By Mary Hladky
Residents who live near a proposed 350-unit luxury apartment project and retail buildings turned out in force on Jan. 14 to tell city leaders they should not greenlight it.
“This particular project is very dangerous,” said J. Albert Johnson, president of the 2,000-member Camino Gardens Association in Boca Raton. “It is an invitation to a disaster.”
“I hope you on the City Council will realize this is a grave mistake,” said Roslyn Goldstein, who lives in Camino Gardens Villas.
FCI Residential Corp., a subsidiary of sugar producer Florida Crystals Corp., has proposed redeveloping a blighted, 9.1-acre shopping center site at 171 West Camino Real, where a Winn-Dixie operated for years before closing in 2010.
The first phase of the Camino Square project would be two, eight-story apartment buildings and two parking garages on the eastern portion of the site, just west of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks.
The second phase, on the western portion, would have two retail buildings and surface parking.
Nearby residents want to see the derelict shopping center redeveloped, but they strongly oppose FCI’s plans. They say the development is too big and will worsen already clogged traffic on Camino Real and other streets in the area.
FCI attorney Ele Zachariades contended that Camino Square would bring a much-needed transformation of the area. She also said that the city’s downtown development ordinance allows FCI to build 100 additional units, but the developer opted for fewer units to limit density.
“We are hoping to be just like Mizner Park,” she said, referring to the project that revitalized the moribund downtown in the 1990s. “We too hope to be the catalyst for redevelopment of this area as well.”
The project has a troubled history with the city. In January 2018, the Planning and Zoning Board unanimously rejected it, and city staff opposed it.
Since, FCI made numerous changes to its plans and city staffers acknowledged that the project is much improved. Even so, they remained concerned that Camino Square would worsen already bad traffic congestion.
But the Community Appearance Board unanimously recommended approval last year and the planning board agreed in a 4-1 vote Nov. 8.
After listening to a long line of speakers who opposed the project, City Council members, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, postponed a decision until their April 8 meeting.
In the meantime, staff will get answers to three key questions council members have about the project: Will road improvements proposed by FCI improve traffic flow? Will the county agree to reimburse the city for the cost of road improvements using impact fees the county collects? Does a city ordinance allow council members to approve residential development at the site?
FCI’s plans call for a southbound left turn lane from Southwest Third Avenue onto eastbound West Camino Real, and a northbound right turn lane into Camino Square to eliminate traffic jams at the West Camino Real and Southwest Third Avenue intersection. They also propose another through-lane on the west side of Dixie Highway.
The developer has proposed using impact fees paid by developers to pay for road improvements. But city officials do not know if the county would be willing to use that money to reimburse the city.
Some are uncertain whether residential can be built at the site. The downtown development ordinance says retail and office can be built there. City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser said residential is not prohibited and the City Council can convert the usage to residential if it wants.
A number of residents speaking at the planning board and City Council meetings blamed city officials for causing traffic congestion because they canceled plans to improve the intersection of Camino Real and Dixie Highway in 2015.
But city officials explained that, at the time, the expensive improvements were not needed because studies showed a decrease in traffic there. The reduction was the result of new residential development sprouting up downtown, rather than office buildings that generate more traffic.
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