Palm Beach North Chamber panel explores what has to be done to make sure ‘the people you see every day’ can afford to live here.
As housing prices rise and supply dips, it’s becoming harder and harder for essential workers like nurses, teachers and police to find places to live in northern Palm Beach County.
That makes it harder for businesses to find employees.
And that’s one way that the area’s housing affordability crisis affects everyone, agreed four panelists Wednesday at the Palm Beach North Chamber’s “Business Before Hours” breakfast at the Embassy Suites hotel.
Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency Executive Director Nick Uhren resigns but won’t say why; board considers hiring former deputy Valerie Neilson.
As the federal government unleashes billions for transportation, the head of the countywide agency charged with prioritizing how all that money is spent has resigned.
Nick Uhren’s decision to quit the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency after eight years left the agency’s 21-member board scramblingThursday to find a replacement for the $200,000-a-year job.
Palm Beach Gardens argues in five-day trial that plans for more density require alternatives to the automobile.
In a five-day trial that drilled deep into concerns over how governments charge developers for the impacts of their projects, lawyers for Palm Beach Gardens and Palm Beach County hashed out what could be the future of growth management countywide.
At issue in the first stage of a lawsuit the county filed against the city on May 18 is whether a county system in place since the late 1980s can withstand pressure from cities looking to allow more dense developments and to free residents from reliance on cars.
Will construction break up Gardens’ hotspot for Trump rallies?
It’s “blessed” ground.
Trump Corner, the space outside the Publix shopping center in Palm Beach Gardens where local resident Willy Guardiola draws hundreds of Trump supporters for weekly rallies, has been sprinkled with holy water and suffused in prayer.
It’s blessed in practical ways as well, with abundant parking, helpful police and a supportive landlord.
“It’s the best location in the entire county,” Guardiola says.
But this fall the corner of Military Trail and PGA Boulevard is going to be ripped up in a $1.3 million county construction project to add a right-turn lane.
And construction is expected to last about 10 months, meaning that 13-foot wide strip along southbound Military Trail will be off limits as the race for Florida governor heats up.
“It’s going to kill us,” Guardiola said when informed of the county’s road construction plan. “That’s where I’m going to hold all my DeSantis rallies.”
A quiet Thursday in June at Trump Corner at PGA Boulevard and Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens. (Joel Engelhardt photo)
‘A captive audience’
Once construction is done, as the 2024 presidential election looms, the corner will have shrunk. It’s not exactly huge now. The lawn pitches sharply upward from the sidewalk leading to a flower bed and shrubs surrounding the brick-bordered sign proclaiming Garden Square Shoppes.
Guardiola, president of Christian on a Mission, loves it because of ample parking nearby but when more than 1,000 flag-waving Trump supporters show up the patch of grass and sidewalk outside the Bank of America branch fills fast.
For political purposes, the long wait drivers endure to turn right is a plus —”a captive audience,” Guardiola calls them.
“It could be positive or it could be negative. If it’s Trump people, it could be great,” he said. When it’s anti-Trumpers, the former college basketball referee urges supporters to ignore catcalls and say nothing.
Rallies open with prayer
He credits the peaceful nature of the corner, which began hosting Trump rallies in June 2016, to police presence and prayer.
At the start of each rally, usually held at 4:30 p.m. on Fridays, a friend from his church blesses the site with holy water. The group recites a prayer.
Willy Guardiola, right, with fellow Trump backer Lou Marin of Orlando, at a Trump birthday bash they organized at Southern Boulevard and Interstate 95 on June 14, 2021. (Provided by Willy Guardiola)
“We’ve never had an incident,” he said. “It’s the holy water. It’s prayer. … Police and prayer.”
Before the 2016 Trump campaign, the corner often drew local sign-wavers on election day. But Guardiola believes the colorful Trump rallies have usurped that old identity. “We went big. This is national. It isn’t local,” he said. “It sets the tone for the state of Florida.”
That help explains his reaction in September, after Democrats began holding Wednesday rallies on Trump Corner to counter his Friday rallies.
“This isn’t just any intersection. I mean this is Trump corner. It’s got a name. It’s nationally known,” Guardiola told CBS-12. “And for another group to come out here, it’s just a lack of respect. I’ll say it over and over again. I would never do that to anybody.”
Democrats were aghast.
“I can’t believe you think this corner is yours. This is public property,” former Gardens Mayor Eric Jablin, a Democrat who helped organize the rallies, said this week. “They’re getting their just rewards (with the construction) as far as I’m concerned.”
Strip of land costs $386,000
A right-turn lane is planned for this strip along Military Trail at Trump Corner in Palm Beach Gardens. (Joel Engelhardt photo)
The county engineer in charge of the project said she had never heard of Trump Corner and the corner’s political calling card had nothing to do with the decision to add the turn lane. The need came up in routine traffic reviews, said Kathleen Farrell, the county’s assistant director for roadway production, and the wheels of government began turning.
The county sued the owners of the Garden Square Shoppes, Jan Real Estate, in December to seize a 355-foot long strip that amounts to about a fifth of an acre. In April, a Palm Beach County Circuit judge approved the county’s bottom line offer, $386,370, for the 13-foot wide strip and an adjoining 6 feet. Jan Real Estate can challenge the valuation and go to trial if it believes it is due more money.
Five bids came in on June 1, ranging from $1.26 million to $1.71 million. The winning bidder must be approved by the Palm Beach County Commission, expected in September or October, before construction can begin.
The county originally estimated the job would take 150 days but with material shortages caused by the pandemic it increased the time to 300 days.
That means if work begins in November, it could last until the end of August.
Guardiola said he would show up to contest the plan.
“I will be there to stake my claim. This has been our corner for five years.”
After getting city council permission May 6 to sue the county over its refusal to allow the stoplight, Palm Beach Gardens City Manager Ron Ferris sent the county an email late Tuesday accepting its conditions to move forward.
County says city just can’t do away with long-standing rules.
Negotiations to resolve a city-county dispute over at least $1.7 million in developer fees have failed, resulting in Palm Beach County suing Palm Beach Gardens Tuesday.
In its broadest form, the suit seeks to resolve a disagreement over county power. At issue is whether cities can collect money from new developments to resolve vexing local transportation issues without passing along fees to the county for regional road work.
A week after Palm Beach Gardens threatened to sue, the county said it still didn’t believe the light is warranted but it acknowledged a 2016 agreement “inadvertently” gave Gardens the power to decide, as Gardens City Attorney Max Lohman had insisted.
Palm Beach County’s threat to go after developers ups ante in road impact fee dispute with Palm Beach Gardens.
A long-simmering city-county feud spilled into the business community Tuesday as Palm Beach County commissioners weighed a proposal to slap liens on Palm Beach Gardens developers for failing to pay fees they say they’ve already paid.
At issue is continued growth, business representatives said. If developers following city rules are punished by the county, they’ll go elsewhere.
“This will create a black eye for us,” said Michele Jacobs, president and chief executive of the influential business group, the Economic Council of Palm Beach County.
