REVISED ARTICLE From PALM BEACH POST WEST PALM BEACH — The planner for the Chapel-by-the-Lake condo project on South Flagler Drive says he’ll “most likely” alter the tower’s scope in light of objections to its size and design. West Palm Beach city commissioners late Monday gave initial approval to the proposed 25-story tower, following a 6-hour meeting at which supporters foresaw an economic boon and opponents envisioned a “monstrosity” that would ruin the neighborhood. As commissioners voted, they made it clear that developers might not do as well when the panel takes its second and final vote Sept. 30. Planner Kieran Kilday, in a letter Thursday to city planners and election officials, asked that the vote be pushed back one meeting, to Oct. 15, to give him more time for revisions. Spokesman Elliot Cohen said Friday he expects the city will grant the delay. Such requests aren’t unusual, Kilday said Thursday evening. “We got our architects on it right away” following Monday’s vote, he said. “We are definitely looking to see what we can do.” He said he hopes to have new plans to the city by the beginning of next week. A key roadblock to developers could be the city’s “setback” rule, which requires that the building be set back one foot from Flagler Drive for every two feet of building height. That means the proposed 327-foot-tower would need 163 feet of setback. But the developers have asked for setbacks of between 28 feet and 32 feet. Commissioner Shanon Materio, who along with colleague Kimberly Mitchell voted against the project Monday night, said Friday her message was clear: reduce the setbacks, lower the height and change the design. To what? “I’ll know it when I see it.” First Baptist Church, which owns the 3.2-acre amphitheater site at 1112 S. Flagler Drive, has a deal to sell it to developer Al Adelson for $23 million for what was originally proposed to be a 29-story, 384-foot condo complex. After the city’s planning board voted down the project July 16, the developer dropped the building’s size to 25 floors, shortening it by 57 feet. Should commissioners turn down the revised project, by city statute, developers could ask again for the same setback waiver and other approvals but not for a year, unless “new circumstances or material changes affect the application.” Developers had said that if the tower was rejected, they probably would build something there, as they already have the proper land use designations now to build an 86,000-square-foot medical building, a parking garage and an 18-unit residence. Materio she’s resigned that something will go at the spot, but that “I want to be proud of it. You can’t discount how people feel. Give them something to be proud of.” She said developers are responsible for a lot of very negative feelings,” and that the debate “has split this city in ways I have never seen.” — More so, she said, than even the fight over the $150 million City Hall complex. The church has said it sees the sale as a windfall that will support its religious mission. About 500 of its more than 2,000 members attended a 2010 meeting and voted 247-216 to allow the sale of the property. The current church land generates no taxes. An economic analyst for the developer has said the tower would generate $2.7 million in property revenue for the city each year and about the same amount for Palm Beach County and the county school district. He said construction would create more than 1,000 jobs.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 02:23:07 +0000