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Council approves budget, zoning and Hilltop Gardens site plan in unanimous votes
Summary
Palm Beach Gardens City Council approved a package of budget, rezoning and plan approvals — including the Hilltop Gardens 432-unit multifamily site plan — and advanced an ordinance tightening sex-offender residency rules. All recorded votes were unanimous (5-0).
Palm Beach Gardens City Council voted unanimously on a series of ordinances and resolutions covering budget amendments, rezonings and a large multifamily site plan Wednesday.
The council approved Ordinance 3-2026, an amendment to the city's fiscal year 2025-26 budget, and then moved through several land-use items on second reading. Ordinance 5-2026 rezoned about 11.1 acres for Trinity United Methodist Church to a planned unit development overlay; Resolution 6-2026 approved the related PUD master plan and a major conditional use for a columbarium. The council also approved Ordinance 7-2026 and Ordinance 8-2026, which make targeted comprehensive plan and land-development code amendments relating to mixed-use and bioscience protections. All passed on recorded votes of 5-0.
A major packet of actions concerned the Hilltop Gardens property. After staff presented a minor memo of condition changes and engineering and drainage reviews were discussed, the council approved Ordinance 10-2026 (a small-scale future land-use amendment), Ordinance 11-2026 (rezoning portions of Hilltop Gardens to a PUD with residential-high underlying designation) and Resolution 13-2026 (phase one site plan approval for a 432-dwelling-unit multifamily development). One nearby resident, Deborah Jarrell, raised flood and evacuation concerns for adjacent Hilltop Acres; the applicant's attorney and staff said the project had been engineered and reviewed by the city and relevant agencies.
Council also approved Ordinance 14-2026 on first reading, clarifying local residency restrictions that prohibit registered sex offenders and predators from maintaining a temporary or permanent residence within 2,500 feet of specified sensitive uses (schools, school bus stops, childcare facilities, parks, playgrounds and libraries).
All motions taken at the meeting were recorded as passed by a five-to-zero vote unless otherwise noted. Next procedural steps for measures approved on first reading (if any) will follow the standard second-reading and adoption schedule on the council calendar.
