The Royal Palm Beach Village Council began its Thursday, Sept. 19 meeting with a moment of silence to honor Mayor Fred Pinto, who passed away suddenly five days earlier.
Vice Mayor Jeff Hmara, who ran the meeting, paid tribute to his late colleague, as did the other council members.
The only items on the council’s regular agenda were regarding variance and special exception approvals for a new business located at 100 Aldi Way off State Road 7 near the Aldi regional distribution center.
Novo Aero Services LLC will operate a 24,373-square-foot certified Federal Aviation Administration repair station out of part of the building, explained Mark Smiley of Smiley & Associates Inc., speaking for property owner Royal Palm Logistics LLC.
At issue was a parking variance to 159 parking spaces, where the village code requires 256 parking spaces, a variance of 97 spaces. The new business also required a special exception use approval to allow for manufacturing, limited processing and assembly at the site.
Planning & Zoning Director Bradford O’Brien made a presentation on behalf of the village. He explained that the existing building was approved for warehouse/office use and requires a parking variance, since industrial uses require more parking than warehouse uses.
“The applicant contends that the tenant’s use is a unique model that meets the intended use of the building,” O’Brien said, noting that Novo Aero focuses on commercial airplane engine parts.
He said that village staff did not support the change, since the circumstances requiring the variance result from the action of the applicant. O’Brien recommended denial, as did the Royal Palm Beach Planning & Zoning Commission on Aug. 27 by a vote of 3-2.
However, O’Brien did note that a similar variance was granted to a bay two doors down from the current site at the same building.
Smiley explained that the deficiency of 97 spaces is not based solely on the change for the current tenant. The current change is only 39 spaces deficient. The rest of the spaces are due to the previously approved variance for another tenant in the building.
“There is no retail component to the business,” he said. “There’s nobody who comes up and gets these parts. These parts are delivered by a truck. They are fixed in-house by a limited number of employees and then shipped out. Nobody else comes to the site.”
The agreement limits the number of parking spaces that the tenant can use at the site, Smiley added.
The council was inclined to allow the variance.
“The parking places would be completely different if we had consumers coming there and taking things away, as opposed to what we have here,” Councilman Richard Valuntas said.
Councilwoman Selena Samios asked about the maximum number of employees and was told it would be 28 and that everyone at the building will be employees.
O’Brien noted that the use will revert back to the approved warehouse/office use should the current tenant leave, which would make the variance moot.
The variance was then approved unanimously, as was a second vote on the special exception to allow limited industrial use at the site.
Smiley explained that there will be a total of four tenants at the building, with Novo Aero being the second one approved.
In other business:
- The council gave unanimous final approval to the village’s $68.2 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1. There were no changes to the budget since the first budget hearing held Sept. 12. The budget includes a property tax rate of 1.92 mills, which is unchanged from fiscal year 2024.
- At the end of the meeting, the council spent about a half hour discussing the vacancy created by the sudden passing of the mayor.
Village Attorney Keith Davis explained the different variations possible for either appointing a new mayor or leaving it vacant until the next municipal election in March 2025. Either way, the mayor’s seat will be on the ballot, along with at least the two council seats that are up. The filing period is in the beginning of November.
The council deadlocked 2-2 on whether to appoint a mayor but called a special meeting for Thursday, Oct. 10 to discuss the issue again. If a sitting council member is appointed to the seat, that would give the village enough time to put that council member’s seat on the ballot in March. If the seat is held vacant, the council will likely have one or more vacancies to fill after the election, depending upon who ends up running for mayor.
