By Mary Hladky
Architect Jessica Dornblaser, a member of Boca Raton’s Community Appearance Board since 2016, has become the fourth member to resign since Mayor Scott Singer proposed limiting the board’s authority.
Dornblaser submitted her resignation on Oct. 22 in a brief email to Singer shortly after the City Council approved an ordinance that stripped down the board’s responsibilities, including reviews of architectural designs, and handed them over to city staff.
Then-CAB Chair Tiery Boykin, an architect, and John Kronawitter, a contractor and architect, resigned last February after council members directed staff to propose CAB changes. Boykin said limiting CAB responsibilities is “an effort to be too friendly to developers.”
Michael Goodwin, the owner of Crazy Uncle Mike’s restaurant and brewery, resigned on Oct. 2 but said the ordinance did not prompt his decision. He had, however, criticized the changes during a February meeting with Erin Sita, the city’s deputy director of development services.
One flashpoint in the disagreement over responsibilities is that staff now will weigh architectural designs even though no architects work for the city. The seven-member CAB includes architects who had been conducting such reviews at no cost to the city.
CAB members were astounded when Development Services Director Brandon Schaad suggested last year that the city could hire an architect to conduct the reviews.
Dornblaser declined to comment on her decision to resign. She had argued against the changes during October meetings of the Planning and Zoning Board and the council.
The seven-member CAB, created in 1966, originally was tasked with evaluating the architecture, landscaping, signs and paint colors of proposed projects. Its members at present must include at least two architects and landscape architects. Others must be an engineer, planner, building contractor, real estate agent or broker.
After CAB approval, the planning board and the council consider proposals.
On Dec. 10, the council appointed two new CAB members. They are architects Jonathan Nehmer and Paola Morales, both of Boca Raton.
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