Everyone has a vision of the future for West Palm Beach. During the current and previous mayoral administrations, the vision of city hall's power brokers has become self-evident by the scale, mass and height of buildings downtown along its skyline.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to "Little Manhattan" under the palms.
The City of West Palm Beach is in the final stages of transformation from a "low-rise" southern city with office buildings of less than 14 floors, to a "high-rise" metropolis with business towers, condominiums and hotels reaching upward to 30 stories.
This vision of the future is no mirage. Politicians, business leaders and developers all play their part, and all profit from their shared vision.
Some visions have unwanted side effects for the public. During the March 14 City Commission meeting, the mayor addressed citizen concerns about traffic gridlock in the heart of the city.
Little Manhattan has its urban woes - traffic, crime, drugs, parking, concrete canyons - just like its big sister city and namesake in New York. The past two mayors of West Palm Beach found these problems downtown unacceptable, for they chose to live in gated and guarded single-story housing communities in the western suburbs.
There are no 25-story office towers in the "western communities," only in the city's overbuilt urban core.
Up, Up and Away in West Palm Beach
For the first 78 years of its history (1894 - 1972), the tallest building in West Palm Beach was just 14 stories. When the 14-floor Harvey Building was built on Datura Street in 1926-27, it loomed a full seven stories above the next tallest building downtown.
It was not until 1972-74 that this standard for building heights was exceeded with the construction of the 21-story Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson towers along Presidential Way west of Clear Lake. After their construction, a race for the sky began downtown which continues to this day.
An objective statistical source for tracking the history of development and building construction for cities in the U.S. and around the world is provided by the Emporis Company. The Emporis Standards allow independent analysis of a city's growth .
A "high-rise" building is commonly defined as having a minimum of 14 floors to a maximum of 39 stories. Office towers higher than 39 floors enter the generic category of "skyscraper". This definition corresponds with those set by several fire safety organizations.
After the completion of the three Presidential towers, an additional 11 high-rise buildings of more than 20 stories were approved by the city and built between 1980 and 2010. Today, there are 218 low-rise and 89 high-rise buildings of all uses in greater West Palm Beach.
The Emporis Standards list eight "planned or unbuilt" high-rise buildings of 30 stories or more. A total of 22 additional high-rise buildings of 20 to 30 floors also are cited by name and address as "planned or unbuilt" in West Palm Beach.
These are future projections and not all are approved by the city. West Palm Beach is currently reviewing a zoning amendment to its Master Plan to set building height, mass and scale guidelines for 127 high-density parcels located east of I-95. Hopefully, this will lead to the downsizing of future developments.
Two future projects looming high above the horizon are the massive Transit Village, located downtown east of Australian Avenue, and five 15-story mixed-use towers rising 170 feet above South Dixie Highway at the current two-story Prospect Place site.
A 'Crystal Tower' for Southland Park
Residents living in historic neighborhoods along South Flagler Drive have long lived under the illusion that their single-family homes would never be overshadowed by a condominium next door. Reality is coming soon to Southland Park in the form of a "Crystal" tower.*
Crystal Palm Beach Development, LLC, is proposing the construction of a six-story, nine-unit multi-family condominium on property purchased by the developer at 3611 South Flagler Drive. This property is one of the 127 parcels in the city currently zoned for high-density development (MF-32).
Twelve residents and representatives of two impacted homes to the north, and the adjacent four-story Flagler Yacht Club to the south, attended the May 5 West Palm Beach Zoning Board of Appeals hearing to state their opposition to four variances requested by the developer.
Lobbyists for the owner said the Crystal will serve as a "catalyst for redevelopment" of properties along Washington Road and South Flagler Drive. Neighbors questioned the need for such a catalyst.
The Zoning Board of Appeals opposed two setback variance requests, 5-0, which would have allowed a 64-foot-high building on the site. However, they did approve two landscaping buffers to the north and south sides of the property, opening the door to a revised condominium plan.
As many as 140 property owners living within 400 feet of the Crystal development site on Washington Road were not informed of the public hearing, as is required by WPB zoning regulations. Belatedly, the City Commission amended the Zoning Code May 9 to increase future notification areas to 500 feet.
