By Mary Hladky
The City Council has shot down an ordinance proposed by Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke that was aimed at preventing controversies like the one that enveloped a planned automated parking garage in the downtown.
The ordinance would have established procedures for processing proposed amendments to the city’s zoning code, comprehensive plan and the ordinance governing downtown development.
Its intent was to get City Council input on such amendments early in the development approval process, rather than waiting until the council was about to vote on them.
The change was touted as a way to improve efficiency and save both the city and developers time and money. If a council majority opposed an amendment, developers would not spend time pursuing one and city staff would not have to vet it.
The current process is “backwards,” O’Rourke said at a Jan. 9 meeting. The ordinance is “an additional streamlining effort to get things in the proper order. I think it is a very positive improvement.”
But other council members did not buy in. The main objection was that three of the five council members could kill a good idea at the outset before it had been vetted. “I do think it will stifle innovation and being visionary,” said council member Yvette Drucker.
Council member Monica Mayotte said that rather than streamlining the city’s process, it would delay final decisions.
O’Rourke withdrew the proposed ordinance at the next night’s council meeting, citing the lack of support.
The poster child for the problem that O’Rourke was seeking to prevent arose from Compson Associates’ proposal to build The Aletto at Sanborn Square in the downtown. Originally proposed as a high-rise apartment and office project, it now features only office space.
Aletto included what would have been the first fully automated parking garage in the downtown.
Developers already could build automated parking garages after getting city approval. But Mayotte sponsored an amendment to an existing ordinance that would have created a presumption that developers have a right to do so, making it easier for them to get approval.
The amendment drew concerns that the council was bending to a developer’s will, and discussion of it spanned four city meetings. Council members eventually conceded they had not handled the matter well.
Adding fuel to the fire was that the amendment was written by the project’s architect, although he had been asked by city staff to do so.
Because Mayotte had sponsored the amendment, city staff did not vet it. Mayotte said at the time that she had expected staff members to do so and was dumbfounded that they hadn’t. She wants staff to be required to do so in the future.
The parking garage since has ceased to be an issue. The Aletto developer and architect now plan to build a conventional garage.
While O’Rourke’s effort failed, city staff has moved forward with its own efforts to streamline the city’s notoriously complicated and cumbersome development approval process.
The council on Jan. 10 approved a 74-page ordinance that Development Services Director Brandon Schaad described as “our most significant streamlining legislation to date” and “the most significant progress in the ongoing land development code rewrite to date.”
In the last three years, the council has approved at least 15 ordinances intended to make the process simpler, clearer and more efficient.
Among many other things, the new ordinance allows the city manager, rather than the council, to approve minor site plan amendments for new buildings or additions up to 50,000 square feet.
In other business:
• The council by a 3-2 vote approved a resolution requesting that Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link conduct the March 14 city election.
Since there are no contested City Council races, the only matter on the ballot will be a city charter change proposed by Mayor Scott Singer that would increase the terms of office for mayor and council members to four years from three years.
O’Rourke has repeatedly objected to holding the one-issue election, saying “it is not money well spent.” New council member Fran Nachlas, who also voted no, has opposed the change that would benefit her with a longer term.
The cost of the election is not yet known, but the city has budgeted $225,000 to hold it.
• The council unanimously approved an ordinance that revises the city’s building recertification program so that it is consistent with a state recertification law passed after the city adopted its own law. The revisions are minor.
The city required buildings to be inspected to determine if they are safe two months after a Surfside condominium collapsed in 2021, claiming 98 lives.
The city has identified 191 buildings that meet the criteria for inspection. The first inspection reports were due to the city on Feb. 1.
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