Deerfield Beach ULI Technical Assistance Panel Report DEERFIELD BEACH Central City Area City of Deerfield Beach, Florida | December 7-8, 2020 Southeast Florida/ Caribbean © 2020 URBAN LAND INSTITUTE THIS REPORT IS SPONSORED BY: City of Deerfield Beach, Florida About the Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panels The Urban Land Institute is a global, member-driven Since 1947, ULI has assisted communities by bringing organization comprising more than 45,000 real estate together panels of seasoned real estate, planning, and urban development professionals dedicated financing, marketing and development experts to to advancing the Institute’s mission of providing provide unbiased pragmatic advice on complex leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating land use and development issues. In 2004, the ULI and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Southeast Florida/Caribbean District Council began ULI’s interdisciplinary membership represents all providing these services locally through Technical aspects of the industry, including developers, property Assistance Panels (TAPs) to address specific owners, investors, architects, urban planners, public development/real estate issues in areas such as officials, real estate brokers, appraisers, attorneys, housing, parking, redevelopment, future land use, engineers, financiers, and academics. Transit Oriented Development (TOD), and similar topics. ULI was established in 1936 as a non-profit institute Drawing from its local membership base, ULI to facilitate the open exchange of ideas and Southeast Florida / Caribbean conducts TAPs offering information among local, national, and international objective and responsible advice to local decision- real estate industry leaders and policy makers makers on a wide variety of land use and real estate dedicated to creating better places. Today, the issues ranging from site-specific projects to public Institute has a presence in the Americas, Europe, and policy questions. The TAP program is intentionally the Asia Pacific region, with members in 80 countries. flexible to provide a customized approach to specific land use and real estate issues. In fulfillment of For more than 25 years, the ULI Southeast Florida / ULI’s mission, this TAP report is intended to provide Caribbean District Council has served the Southeast objective advice that will promote the responsible use Florida and Caribbean region. Our over 1,100 members of land to enhance the environment. live and work in Florida’s seven southernmost coastal counties reaching from Indian River through Monroe, Learn more at https://seflorida.uli.org/. and throughout the Caribbean Islands. More information is available at uli.org. Follow ULI on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. DIXIE CORRIDOR AND CENTRAL CITY AREA | 3 ABOUT Technical Assistance Panel Project Staff Julie Medley Panel Chair Debbie Orshefsky Executive Director, ULI Southeast Florida / Caribbean Holland & Knight Mallory Barker Alia Awwad Senior Associate, ULI Southeast Florida / Caribbean Alta Planning + Design Max Helden Al Battle Jr. Associate, ULI Southeast Florida / Caribbean City of Fort Lauderdale Nicole Martinez Alfonso Costa Jr. Author, Culture Conductor Falcone Group Eric Liff Lambert Advisory Scott MacLaren Stiles Juan Mullerat Plusurbia Darwyn Kelly University of Miami MRED+U ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean 100 West Cypress Creek Road, Suite 650 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 954.916.7329 [email protected] 4 | TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PANEL REPORT ABOUT Panel Sponsor and Staff Acknowledgments On behalf of ULI Southeast Florida / Caribbean, the City of Deerfield Beach Bill Ganz panel would like to thank the City of Deerfield Beach Mayor for this effort. Special appreciation goes to the City of Deerfield Michael Hudak Beach staff in particular for their work in preparation, District 1 Commissioner support, and coordination leading up to and during the Ben Preston virtual panel. District 2 Commissioner The panel would also like to thank the community leaders, planning staff, and representatives from Bernie Parness across the City of Deerfield Beach who shared their Vice Mayor, District 3 Commissioner perspectives, experiences, and insights with the panel. Todd Drosky District 4 Commissioner City Staff David Santucci City Manager Kris Mory Director of Economic Development Eric Power Planning & Development Director Gigi Chazu Economic Development Coordinator Ashlee Temple CRA Administrative Coordinator City of Deerfield Beach 150 NE 2nd Ave, Deerfield Beach, FL 33441 954.480.4200 DIXIE CORRIDOR AND CENTRAL CITY AREA | 5 The Dixie Highway and Hillsboro Boulevard intersection and Pioneer Grove are shown in this portion of the Study Area. 6 | TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PANEL REPORT CONTENTS Contents Executive Summary 8 Location and Context 10 Obstacles to Redevelopment 17 Recommendations 19 Conclusion 31 Appendix 32 Glossary of Terms 32 Broward County Land Use Designations 33 Fort Lauderdale’s Central City CRA Case Study 34 Density Primer 36 Panel Bios 38 DIXIE CORRIDOR AND CENTRAL CITY AREA | 7 Executive Summary Ideally situated between Broward and Palm Beach new capital investment and public / private County with easy access from South Florida’s major partnerships highways and thoroughfares, the City of Deerfield • Recommend techniques to address concerns about Beach boasts an expansive coastline and promising neighborhood compatibility of new development opportunities for commercial, industrial, and residential along the corridor with the surrounding established development. With a diverse population, deeply rooted neighborhoods community, and local business revenue reaching • Recommend how and where community spaces nearly $20 billion annually, the City’s recent efforts to can be improved or created to enhance the support redevelopment along the beach and eastern Study Area and encourage revitalization and areas have been largely successful. This success redevelopment has compelled the City government and community leaders to again consider plans for redeveloping the The “Study Area” as defined by the City included the City’s older central city area and to better utilize its Dixie Highway corridor from the city line south to commercial and residential corridors. In 2015 the Dixie Sample Road and the Alwood Homes Neighborhood. Highway Neighborhood Group (DHNG) was formed by Over the course of two days, the ULI TAP sought a group of property owners in the area to organize for feedback from the community’s local leaders and redevelopment. In early 2020, the Deerfield Beach City residents, toured the Study Area, and formulated Commission began discussing specific approaches recommendations to address identified obstacles to to redevelopment for the Dixie Highway Corridor and redevelopment. The ULI TAP identified a wide range of Alwood Homes neighborhood. obstacles to redevelopment, including: The Dixie Highway Corridor is one of the main north/ • Regulatory obstacles south highways running through the City. Though • Site constraints and configuration the Dixie Highway Corridor is heavily trafficked, it is characterized by underperforming retail and • Lack of consensus on the vision for the corridor commercial properties, adjacent to aging low density and its relationship to surrounding neighborhoods residential uses. The City appropriately decided that • Ownership patterns and legacy landbanking the area needed a fresh development approach and • Existing infrastructure engaged the Urban Land Institute Southeast Florida and Caribbean District Council to conduct a Technical • Community relations Assistance Panel (ULI TAP) to: • Lack of funding and incentives to revitalization / • Identify factors that are discouraging revitalization/ redevelopment redevelopment of the Study Area These identified obstacles are discussed in greater • Recommend measures to overcome obstacles to detail throughout this report. revitalization and redevelopment Upon concluding their research, the Panel stressed • Identify a viable mix of uses that would encourage that the Corridor’s 3.5-mile Study Area is comprised of 8 | TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PANEL REPORT three distinct “character areas” which require different In-Depth Recommendations: redevelopment strategies to address the unique character and potential of each area. • Create a new zoning district regulations for the Study Area that utilizes a form-based code and • Corridor, the linear, multi-use Dixie Highway recognizes the different character areas and nodes thoroughfare with its frontage parcels that are largely small-business and automobile-oriented • Embrace the different conditions throughout uses the study area and pursuing different types of development in each unique character area: • Neighborhoods, the residential areas located along and behind the Dixie corridor frontages. These • lower density, smaller flex industrial, owner areas are predominantly home to small-scale single occupied businesses, and smaller retail for the family and multifamily housing typologies corridor • larger, more traffic-intense commercial or • Nodes, areas located on higher-traffic intersections mixed-use projects for the nodes with larger parcels that have the potential for higher • infill, low-density single family, townhome, and density and intensity development surface-parked multifamily development for the Within the context of these “character areas” the ULI residential neighborhoods TAP formulated recommendations to address identified • Encourage a broader range of commercial uses,