TODAY: March 6- 1:30 PM- City of Hollywood Technical Advisory Committee meeting (in person City Hall or virtual). The developer will present the proposed site plan for 1301 S Ocean Drive.  

Public comments are allowed, no pre-registration needed to comment in person at City Hall. What are your concerns about this site plan? File # 23-DPZ-19. Agenda item C3. 

Some of the concerns we've heard from some Hollywood residents: 

This design proposal goes against our city master plan with height and character. If this was not government property, the height would be closer to 6 stories maximum. Residents care about beach height. We do not want a condo canyon like Sunny Isles. 

The city’s beach master plan shows a nature center at 1301 (not a private skyscraper). This is supposed to be public open space, not private condos.

30 stories adds an enormous amount of density to a barrier island. There are other properties that will also add density, including the grassy property on Jefferson St. that has plans for development. The condo on Bougainvillea also received permission for a height variance. More private properties on the barrier island have also been approved for more condos.

The site plan shows alterations to the 1 acre parcel that is controlled by the National Park Service and they haven’t gotten approval for that.

The 1 acre parcel includes the small parking lot on A1A, which should be protected, as there is no guarantee that all of the public spots in the Related Group site plan will remain public. For example, recently, the City of Hollywood passed a resolution to convert public beach parking spaces into “beach resident only” permitted spaces, and they would not exclude beach residents who already have a private parking space from the program. In addition, the parking garage at Margaritaville is labeled “public,” though no residents can park in it with their annual resident parking permit. If it remains a protected LWCF parking lot, it will always be public, no matter what.

If DEP approval is not given to charge the LWCF acre, then Azalea can’t be vacated, as you need Azalea to get into the small parking lot. 

The massive height will block the sunlight, sunsets, blue sky, and breeze in the park as well as the beach. 

This is a flood/storm surge zone, hurricane evacuation zone A, so it’s not a good idea to place more people in an area that will need to be evacuated. Rescue may have difficulty getting to these areas with storm surge, debris, and king tides. 

We should not eliminate Azalea Terrace. Vacating Azalea Terrace would affect traffic flow, as Jefferson St is very narrow when there are cars parked on both sides. In addition, the mayor is pushing a plan to expand the Broadwalk, which may affect Surf Rd. 

Vacating Azalea will affect parents’ ease of dropping their kids off for SEA camp (right now they have a covered overhang for ease of pick up and drop off). 

Vacating Azalea and placing a 30 story building next to it will affect the sunlight and breeze in the park and on the beach. 

The site plan shows a restaurant. The site does not currently have a restaurant. So in addition to needing parking for condo guests and deliveries, a restaurant adds traffic, customers who need to park, restaurant staff who need to find parking, as well as noise and garbage. Many residents would rather have something at this site that promotes water recreation or eco-tourism, such as scuba/snorkel, nature center, kids lifeguard camp, etc. A nature center is actually in our city’s beach master plan for this site. 

30 stories of glass is bad for sea turtles as the light reflects off the building. It is also bad for birds.

If residents leave their blinds/windows/curtains/doors open, then light will affect sea turtle nesting. This is an otherwise quiet, dark portion of beach with mature dunes.

Large parking garage equals more exhaust fumes next to children’s park. 

Delivery trucks create exhaust, noise, traffic, etc.

Construction of a 30 story tower would take a long time, affecting public access to the park, library, community center, and beach, classes, summer camps, etc.  

Some residents expressed concerns that a parking garage gives a big place for homeless to use as a shelter and use as a bathroom- (This is what has been happening at the Charnow/Garfield park).

A parking garage creates a safety hazard for women and children because it gives criminals a big place to hide. Criminals can also hide from police.

Hundreds of residents may have more than 1 car per household, as well as guests who might take up public parking spaces. This is in addition to adding more cars because of a larger community center and events associated with the center.  

Neighboring residents are concerned about the noise and safety when building a tower of this size next to their older buildings on a barrier island.  

The plans show a “wood deck” with “handrail” that appears to be going across “Broadwalk” east of the dune/east of Surf Rd. This is confusing to residents. There is no Broadwalk east of the dune or east of Surf Rd. Is the plan to have a Broadwalk through the dune? East of the dune? This would also affect vegetation and sea turtles. A Broadwalk through the dune raises major environmental concerns. It also brings the noise and crowds further south to this quieter section of beach. Our dunes contain endangered plants only found in SE FL. 

This entire area is a Certified Wildlife Habitat with many native and endangered plants, so we would be disturbing pollinators/wildlife. 

Caryl Shuham said it’s not a good deal for the city, some attorneys have expressed concern that the P3 statute does not include a luxury condo, the public should at least be able to vote, we do not need a 30 story condo to beautify our community center (in fact, we are paying for the community center). The deed for 1301 says “open space,” and a skyscraper is not open space. The developer should go pick an appropriate property. This is public land meant for open space. Most residents don’t want this.