Season in review: Zoning board balances town-wide reforms and development interest

The past season has been a pivotal moment in determining Palm Beach's future landscape. The town's Planning and Zoning Commission is the midst of reviewing the rules of development as laid out in its Comprehensive Plan, even as local project developers push for changes that would make their vision of progress possible.

Even though the commission does not have the authority to deny a project, its objections have essentially ended or driven significant reformulation of multiple projects.

Among them, and arguably the one that sparked the liveliest debate this season, was the proposed Wells Fargo Project at South County Road and Royal Palm Way. The site's developer, the Frisbie Group, had proposed to ease the challenges of developing the lot that was partially zoned for commercial and part residential using a tool rarely used in Palm Beach: a planned unit development.

The zoning tool, also known as a PUD, would have eliminated the need for multiple requests for variances from current zoning rules by putting the entire property under the one umbrella of the PUD. Then the Town Council could sign off on nearly every aspect of the development as a whole. The PUD would have changed the Wells Fargo property's three existing zoning districts — one for residential and two for commercial use — to a single residential district.

That proposal drew the condemnation of Commissioner Michael Vincent John Spaziana before the presentation had even begun. He said that the commission had recently decided to strike the zoning tool from the town's future Comprehensive Plan.

"So, I'm not sure why you're in front us. You're going to make this presentation and we already voted on no PUDs," Spaziani told company representative Rob Frisbie Jr.. "So I think you're going to be wasting a lot of our time, because we already voted on that."

With little hesitation, the commission agreed to advise the Town Council not to approve the four PUD-related ordinances.

A few days after the meeting, Frisbie Group had dropped the zoning tool from its proposal. Two other proposals, one for the Brazilian Court Hotel and the other for the Paramount Theatre, were scrapped altogether following the commission's objections.

The Brazilian Court hotel had sought to change via ordinance medium-density the residential district code to allow hotels to construct valet-only parking garages. The Paramount Theatre proposed an ordinance to change the zoning of the surrounding district to allow for the construction of arcades that cover the sidewalk.

During the commission's September and November meetings, attorney for the hotel Maura Ziska argued that the garage would be a benefit to both the town and hotel, allowing hotel employees to park off the street, while also serving as a potential parking spot for neighboring properties.

The ordinances were met with heavy criticism from zoning commissioners and neighbors, and the commission advised against the Town Council adopting them. Both ordinances were pulled from the Town Council's December agenda, neither having returned to the Town Council.

The commission did approve the Society of the Four Arts' request to add a cultural institution zoning district to the town's current Comprehensive Plan and zoning code.

Sitting in a spot zoned for low-density residential, any renovations, repairs or upgrades to the Four Arts and the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum were limited, said Harvey Oyer, attorney for the Four Arts, during the commission's March meeting. To alleviate this, the Four Arts proposed a new zoning designation for cultural institutions that would define what qualifies as a cultural institution while creating specifications for how a property in those districts could be used. The organization also proposed amending the Comprehensive Plan in order to accommodate those zoning changes.

While members of the commission said they were concerned about creating a new zoning district while in the middle of drafting a new Comprehensive Plan and overhauling the town's decades old zoning code, commissioners voted to approve both measures. The Town Council followed suit during its March 13 meeting, paving the way for a final hearing, following the amendment's review by the state and Palm Beach.

Comprehensive Plan continues to move forward while Zone Code review stalls

Most of the commission's meeting time was spent reviewing the draft 2024 Comprehensive Plan and the revamped zoning codes.

As Town Planner Palm Jennifer Hofmeister-Drew noted during the commission’s October meeting, the Comprehensive Plan sets the binding goals and policy recommendations that will be the “guiding vision” to the town's code and any regulating document.

A new draft of the Comprehensive Plan is required every seven years by state law.

While town employees predicted a quick review for the Comprehensive Plan, the commissioners reviewed the plan line by line throughout the season's monthly meetings. With that came multiple rounds of revisions, including to the plan's Public Safety, Housing and Historic Preservation sections, which had all undergone four rounds of revisions.

The commission is scheduled to review the plan's revised transportation element during its May 7 meeting. Originally due in April, Hofmeister-Drew said the report was waiting on key data points, including the amount of cars traveling to and from the town and Palm Beach's rate of growth, that will be included in the Miami-based consultant The Corradino Group's updated traffic study.

The commission's meticulous approach also meant it had to review the comprehensive plan while tackling the zone code overhaul.

“I’m kind of confused. Why are we doing the zoning first, without actually making sure we have this Comprehensive Plan done?” Spaziana said during the commission’s November meeting. “My main concern is we touch this first, and make sure this Comprehensive Plan is passed before we go into all the details (of the zone code review).”

From November to April, the commission received four updates from the consultant leading the zoning code overhaul. However, progress hit a standstill when commissioners couldn't support the changes, especially to the town's low-density residential districts.

While commissioners agreed, during their April meeting, that limitations should be placed to curtail the construction of houses disproportionately larger than neighboring buildings, they worried that the limitations placed on a house's location on a lot, the amount of stories allowed, and a home's required distance from the street could limit the unique architectural designs that define the island’s residential zones.

"I don't know where we go from here, because there is a lot of open questions," Chair Gail Coniglio said.

Hofmeister-Drew noted that tackling the zone code piece by piece may be stalling the process.

Instead, the commission will receive interim updates on the zoning code's status while consultants aim to complete a full draft of zoning code for the fall. The consultant leading the drafting process, Sean Suder of ZoneCo., will also be meeting with commissioners one on one during this time.

Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach planning board balances reforms with development interest