News

By Jane Smith
    
    Want to see the roof of the Old School Square garage turn into a disco at night?
    That activity was proposed after a weeklong charrette on transit-oriented development, made possible by a $141,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The money was matched by the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
    “Traffic, parking and the [Tri-Rail] Coastal Link are critical to what we deal with in a car-centric city,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein at the start of the Aug. 18 workshop. “At some point in the future, state and federal grants will be ready. Cities who have plans in place will be at the head of the line.”
    Dana Little, urban design director at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, led the charrette. He assembled a design team to transform residents’ ideas into drawings, brought in two financial consultants to analyze the viability of the designs and headed the workshop.
    In November, they will have a draft of the plan with three designs and estimated costs for each version.
    The area chosen for a Coastal Link-tied development contains six city-owned parcels along Northeast Third Avenue and Northeast First Street, along the FEC tracks. The 1.5 acres have 194 surface parking spaces in what is known as the Railroad Lot. The Silverball Pinball Museum will stay in all three designs, Little said.
    The charrette started with residents giving suggestions for covered entrances at Atlantic Avenue to a promenade along both sides of the train tracks and the station platform. They also suggested more shade trees, better lighting and safety measures, more public spaces, a connection to the historic train building on the west side of the FEC tracks and better bike and pedestrian paths.
    Of the three designs considered, the one that seemed the most viable to the design team offered 254 parking spaces in a two-level garage where 34 spaces would be reserved for golf carts.
    The design shows 29,350 square feet of flex spaces — shops or offices — on the ground floor; 26,000 square feet of space for offices, shops, apartments or live/work units; and a third floor that would house 84 apartments of 1,000 square feet and offer rooftop amenities, including a pool.
    The development does not need a hotel, said financial consultant Tom Moriarity. He said 480 new hotel rooms are planned for the downtown, increasing the supply by 36 percent.
    The downtown has 969,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space, Moriarity said. He spent most of the hot August week walking Atlantic Avenue counting stores and restaurants. Another 355,045 square feet is proposed, a 37 percent increase, he said.
    The Coastal Link site can support retail boutiques and shops that sell commuter-oriented goods, Moriarity said.
    Housing, up to 100 units, is viable at the Coastal Link site, consultant Tom Lavash said. The downtown is projected to add 1,700 new households in the next five to seven years. Nine planned projects will offer 877 units, he said.
    Delray Beach has a high office vacancy rate, mostly from the vacant Office Depot headquarters on Congress Avenue. The average asking rent is $21 a square foot, compared with $28 countywide, Little said.
    The downtown can support boutique office spaces for medical and legal uses, Little said.
    He also said a pedestrian train barrier can be dressed up with covered walkways, benches and plants to create a safe, attractive option.
    For nearly a year, city employees have been working with FEC and All-Aboard/Brightline leaders after a woman was killed last August when she crossed over the tracks, just north of Atlantic Avenue, near Northeast Third Avenue. She was hit by a freight train.
    The city wants to put up an aluminum rail fence with bougainvillea plants to prevent people from crossing the tracks before Brightline begins its high-speed passenger service between West Palm Beach and Miami. The train’s start has been pushed back until the fall, but no start date has been released, according to a Brightline spokeswoman.
    Little, a planner who likes to explore creative uses for parking, said a mere 450 feet away from the Coastal Link platform sits a mostly empty Old School Square garage. The walk took him 102 seconds.
    On a weekday, he said the second level was about 80 percent full, the third level about 10 percent full, the fourth level about 8 percent full and the roof was empty.
    He proposed adding solar panels to shade the vehicles parked on the roof during the day. Then late at night, the roof could transform into a disco.
    Delray Beach was one of two Palm Beach County cities to receive the transit-oriented grant. The other was Palm Beach Gardens, which received a $120,000 grant.
    The grants allowed both cities to work with the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, operator of the Tri-Rail commuter train line, and the Regional Planning Council staff to create a master plan for a Tri-Rail Coastal Link station area.
    The commuter line doesn’t have a start date, but it is at least five years away.