community redevelopment agency board - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T11:26:04Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/community+redevelopment+agency+boardDelray Beach: Commissioners select members for CRA boardhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-commissioners-select-members-for-cra-board2017-06-28T16:13:34.000Z2017-06-28T16:13:34.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p> Architect Reggie Cox will serve another four years on the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board. <br /> Three new members will join him: Morris Carstarphen, Annette Gray and Allen “Sandy” Zeller.<br /> It took two meetings to fill the four open seats because Commissioner Mitch Katz missed the first meeting due to a travel delay. <br /> Cox was Mayor Cary Glickstein’s CRA pick at the City Commission’s first June meeting.<br /> Vice Mayor Jim Chard and Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson agreed, but Commissioner Shelly Petrolia did not. She wanted new candidates. The vote was 3-1.<br /> Johnson’s two nominations ended in tied votes. Then Chard selected Carstarphen, a businessman who used to be a Target Stores manager, as his pick. The three others agreed. <br /> At the second June meeting, Katz selected Gray, a real estate broker and entrepreneur who had served on the CRA board previously. The vote was 4-1, with the mayor dissenting. Gray was one of Johnson’s picks that ended in a tied vote two weeks earlier.<br /> Zeller, a real estate lawyer with municipal board experience, was Petrolia’s selection. <br /> At the first June meeting, his pick did not receive a second. Petrolia deferred rather than lose that selection. At the second meeting Zeller’s selection received unanimous approval.<br /> Terms for the new CRA board members begin July 1. <br /><br /><em>—Jane Smith</em></p></div>Boca Raton: City favors on-demand rides over trolleys for downtown transithttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-city-favors-on-demand-rides-over-trolleys-for-downtown2017-05-31T18:04:17.000Z2017-05-31T18:04:17.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong><br /><br /> City Council members are leaning toward an on-demand ride service as an alternative transportation option that would lessen downtown traffic congestion by getting people out of their cars.<br /> At a meeting May 8, they backed away from creating fixed-route trolleys, instead preferring something like the Downtowner, which ceased operating in Boca Raton at the end of December. Under that system, people wanting a free ride would summon an electric vehicle via a mobile app.<br /> Council members, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, made no final decisions on what type of service will be offered. But they are moving forward with a request for proposals from private companies.<br /> City officials also plan to contact downtown business owners soon about what types of service they think would work best, hoping the businesses will financially support a transit program.<br /> Mayor Susan Haynie and several other council members said they want a service up and running as soon as possible, and some expressed frustration that the city’s request-for-proposals process is so lengthy. It likely will be a year before an alternative transportation option is operating.<br /> “I think this is very important, essential,” council member Robert Weinroth said. “But I am concerned if we don’t get the input from the downtown residents and businesses, we may be building something we think is great but they may not think is meeting their needs.”<br /> When they first started discussing transportation options in December, council members indicated their preferred option was a trolley system that would circulate through downtown and make pickups every 10 minutes.<br /> But cost estimates prepared by city staff have dissuaded them, at least for now.<br /> Downtown Manager Ruby Childers estimated in February that a trolley system would cost $3.2 million for the trolleys, signage and trolley stops. Annual operations would cost as much as $1.8 million. <br /> Council members didn’t want to spend that much and grew increasingly concerned that fixed-route trolleys would not attract enough riders.<br /> “I feel the trolley itself … is not the answer for us,” Haynie said at the May 8 meeting.<br />Council member Andrea O’Rourke said: “I think we should not think about trolleys now. It is not the answer to have big, empty trolleys. Electric cars seem to be the way we are going.”<br /> The envisioned route would have included City Hall, the downtown library, Mizner Park, Royal Palm Place, Camino Real and back to City Hall. <br /> O’Rourke asked that the route be expanded to the beach, so residents there could easily get downtown and tourists could get to the beach.<br /> But Haynie and Weinroth said it would be better to start with a limited downtown route and expand to the beach at a later date.