BOCA RATON – JULY 8 2024 – This article presents a big picture view of the Palmetto Park Square plaza redevelopment plan. We went out into the community to talk with some of the most affected residents. For a discussion of what we learned and ideas for how we think the project could be improved, see our sister article: Palmetto Park Square: Time to Think Big. If you want to talk to the property owner directly, sign up for a community outreach meeting Monday/Tuesday July 15/16 here.
As for the preliminary redevelopment proposal, the plaza in Boca Raton is being reimagined by its owner (Selig Enterprises) to “create a better-connected neighborhood shopping experience for years to come”. Known as the “Kmart Plaza” by the thousands of Boca Residents who surround it who have lived here a decade or longer, the current plaza is of the classic 70’s Florida Strip Mall variety. After 50 years of evolution, the U-shaped plaza has roughly 1600 linear feet of commercial frontage plus out-parcels for TD Bank and Taco Bell. Lots owned by others house Dennys, Chick-Fil-A, Valero, Tomasso’s Pizza, Dunkin Donuts and one of the ugliest buildings in Boca: The USPS auxiliary building. The remaining acreage is a hodge podge of disjointed parking lots.
According to documents submitted to the city, the proposed redevelopment would include a 319 unit 5-story residential structure that combines two story town homes, an internal parking garage and apartments with 32 of them designated as affordable housing that complies with Florida’s “Live Local Act“. To learn more about how Affordable Housing is different from Low Income Housing, here is a useful brochure called “Affordable Housing in Florida“.
Accessing Palmetto Park Plaza by Car is a Problem Even Now
The graphic below shows the current Palmetto Park Square plaza in the context of the City and County’s design for the property. There is no way to access the plaza other than a traffic light on Palmetto at the west end of the plaza or an un-signalized “merge-o-rama” service road at the east end. The service road is a melange of one-way/two-way roads, a four-way stop, an odd one way access road for Taco Bell, driveways in and out of stand-alone businesses and egress/ingress cuts to and from Palmetto Park Rd. As someone who has used the plaza since the 90’s, I’d best describe it as a cross between a drag strip and a “no touch” bumper car circuit.
Step back and you find the 7 lanes of Palmetto Park Road to the south and the 5 lanes of traffic on NW 12th Ave to the east combine to form a formidable barrier around the plaza. The NW 12th Ave “barrier” also affects the ability of the surrounding areas to come and go from their homes (black circle in graphic below). Access from these neighborhoods is already a difficult and dangerous endeavor; especially the hours when school traffic is active. Arguably, any change to the plaza that increases the congestion will only make a bad area worse.
This is a legitimate concern of residents that historically has fallen on deaf ears at City Hall. But things are different in City Hall these day. This problem should be fixed regardless of the plaza redevelopment. NW 12th Ave from Palmetto to FAU needs to be redesigned as a “Complete Street” for all users, not just pass through traffic that has overwhelmed the road along with the Palmetto Park Road intersection we all call “The Pretzel”.
Accessing Palmetto Park Plaza in Something Other Than a Car is Nothing to Brag About Either
Pedestrian access to the plaza is atrocious and access by bicycle is non-existent. Kids on bikes must navigate conflicts with pedestrians on a skinny “sidewalk to nowhere” or participate in the bumper car circuit (aka the service road).
Below is a video showing the pedestrian route into the plaza on the “Sidewalk to Nowhere” (the blue dashed line in Figure 2). The video starts at the southeast corner on the small sidewalk. After crossing 12th Ave without being hit by right turning traffic rolling through the stop sign, two hard 90 degree turns dumps you into the parking lot of Dunkin Donuts. That is where the sidewalk ends as far as access to the plaza goes. There are no marked pedestrian facilities and you are on own make your way into the plaza amongst the traffic for Valero, Chick-Fil-A and the Plaza. This road has cars in and out of Valero whilst others dash across Palmetto in some median cut-throughs for Palmetto Park traffic. Imagine doing this on an assistive device:
The Palmetto Park Plaza Preliminary Redevelopment Plan
According to Selig’s preliminary plan, the eastern half of the plaza with Publix, Pinch-a-Penny, You-Fit, Post office, Jewelry Shop and some others will be bulldozed to make room for a 5-story residential building. Publix will be moved into a portion of the old Kmart and the remaining Kmart footprint will be new commercial space. Two new out-parcels in the center of the property will create the side “leg” of the redeveloped “U” shaped shopping area.
The proposed 300+ residential units will sit behind Chick-Fil-A, Valero, Dunkin Donuts and the USPS auxiliary building. This configuration puts the 5-story residential building in the northeast corner where it abuts the single family homes to the north and east. Its footprint extends past the existing plaza’s footprint by adding two story apartments on the side in what is now a buffer area separating the plaza from the homes. The internal vehicle circulation connects both the residential and shopping areas. See the Figure 4. for how the new configuration integrates with the surrounding community.
The Selig preliminary plan adds a single sidewalk along the entrance road for the residential buildings. There are no additional points of access to the land locked plaza mentioned in the submitted materials. However Selig is seeking input from the community.
Arguably, the new retail space will draw the same if not more traffic to the plaza. The additional traffic and intensity of 300+ residential units will add additional load to schools, roads and services. These are legitimate concerns for everyone living around the plaza.
Time to Think Big
Any notion of creating a better connected neighborhood experience is an undertaking that requires the cooperation of City planners, County traffic engineers, multiple commercial property owners and residents. Except perhaps for the USPS auxiliary building, all the businesses in the plaza would benefit by better access to the plaza beyond its current 70’s era design. In the big picture, we think the property is not without potential to elevate itself from “Florida Strip Mall” to “modern mixed use community hub”. But the preliminary proposal does not have that vision.
We went out into the community to talk with some of the most affected residents. For a discussion of what we learned and ideas for how we think the project could be improved, see our sister article: Palmetto Park Plaza: Time to Think Big.
Summary
- The plan is to consolidate the plaza shops into half the property and build a 5-story residential in the other half
- What is currently an open buffer with adjacent single family homes will be filled with town homes and amenities
- There is no integration with the surrounding area. Access to the land locked plaza will not be improved other than one sidewalk next to Chick-Fil-A
- The design of NW 12th Ave is already a problem for area residents to safely go to and from their homes. 300+ residential units will make it worse
- Infrastructure to access the property in something other than a car remains scant and dangerous
- Making Palmetto Park Square great will require vision, leadership plus the cooperation and interest of City and County officials
