Vote on tower plan delayed after developer cuts height

The first developer to face the newly elected City Commission slashed the height of a proposed tower last week, facing a political climate that has turned cool toward development.

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners voted late Tuesday to postpone a vote until June 19 so the new design can be evaluated.

Seven stories were lopped off the proposed Alexan-Tarpon River tower, reducing the tallest portion to a shorter, squat 14-story building, and dropping the number of apartments by one. Trammell Crow Residential now proposes building 180 high-end apartments at 501 SE Sixth Ave., on the south side of the New River downtown, across U.S. 1 from the Rio Vista neighborhood. It would replace the 30-unit, three-story Edgewood Condo.

The tower proposal was so con- troversial that opponents formed an organization and hired a lawyer and a traffic engineer. The city’s elections were dominated by talk of overdevelopment, and a majority on the five-member commission was elected on promises to usher in an era of “smart growth.”

Mayor Dean Trantalis said it was clear the developer had compromise in mind, and he expects opposition to wane.

“You’ve definitely come a long way from what I first saw,” Trantalis told the developer.

Others said that simply lowering the height and spreading the bulk of the building into lower floors didn’t change the traffic impacts or issues with the property’s restricted access for vehicles. The developer reduced a slender 21-story tower and a secondary 16-story tower to 14, and added two levels to a shorter wing. The ground floor of the short wing originally was to be open, but the new plan calls for it to be filled in.

“I received a ton of emails. First of all, they said, ‘Don’t forget why we voted for you. We voted for you to slow down development,’” Commissioner Steve Glassman

said. “This modified site plan doesn’t change any of that.” The site is across the river from the historic Stranahan House, between Smoker Park and the top of the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel.

Glassman said the original design was more attractive, with varying heights and a more slender tower.

Developer attorney Courtney Crush said that when she spoke to city commissioners, there was an emphasis on listening to the neighboring residents. The developer also spoke to an attorney hired by opposing neighbors. The new plan emerged.

“This new project, we just saw it at 5 o’clock today,” city developer chief Anthony Fajardo told commissioners last week.

A fourmember majority — Trantalis and Commissioners Glassman, Heather Moraitis and Ben Sorensen — had stopped the project earlier this year as it was headed to an automatic approval. They voted to hold the public hearing, on the basis that city staff didn’t properly apply land-development rules.

Critics said the city’s Downtown Master Plan recommends building heights taper down in that area, to a maximum eight stories.

Complaints also have rolled in about increased traffic on Federal Highway/ U.S. 1 and in the Rio Vista single-family neighborhood.

Drivers would have limited access to the tower. It’s blocked in by the river, the park, the U.S. 1 tunnel and another condo. The only access is via a one-way service road that takes northbound drivers around the top of the tunnel, to reach the site just west of the tunnel-top.

Drivers southbound on U.S. 1 would have to make a U-turn or cut through Rio Vista to circle around the top of the tunnel, officials from the city and development team confirmed.

Crush said the building would be set back 135 feet from the river’s edge, which is more than twice what is required. That would allow for creation “of an exceptional public realm space,” a city memo says. Part of it would be given to the city for a park, Crush said.

The property is within the downtown’s most intense zoning area, encouraging dense, high-rise development. Though visible from single-family Rio Vista, the property is not close enough to trigger rules about being compatible with that neighborhood, officials said.

Trantalis