palmetto park - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T14:18:01Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/palmetto+parkBoca Raton: Door opens for marijuana dispensary near beachhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-door-opens-for-marijuana-dispensary-near-beach2020-03-05T12:30:00.000Z2020-03-05T12:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960938494,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960938494,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960938494?profile=original" /></a></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>Palmetto Park Road between A1A and Intracoastal Waterway</strong></span> <br /> <span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>is possible location</strong></span></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>The City Council has cleared the way for medical marijuana dispensaries to open on the barrier island and other sites in Boca Raton.<br /> Ending years of resistance to dispensaries, council members on Feb. 11 voted 3-2, with Jeremy Rodgers and Andrea O’Rourke dissenting, in favor of allowing them within the city limits.<br /> “To me, it comes down to compassion,” said council member Andy Thomson.<br /> “It begs the question of what kind of city do we want to be,” he said. “I would hope we would choose, all things being equal, to be a compassionate city as long as we can maintain the quality of life we have here.”<br /> Council members have struggled to find the right balance between allowing access to a substance that helps people with medical conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis and post-traumatic stress disorder while safeguarding Boca Raton against a feared proliferation of dispensaries.<br /> Council members approved a moratorium on dispensaries in 2014 and banned them in 2017.<br /> But public opinion has moved in favor of medical use of marijuana. Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment in 2016 that legalized it. <br /> Since then, 230 dispensaries have opened across the state, with 42 located in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use.<br /> Dispensary operators, medical marijuana users and owners of businesses related to medical marijuana urged council members to lift the ban during three recent city meetings.<br /> Shari Kaplan Stellino, CEO of the Cannectd Wellness health clinic in Boca Raton, whose physicians help patients manage medical marijuana use, told the council how it helped her son, who she said was born with central nervous system and seizure disorders and brain damage.<br /> He’s 17 now, and his conditions have improved to the point that he will graduate from Boca Raton High School and begin studies at Florida Atlantic University later this year.<br /> “Cannabis is an integral part of health care,” she said. “It is imperative we have dispensaries in east Boca Raton.”<br /> Just because Boca Raton banned dispensaries, “this does not mean we have to be the last to allow them,” said medical marijuana user Eric Sevell.<br /> Other speakers said the medical marijuana industry is well regulated and there is no evidence that dispensaries cause crime.<br /> Only two people spoke against allowing dispensaries. Glenn Gromann, a former Planning and Zoning Board member, countered that since dispensaries can accept only cash, they are a magnet for crime.<br /> “The bottom line is there is no compelling need to have dispensaries in the city,” he said, because they already are operating in Deerfield Beach, Boynton Beach and in unincorporated areas and many provide delivery service.<br /> City staff had consistently opposed allowing dispensaries. Their chief concern was that the state regulates medical marijuana and dispensaries and gives cities almost no leeway to manage them or restrict how many can open once the decision is made to allow them.<br /> Under state law, dispensaries can be located anywhere zoning laws allow pharmacies, but are not allowed within 500 feet of a school. Pharmacies can’t sell medical marijuana because it is still classified as a controlled substance by the federal government.<br /> At the urging of dispensary operators, council members unanimously agreed to reduce the minimum size of dispensaries from 5,000 square feet to 2,500 square feet, which better reflects the size of existing dispensaries.<br /> They also voted 3-2 that no pharmacy or dispensary will be permitted within 4,000 feet of another dispensary or pharmacy. This would not apply to existing pharmacies.<br /> This decision, combined with state law limitations, will restrict where dispensaries can be located. In the eastern part of the city, one could open along the short section of Palmetto Park Road between the Intracoastal Waterway and State Road A1A. <br /> The other areas available to dispensaries are mostly west of Interstate 95 at the city’s north end, north and south of West Yamato Road, and along Military Trail south of Glades Road.<br /> Deputy Mayor Rodgers, who opposed the 4,000-foot separation requirement, said it would exclude many locations where it would make sense to have dispensaries.<br /> Rodgers also was against allowing dispensaries at this time. He wanted to delay the effective date of the ordinance to June 1, 2021, because of the uncertainty over whether the state or Congress will take action that would affect the city’s ordinance.<br /> The House Judiciary Committee in January approved a bill that legalizes marijuana on the federal level, removing it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. Even if the full House passes the bill, it faces long odds in the Senate.<br /> In Florida, there is strong support for making recreational marijuana use legal. But in January, a group pushing a state constitutional amendment dropped its effort to get the proposal on the 2020 ballot and instead hopes to do so in 2022. Recreational marijuana is now legal in 11 states.<br /> Rodgers’ motion to delay failed on a 3-2 vote.<br /> Thomson and council member Monica Mayotte were the strongest proponents of allowing dispensaries. “This is medicine for people who need it, need it badly, I think,” Thomson said.<br /> Rodgers and O’Rourke were most strongly opposed, in part because of their concerns about unintended consequences.<br /> Both also said they had heard little from residents on the subject, and certainly no groundswell of support.<br /> “It is not a lack of compassion by any means whatsoever,” O’Rourke said. “It is all about the unintended consequences for me.”</p></div>Boca Raton: 208 more rental apartments approved for downtown Bocahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-208-more-rental-apartments-approved-for-downtown-boca2012-05-30T19:07:47.000Z2012-05-30T19:07:47.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b>By Steve Plunkett</b></span></p>