Unless the city eliminates existing MF-32 zoning of parcels along Flagler Drive, expect additional condominium towers near historic single-family neighborhoods in the future.
Builders Tout Thinner, Taller Condo Tower*
For 10 years, fortunate residents and neighbors of the old "1515 Flagler Tower" condominium, located on South Flagler Drive, were given a reprieve from new high-rise development. The old 1515 Flagler was demolished in 2006 after extensive damages suffered from the "Three Sisters" hurricanes - Frances, Jeanne and Wilma.
Open space along Flagler Drive is rare novelty and it seemed too good to last. (It was.) The plan to build the 26-story "Modern" condominium on the 1515 Flagler green space fell victim to the Great Recession.
However, it was announced in August 2016 that the Canadian firm of "Great Gulf" will partner with the property owner, Terrence Mountain Investors, LLC, to build a 27-story condo tower, rising 299 feet above Flagler Drive and the Lake Worth Lagoon. Plans for the 256,753-square-foot building were submitted to the city for review.
The Canadian builders say the 84-unit condominium will be "thinner" in mass than the old plans approved by the City Commission for the "Modern". The plan for a slimmer tower will still dwarf neighboring buildings and residences on South Flagler Drive.
The 'Tower of Babel-by-the-Lake'
A controversy of biblical proportions was fought along the waterfront in 2014-15. Chicago developers successfully lobbied the City Commission for a zoning change, allowing the destruction of the beloved historical open-air "Chapel-by-the-Lake," and approved the construction of the 25-story "Bristol" luxury condominium on infill land jutting into the Lake Worth Lagoon.
For the first time, residents from the across the city questioned the "Little Manhattan" downtown vision of the future, and organized to fight the building of a massive high-rise along Flagler Drive at both public hearings and in court.
The site was previously owned by the First Baptist Church. Its directors should have heeded the warning issued 4,000 years ago in Genesis 11:(3). It reads, "And they said come let us build a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves..."
Alas, God punished mankind for our vanity and architectural foolishness by creating linguistic confusion and chaos that halted the project - not unlike the disharmony and discord in West Palm Beach caused by the Bristol project.
King Nimrod did not learn the moral lesson of the Tower of Babel parable, and neither did the First Baptist Church nor the City Commission. The church received its $21 million pieces of silver for the site in 2014, but the Chapel-by-the-Lake, a cultural center of the city for more than 50 years, is lost forever.
Soon, the First Baptist congregation will no longer see the sun rising over the Lake Worth Lagoon from the front steps of their temple. As a result of the city's action, the east side of Flagler Drive is now open to future high-rise projects, such as the six Rybovich Village towers.
Traffic studies and sea-level rise projections along Flagler Drive are routinely ignored by city leaders.
Office Towers Become the New 'Cathedrals'
Using the Bristol project as a test case, developers are now preying on distressed properties, both downtown and along the waterfront. The targeted sites are prime parcels that include churches faced with declining congregations and future debt.
The next likely development site is church property owned by the First Church of Christ, Scientist, fronting the Royal Palm Bridge, just west of Flagler Drive on Lakeview Avenue. The Related Company is currently negotiating the purchase of a building and parking area directly behind the iconic Christian Science Church, built in 1928 in an architectural Classical Revival Greek temple style.
The New York-based Related Company proposal is to design and build a 30-story, 300,000-square-foot office tower immediately behind the church. The building would offer tenants an unobstructed view of the lagoon. Properties west of the tower would face the back side of the monolith.
The architect for the proposed Class A office building has a lofty vision. He compares the office tower to a "lighthouse" linking the ocean to the city. He even envisions the 30-story building as a modern spire similar to France's "Chartres Cathedral" rising above the city to the heavens above.
Returning to reality, the church property is currently zoned for five stories or less. Special exemptions and approval would be required from the City Commission. Based upon past actions by the council, there are always convenient wavers and incentives available to developers.
In "Little Manhattan," anything is possible, and the sky is never the limit. Just ask King Nimrod. Development matters in the City of West Palm Beach. The preservation of neighborhoods - not so much.
(c.) Davidsson. Revised August 2016.*
NOTE: Additional articles are below and archived in Older Posts.
Friday, March 18, 2016
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