CRA to meet on projects
Delray Beach agency eyeing West Atlantic Ave., neighborhoods
DELRAY BEACH — Dozens of new homes could rise on the site of an old dump, as well as an old tree nursery in Delray Beach.
The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency will meet Aug. 15 to discuss its next steps to transform West Atlantic Avenue and its surrounding neighborhoods to continue to combat an area residents complained had been neglected for decades.
Over the years, the city and CRA have spent millions of dollars on street improvements, including paved sidewalks, lighting fixtures, winding paths and landscaped medians on West Atlantic.
The CRA has also purchased land and deteriorating houses to build new affordable homes in the Northwest and Southwest sections of town, areas that historically had been characterized by high crime, absentee landlords and vacant properties.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Jeff Costello, the agency’s executive director. “While a lot of work has been accomplished, there’s more work to be done.”
Among the projects under way within the western part of the city:
■ A gas station at 805 W. Atlantic Ave. that was purchased in 2006 for $1,353,520, is in the final stages of underground soil and groundwater clean-up. Costello said it eventually could become the site of mixed-use development, a project that helps “creating the synergy” in the community.
■ At the corner of Southwest Third Street and Southwest Seventh Avenue, the CRA in 2005 began ac-
quiring 20 lots along two blocks. The site had been a pond and then an illegal dumping ground and the homes that were later built in the 1960’s through the 1980’s were sinking and cracking because of soil settlement. The CRA relocated residents and demolished the dilapidated houses in 2008, and worked with the Department of Environmental Protection on an eight-foot deep remediation. Now, plans for 20 new homes on the empty lots within the Carver Square subdivision are in the design phase. Four models will be presented to the CRA Board in August.
■ The CRA bought land that had been a former nursery at the northwest corner of Southwest Seventh Ave. and Southwest Fourth Street in 2017. Two models are in the design phase for the 10 homes that will be built. The agency bought the 10 residential lots for $487,000.
■ The CRA is under a $1.4 million contract to buy a vacant, five-unit residential property at 98 NW 5 Ave. The plan is to renovate the units, and add commercial space on the ground floor to create a mixed-use property and restrict the rent. The goal: more workforce housing. “It’s assisting in the stabilization of the community and providing opportunity for local small business,” Costello said.
The CRA has plans to build a new commercial building on a vacant lot at Southwest First Street and Southwest Fifth Avenue in 2019 to accommodate local small businesses.
A plan to redevelop 6 acres of West Atlantic Avenue is in flux. The Uptown Atlantic project, if approved, could create 112 new apartments, with 22 of those reserved for workforce housing along Atlantic between Southwest Sixth Avenue and Southwest Ninth Avenue. The three-building project, which would peak at four stories, could include a grocery and other new businesses.
Elsewhere in the CRA district, an iPic that is moving its headquarters from Boca Raton is under construction, and Delray’s Housing Authority is working on a plan to build 50 homes to help the working class find housing. Plans for the third phase of the project known as Village Square will be submitted to City Hall in the spring.
Chuck Ridley a former CRA board member who is the chairman of the West Altantic Redevelopment Coalition, grew up in the southwest part of the city and now lives in the northwest. He said residents are excited that progress is continuing.
“We need affordable housing in our neighborhood, we need that,” he said. “We want projects consistent with a working class neighborhood.”