Opposing sides rally support in West Palm’s skyline-height fight
Opinion surveys, ads and flyers swirling over push for 25-story tower.
WEST PALM BEACH — As a series of votes approaches on the future of the downtown West Palm Beach skyline, the battle for public opinion is heating up.
Related Cos.’ push to rewrite the downtown rule book to allow a 25-story office tower on a fivestory South Flagler Drive site is spurring supporters and opponents to pony up for opinion surveys, newspaper ads and mailers.
“Outsiders want radical zoning changes that will forever alter our waterfront and destroy our city’s skyline,” said one flyer that showed up in mailboxes around West Palm Beach this week. “25story office towers on Okeechobee and Flagler will make WPB a mini-Miami,” it said.
That mailer, attributed to a group called Coalition for Reasonable Development, included names and numbers of city commissioners and Planning Board and Downtown Action Committee members, and tear-along-thedotted-line postcards to sign and mail to register opposition. Get more West Palm Beach news every day at the West Palm Beat blog.
Related, for its part, has had people going from door to door to solicit support for the One Flagler project, which it wants to build at Okeechobee Boulevard and South Flagler Drive, just over 300 feet west of the downtown waterfront.
And the developer has been running half-page ads in The Palm
that a public referendum restricted to five stories, then some other developer could seek permission to Beach Post, featuring locals build on the Trinity church who support the project. property adjacent to Trump
“Today, it’s West Palm Plaza, blocking views and Beach’s turn, and the One adding more traffic. Flagler project can move us Their property values and from good to great,” downquality of life will go down, town business owner Monte Bernstein said. “People live Lambert says in one ad that in West Palm Beach because appeared Tuesday. “Our city they like the quality of life requires growth if we are to here . ... We don’t want it to pay for necessary services look like downtown Miami.” without raising property Predictably, the survey by taxes,” an ad on Wednespollsters Steven Vanacore day quoted western com- and Vanessa Butwell, con- munities resident John Mike ducted June 6-10, found that as saying. respondents overwhelmingly
The Trump Plaza Condo- oppose One Flagler. The surminium Association hired vey results were shared with well known Florida poll- city officials who will vote sters to survey 300 resi- on the project. dents throughout the city Here’s one of its questions: on various aspects of the “At this point, would you say project. Association Pres- that you support or oppose ident Abe Bernstein said changing the zoning ordi- the residents of Trump Pla- nances to allow the height za’s 186 condominiums fear limit to be raised to 25 stothat if Related is allowed ries?” According to the poll- to build its tower on a site sters, 25 percent supported the change and 75 percent opposed it.
Another question asks, “The building would add an additional 2,300 car trips per day near the base of the Royal Park Bridge and the Okeechobee Corridor” and asks whether that would make the respondent more or less likely to support the project. Not surprisingly, 74 percent said that would make them less likely to support it, with 17 percent lik- ing the idea of more traffic.
Asked if they liked the idea that the project’s traffic could get in the way of fire trucks and ambulances, 77 percent said they didn’t like that, but 15 percent said that blocking emergency vehicles made them more likely to support the project.
Harvey Oyer III, West Palm Beach attorney for Related, called the poll meaningless.
“While I haven’t been provided a copy of the poll, I have had the methodology and results read to me and it clearly has all the markings of a push poll, which is a series of leading statements and questions that push the person being surveyed to one particular conclusion,” Oyer said. “These are really meaningless polls, except for propaganda value for an advocate for one particular position. So it on balance provides no insight to our residents or leaders.
“It’s disappointing when qualified and experienced developers like Related bring forward-thinking innovative ideas, great architecture and significant financial investment to our city and some rogue person or group attempts to sabotage their ideas by spreading misinformation,” Oyer continued. “But, fortunately, I think our city leaders and residents are much smarter than that and won’t be distracted by these antics.”