<br /> While plans are moving ahead slowly, one alternative for people wanting to ditch their cars has started operating.<br /> Delray Beach Bike Club received Boca Raton approval to launch a pedicab service the first week of May, starting with six vehicles that can reach speeds of 20 miles per hour. More can be added if demand is strong, said President Patrick Halliday. <br /> Riders can summon a pedicab with a mobile app. The rides are free, underwritten by sponsor ads, but drivers accept tips. As of the beginning of the month, developer Investments Limited was advertising on the pedicabs, and Halliday was working to get more sponsors. <br /> He also was in the process of talking to officials of the Hyatt Place hotel at 100 E. Palmetto Park Road about making his pedicabs available near the hotel’s entrance.<br /> Halliday said he would start operating in Boynton Beach beginning this fall. He ran into a roadblock in Delray Beach in mid-April, when Police Chief Jeff Goldman questioned the safety of the pedicabs proposed to operate on East Atlantic Avenue.<br /> That concern is unfounded, Halliday said, and he is pursuing “other options” to offer service in Delray Beach.<br /> Two- or three-passenger pedicabs are a user-friendly mode of transport, he said. Drivers can suggest things to do, sights to see and restaurants to try.<br /> “I call them ambassadors for the city,” he said.</p></div>Boca Raton: City’s open-space regulations being revamped, better definedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-city-s-open-space-regulations-being-revamped-better-de2017-01-04T15:55:41.000Z2017-01-04T15:55:41.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong><br /><br /> Boca Raton city officials have nearly reached the end of a tumultuous process to better define what developers can and can’t count as open space in downtown projects.<br /> The City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, approved an open-space policy in July to make sure there was no confusion about what the city requires. The policy pushes developers to include open space that can be easily seen by the public, usually at the front of buildings, and counts as open space such features as landscaped areas, arcades, colonnades and areas under major archways.<br /> The CRA board then turned the matter over to a city committee for fine-tuning.<br /> In recommendations made to the board on Dec. 12, the Downtown Boca Raton Advisory Committee called for parking lots to be located at the rear or sides of buildings. No parking would be permitted between the street and a building.<br /> Pool decks, walkways and plazas would not be counted as open space if they are more than 5 feet above ground level. That means, for example, that roof terraces could not be claimed as open space.<br /> One recommendation explicitly states that access to open space would be controlled by the property owner, making clear that a condominium could restrict access by the public to its pool deck.<br /> Advisory committee member and architect Derek Vander Ploeg said the subcommittee still has a bit more work to do. At the top of the list is a “new definition of what defines the public realm,” he said, referring to areas people can see but may or may not be open to the public.<br /> The definition is needed “to clarify what is private space and what is public space and when do they work together symbiotically,” Vander Ploeg said after the meeting.<br /> Indeed, even the idea of open space has proved confusing. Saying that residents were using the terms “open space” and “public space” interchangeably, city officials issued a notice last January saying the two are not the same thing and there is no requirement that open space be open to the public.<br /> CRA board members asked for a few clarifications, but voiced no opposition to any of the recommendations. City staff will now study the recommendations, which could come back for formal CRA board approval this month.<br /> The city has required developers to include open space in their projects since 1988 and adopted formulas developers must follow. For example, if a building is taller than 75 feet, 40 percent of the land must be open space.<br /> But downtown development was limited for years, and ground to a halt in the Great Recession. Now that projects are springing out of the ground, open space has become a hot-button issue for downtown activists who don’t want projects that look massive and forbidding.<br /> Some activists were enraged last year when city officials discovered a 2003 memo of which they were unaware that had been used as a guide by planning staff evaluating proposed projects for their adherence to open-space requirements. Officials said part of the memo was erroneous and could have allowed developers to skimp on open space.