proposed development - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T10:27:22Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/proposed+developmentDelray Beach: City seeks dismissal of Crossing developers’ lawsuithttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-city-seeks-dismissal-of-crossing-developers-lawsuit2015-09-02T17:41:06.000Z2015-09-02T17:41:06.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> Attorneys for Delray Beach responded to an Atlantic Crossing lawsuit with a motion to dismiss on Aug. 18. <br /> The developers sued the city in June claiming the city has not issued a site-plan certification that was approved in November 2013 and affirmed by a previous City Commission in January 2014.<br /> In the city’s August motion, Delray Beach contends that the developers’ claims “are an untimely and improper collateral attack on a City Commission approved development order” that can be challenged only through a special petition filed within 30 days of the order. <br /> The motion also points out that the lawsuit should be dismissed for failure to state a cause of action because the development order was not attached or made part of the lawsuit.<br /> The city also says it should be dismissed because the developers have not submitted a recorded plat for the project.<br /> The proposed $200 million development sits on 9.2 acres of East Atlantic Avenue in the city’s downtown. The project, developed by a partnership between Ohio-based Edwards Companies and local resident Carl DeSantis, will contain 356 luxury condos and apartments plus 80,000 square feet of restaurants and shops and 79,000 square feet of office space.<br /> “We look forward to the court’s resolution, as we are confident that the city’s motion to dismiss will not be successful,” said Don DeVere, vice president of mixed use for the Edwards Companies.<br /> “The reality is that this $200 million project — with its hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues — has been stonewalled every step of the way. According to the city, we can’t get the approved site plan certified without first getting plat approval. Yet the city has repeatedly refused to put us on the schedule to finalize the plat.”<br /> He also said, “With regard to the city’s desire for an east-west road, the first step is to get our site plan certified. Then, if the city can assure a timely approval process, we remain open to modifying the plan.”<br />The Delray Beach City Attorney scheduled a closed “shade meeting” with city commissioners on Sept. 3 to discuss settlement options.<br /> In other action on Atlantic Crossing, city commissioners held a special meeting at 4 p.m. Aug. 26 to approve having their city manager send a “request for reconveyance” that would ask for the two alleys given to the project on Feb. 24, 2009 under a previous development order. <br /> The deadline was buried in an Aug. 21 letter to the city’s Planning and Zoning Director about the delay in plat approval sent by Atlantic Crossing’s planner. The letter claimed the project was ready for plat approval since Nov. 20, 2013, when its latest site plan was approved. The Aug. 26 commission meeting lasted under 10 minutes because the city needed to respond by 4:30 p.m. that day to meet the five-day limit for such a request. The motion passed 4-0 with Commissioner Jordana Jarjura absent.</p></div>County Pocket: Resident posts video on development proposalhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-resident-posts-video-on-development-proposal2014-09-03T16:30:00.000Z2014-09-03T16:30:00.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/video/permanently-closing-old-a1a">Watch video</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br /> Boynton Beach real estate broker James Arena wants to preserve the funky Florida lifestyle where beach access is everything. <br /> In mid-August, he starred in a 3-minute video to make surfers and other beachgoers aware of how a nearby proposed development might lower their quality of life.<br /> “I wanted to raise awareness, because a lot of people are not aware of what is happening,” said Arena who lives in Briny Breezes. “I haven’t seen anything done since the late May meeting, so I put the video together.”<br /> That meeting brought together Briny Breezes residents with residents of the “surf pocket” over development of the former “dog beach parcel” that lies between them. <br /> Developer Joseph Basil Sr. met with Villas of Malibu property owners in April to discuss his plans to have a stretch of Old Ocean Boulevard and Seaview Avenue abandoned. Old Ocean sits between his property and the beach. In exchange, he would provide an access road through his property to the Villas of Malibu.<br /> If the roads were abandoned, Basil’s group could build as many as 36 townhomes. He could not be reached.<br /> Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, ran the May meeting and encouraged property owners to check their deeds for easements to the beach. She is monitoring the proposed development. So far, she said in late August, no new plans have been submitted.<br /> That’s why Arena made his YouTube video. <br /> “I just feel that if the property goes that way, the area will be changed forever,” he said. “Financially it would be good, property values would rise. But the quality of life would go down.”<br /> The video begins with Arena driving a golf cart down Old Ocean Boulevard while music with a pulsing beat plays in the background. He points out where the gates would go in, restricting access. <br /> The video has a few errors. He calls the road Old A1A, instead of Old Ocean Boulevard. And says the developer owns the road when the county actually still owns it. <br /> Even so, his production has an emotional appeal. On the video, Arena says he grew up in Boynton Beach and has been coming to this patch and the Nomad Surf shop since he was born.<br /> He asks viewers: “If you want to stop it, I want to know. Or if you want to let it go so that you can increase the value of this land, I want to know.”</p>
