Another Delray Beach historic district? City puts plan on hold amid opposition

Progress on a possible new historic district in Delray Beach has been paused after being in the city’s pipeline for about seven years.

The historic district would have generally comprised part of the Atlantic Avenue corridor from Swinton Avenue to the Intracoastal Waterway, joining five other pre-existing historic districts in Delray Beach and more than 30 historic districts across South Florida.

Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue is a bustling hub of bars, restaurants and shops. On any given night, the streets buzz with flocks of pedestrians, and cars clamor to find spots in packed parking lots. Throughout the years, the historic-district proposal has brought forth support from those wanting to preserve the downtown and opposition from those concerned about property-owner rights.

During a workshop Friday, city officials discussed the designation’s merits and drawbacks, with the ultimate conclusion being that the project should be stalled.

“The elephant in the room is, there’s a whole group in the town that wants to have Atlantic Avenue just designated as a historic district,” Mayor Tom Carney said during the meeting. “Then there’s another part of town that all believes that we want to preserve the character of Atlantic, but without necessarily imposing an additional regulatory burden.”

When Carney was campaigning to run for mayor, he did not support the historic district as proposed, citing concerns that the business owners located there could be at risk of being left behind.

Should it be deemed ‘historic’?

Carney brought similar worries to the workshop Friday, and other commissioners agreed.

“Safeguards” are already in place to preserve the city’s charm, said Commissioner Angela Burns, such as rather rigid height and density requirements.

“To make it a historic region or designation just brings on a whole lot of other regulations that come along with it,” she said.

John Miller, a Delray Beach Historic Preservation Board member, said historic districts have their own set of rules to, obviously, protect the historic nature of that area.

“Ideally you’d keep the facade more or less the same,” he said. “There are different guidelines that cover historic versus anything else.”

But some properties within a historic district are often considered “noncontributing,” he said, so theoretically, a building could still be modified or even taken down.

Delray Beach “is very protective of its historic nature, but that’s bumping up against the really extraordinary values that some of these properties have now,” Miller said. “People are investing in Delray, and they don’t want to see anything that could potentially get in the way of their return.”

Raising concerns

During a meeting on June 6, 2023, property owners stepped forward to express fears about how a historic district could threaten their rights, or make it more challenging to alter their buildings.

In an interview on Thursday, Miller said property owners “feel there’s enough regulation in place now that they don’t need the extra oversight.”

But proponents of the project have pointed out how a historic district could also bring incentives such as expedited permitting review for historic properties, a transferable development-rights program, tax abatement and parking perks.

During the workshop, commissioner Juli Casale pointed out that the city’s residents have been investing in the potential historic district for the past seven years, so even though she is in support of it, taxpayer money should not continue to be spent if there is pushback to its continued progress.

That does not necessarily mean the idea would not pop up again in the future, Miller said, but for now, it’s been halted.

“It could start up again, and they (city staff) could get the green light, but at this point, they don’t have the votes to do it,” Miller said.