The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council approved a change Tuesday, Jan. 7 that continues the process to drop the long-abandoned plan to put an assisted living facility at Groves Town Center in favor of an 81-room hotel.
Included in the change was moving the hotel site closer to the center of the property and placing the “Town Commons” civic site further north.
At issue is the 90-acre Groves Town Center at the northeast corner of Southern Blvd. and B Road. It is currently under construction in phases. The change approved this week updates the master plan for the parcel and included discussion regarding traffic issues in the area and how aggressively to protect tree cover on the property.
Town consultant Kaitlyn Forbes explained that the changes also require amendments to the comprehensive plan and updated site plans. The council approved the first reading of the comp plan amendment last month, which will come back later with the updated site plans. Those plans will include the specifics of the design for the hotel and other changes.
“The biggest change, and the subject of the request, is the modifications to Pod TC and Pod G,” Forbes said.
Pod G, which is further north, would become the civic space, while Pod TC, closer to the center of the site, would be the 81-room hotel, which replaces the 128-bed assisted living facility, which was the original approval for Pod G.
Much of the discussion at the meeting was regarding existing traffic issues on B Road near the site, particularly at the cross-exit with the adjacent Publix shopping center.
Some improvements have been made, including additional stacking, a new wayfinding plan and “don’t block the box” road lettering. There is also a new “porkchop median” that blocks cross-traffic movements from the Publix shopping center into Groves Town Center.
Council members did not feel the “porkchop” was going to solve the problem.
“The median needs to be sturdier,” Mayor Anita Kane said. “This needs a more permanent solution.”
Forbes explained that the “porkchop” was an initial step to see if the median concept works. It blocks the current access at Avocado Avenue and redirects people exiting to Southern Blvd.
During public comment, Todd McLendon, who sits on the town’s Planning & Zoning Board, said he liked some of the changes.
“They have made a lot of improvements,” McLendon said. “They have drastically reduced the height of the building, which is good. They are trying to do something about the traffic, which is a huge issue.”
However, he was upset that the initial five-acre civic parcel will now be 4.16 acres.
Jo Siciliano, a B Road resident, asked the council to do more to fix the traffic issues at the south end of B Road.
“All of it is completely inadequate. It is not just inconvenient, it is dangerous to drive in and out of B Road,” she said. “I hope there is something more you can do before you say the ‘porkchop’ is going to do the trick.”
Public Works Director Richard Gallant stressed that the so-called “porkchop” is just the first step and is more to test if the median concept will work before the developers spend a bunch of money on it.
Matthew Barnes of WGI, speaking on behalf of the developer and the hotel owner, said the master plan change is the culmination of a long process that removes the assisted living facility and replaces it with a hotel.
He noted that since the Planning & Zoning Board meeting last August, the hotel has changed from four stories to three stories and no longer needs a waiver for its height.
Regarding the traffic issues, Barnes said that the new wayfinding signs are diverting much of the traffic from Avocado, further north to Tangerine.
Barnes also explained that the new pod with the hotel is better since it is at the center of the development, and farther away from the residential area near Collecting Canal.
However, Councilman Robert Shorr was not happy that the civic pod has been trimmed back, noting that it has gone from five acres to 4.6 acres, and will now drop to 4.1 acres.
“I don’t think it is a fair exchange for what they are giving up on Pod G,” he said.
Shorr noted that there are oak hammocks on the new hotel pod that he would like to see preserved.
“We see developers come in, and they level these properties. That’s what they do,” he said.
Barnes explained that the hotel will not work on the new site without removing the trees. He said that the new civic site will be 5.43 acres, including its wetlands.
“I understand you can’t use it by walking across it, but visually, it will be part of the Town Commons,” Barnes said.
Councilwoman Phillis Maniglia noted that the hotel was changed to three stories from four, which then required it to take up larger ground space.
“Let’s stop looking at half-done site plans,” she said, urging the council to move forward with the hotel project, which is an improvement from the previous assisted living facility.
Shorr replied that the job of the council is to protect the town, not cater to the developer.
“I still support the hotel. The developer can make it work. They are not going to get everything they want, and they shouldn’t get everything they want,” he said.
Kane said that she is “hugely in favor of moving this project farther away from our residents on Collecting Canal.”
Kane suggested approving the master plan change but asking the developer to work during the site plan process to “mitigate some of the damage to the natural environment that exists there.”
Maniglia made a motion to approve the master plan changes at Groves Town Center. The motion passed 3-2 with Shorr and Councilwoman Laura Danowski opposed.
