Stet NewsGood morning! Lots of master planning going on: The county has launched a million-dollar look at transportation, and West Palm Beach is putting a lid on North Flagler condos. Also, workforce housing for The Breakers, an appreciation of a respected county leader and 77 proud scholars.
🛣️ A master plan for transportation
If Palm Beach County commissioners want taxpayers to put up more money for transportation, they know they need to make a case to voters.
- On Friday, they kicked off a $1 million consultant’s effort to do just that.
Why it matters: At stake is Coastal Link, an effort to move Tri-Rail commuter service to the coastal FEC Railway that would cost at least $500 million, state records show. It is considered a critical step toward providing an option other than cars and roads to move people from Miami to Jupiter.
What they’re saying: “What this process is really going to do is take a global look at how we need to move people in our county,” County Mayor Maria Marino told the kickoff crowd of about 100 people at the Vista Center. “Are we able to fund PalmTran more in the future? Are we able to fund Tri-Rail Coastal Link in the future?”
Catch up quick: The effort dates to February 2024, when the County Commission met with the League of Cities to discuss adding to the sales tax an extra 1-cent for every dollar spent. They held off, deciding they first had to develop a priority list.
Zoom in: The consultant’s task will be to analyze data and existing studies and hear from residents, business owners, cities, special districts and county officials to “define network alignments, develop design principles and provide additional opportunities for multimodal connections.”
- “What we’re really doing here is helping you through the process of deciding what your county is going to be like when it grows up,” said planner Victor Dover, a member of the consultant’s team headed by international engineering and planning conglomerate WSP.
What’s next: The consultants laid out a one-year timeline, which means their work may be too late to get a new tax proposal on the November 2026 ballot.
Video: Watch the kickoff event at the county’s Vista Center.
Read more of the story at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🌆 Keeping condos in line
A master plan designed to rein in the high-rise waterfront development transforming West Palm Beach’s Northwood neighborhoods passed a critical first step last week.
Why it matters: If the plan is approved by the City Commission, neighbors who lobbied for rules to curb the soaring condominiums rising east of Flagler Drive say it will mark a major achievement that could preserve the quality of life in their single-family neighborhoods.
Driving the news: The city’s Planning Board last Tuesday approved a 56-acre North Flagler Drive Overlay District, which runs from 44th Street to the city limits between North Flagler Drive and the Intracoastal Waterway.
The proposed rules include provisions to soften the massive buildings’ impact on the single-family homes to their west:
- The streetscape must include a 12-foot-wide public pathway, 7 feet of landscaping and street lighting.
- There must be a pedestrian connection between building front walkways and the public pathway along North Flagler Drive.
- Building setbacks from North Flagler increase as the height of the towers increase, meaning taller, skinnier buildings.
A key rule: Buildings on property with upland and submerged land less than 2.5 acres are limited to a height of 240 feet. That’s about 20 to 24 stories. Neighbors have objected to developers who counted submerged land to justify taller buildings.
- Buildings on property larger than 2.5 acres are capped at 300 feet, about 25 to 30 stories.
All developers who want to exceed 40 feet in height would be required to contribute $10.98 per square foot over the limit to the city.
Yes, but: Two projects taller than 350 feet that have already been submitted to the city for approval would not be governed by the new rules, West Palm Beach senior planner Kevie Defranc said Friday.
- A tower next door to Alba, under construction at 4714 N. Flagler informally called Alba Reserve.
- A tower planned on 3 acres at 5400 N. Flagler by Toronto-based Great Gulf.
What we’re watching: The South Flagler neighborhood concern about the waterfront condo boom near Southern Boulevard could lead to a drive for special development rules there.
Keep reading to find out what Northwood Harbour’s association president says about the proposal at StetNews.org
— Carolyn DiPaolo
👀 First look: The Breakers’ employee housing plans
Agents for The Breakers Palm Beach resort have shared plans for a 155-unit, eight story apartment building across the bridge on Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach.
What’s happening: Tyler Woolsey of Urban Design Studio presented the project Tuesday as part of a successful bid for rezoning and a land use change from the West Palm Beach Planning Board.
Developers are assembling about 2.5 acres on the east side of Australian north of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard for a housing campus that will accommodate many of The Breakers’ 2,400 employees.
What’s new: A rendering for the 155-apartment project shows an eight-story building with balconies.
- Residents will have access to an outdoor pool and a sports field.
- Inside, the amenities will include a business center, clubroom, fitness center, salon and conference room.
- The complex will offer shuttle service to the historic Renaissance Revival resort and shopping.
Of note: Fifty-one percent of the units would be designated for workforce housing. That could qualify the project for development fee reductions or waivers. West Palm Beach is also committed to make vacant city-owned lots available for projects like these.
