The Royal Palm Beach Village Council met Thursday, April 15 for a brief agenda that included the approval of expansion plans for the Aldi grocery store on State Road 7.
After approving both items on the regular agenda unanimously, the council headed down the street to Veterans Park to take part in a ceremony for the rededication of the park’s community clock.
The Aldi store requested site plan modification and architectural approval to add 1,416 square feet to the existing 17,018-square-foot grocery store in order to facilitate the widening of aisles, the addition of coolers and an extended product line.
A flagship store for the growing grocery chain, the Royal Palm Beach location is directly in front of Aldi’s regional distribution warehouse facility.
The request included closing the current entrance and exit on Aldi Way. “It is too close to the intersection [at SR 7] for people wanting to cross over and make a left turn at the signal,” Village Manager Ray Liggins explained.
Planning & Zoning Director Bradford O’Brien said that there will be an additional entrance and exit opening created into the parking lot. This is in addition to the exit on the south side.
O’Brien explained that one row of parking will be eliminated at the north side of the facing parking and will be replaced by more parking against the end of the parking lot to the north, while still accommodating two-way traffic there.
“This gives them additional spaces, as required by the code for the extra square footage being added,” O’Brien explained.
Additionally, the parking lot will receive more landscaping.
Mayor Fred Pinto was unsure if closing an entrance and exit was a good idea, but he agreed with the council during the vote.
The second measure on the agenda was to repeal and replace sections of the village code in their entirety and readopt them with their new amendments in the code’s chapter one, which is Administration. This is the only section in which the village can make its own changes. All other changed information was modified to align it with state laws regarding wind speed line map designations.
Director of Community Development Rob Hill said this measure updates the code with the latest technology.