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<p>City leaders approved 208 more rental apartments for downtown Boca Raton but also questioned how many residential units the area needs.</p>
<p>The 12-story building will have 22 studio apartments, 70 one-bedroom apartments, 16 one-bedroom units with den, 74 two-bedroom apartments, 17 three-bedroom units and nine two-story lofts. Rents will range from $1,300 a month to $3,400 with an average of $2,000, said attorney Charles Siemon, representing developer Palmetto Park at Federal LLC.</p>
<p>“I do want to emphasize that these residential units are being built to condo-quality, to preserve the opportunity that they might be sold as future condominiums,” Siemon said.</p>
<p>The building, facing Plaza Real just south of the Merrill Lynch building on Palmetto Park Road, will have an interior eight-level parking garage, a 7,000-square-foot restaurant and 23,299 square feet of retail. The ninth floor will feature a spa, pool and clubhouse.</p>
<p>All four sides of the building are different and provide a varied skyline, city senior planner Susan Lesser said.</p>
<p>Consultant Urban Design Associates, which devised the design guidelines that govern downtown development, “believes that the project is a beautifully designed project and a most positive addition to the downtown,” Lesser said.</p>
<p>Siemon said downtown apartments command rents almost 30 percent higher than suburban units and boast a 97.4 percent occupancy rate. “That’s about as tight as it can be,” he said.</p>
<p>Siemon said there are 79,000 primary jobs in Boca Raton but only 12 percent are held by city residents, leaving more than 69,000 to commuters. He said 27,000 of the out-of-towners earn enough to afford a quality rental unit but the housing does not exist.</p>
<p>“We’re talking about real incomes. We’re not talking about affordable housing,” Siemon said.</p>
<p>CRA Chairman Constance Scott said the under-39 Gen-Y generation is much more driven by careers and by living around people in an urban environment.</p>
<p>“They’re not interested in big-box space to live in, and they’re not interested in shopping in big-box space,” Scott said.</p>
<p>Siemon said the overall site previously was approved for an office tower at Palmetto Park and Federal Highway, a hotel and a smaller number of apartments. The changing economy forced the developer, an offshoot of Ram Realty, to proceed only on the residential part, saving the corner property for a future project.</p>
<p>CRA Vice Chairman Anthony Majhess called for a market study to determine the final number of rentals in downtown, but Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie said there was no need to spend additional money.</p>
<p>“Every major project that’s come forward, they have studies,” she said. “Calling all market studies for the downtown. Anyone that has one in their possession, if they would like to share with us I think we should just take a look and evaluate the data that’s already out there.”</p>
<p>Earlier in the month Ann Witte, a professor emeritus of economics at Wellesley College who now lives in Townsend Place, projected only 400 new renters coming to Boca Raton based on the city’s growth rate.</p>
<p>“As an economist, I am very concerned about the rapid approval of multiple and similar projects involving small rental apartments with emphasis on one-bedroom units,” she told the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations.</p>
<p>Boca Raton already had approved 1,641 residences downtown that are not yet built, including Archstone apartments on Palmetto Park Road. The City Council ordered a public education campaign about Archstone in May after opponents submitted a petition with more than 1,000 signatures seeking to overturn their approval of the project.</p>
<p>The city attorney is asking the courts to rule that she was right in saying development orders cannot be overturned by a citizen petition.</p>
<p>The city anticipates $175,000 in additional property taxes once the Ram development is finished. <span>Ú</span></p>
<div><span><br /></span></div></div>Boca Raton: Palmetto Park construction postponedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-palmetto-park2011-03-02T18:30:00.000Z2011-03-02T18:30:00.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b>By Angie Francalancia</b></span></p>
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<p>With overwhelming support from the merchants, Boca Raton has agreed to delay constructing raised intersections on Palmetto Park Road, which would have meant closing portions of the road. during the tourist season.</p>
<p>The Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency voted to delay the construction that began last September after a survey of merchants showed 38 favoring the delay while nine were opposed.</p>
<p>Delaying the work adds $72,000 to the cost.</p>
<p>“Thank you very much. It’s very appreciated,” said Guliano Lorenzani, owner of Boca Raton Travel.</p>
<p>City Manager Leif Ahnell said only the parts of the project that would require the road to be closed would be delayed until May 10. </p>
<p>Merchants questioned the timing of the $6.8 million project last October soon after the work began. The work on Palmetto involves creating wider sidewalks with pavers, improved lighting and landscaping and installing the raised intersections. The project is the link, city officials say, between Mizner Park and Royal Palm Plaza and the path to making downtown more pedestrian-friendly.</p>
<p>The city will install the raised intersections — which will require closing the road in parts — at Northeast Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues and at Mizner Boulevard.</p>
<p>Once that work resumes in May, it will take about 60 days to complete, Ahnell said. </p></div>