Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
315 rental apartments may be built on synagogue land
Hundreds of homes could be built on the campus of a Plantation synagogue.
Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El, a reform synagogue on Peters Road since the 1970s, is seeking a zoning change and other approvals that would allow Stiles Corp. to build 315 rental apartments. The plans are expected to go before the Plantation City Council in August, according to the City Clerk’s Office.
The apartments would be situated on a vacant piece of land the synagogue bought years ago for future growth, including an expanded school.
The synagogue bought the land east of the existing building for $1.6 million in 2000. At the time, it was Broward County’s only Jewish private school affiliated with a temple.
But the synagogue’s membership peaked long ago and enrollment at its day school dwindled, so the school building was eventually rented to a charter school, said the founding Rabbi Emeritus Sheldon Harr.
“The Temple congregation is shrinking and no longer needs to expand,” the synagogue wrote in its paperwork to City Hall. “In fact, membership has decreased significantly and the Temple now needs to secure its financial future. The property is located in the Plantation Midtown District, which encourages residential development as part of any project.”
Craig Packer, president of the temple, said 5 acres of the temple’s 13 acres would be sold to Stiles. The land sale is pending project approval from the city.
A spokeswoman for Stiles Corp. declined to comment.
“That land would lie fallow there, we don’t need it or use it at this point, and we do have to look forward to the strength and viability of the congregation,” Harr said. “It’s an asset we have to sell in order to continue to be viable.”
The new Stiles project would be within walking distance of groceries and restaurants, in “keeping with the national trend for housing located within mixed-use districts, and will be an attractive option for the Midtown target market,” according to the synagogue’s application.
Almost half of the units for the project — 149 of them — are proposed to be one-bedroom, at about 730 square feet.
The building would peak at eight stories, according to city staff. The site plan also includes a pool with cabanas and outdoor gazebo, a putt-putt green, and a fitness center.
Temple Emanu-El was founded in 1926 in a rented room above a Fort Lauderdale restaurant. It was Broward’s oldest synagogue. The synagogue moved to Lauderdale Lakes in the 1960s and merged with Temple Kol Ami in 2004.