Planning board backs Maxwell site plan despite concerns over loading and reduced landscape buffer

The Delray Beach Planning & Zoning Board on June 16 recommended that the City Commission approve a level‑4 site plan for the Maxwell, a four‑story, 23‑unit condominium building at 306 Northeast Second Street, including a request to reduce landscape buffering along the north parking lot and to allow loading and unloading to occur on Railroad Street rather than on‑site.

Board members voted unanimously to recommend approval after a lengthy staff presentation and applicant rebuttal. Senior planner Alexi Howard entered file number 22023‑196 into the record and summarized the requests, describing the proposal as a 0.856‑acre, mixed‑use building with 23 residential units, a ground‑floor retail bay, and a small civic space at the corner.

Why it matters: The project sits in Delray Beach’s downtown core and seeks relief from several Land Development Regulation (LDR) requirements (including off‑street loading and a five‑foot landscape buffer). Allowing loading on Railroad Street and trimming the landscape buffer would affect how deliveries and pedestrian frontage operate in a compact urban block adjacent to the FEC railway and the Ocean City Lofts development.

The applicant, John Kinsman of VAP Group, described the proposal as 23 for‑sale condominium units with about 2,600 square feet of street‑front retail and roughly 878 square feet of civic space. Architect Peggy…