback now is that the developers may have failed to meet obligations related to the city giving up a portion of Northeast Seventh Avenue and an alley that would be part of the mixed-use project. The city thus could refuse to release them to the developer.
The turning point may be the threatening letter last month from Atlantic Crossing agent Michael Covelli. Between it and the lawsuit, the developers may have pushed too hard. Or city officials may have felt that they were being pushed. Either way, the access road issue has gone from cooperative to contentious very quickly.
