Incentive program planned to retain building heights
By Jane Smith
Some rule changes are coming to downtown Delray Beach after city commissioners finished a required review of the central business district’s land development regulations.
The rules regarding height, architectural styles and open spaces, passed in February 2015, mandated a three-year review to make sure the regulations worked to “shape the desired downtown environment.”
In addition, at the Oct. 9 city workshop meeting, commissioners directed staff to create an incentive program to keep property owners satisfied with the current one- and two-story building heights and to eliminate the pay-for-offsite-parking program that exists in the downtown, generally along East Atlantic Avenue between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway.
The incentive program, known as a transfer of development rights, might encourage East Atlantic Avenue property owners to hold onto their one- and two-story buildings instead of selling to a developer who might desire to build to the allowed three-story height.
City Planner Anthea Gianniotes said it’s best to allow the private market to determine the value of each story. Then, a developer who wants extra stories or more density in another area would make a deal with an Atlantic Avenue property owner, paying for the extra story.
As a result, the Atlantic Avenue property would remain at its current height and the developer would be able to build a taller building in another area.
The problem, commissioners and staff agree, is finding where that area exists east of the Interstate. Congress Avenue already has development incentives.
“You can offer incentives using the carrot or the stick approach,” Gianniotes said.
For parking in the central core, commissioners want to eliminate the pay-for-extra-spaces program, called in-lieu parking. Restaurants have the highest parking requirement per square feet of all uses in the city. Retail is second highest, followed by residential.
“Parking is a policy choice, not a technical issue,” said Tim Stillings, development services director, when talking about the pay-for-spaces program.
For newly constructed buildings, developers can buy up to 30 percent of the required spaces, he said. For those who reuse existing buildings, developers can buy all of the parking spaces needed, Stillings said.
The cost varies by the subdistrict, with central core building owners paying the highest rate at $23,600 per space.
As of early October, the city has collected $1.9 million in these fees since 1993, when the in-lieu program started, Stillings said. That amount is well below the cost of building a new garage where spaces would cost between $25,000 to $35,000 each, he said.
The fee might be too low, if it’s paid only once, Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “Maybe it should be an annual fee?” she said.
Petrolia also suggested the library surface lot as a possible parking garage site, because it already has the footings needed to support the building.
Also under the revised rules, which won’t require another review, owners of office buildings and hotels can now have enclosed and air-conditioned amenities on their roofs for guests, renters and walk-in users to enjoy.
Menin Co., which is developing the Ray hotel in Pineapple Grove, sought to define the percentage of the rooftop that can be enclosed and air-conditioned. Vice President Marc Yavinsky suggested 25 percent at the Sept. 25 commission meeting, saying the Ray’s rooftop kitchen needs to be enclosed to avoid outdoor cooking fires.
Planning staff agreed and the 25 percent figure made it into the revision.
But, at the Oct. 16 meeting, commissioners expressed concerns about light and noise pollution from rooftop uses affecting nearby condo residents. They decided to ban live bands and DJs on the roofs. Commissioners also limited the rooftop lounge hours to 10 p.m. from Sundays through Thursdays and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
In addition, they agreed to allow outdoor dining and other outside uses in the railroad corridors, increased the required amount of green space in proportion to the building size to break up the long buildings and limited the number of financial institutions that can occupy the first floor along Atlantic Avenue and Pineapple Grove Way (Northeast Second Avenue).
How rules define central business district
Revised rules cover four subdistricts:
• The central core, consisting of East Atlantic Avenue between Swinton Avenue and Intracoastal Waterway, Pineapple Grove neighborhood to Northeast Fourth Street and Federal Highway between George Bush Boulevard on the north and Southeast Fourth Street on the south.
• The beach, made up of East Atlantic between the Intracoastal and A1A.
• The West Atlantic neighborhoods, between West 12th and West Third avenues.
• The railroad corridors, along the FEC tracks from Northeast Second to Northeast Fourth streets and Southeast Second to nearly Southeast Seventh streets.
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