<br /> That prompted an exhaustive four-month review of downtown projects approved since 1988. But rather than include too little open space, the review found, developers had delivered 26.3 percent more than required under city ordinance.<br /> Even so, city officials wanted to make sure the city’s open-space requirements are clear and unambiguous by clarifying the policy.</p></div>Boynton Beach: Ocean One plan wins OK needed for city reviewhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-ocean-one-plan-wins-ok-needed-for-city-review2016-06-01T16:56:17.000Z2016-06-01T16:56:17.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960656252,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960656252,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960656252?profile=original" /></a><em>The developers envision 237 units ranging from studio to two-bedroom apartments.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Rendering provided</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> Boynton Beach city staff can begin reviewing plans for the Ocean One project after its Community Redevelopment Agency board gave the executive director approval in mid-May to sign off on needed land for the eight-story apartment complex.<br /> “They submitted an application to the city (in early March), but it could not be processed without a signature for the CRA land,” said Vivian Brooks, CRA executive director. “It’s been sitting on the shelf, not being reviewed.” <br /> The agency owns 0.47 acre that investor Davis Camalier wants to combine with land he owns to create a 1.98-acre parcel to build the horseshoe-shaped apartment project at the southeast corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Federal Highway. <br /> His land use attorney, Bonnie Miskel, wrote to the CRA in early March that land costs to assemble the property were higher than realized. Camalier is requesting the CRA piece at the nominal price of $10, Miskel wrote. A Dec. 30 appraisal valued that land at $460,000, below the county property appraiser’s 2015 market value of $532,716.<br /> The CRA advertised the land. When no one offered to buy it within 30 days, the property was designated to go to Camalier’s group.<br /> Ocean One plans to have 237 apartments, varying in size from 560-square-foot studios to 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath units. The most common configuration — one-bedroom, one-bath units with a den — has 875 square feet. Ocean One has 50 of these spread among all floors.<br /> A six-story parking garage behind the building will have space for 311 vehicles, including 36 guest parking spaces, and another six spaces will be on the street. Boynton Beach code requires 391 parking spaces for the 237 apartments. <br /> A separate parking study to justify the reduction was submitted in early March, said Bill Morris, development partner in Ocean One. The study is based on the Worthing Place project in Delray Beach. Morris, a developer on that project, says it has similar parking needs to Ocean One.<br /> The delay in reviewing the plans won’t hamper Ocean One’s schedule, Morris said. The developer still hopes to break ground in October; construction will take about 18 months, with tenants moving in April 2018.<br /> At the Boynton Beach City Commission meeting on May 3, the CRA board was added to an ordinance that allows its advisory board to review the CRA agenda and anything else the commission wants the advisory board to do. The commission set up the advisory board last fall to allow citizen input after two community members were ousted from the CRA board.<br /> On May 4, advisory board member Brian Edwards resigned. In his memo to the City Commission, which sits as the CRA board, Edwards called the advisory board “a waste of CRA staff time and only a Band-Aid for citizens who want input.” The CRA staff prepares the CRA agenda a week earlier so that the advisory board can review it the Thursday before the CRA board meeting.<br /><br /><em>Willie Howard contributed to this story.</em></p></div>Delray Beach: Restraint called for in redo of ‘Central Park’https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-restraint-called-for-in-redo-of-central-park2015-12-30T16:14:31.000Z2015-12-30T16:14:31.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br /> After months of butting heads on the future of the Old School Square grounds, the City Commission and Community Redevelopment Agency board sat down and agreed to redo the process to upgrade the green space, often called the “Central Park” of Delray Beach.<br /> “Keep it simple,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “Don’t let the designers and architects drive the process,” he added, recalling the message delivered by Fred Kent at a Town Hall lecture last year. Kent, a part-time resident, is an authority on revitalizing city places.