AtlanticCrossingconstructionDelrayBeachUPDATE: Delray Beach P & Z board gave ‘preliminary’ approval to Atlantic Crossing’s last plat, dismaying a packed room of residents who wanted a denial and a change that would put a proposed road back into the project’s site plan. See more details on Facebook page for “Take Back Delray Beach.” Residents had written scores of letters and hired an attorney for the meeting. For the residents, the issue is not done. The developer will still have to come back to the Board for another request for a  final approval, according to a resident who attended the meeting.

Citizens Want Missing Road Back.
Delray Beach residents are urged to attend a crucial public hearing 6 pm Monday, April 20, when the city zoning board will vote on approval for a final plat in the Atlantic Crossing complex. If this final plat is approved, watchdog citizens say, the four-block commercial-residential development will go forward without further chance for public approvals and cause massive disruption to traffic flows due to the “disappearance” of connecting roads that were to be part of the city’s traffic grid. .

A citizens’ watchdog member is urging supporters to show strength in numbers Monday night:

“It’s been a long journey to try and convince the Developer and various City employees and Commissioners that a project the size of Mizner will reek havoc on our downtown with only one surface road to get around the development that being NE 1st Street,”

“As many of you know the only other way in was off Atlantic Ave. onto NE 7th Avenue where there is a valet station only. We have maintained all along that the city cannot give $3-4 million dollars worth of roadway (Ne 7th ave and alleyways) to the developer for nothing and have been requesting from day 1 that Atlantic Court, the surface road connecting Federal Highway to Ne 7th avenue continue to apart of the plan as it provides another means of ingress and egress which is essential to the traffic flow within and around the project.

Bottomline, everything we’ve worked towards comes down to the hearing on Monday, April 20th in Commission Chambers at 6pm.

“The issue here is whether Planning and Zoning grants the final plat which would allow the developer to move forward without our approvals.”

“We’ve hired an expert attorney who has already had success working with a citizens group in West Palm Beach over a project known as Chapel by the Lake. He has already communicated with our city commissioners, manager, attorneys and p and z board members and believes we have a winning argument.”

“But now we need YOU to help us fill that room letting the Planning and Zoning Board Members know you care what happens to this town and that they need to deny the final plat as this project continues to be too massive to operate without a street grid, which is what Atlantic Court will provide.”

In 2014, homeowners sued Delray Beach over approval of Atlantic Crossing due to traffic issues arising from the disappearance of a road, Atlantic Court, from the developers’ final plans.

More background in Randy Schultz’s April 9, 2015, column in CityWatch