TO: Chair and Members of the Board
FROM: Kim Vazquez, Interim Executive Director
DATE: July 11, 2017
Title
CONSIDERATION OF CITY CENTER SITE PLAN
BACKGROUND: The Margate CRA and New Urban Communities LLC (“Developer”) entered into a Development Agreement for the Margate City Center project, effective July 19, 2016. Pursuant to the original Critical Path schedule contained within the Agreement, New Urban was to submit their site plan application to the City and CRA by March 16, 2017. This date was later extended to August 7, 2017 by the CRA Board, through a Second Amendment to the Agreement. New Urban submitted the initial site plan package on March 16, 2017. The CRA staff provided initial comments on the site plan to the Developer on April 10, 2017, and at the April 12, 2017 meeting of the CRA Board. Staff’s comments noted Material Changes and other differences between the submitted site plan and the Pre-Development Plan included in the Development Agreement.
Staff met with the Developer on April 17, 2017 to review the site plan and to discuss the Material Changes. The Developer responded to staff comments by submitting a revised site plan on May 3, 2017, and letter dated May 4, 2017. With this resubmittal, the Developer responded to many of staff’s comments; however, there remained Material Changes to the following elements: (i) the bedroom mix as reflected by the floor plans and data tables, (ii) internal traffic circulation, (iii) angled parking versus parallel parking in the Pre-Development Plan, and (iv) the merging of smaller buildings in the Pre-Development Plan into larger buildings on the site plan. Staff communicated these remaining issues to the Board and Developer in correspondence dated May 8, 2017, and Developer responded with comments and a second revised site plan submittal on May 9, 2017. This last submittal revised the total number of residential units to be constructed through all three project phases to 922 residential units, and addressed the issues related to bedroom mix and traffic circulation.
At the May 12, 2017 meeting of the CRA Board, a motion passed to authorize the CRA attorney to negotiate with the Developer’s legal representative to reach a settlement to terminate the project. At the June 14, 2017 CRA Board meeting, the CRA attorney reported that the Developer is not receptive to termination and wishes to move forward with the project. Accordingly, at this time, both the CRA and the Developer are bound by the terms of the Development Agreement.
The submittal and review by the CRA of Developer’s site plan is governed by Paragraph 5.5 of the Development Agreement, which states:
5.5 Site Plan. The CRA hereby acknowledges and agrees that the Developer’s Pre-Development Plan, as shown on Exhibit B attached hereto and made a part hereof, is acceptable to the CRA. The foregoing shall in no way constitute or be construed as the approval or issuance of a development order, it being expressly acknowledged and agreed by the Developer that the “Site Plan” will require separate submission, review, and approval pursuant to the requirements of the City's Code and requirements of any other Governmental Authorities. All landscaping shown on the proposed Site Plan shall be compliant with the City’s code requirements. The entire proposed Site Plan, to be based upon the Pre-Development Site Plan attached as Exhibit C hereto, shall be approved by the City and all applicable Governmental Authorities in order for the Developer to proceed with development of the Project. Site plans of the respective Project Phases shall not satisfy this requirement of approval of the Site Plan for the entire Project. Except for a Permitted Change (as defined in Section 5.6 below) no changes, alterations or modifications shall be made to the Site Plan (either prior to or after Development Approvals) without the prior written approval of the CRA, which approval shall not be unreasonably withheld, delayed or conditioned; provided, however such approval may be withheld in the CRA’s sole and absolute discretion if the requested change, alteration or modification consists of a Material Change. For purposes of this Agreement, a "Material Change" to the Site Plan means and refers to a requested change, alteration or modification that (i) increases or decreases the total number of residential units by greater than five percent (5%), (ii) changes the composition of Units (number of bedrooms) by greater than ten percent (10%), decreases the amount of square footage in the Commercial Component by greater than five percent (5%), (iii) eliminates any improvement constituting the Civic and Community Component, or, in the aggregate with all other changes, alterations and modifications decreases the square footage of open space, building size, landscaped area or any other common areas by five percent (5%) or more, (iv) decreases the height of any building to below 20’ or increases the height of any building above 60’, (v) deletes any amenities, (vi) significantly modifies traffic circulation on the site as determined by the CRA Executive Director and/or (vii) significantly alters the Architectural Scheme from that previously approved by the CRA, as determined by the CRA Executive Director. The CRA Executive Director shall have the authority to approve all changes that are not classified as Material Changes. All Material Changes are subject to requirements of the City’s review process. Following approval of the Site Plan for the Project by the City pursuant to the City's Code, except for Permitted Changes, the Developer shall not initiate or request review by the City of any changes or alterations to the approved Site Plan for the Project without the prior written approval of the CRA, which approval shall be granted in CRA’s sole discretion. The CRA shall expeditiously process all requests for Material Changes. For the purposes of this Agreement, the relocation of the Hotel by the Developer from Project Phase 3 to either Project Phase 1 or Project Phase 2, shall be deemed to be a change subject to the CRA’s Executive Director’s approval hereunder, but shall not be deemed to be a Material Change, provided that a minimum of 35% of any Margate Boulevard frontage is programmed for commercial use.
The CRA’s review of the proposed site plan is for the purpose of determining the consistency of the site plan to the Pre-Development Plan and the terms of the Development Agreement. The CRA review is not intended to address compliance with City Codes and requirements of other governmental authorities, which shall occur through separate review by the applicable agencies, including but not limited to, the City of Margate.
RECOMMENDATION: Pursuant to Paragraph 5.5 of the Development Agreement, either approve or disapprove the proposed site plan.
FISCAL IMPACT: The revenues and expenditures arising from the implementation of the Development Agreement are addressed in the current and projected fiscal year capital budgets. Extensive discussion of overall economic benefits of the project was provided at the time of selection of Developer (July 2015) and approval of the Development Agreement (July 2016).
CONTACT PERSON: Cotter Christian, Project Manager