<br /> “We need to stop using it as a fairgrounds,” the mayor said. The grounds host the Garlic Fest, Bacon & Bourbon Fest and the Craft Beer Fest. The city will limit the number of festivals there starting in the fall. <br /> The city’s Green Market, run by the CRA, also uses the grounds weekly during the season. <br /> The grounds are part of a four-acre historic area that includes the two former city schools and gym and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. <br /> The CRA had budgeted $1 million for improvements and planned to get them started after the season ended in May, but city commissioners questioned that expense when other areas in the CRA district still need alleys and sidewalks. <br /> The city owns the property and would have to approve the changes before the money was spent.<br /> Plus, commissioners agreed the improvements proposed by Currie Sowards Aguila Architects of Delray Beach called for too much stuff squeezed into a small area — water features, more pavement to avoid annual sodding of the grounds and futuristic elements.<br /> Commissioners also agreed with the mayor’s idea of restraint being needed when redoing the grounds.<br /> Now the CRA will go back to the drawing board, holding community forums around the city to find out what residents want done on the Old School Square grounds. The outdoor restrooms and concession stand likely will be razed. <br /> The joint meeting was held Dec. 8, just the second time the two groups met last year. At the April meeting, both groups talked about getting together quarterly so that they are on the same page when it comes to deciding how to spend residents’ tax dollars. <br /> CRA board member Cathy Balestriere had pushed for the December meeting. Her first comment was, “I’m happy to be here.”<br /> CRA Executive Director Jeff Costello put two Hershey kisses at each place at the table. Then he went out of the room to give the chocolate candies to residents and staffers waiting for the meeting to begin.<br /> He started the meeting by giving a snapshot of the CRA budget, but Glickstein wanted to know the totality of the plan for each neighborhood in the CRA’s district. City Manager Donald Cooper said he would put together a list of alleys and sidewalks in terms of what’s done and what is needed.<br /> The meeting ended before the two groups could set the next date, but staff will handle that scheduling. <br /> At the end, Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia asked, “Is everyone kumbaya?”</p></div>Boynton Beach: Six resident advisers named to CRAhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-six-resident-advisers-named-to-cra2015-12-30T14:37:14.000Z2015-12-30T14:37:14.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> Six Boynton Beach residents will advise the city commissioners when they sit as the Community Redevelopment Agency board. The residents, appointed at the second commission meeting in December, are:<br /> • Linda Cross, a retired CPA.<br /> • James DeVoursney, a dermatologist.<br /> • Brian Edwards, a marketing and development worker.<br /> • Thomas Murphy Jr., a firefighter.<br /> • Robert Pollock, a Postal Service worker and Army retiree.<br /> • Christina Romelus, an adjunct professor and business owner.<br /> Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick was not able to attend the meeting; he will appoint a seventh member at a future meeting. <br /> Ten residents had applied to be on the board, Mayor Jerry Taylor said. The remaining ones are: William Todd Jackson, insurance agency owner; Paula Melley, consultant; Genevieve Morris, retired quality assurance manager; and Edward Tedtmann, commercial/industrial real estate broker.<br /> The advisory board will make recommendations on programs, activities and financing issues to the CRA board. The CRA works to reduce blight in areas east of the interstate and along the Intracoastal Waterway in Boynton Beach.<br /> The advisory board was created in October after two community members — Buck Buchanan and Woodrow Hay — were ousted from their positions on CRA board.<br /> At the September CRA meeting, they had disagreed publicly with Vice Mayor Joe Casello and Commissioner Mack McCray over their low performance marks for the agency’s executive director, Vivian Brooks. “The problem is not with Vivian, not with the city manager and not with the staff. The problem lies with the leadership of the city,” Hay said at the Sept. 8 CRA meeting. “I really wish there was an evaluation for each of us by the city for the way we behave up here on the dais.”<br /> Commissioner David Merker missed the second September commission meeting, held on Rosh Hashanah. That’s when Casello proposed an all-commission CRA board. Commissioner Fitzpatrick voted no, but the motion carried because McCray and the mayor voted yes. At the Dec. 15 commission meeting, before nominating a resident to the advisory board, Merker said, “Buck Buchanan and Woodrow Hay were appointed, did nothing wrong. They should still be there. <br /> “What has happened is a charade. And you, the people who are out there, are not being respected.”