Planning and Zoning Board approves conditional-use amendment to allow Boca Raton Christian School to increase enrollment to 950

The Planning and Zoning Board of the City of Boca Raton voted 5-0 to approve an amended and restated conditional-use approval and a conditional-use amendment allowing Boca Raton Christian School to increase its authorized student enrollment from 800 to 950 at a property generally located at 470 Northwest Fourth Avenue.

Staff told the board the approval consolidates prior council resolutions and grants five technical deviations from city code for existing driveway features; the application does not include approval of any new buildings or other structures.

Jacob German, planner II for the city, said staff reviewed the school's master plan and a phase 1 site plan approved in February 2008 and found the majority of improvements required under that phase 1 plan were not completed. Because those improvements were not built, staff concluded the phase 1 plan was not vested and the school reverted to a prior conditional-use approval that limits enrollment to 800 students. German said the school property consists of about 19.84 acres across four parcels and has future land-use designations of institutional and residential low.

German summarized the applicant's recent administrative approval (SPA 2408a, approved administratively on Dec. 13, 2024) to install two modular buildings and said the applicant indicated those buildings would raise capacity to roughly 895 students from a current capacity the applicant described as 788. German also said staff determined there are no physical improvements proposed with the conditional-use amendment before the board and that no additional parking is required by the application.

The conditional-use amendment request included five technical deviations from section 23-190(d) of the Boca Raton Code of Ordinances for three existing driveway entrances on Northwest Fourth Avenue, Crawford Boulevard and Northwest Seventh Street so the driveways would remain in their current configurations despite not meeting current major-driveway standards. German described the standards and the deviations as follows: major driveways require a 100-foot driveway reservoir distance, a 14-foot ingress lane, a 4-foot median separator and two 12-foot egress lanes. He told the board Northwest Fourth Avenue provides about 25 feet of reservoir distance (where 100 feet is required), Crawford Boulevard does not provide the required median or two egress lanes and a reservoir distance was reported in staff remarks as 25 feet (but the item read into the record earlier referenced 15 feet for Crawford Boulevard), and Northwest Seventh Street provides about 40 feet (where 100 is required) but meets intermediate-driveway standards during weekdays.

German said the school's on-site queuing plan shows space to contain spillover. City requirements call for 52 stacking spaces and 1,040 feet of queuing length for student pickup and drop-off; German said the applicant's traffic study reported 17 stacking spaces with 2,350 feet of queuing length using two separate stacking lanes and that the applicant represented appropriate pavement markings, traffic-control devices and staffing would be in place during pickup and drop-off. The staff report included a recommended condition of approval requiring those operational measures be maintained to ensure student safety.

During the board discussion members asked that staff consider how approvals for Boca Raton Christian School should be coordinated with potential plans for the adjacent downtown campus, and staff acknowledged that future site-plan approvals would need to stand on their own merits. No members of the public spoke on the item during the public-hearing period.

The board conducted the two related items contemporaneously and took separate roll-call votes on each resolution. For both votes the board recorded five yes votes: Mr. Salon, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Dormblazer, Ms. McDermott and Ms. Ritchie; Chair Savelle was absent. The board approved the consolidated amended and restated conditional-use resolution and the conditional-use amendment with technical deviations by 5-0 votes.

The approvals allow the school to seek an amended and restated conditional use consolidating prior council resolutions and to increase the school's authorized enrollment to 950 students under the terms approved; the record reflects that no new construction was approved as part of these actions and that future site-plan approvals and permits would be required for any physical improvements.

Board members and staff said future phases or site-plan amendments will require separate review and concurrency approvals from Palm Beach County and that each phase must stand on its own merit under city code.