West Palm Beach Residents Oppose Downtown Master Plan Update Over Unanswered Infrastructure Questions

West Palm Beach residents are mobilizing against the City’s proposed Downtown Master Plan Update, warning that officials are moving to allow more development without first determining whether the City’s roads, water, sewer, and drainage systems can support it.

In a letter to the City, the Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association and West Palm Beach Neighborhood Alliance say they will not allow a repeat of the same approach residents have seen before with the recently approved Related Ross convention-center hotel. There, the City deferred the hotel’s infrastructure-capacity/burden analysis until after permitting. Under the proposed downtown plan, the City would again leave those questions until after the development process begins.

“The City repeatedly treats infrastructure analysis as something that can wait until after the decisions are made,” says counsel William A. Brewer III, attorney for the neighborhood groups. “Clearly, ‘we’ll study it later’ isn't planning .”

The groups are asking the City to conduct the infrastructure and other analysis before advancing the plan and to retain safeguards that measure how much development downtown can support. Unless those concerns are addressed, they recommend denial of the Downtown Master Plan Update.