<p><br /> <em>See the video, at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-BYldmGo0E">www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-BYldmGo0E</a> or visit <a href="http://www.thecoastalstar.ning.com">www.thecoastalstar.ning.com</a>.</em></p></div>County Pocket/Briny Breezes: Neighbors express concern about possible development planhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-briny-breezes-neighbors-express-concern-about-possi2014-06-04T19:21:35.000Z2014-06-04T19:21:35.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960513693,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960513693,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="621" alt="7960513693?profile=original" /></a><strong>Graphic by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> It had all the makings of an end-of-season cocktail party on Coquina Road. <br /> Red and white wines, crudités and dip, flatbreads, bruschetta and cookies were served. The setting was an oceanfront patio with a built-in pool and a tremendous view.<br /> Instead, it was a late May gathering of two unlikely pairings: Briny Breezes trailer owners and their neighbors to the south, known as “pocket people” from their ownership in an unincorporated county pocket. Their uniting cause: proposed development of the former “dog beach parcel” that sits between them.<br /> The nearly 30 people who attended would soon find out they could be “affected parties.”<br /> Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Coalition for Preservation, spoke about making sure the developer plays by the rules, to ensure “responsible development compatible with the community and environment.” <br /> An April meeting between developer Joseph Basil Sr. and the Villas at Malibu owners prodded the other nearby property owners. De Haseth would not say who invited her to speak in May, just that it was a “pocket person.” <br /> Hostess Marlese Loveall was in Missouri when she heard about that April meeting. She cut short her trip to get back in time to attend it because her house sits south of the Villas at Malibu. <br /> She told the gathering that Basil wants to have the stretch of Old Ocean Boulevard that lies between his property and the beach abandoned, expand the ocean access on the north side, and eliminate the south access path and part of Seaview Avenue. He would provide another access road through his property to get to the Villas at Malibu.<br /> “Villas at Malibu residents constantly called me about kids drinking, drug use and hookers on the corner (of Old Ocean Boulevard and Seaview Avenue),” Basil said a day after the May meeting. “So I met with them to suggest making it all one community and put a road in the bottom of the property to give them access.”<br /> It would stop “the riffraff,” and everyone would be happy, he said.<br /> The 2005 plans allow his group to build 12, three-story units. But if he wants to change the configuration of the land by getting approval to abandon the two roads, that would trigger a “development review” process with the county, de Haseth said. The process is run by the county’s Zoning Division and allows various departments and state agencies to weigh in on the proposed changes. <br /> A big component of that review comes from the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management, which oversees stormwater pollution prevention, on-site contamination, native vegetation and sea turtles. <br /> “Plus, if he changed access and egress, would he have to bring the roads up to today’s code for traffic and drainage,” de Haseth told the May gathering. “Projects like this are ‘onions’ and you have to peel layer after layer off to get to the truth.”<br /> Losing another beach access path irritated some who were gathered in May. They were told to review their property documents for easements and access ways and to take photographs of that path to prove that it’s used constantly. Property owners within 300 feet, known as “affected parties,” of the proposed road abandonment can weigh in, de Haseth told the group.<br /> Another issue was the actual height of the buildings. Would it be 35 feet, or 35 feet on top of 12 feet that the developer might be required to raise the property so that stormwater runoff flows downhill into the ocean?<br /> Ryan Heavyside, a third-generation pocket owner who owns the Nomad Surf Shop west of the parcel, was concerned about the height. He lives above the surf shop. “How tall will it be? That affects my view and [keeps] breezes from reaching me,” he said.<br /> The height of a wall around the townhouses alarmed others.<br /> “I find that wall offensive,” said Greg Esterman of Briny Breezes. “It’s popular in urban planning, but it’s like building a fort, saying I don’t want anyone to look at our buildings.”<br /> The wall has worried Denise LeBlanc, a pocket person. “It’s like they are chipping away at paradise,” she said.<br /> When asked whether the wall would be 8 or 10 feet high, Basil said, “It’s not a 10-foot wall, more of a landscaped wall, no higher than any other walls nearby.”<br /> While the name of the project on the 2005 plans was Old Ocean Town Homes, Basil said they had not come up with a new name. <br /> The units will be of different sizes to accommodate changing market demand. “Back then, bigger was better. Now people want less square feet and more amenities, such as a pool. The units will range between 2,500 and 3,500 square feet,” he said. <br /> His company plans to sell the units at $1.6 million, unlike his Lantana project once called the Village at Ocean Walk. He rented the entire mixed-use project to the Lucida Treatment Center from California. They have eight condos where Basil said treatment can cost $120,000 a month with a chef, masseuse and acupuncture for clients — “everything you could want.” The center uses the retail space for its offices. <br /> Basil said if the nearby property owners agree to abandon Old Ocean Boulevard, he would square off his property and “donate the parcel on the east side to the county.”<br /> And just how many units would his company be allowed to build? That depends on who is doing the counting. <br /> According to the property appraiser’s database, the three lots total 1.5 acres. But in a previous letter of inquiry, planning staff used a property survey that says the three lots comprise 2.07 acres and another .23 acre from the abandonment of the Old Ocean Boulevard, giving a total of 2.3 acres. The county used the 2.3-acre size for the purpose of responding to Basil’s land planner on May 8. <br /> It could be as few as 13 units, or as many as 36 units with bonus and other credits included.<br /> Basil said he would know more by the end of June when his land planner and architect finish their work and his partner returns from North Carolina.<br /> De Haseth also plans to meet with the combined group again at the end of the month. They have “a laid-back funky lifestyle where beach access is important,” she said. “Putting up that wall to create exclusivity turns people off. It’s the last bit of funky Florida.”</p></div>