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Historic board backs downtown master‑plan zoning changes aimed at preserving character while easing housing constraints
Summary
The Historic Preservation Board voted May 27 to recommend city approval of a downtown master‑plan text amendment (CRC26‑03) that targets the Northwest historic neighborhood with new subdistricts, preservation incentives and calibrated density increases intended to protect low‑scale historic blocks while enabling ‘missing‑middle’ housing and reinvestment.
The West Palm Beach Historic Preservation Board on May 27 recommended that the city commission approve a comprehensive update to downtown development regulations that would reshape zoning in the Northwest historic neighborhood while leaving Secretary of the Interior standards intact.
Claudia (Cli) Babin, the city’s urban designer, told the board the proposal (code revision CRC26‑03) implements a 25‑year plan and does not change the city’s historic‑preservation provisions; rather, it would create new subdistricts — core, transition and edge — with different density and frontage rules to channel higher intensity away from the historic core. A consultant for the project, Aila of Cisco, described more than 50 public and stakeholder meetings that shaped the recommendations.
Board members pressed staff on how the zoning changes would interact with preservation review, parking and unit sizes. Maria, the city’s development services director, said projects inside the historic district will continue to require Certificates of Appropriateness before the board, and that the master‑plan text would provide flexibility (for example, allowing preserved historic structures to be excluded from some density or lot‑coverage calculations) intended to encourage owners to retain contributing buildings.
Supporters and planners said the code attempts a “preservation‑first” strategy: it seeks to protect low‑scale historic houses in the district’s interior while directing increased height and housing capacity to the edge and commercial corridors. Aila described incentives such as higher allowable dwelling units per acre and modest lot‑coverage increases for sites that retain historic structures, and new design controls including frontage articulation, open‑space minimums and limits on lot aggregation.
Several board members asked staff to return with clarifications on parking rules and minimum unit sizes and to consider special treatment for city‑initiated or CRA projects, concerns that staff said would be considered before the code goes to planning board and the commission. In a recorded motion the board recommended approval of CRC26‑03 and asked staff to study issues raised by the board, including parking and unit‑size thresholds.
Next steps: staff will present the revised text to the planning board and then the city commission, which has final authority on the code change.
