From the barrier island to downtown, Fort Lauderdale’s skyline is dotted with construction cranes where new housing, new hotels and new business space is being built.
It is a dizzying transformation. For some, it’s a statement of our prosperity and a sign of Fort Lauderdale gaining international renown as a great place to live and visit. For others, it raises concern of traffic and infrastructure and whether we are losing our sense of place as a community.
Both myself and other members of this City Commission campaigned last year on finding a balance.
Let’s face it: we are in the midst of runaway growth and are witnessing the fulfillment of the policies of the last 10 years. And believe it or not, there’s more to come. But I want to create a middle ground of smart growth — growth that doesn’t overwhelm our neighborhoods, growth in which we’ve assured the proper infrastructure is in place, growth that is in keeping with our shared values and vision as a community.
Almost all of the construction underway predates the current commission. And, this commission is committed to learning from the lessons of the past to see how we can work to improve the development process. Such change does not occur overnight, but several fundamental changes are being formulated so that we can now deal with growth in a better way.
City staff is working on an update to the downtown master plan that will put into law important principles that previously were mere suggestions. Developers and past commissions often ignored these guidelines. The City Commission is scheduled to vote on these reforms in the fall.
The most important reform is something called transition zones.
Right now, a 30-story building can be built at the edge of downtown next to single-family home neighborhoods. That would no longer be the case. The proposal coming forward creates a transition area around downtown’s borders. New construction in the transition area would need to be smaller than if at the center of downtown, creating more of a buffer for surrounding neighborhoods.
Other items being codified include the separation between towers on a site, the size of a building’s base, the maximum length of buildings, the need for projects to include open space and the need for adjacent streetscapes with trees and lighting.
The City Commission also wants to change a key rule regarding what developments automatically come to us for a vote.
Under the current land development code, many downtown projects are approved with only a review by city staff. The commission can only intervene if it finds substantial evidence that staff made a grievous error in judgment. Legally, it’s a difficult challenge. It also frustrates the very mission we were all elected to fulfill.
As your elected officials, we want the power to approve or reject more projects without such an impediment. When we make that change, residents will be guaranteed more of a voice in what is built.
On the beach, a different set of circumstances is playing out. A deal was struck between the county and city in the late 1980s that is about to have major consequences.
In 1989, the city and county were attempting to redevelop the beach — moving away from the heyday of college Spring Break that left much of the central beach blighted and decaying. The city had a vision to turn the beach into something special with high-class hotels and better amenities. They saw it as improving the beach for local residents while also attracting a better mix of tourists.
But officials back then were also concerned about how redevelopment of that scale would affect travel on A1A. As a result, they established a system of evaluating how much additional traffic each new development would bring, They assigned a trip count through some algorithm based on the number of dwelling units and the type of use, be it hotel or residential. In doing so, they set a cap on the number of new peak-hour trips permitted on the barrier island.
That number was a 3,220 additional “trips.” I’m not sure how they arrived at that number back then, but it was supposed to ensure A1A remained drivable. Well, 30 years later, the Florida Department of Transportation says A1A is a failed road even though there are still trips available for additional development projects However, we are about to hit that magical limit. Once it’s reached, there can be no more building on the beach.
There are just 334 trips left to be allocated, and projects currently under review would take away all but 58.
Where did the trips go over the last 30 years? Beach Place, the W, the Conrad, the Ritz Carlton, Jackson Tower, Las Olas Beach Club, the Hilton are among the projects. In addition, some developers are sitting on large blocks of trips for projects that have been approved but they have not built — like Bahia Mar and El Ad.
The question is what now?
What do we do about important public improvements such as parking for North Beach Village at the old Natchez lot or an upscale, expanded marina off Las Olas Boulevard? These projects likely would generate additional traffic that would have to be accounted for. So, if we reach the 1989 cap, we’d face some serious questions.
And despite the new hotels built and the civic improvements undertaken, there remain spots along the beach that are blighted, such as the Bahia Cabana property. Again, we are about to be at the point where the city would be prohibited from approving more redevelopment.
With this traffic limit looming, we need to have a community conversation much like the one that occurred in 1989. Where do we go from here? Are we allocating the precious remaining trips as best as possible? Is it possible to pick and choose or must we accept whatever comes first? And what happens when we reach the limit?
We need to think of ways to improve traffic on the beach. Are there ways to improve mass transit, perhaps with shuttles from places like the Galleria Mall? This is where we need to get creative, because I agree with many others that we certainly don’t want any more cars on Fort Lauderdale beach.
It is a critical time for Fort Lauderdale, both downtown and on the beach. The decisions we make today will have a lasting impact for decades to come. I’m committed to finding ways for us to grow smartly and maintain our sense of community.
Yours,
Dean