The Zoom address is zoom.us and the meeting ID is 835-1838-6873. The meeting will begin at 5:00 pm on September 1, 2020.
Please make plans to attend. We will be sending more updates this week along with other breaking news and ways that you can make your voices heard, despite the COVID restrains on public meetings such as these!
The Applicant for the Sept 1 hearing is asking the City of Plantation, among other things, to approve a change to the County Land Use Plan ("LUPA") to allow for a far more intense housing project than allowed. The LUP currently restricts residential housing on this lot to three units to the acre. In planning parlance, you may hear this referred to as three (3) density units to the acre or in shorthand, 3du/acre.
Neighboring/abutting single family housing developments were built within the County Land Use Plan. Each of you moved to the City with those elements and restrictions firmly in place; meaning the services needed to sustain predictable growth would be firmly in place (including traffic, police, fire, sewer, water and other city services). You moved to your neighborhoods with the understanding that the City would hold any future land developer to the rules established.
While certain housing styles have changed over the years (we now see more modern transitional style homes being built), demand for single family homes is skyrocketing while attached townhomes and condominium sales are declining. This remarkable trend is particularly evident in this COVID era. See e.g. http://tiny.cc/lfkqsz. Clearly, people want a front and backyard for their kids to congregate safely in a socially responsible manner.
Plantation is all about sustaining all things "green" and providing a safe and nurturing environment for families. While the Applicant showcases one front elevation (see above) illustrating what a transitional style ROW townhome might look like in this potential development, it does not indicate what is actually being presented to the Planning & Zoning Board which is an overall "site plan" that essentially is a potential concrete jungle similar in scale to communities this applicant's agent has built in Doral and is using as a model for the current site plan review.
This group did the homework and obtained the plans for each of the applicant's agent's projects in Doral and the stark reality is that, while these might be acceptable urban projects to be located adjacent to a downtown area, they are completely out of character with the communities neighboring the Broward County School Board lot (under review).
Hence, the only course of action would be for City Staff (and the Planning and Zoning Board) to defer making a decision on the current LUPA application and require the applicant to meet with the surrounding neighbors to agree on a plan that meets a more reasonable residential density (5 du/acre) that assures more open space, promotes single family homes and is in line and in character with the abutting neighborhoods.
Make Your Voices Heard!