By Patrick Sherry
A proposed townhouse-style condominium development on North Federal Highway will return to the Delray Beach City Commission for reconsideration after being denied approval in July.
Commissioners voted 3-1 to allow the applicant to come back with new evidence to support the application for 47 three-bedroom townhouses in the 2400 block of North Federal, adjacent to the town of Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil single-family home community. Mayor Tom Carney recused himself from the vote on the application because of a brother’s investment with the project.
Neil Schiller, a lawyer representing Ultra Luxury Townhomes LLC, asked the commission for reconsideration during the public comment section of the commission’s July 21 meeting after the project had failed at its July 14 meeting on a 2-2 vote.
“If we do have the chance to come back, we will make a salient, concise presentation, and proffer conditions of approval that make the project a little bit more compatible,” he said.
The 4.25-acre commercial site has been vacant for 20 years, with the former commercial buildings having been demolished. Developers submitted an application to build 39 two-story and eight three-story townhouse-type condo units with two-car garages on the property.
“It will not hinder development or redevelopment of nearby properties,” Jeff Costello, land planning and development consultant at JC Planning Solutions, said at the July 14 meeting. “This is a redevelopment initiative, and a redevelopment area that needs attention and investment.”
The property is near Federal Highway’s northern gateway into the city, where officials have been encouraging redevelopment of vacant and underutilized properties. Gulf Stream officials supported the project.
“We believe the current proposal is a thoughtful, appropriate, and far better outcome for both the surrounding neighborhoods and the city than the previous application,” Gulf Stream Town Manager Trey Nazzaro said at the July 14 meeting, reading from an email sent by Gulf Stream Commissioner Robert Canfield, who lives in Place Au Soleil.
Delray Beach commissioners who supported the proposal said there is no commercial activity on the site, so redeveloping it into a residential area could be the next best option.
“I campaigned in favor of keeping businesses, and I hate to think of something where business could go to residential,” Commissioner Judy Mollica said on July 14, before voting in favor of the project along with Vice Mayor Angela Burns. “However, this particular parcel has sat there for 20 years, and no business seems to want to go on there.”
Commissioner Juli Casale, who voted against the project with Commissioner Tom Markert, disagreed. She pointed out the City Commission had approved multiple residential projects that have not been built yet and wanted to preserve commercially zoned land.
“Because that area is going to flourish and develop, with all the development going around it residentially, that commercial is necessary,” she said. “I very much worry about not protecting and preserving our commercial tax base.”
Casale said she agreed to the reconsideration motion as a courtesy to Burns, who made the motion, and to Schiller, who said new evidence would be forthcoming — but she did not indicate her opposition to the project had changed. The reconsideration is scheduled for the commission’s Aug. 18 meeting.
While Carney recused himself from the discussion and vote on the project, he had come under criticism earlier for reaching out to some Planning & Zoning Board members — prior to that board’s 7-0 May vote supporting the project — regarding the development that he previously represented and which his brother now has a stake in.
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