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Commissioners give preliminary OK to Delray Place project
By Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — Delray Beach city commissioners Tuesday evening gave a preliminary thumbs up to a proposed zoning change that will allow a rundown office complex at Linton Boulevard and Federal Highway to be converted into a shopping center.
But the site plan the owners — the Retail Property Group — have proposed for the site didn’t exactly knock their socks off. In fact, it could derail the project unless substantial changes are made before the project comes back to the commission for a final vote in December.
And the plan certainly didn’t impress many of the project’s would be neighbors, the residents of Tropic Isles section of the city, which sits immediately to the south and east of the project.
Few, however, wanted to see Delray Place killed because of the blighted condition of the office complex that now sits there and the potential jobs and other benefits that it would bring.
“This would be a great project for everyone in the city of Delray Beach and the residents of Tropic Isles,” Mayor Woodie McDuffie said. “Let’s meet this in the middle and get it done for the city of Delray Beach.”
The proposed project, called Delray Place, is a mix of shops and restaurants that would sit on nearly 10 acres at the southeast corner of Linton Boulevard and South Federal Highway. It’s prime real estate that backers of the project say could serve as an economic catalyst for a revival of the South Federal corridor. But it’s also a tough site to develop because of its odd shape — narrow along Linton, wider along Federal.
A big part of the problem is size of the development — Retail Property Group is proposing 138,000 square feet of buildings, while the city says 104,000 square feet would be more appropriate for the property. There are too few parking spaces, too little green space and too little buffer between the development and the Tropic Isles neighborhood.
Critics envision problems with trucks servicing the collection of shops and restaurants, both entering and exiting the site and say proposed outdoor dining areas situated between buildings would funnel noise into the residential neighborhood. The number of restaurants going into the site is not known, and that’s a problem too.
“We think a commercial shopping center would jump start the area,” city planner Ron Hoggard said. “(But) we’re concerned this project pushes the envelope too far.”
Attorney Ron Kolins, representing a group of Tropic Isles homeowners, said the residents don’t want the project killed but they do want it deferred so the site plan issues can be worked out.
Michael Weiner, an attorney representing Retail Property Group, promised that his client would work to fix the problems in the plan.
“We’re taking careful notes,” Weiner said.
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