Gator Acres could rise on edge of Everglades

Gator Acres is so close to the Everglades it could almost fall in.

The property sits at the end of Loxahatchee Road, next to boat ramps for the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge. It’s one of the last remaining pieces of undeveloped land in a county that has been paved over and built upon from end to end.

Now it’s Gator Acres’ time, says developer Brian Tuttle, who is seeking to squeeze 119 apartments onto less than 5 acres in a pair of six-story apartment buildings “with beautiful views of the Everglades.”

The apartments could bring more than 300 people to land planners say is better suited for 36 based on its size and location.

The rural, forested property in unincorporated Broward County is zoned for only one home for every 10 acres, which would be roughly half a house on the land. Neighboring Parkland wouldn’t mind if the developer built 1.5 to 3 homes per acre on the site, because adjacent land in the city allows 3 homes per acre.

Tuttle’s ask? 25 apartments per acre.

“It’s just simply not compatible,” says Broward Commissioner Michael Udine, a former Parkland mayor. “It’s way out of whack. There’s not the infrastructure up there to service that kind of density.”

One reason the land hasn’t been part of Broward’s earlier building booms is because it has only been in the county for a decade. The property is in an area called The Wedge, a nearly 2,000-acre tract of land south of Loxahatchee Road that used to be in Palm Beach County but was transferred to Broward in 2009.

Most of that property has since been annexed into Parkland and is being turned into large developments of single family homes.

Tuttle also owns 69 of those other acres, already annexed into Parkland, which he plans to develop as single-family homes at three per acre. He offered to include both properties as part of an an

nexation deal if the city would have approved four homes per acre for the combined sites, but officials said no.

So now Tuttle has a different idea for Gator Acres, which got its name from the Everglades tour company that used to operate its airboat rides on the site from a building that has since been demolished.

Tuttle says he wouldn’t have to put so many apartments on the small lot if the county hadn’t carved out a piece of it through eminent domain to build a 325-foot public safety radio tower. There’s actually two towers close to the property, with a virtual twin to Broward’s on the Palm Beach County side of Lo xa hat che e Road, across the Hillsboro Canal.

“Nobody wants to live next to an ugly tower like that,” Tuttle said. The tower hurts his property value and how much people will be willing to pay to live there, and he’ll need room to create a buffer between it and the apartment buildings, he said.

Tuttle and the county are in court fighting over just how much the county should pay Tuttle for taking a quarter-acre of his land for the tower. Tuttle said he has offered to drop his case for damages if the county approves his request for the 4.77-acre lot.

He previously proposed putting 125 condos on the site but withdrew that request because of opposition to it. His apartment project proposal would commit to 15 percent, about 18, of the apartments for workforce housing. The Gator Acres project will have to be approved by the county’s planning council and commission.

County officials, who so far are recommending denial of the project, say it’s not a good location for affordable housing, with the nearest bus stop 4 miles away and no plans for servicing the area in the future.

The only way out of the development — unless you have an airboat — will be east on Loxahatchee Road, which is dotted with newer Parkland developments and long-standing nurseries. It’s a six-mile shot out the twolane road, also called Lox Road, to get to U.S. 441. There are turnoffs for Nob Hill Road, University Drive and Hillsboro Boulevard.

Planners recommended requiring the developer to have a private shuttle available for residents who need it.

Tuttle doesn’t know yet what the rents would be, but he said his apartments will serve the higher end of the traditional workforce: teachers, police, firefighters and others who might want to live near affluent Parkland but“can’ t afford $600-700,000 homes.”

“They have cars; they have kids. They can’t afford to live in Parkland,” he said.

TAIMY ALVAREZ/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL A developer wants to erect a pair of six-story apartment buildings at the end of Loxahatchee Road overlooking the Everglades. The developer says he needs the high density because the county took part of his land to build a radio tower, which he says will hurt how much people are willing to pay to live there.