Cypress Creek ‘urban village’ OK’d

For years, Fort Lauderdale’s Cypress Creek Road corridor has been a revolving door of major commercial activity, with big name companies setting up shop, only to leave within a short time. Now, the city’s Planning and Zoning Board has thrown its support behind sweeping code changes aimed at creating a greater sense of community and purpose.

Those changes, proponents say, would open the door to a so-called Uptown Urban Village encompassing 353 acres.

The idea — which has been five years in the making through a public-private partnership called Envision Uptown — includes leveraging transportation assets such as Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station and Interstate 95.

The corridor currently enjoys an economic resurgence with the presence of Hotwire Communications, Trividia Health, Microsoft, Zimmerman Advertising, and the soon-to-be-completed Cypress Creek Medical Pavilion. Their presence is reminiscent of the 1980s, when companies such as Harris, Bendix, Allied Signal and other technology companies had operations there.

But while commerce has rebounded, infrastructure problems remain. The corridor is clogged with 70,000 cars every business day, and there is scant local housing for thousands of corporate employees.

A 2014 Urban Land Institute study said Uptown’s success depends on transforming the car-dependent employment center around Cypress Creek near the interstate into a progressive village where people live, work and play and rely on their feet, bicycles or public transportation to get around.

The city board amended