</p></div>Boynton Beach: Project gets CRA funding to boost downtown residencyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-project-gets-cra-funding-to-boost-downtown-residenc2015-03-04T16:54:19.000Z2015-03-04T16:54:19.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960561897,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960561897,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" class="align-center" alt="7960561897?profile=original" /></a></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><em>The projected view of the project at the southwest corner of Ocean and Federal.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><b>Rendering provided</b></p>
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<p><span><b>By Jane Smith</b></span></p>
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<p> Boynton Beach finally has a project to jump-start its mostly vacant downtown.</p>
<p> The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board unanimously approved in February to give the 500 Ocean owners about $4.4 million over 10 years to help cover costs. </p>
<p> “The developer had asked for a 15-year agreement and $3 million upfront,” said Vivian Brooks, agency executive director, when explaining why the board should approve the deal. She emphasized there will be no money upfront and the deal cannot be passed along to the next owner. </p>
<p> The deal had languished for months and held back any improvements to the southwest corner of Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue.</p>
<p> “Our faith in Boynton Beach has not waivered,” said Tom Hayden, development director at LeCesse Development Corp., a real estate company involved in the project. “There’s been bumps in the road, but we believe in the location and we believe in Boynton Beach and looking forward to getting started.”</p>
<p> His team planned to submit plans for the site and the garage in February, plans for the six-story apartment building in March and then start construction in April, Hayden said, ticking off an ideal schedule.</p>
<p> Only one person spoke during the public comment period. Dan Spotts, a frequent meeting speaker who owns the Miami Aqua-culture business in downtown Boynton Beach, directed his questions to Hayden about the location. </p>
<p> “Do you realize that the FEC will run 30 freight trains, and if All Aboard Florida gets its way, another 32 trains a day? Are you prepared to warn your tenants that the entrance may be blocked about 60 times a day?” he asked.</p>
<p> Vice Mayor Joe Casello responded, “Boynton Beach can’t stop this train from coming, but this gentleman here is proposing 341 apartments of residents in the downtown. Hopefully those people will bring commerce to fill up those empty storefronts. You need people. … Give us credit, work with us.”</p>
<p> The development also includes 6,600 square feet of Class A office space, 13,300 square feet of retail space and a seven-story parking garage.</p>
<p> Agency board members agreed to the deal by a 7-0 vote.</p>
<p> The money will come from tax revenue created when the development is constructed on 4.7 vacant acres. The $4.4 million will be front-loaded giving more money to the developer in the early years. The agency estimates that its share will be $4.7 million over 10 years.</p>
<p> The day after the deal was approved, Ocean Ridge resident Gary Kosinski sent an email blast to town commissioners alerting them to the “massive over-development of Boynton Beach.”</p>
<p> “Assuming 2.5 renters per unit and two workers per 100 square feet of commercial, that is almost 1,000 new residents on a 4-acre lot,” he wrote. “This is over 60 percent of the entire population of all of Ocean Ridge in a single block.”</p>
<p> He asked town commissioners “to minimize the ever increasing nonresident vehicular and pedestrian traffic today.”</p>
<p> Kosinski could not be reached for comment. </p>
<p> Ocean Ridge Town Manager Ken Schenck said the town already bans on-street parking, but he adds that the town can’t tell Boynton Beach what to do. “There is a concern that more people will be using the beaches,” he said. </p>
<p><b> In other business</b>, agency staff updated the board members of the marina parking situation. </p>
<p> The association that owns the Marina Village Garage will start charging $5 per day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays through Sundays. The fee started Feb. 13 and will end on June 14. </p>
<p> Agency staff gave each of its marina tenants one parking pass each for the garage while they continue to negotiate for parking spaces with One Boynton LLC, which owns the empty property at 114 N. Federal Highway. The agency will clean up and stripe the lot and offer about 200 free parking spaces to marina tenants.<span><br /></span></p>
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