The West Palm Beach Planning Board on Dec. 16 approved a special‑review site plan and six variances for a Temple Israel redevelopment that will add a 27‑story, 306‑foot residential tower with 100 condominiums and a five‑story, 204‑space parking garage to a narrow parcel on North Flagler Drive. The board voted unanimously to grant the variances and the level‑3 special review, attaching conditions that require either on‑site trees or payment into the city’s tree‑mitigation fund and that the westward strip of the parcel be included in the approved public open space.

Developer attorney Harvey Oyer told the board the revised project is smaller than an earlier proposal and is intended to fit the changing context of North Flagler. “We respectfully request your approval of the project,” he said in closing. Oyer and the project team described community benefits used to secure extra height under the Curry Mixed‑Use District: $2,250,000 for Curry Park improvements and a $625,000 payment for local mobility options, plus public open space and green‑building measures that would qualify the project for bonus height.

The applicant sought six variances to address site constraints: driveway‑separation distances on a 155‑foot frontage, a wider drive aisle configuration to address road angle and grade, a reduced tree count (proposing 27 trees instead of the 100‑tree calculation), building‑length relief driven largely by the five‑story garage footprint, setback/min‑max placement flexibility for an angled site, and a landscape/swale/right‑of‑way variance tied to a property line that extends into the swale. Principal Planner Eric Schneider told the board that staff reviewed the materials and concluded the special‑review and variance standards were met and that two measurements were reduced after applicant adjustments (the building length calculation and driveway separation), lowering the magnitude of the variances.

Board members focused discussion on traffic and the safety implications of curb cuts along Flagler Drive. The applicant said it plans to purchase adjacent on‑street parking spaces to eliminate parallel parking that can obscure sightlines, and that the proposed driveway location affords better grade and sightline conditions than alternative locations. Neighboring residents voiced mixed reactions: Joanne Soroco expressed support for the smaller footprint and added green space, while Carol Mead, a Flagler Point resident, said she disagreed with the applicant’s traffic characterization and raised safety concerns, saying the area already has crashes and that construction traffic will worsen conditions.

To resolve questions about the public open space and the tree count, the board added a condition requiring the applicant to include the westward portion of the parcel in the approved site plan as public open space; that inclusion would allow more trees to be counted on site and reduce required payment into the city’s tree fund. The board also required payment into the tree‑mitigation fund for any trees that are part of the 100‑tree requirement but are not planted on the property.

The board’s approval makes the Planning Board the final arbiter for the site plan and variances in the CMUD Core‑1 subdistrict for this property. The decision attaches conditions of approval as noted in the staff report and as modified by the board. The applicant said the park will be privately maintained and monitored with cameras at the developer’s expense and that the public‑open‑space designation requires the area to be accessible to the public rather than gated for the purposes of earning the height bonus.

The board approved the variance motions and the level‑3 special‑review motion by unanimous voice votes.