By the numbers: In addition to hundreds of local residents and college students, The Breakers employed 249 people who were in the country under H-2B guest worker visasas of September 2024.
The co-applicant, VDG Land Co., paid $4.5 million in January for two properties east of Australian amounting to 1.3 acres.
- In February, the City Commission declared a little more than an acre of adjacent property, at 2410 N. Australian, as surplus. That opens the door for VDG to buy it.
- The southern third of the city property contains underground utilities, a lift station and overhead power lines, which make it a challenge to develop on its own.
What’s next: The project goes to the City Commission to approve the sale of the city land and a workforce housing agreement.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
Remembering Bob Banks
Bob Banks, a Palm Beach County assistant attorney whose review of thousands of development decisions over a 34-year career helped shape the county, died June 24 in Jupiter after a battle with prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease. He was 72.
Banks navigated complex land use issues with a reputation as one who could not be swayed from what he thought right. Colleagues said he had an extraordinary gift for seeing through the most disingenuous arguments posed by developers and even in the most heated moments, he remained composed, measured and deliberate.
Zoom out: Banks perhaps shined brightest as “the most incredible special needs dad,’’ his wife of 43 years, Vicki, said. Their son, Josh, blossomed into a gifted artist despite limitations from autism. Josh died in 2021 from injuries after a seizure. He was 33.
What they’re saying: “Bob had no personal agenda other than to be a good lawyer, and he was a great lawyer,” said former County Attorney Denise Nieman. “You need that for zoning. You needed someone to tell the commissioners what the law is and that is what he did.’’
Read more: Banks loved baseball and folk music and even played the dulcimer. Check out the rest of the story at StetNews.org.
— Joe Capozzi
🍊 The Juice
Brightline trains have killed 182 people since 2018, significantly more than publicly known, a yearlong investigation by the Miami Herald and WLRN has found. The majority of the fatalities were accidents or undetermined, 75 were ruled suicide. (WLRN story and podcast)
💰 The bill for taxpayers to cover the overtime cost of deputies accompanying County Commissioner Sara Baxter to public and private meetings is more than $20,000 and includes an event at Mar-a-Lago. No other commissioners have asked for such protection and the commission has not discussed how it would pay the sheriff’s bill. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🛞 Driverless shuttles in downtown West Palm Beach made the national news Sunday. (NBC)
📡 Congress clawed back $1 billion previously approved to be spent over two years by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides money to National Public Radio and PBS. That could cost local NPR station WLRN $1.4 million this year on top of a $460,000 loss in state money vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Axios Miami)
🚪 The food hall at Grandview Public Market will close at the end of July. (CBS Channel 12)
Frances Bourque, the founder of Old School Square and the woman considered the mother of the arts in Delray Beach and beyond, died Tuesday at the age of 84. (Boca Magazine)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast with Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, welcomes “That Pink Science Teacher.” Angela Santalo, who teaches middle school in Miami, has hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram. (Listen here. Watch after 2 pm here)
561NSIDER: 🏆 Black Caucus hands out $77,000 in scholarships
The school names came easily to the students about to embark on their collegiate years: Bethune Cookman, THE Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, University of Florida, Florida Atlantic, Howard University, University of Michigan and the oft-repeated acronyms, FSU, FIU, UCF.
They gripped envelopes with hand-written $1,000 checks and grinned for parents snapping pictures Saturday at the Manatee Lagoon in West Palm Beach as if they were graduating all over again.
Why it matters: For 77 Palm Beach County students selected from 115 applicants, the Palm Beach County Caucus of Black Elected Officials is now something to remember as they buy books or pay for room and board. The nonprofit led by County Commissioner Bobby Powell and representing 45 elected Black officials regrouped in recent years with a luncheon that last year supported 27 scholarships.
Zoom in: The students submitted high school transcripts and essays with stories about overcoming foster care, illness, constant moves and the challenge of being the first in a family to attend college, Powell said.
Judging applicants with Powell: State Rep. Jervonte “Tae” Edmonds and Port of Palm Beach Commissioner Jean Enright.
Of note: One child living with foster parents wrote that she had attended four high schools and couldn’t remember the name of her mother, Enright said. She is going to Palm Beach State College to learn to be a nurse.
What they’re saying: Powell said afterward his hope is, “They don’t forget where they came from,” and return to South Florida.
The money came from a lengthy list of signature businesses headed by Florida Power & Light and Florida Crystals.
Others on the list:
- Forest Development, which is building high rises in Riviera Beach and Lake Park.
- Huizenga Holdings, which is rebuilding a West Palm Beach neighborhood.
- Related Ross, downtown West Palm Beach’s biggest developer.
- Related Urban Development Group, which has several projects in West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach.
- Political consulting and law firms: Cornerstone Solutions Florida, Akerman, Gunster and Ronald A. Book.
Share the story at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
