Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
BOOMING GROWTH IN POMPANO
Not all the neighbors are on board with spurt of redevelopment
POMPANO BEACH — As one of the last municipalities in Broward County with untapped ocean views, the rush is on to build in Pompano Beach.
Proposals have sprung up for properties that haven’t seen new activity in a decade or more. Consider: At the intersection of North Federal Highway and Northeast 16th Street, now a heavy industrial area of marine-oriented businesses, developers have proposed an eight-story, 300-unit apartment building. It would have shops and restaurants on the ground floor. And tenants would get views of the municipal golf
course on one side and the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.
■ On the eastern end of Northeast 16th Street, where it intersects with State Road A1A, developers have proposed a building, with two towers that will rise 22 stories — or 248 feet — on a lot that is less than acre. Neighbors say it was once a one-story motel, Ocean Gardens, torn down in the 1990s.
Andrew Sturner, chief executive officer of the Aqua Marine Partners, proposing the development on North Federal Highway, said the city’s investment in the beachside and its art scene make it the ideal time for private investment in Pompano.
“We think the city of Pompano has an incredible future,” Sturner said.
He said city leaders approached him three years ago with the idea of turning the 9-acre industrial area near Federal Highway into a bustling retail and residential hub. Before he can build, though, he has to get county and city officials to agree to change the rules for what’s allowed there. The final part of its first set of approvals is due to go before the City Commission on Sept. 11.
The developers are promising a promenade for walkers to stroll along the canal, and are planning to put all utility lines underground to make the area more attractive.
At each city review, though, neighborhood outcry has led developers to squeeze the number of apartment units. First, 420 units were proposed. Then it was pared to 343. And, at an unveiling of more specifics Tuesday night, it was down to 300 units.
But skeptics — particularly those who live a few blocks east of the proposal — remain.
“Now it takes two or three [traffic light] cycles to come out of Northeast 18th Street,” said Jeff Scott, who has lived in the neighborhood for 33 of his 38 years.
Meanwhile, a June neighborhood meeting about the beachside proposal on the eastern extremity of 16th Street devolved into bedlam. Neighbors say the developer, Mount Vernon Property Holdings, hadn’t lowered the proposed height from what the city’s planning and zoning board in December had declined to recommend for City Commission approval.
“They pretty much got attacked,” said Sandy Van Staden, one of the neighbors. “We’re hoping that did the trick.”
The lot is adjacent to the city’s North Ocean Park, which has become a kitesurfing location, one of just a handful in the county where cones designate a water sports area, seven days a week.
The developer has the option to go before the City Commission without the approval of other city boards.
In some places, Pompano’s zoning regulations limit height only if the Federal Aviation Administration decides a structure would interfere with planes. On the north end of Pompano’s island, only a few high-rises were built before the city instituted a 105-foot building maximum in that zone.
But that maximum is not an iron-clad rule. And developers told the city that the increased height allows for a more modern and sleek design.
“With the height, he [the developer] is able to [create] an airy feeling, so it’s not just a big block on the ground,” Shane Laakso, a planner with the engineering firm, Keith and Associates, told the planning board last year.
And he added a sentence that has triggered the formation of a neighborhood group, dedicated to checking the City Commission agenda regularly.
“The corridor allows for high-rise development and a building of this height could be considered compatible,” he said.
Notes from the city staff show Laasko is correct.
But Molly Moor, who has lived in the north part of Pompano’s beachside for the last year, is determined to keep it from happening. She helped organize the Pompano North Beach Alliance, which has gathered more than 1,000 signatures against the high-rise proposal.
“It’s one of the few beachside communities with single-family homes,” she said.