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Planning board approves Interstate Plaza facade amendment, 6-0
Summary
The board approved a site-plan amendment allowing the existing architectural facade at 1499 West Palmetto Park Road to remain and removed a proposed covered walkway; the vote was unanimous, 6-0.
The Planning and Zoning Board of the City of Boca Raton on June 20 approved, by a 6-0 roll-call vote, an amendment to the Interstate Plaza site plan that allows the existing architectural facade for the 1499 West Palmetto Park Road building to remain rather than implement previously approved elevation changes.
Planner Jacob Behrman presented the Universal Condition site-plan amendment for the approximately 4.98-acre Interstate Plaza property at 1489 and 1499 West Palmetto Park Road. Behrman said the request would (1) allow the existing facade at 1499 to remain in lieu of the previously approved architectural elevations under resolution 2023-002 and (2) remove a covered walkway shown on the approved site plan. Staff found the modification eligible for final action by the planning board and concluded the proposal is consistent with existing land use and adjacent properties.
Ellie Zacharitis, representing the applicant and the developer, described the site history and constraints: she said the developer had invested heavily in the north building and that current construction-market conditions make the previously approved south-building improvements infeasible at this time. Zacharitis stated that window prices had increased roughly 300% and that lenders are not financing office upgrades now; she also said the developer has spent in excess of $30,000,000 on north-building improvements. Zacharitis asked the board to allow the existing south-building facade to remain and return for improvements when economic conditions permit.
Several board members said they had visited the site and had no objection to allowing the two buildings to read as separate architectural entities; members expressed support for treating the north and south buildings independently given the circumstances. A motion to approve the UC site-plan amendment passed on a roll-call vote, 6-0.
The board’s approval allows the existing architectural facade at 1499 West Palmetto Park Road to remain in lieu of the previously approved elevations; the removal of the covered walkway as shown on the approved site plan was also accepted as part of the amendment.
