Plans for Wawa, Aldi on Southern advance
LOXAHATCHEE GROVES — Plans to bring a Wawa, Aldi and Chase Bank to an undeveloped piece of land along bustling Southern Boulevard took a step forward this week.
The Loxahatchee Groves Planning and Zoning Board on Tuesday night voted 4-0, with councilman William Ford absent, to recommend approval of a developer’s requests to modify a previously approved planned-unit development, with a list of conditions.
Solar Sportsystems Inc. and Loxahatchee Equestrian Partners LLC own about 90 acres of land on the northeast corner of B Road and Southern Boulevard. They received approval in 2013 for a planned-unit development there called Groves Town Center, which included up to 103,000 square feet of retail space and 44,000 square feet of office space, plus a congregate living facility with up to 128 beds.
While the property’s current zoning would allow for the Wawa, Aldi and Chase Bank, attorney Matthew Scott said his clients needed to change the plan approved in 2013 because of recent Florida Department of Transportation feedback that requires the entryand-exit points to the project along Southern be farther east from the B Road intersection.
The developers also are asking for the project to be phased, with the first phase encompassing land south of a future extension of Tangerine Boulevard from C Road west to B Road. The changes, if approved by the town council, also would reshape the pods of land within the first phase.
The plan has been for his clients to sell the land piece-by-piece and then have each pod developed, Scott said. “Unfortunately, it took a few years,” he added.
A buyer wants to develop the 5 acres where the Aldi, Chase Bank and Wawa would sit. With the rest of the land still open with no concrete development plans in place, part of Scott’s request was to change some of the conditions of approval to specify they are for the first phase, with conditions to be set later for secondary phases.
The conditions recommended by the board for approval by the council include:
■ Changing the previously approved 50-foot landscaping buffer along Southern to 35 feet, except for the 150 feet of road in front of Aldi, which would have a 25-foot buffer. Scott said the 50-foot buffer made marketing the property difficult, and that his clients still wanted to provide more than the 15-foot buffer seen in front of the Publix plaza to the west per feedback from the town council at a past workshop.
■ Requiring that drainage improvements be constructed and certified by the town’s engineer before a certificate of occupancy will be issued for each phase.
■ Changing the wetlands determination from being done all at once, before construction can begin on the first phase, to being done by phase.
■ Requiring architectural elevations be submitted by phase, instead of at the same time for the entire Groves Town Center.
The town council will review the requests at its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Loxahatchee Groves Town Hall, 155 F Road.
Solar Sportsystems Inc. is well known in Wellington for its high-profile owners, the Jacobs family. Patriarch Jeremy Jacobs owns the Boston Bruins and sits on the board of hospitality giant Delaware North. The family is extremely active in the equestrian community, hosting numerous events each season.