More Development; City Coffers up $10+ Million; Actual Workforce Housing – ZIP!

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The topic of Workforce Housing received the bulk of the discussion at the December 6th City Council Meeting, coupled with the addition of new development projects.

New Development and Workforce Housing:

Arcadia Gardens, on the Amara Shrine Center site on RCA Blvd. will be an Independent Living facility of 163 units. See the Palm Beach Post description here.   Resident Peter Banting expressed concern that RCA Blvd is a 2 lane road, and that there will be safety issues with the addition of the property. Staff acknowledged that the road is owned by the County, and when the project is further along they will be able to work with the county for improvements. Part of the developers’ proposal included over $500K to be provided to the City for workforce housing.

Alton submitted amendments to Parcel F – which previously was going to contain an 8+acre park, to instead build an additional 56 townhomes and a 4.49 acre community park, justifying that the modifications due to the proximity of the new North County District Park.

Avenir together with staff, presented their proposal to provide $10 million now in lieu of providing 250 townhomes priced as workforce housing sometime in the future.  The 250 units will still be built but priced at market.  The rationale provided was to give the City money now to enhance the Burns Rd Recreation Center with $5 million – which Rosa Schechter (of Avenir Holdings) described as the ‘Ying and Yang‘ of workforce housing;  

and use the other $5+ million to develop a strategy and solution some time in the next year or so, for providing a central core in the city. The $5.5 million (Avenir plus Arcadia Gardens contributons) would be the start of a fund to help implement a future solution. So actual ‘workforce housing’ remains elusive – not just in the Gardens, but in other cities who discuss the need, make plans but so far have failed to actually execute. See:  Avenir Can Provide $10 Million Instead of Including Workforce Housing for points made during the discussion.

Summarizing the other agenda items:

• Operation Sister City – next deployment of gifts for children took place on 12/10.  Sponsors were recognized
• Governor Rick Scott awarded Palm Beach Gardens Officers Robert Ayala and Rafael Guadalupe the Governor’s Medal of Heroism 
• Mayor’s Veterans Golf Tournament raised over $33K for the Veterans Administration this year
• The Consent Agenda and all Ordinances and Resolutions on the Agenda were passed 5:0 with minimal discussion except for Arcadia Gardens and Avenir.
• City Attorney Lohman gave a brief update on upcoming legal actions:
  • 12/13/18 – Mediation for Sears Attorney Fees
  • 01/15/19 – Sid Dinerstein vs PBG et al lawsuit from March election
  • 02/11/19 – Motion for Summary Judgement – Sid Dinerstein vs PBG et al, lawsuit from August election

The January City Council meeting will be held on January 10, 2019.