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Palm Beach County approves changes to Pine Ridge Apartments’ income restrictions
Summary
The Board of County Commissioners approved a Future Land Use Atlas amendment, a development-order amendment and a replacement restrictive covenant for Pine Ridge Apartments, reconfiguring unit income bands so roughly half the units become unrestricted and the restricted half shifts to lower-income bands; the measures passed unanimously.
The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a set of companion measures that change the income-restriction mix at Pine Ridge Apartments, a 288-unit rental complex on Southern Boulevard east of Jog Road.
John Roach, an in-house land planner with the Gunster law firm, told the board the proposal moves about half of the complex’s units out of detailed income restrictions and shifts the remaining restricted units into lower income categories, arguing the change better matches current market demand. "Since they opened, they've, I believe in a 12 month period, they turned away 1,400 potential, tenants because they didn't fall into the specific ... categories," Roach said, describing the practical problem the amendment seeks to fix.
Under the prior approval, Roach said, all 288 residential units were income-restricted across a detailed table of categories. Under the approved amendment the restricted units are concentrated into the lower bands (the presenter described them as the 60–80% and the lower moderate categories) and roughly half the units will be unrestricted to provide leasing flexibility and financial stability for the project. Roach told commissioners that a one-bedroom rent in the 60–80% category starts at about $1,300 and goes up to roughly $1,755; he said higher tiers push one-bedroom rents toward $2,200–$2,600 and the highest band could exceed $3,000.
Commissioner Powell pressed for more detail on how many workforce-category units were concentrated at the highest bands and asked whether other remedies had been explored short of changing the unit mix. Roach said staff and the applicant had concluded the amendment would best serve both the market and the project’s financial viability.
Commissioner Woodward and others asked for the market-rate advertising figures the applicant would use; Roach said he did not have a market analysis in the hearing packet but estimated current market rents were below the published restriction table and reiterated reported occupancy of about 80–90%.
Commissioner Weiss moved to adopt the Future Land Use Atlas amendment (item 3A) and the motion carried 5–0. The board separately approved the development-order amendment (item 4A) and the replacement restrictive covenant added late to the agenda (item 4.5), each by unanimous vote.
The measures update the project’s official land-use and contractual restriction documents to reflect the new unit mix. Board members asked staff to provide advertised market rents and the vacancy/advertising figures used to justify pricing in a follow-up if available.
