Boca Raton Residents, Developers Spar Over Building Story Limitation

A home for sale in East Boca featuring three stories within the traditional height requirement. (Zillow/ API Realty)

Boca Raton residents and developers faced off in a city council meeting over a rule that was wrongly interpreted to allow three story homes in residential neighborhoods, as officials considered adopting a formal clarification.

The council ultimately voted 4-0 last week to clarify that a rule letting certain roof features rise above the 25-foot height limit on single-family homes cannot be used to add a third floor, ending a practice that has angered many residents but has been defended by many builders. The resolution does not change the city’s height limit. It confirms what the council said the existing code has always meant – under the code, parts of a roof may extend above 25 feet, up to a maximum roof elevation of 35 feet, if they meet roof-area and roof-pitch requirements.

Builders in recent years have used that allowance to fit a third story into the space above 25 feet. City officials claimed that was never the intent.

“It’s just that – a roof height allowance,” City Attorney Joshua Koehler said. “It doesn’t, in and of itself, create an independent entitlement to additional residential floor capacity, and that is what the city believes the existing code means today.”

The resolution says space above 25 feet cannot be used to provide the minimum ceiling clearance needed for a separate additional floor that couldn’t meet that standard without it. It allows walls, framing and other parts needed to build a code-compliant roof to extend above 25 feet, but says those parts alone don’t create more livable floor space.

The debate at last week’s council meeting lasted more than an hour and largely pitted developers against residents. Council members ultimately compromised on projects already moving through the city’s review process. Five projects that were in the pipeline before the meeting will be allowed to proceed with a third story, however all future projects will not.

“I think what we’re trying to do with this resolution is affirm the rule that we believe the existing code requires, while recognizing that, in my view, there are a small number of applicants who were in the city’s review process before the discussion came before us,” Mayor Andy Thomson said.

He also said the possibility of a lawsuit is a concern.

“We like to avoid having to go to court in the first place, and one way I think we can do that is by carving out a middle ground,” Thomson said. “Allow the folks who have been in the process to continue the process that they availed themselves of. We’re talking about five people total.”

Several residents called on the council to adopt the clarification, telling officials developers are buying lots to build large houses that change the character of neighborhoods.

“We are not anti-development,” said Will Bordelon, who said about 25 percent of the houses in his neighborhood have been torn down and rebuilt in the past 20 years. “We’re just against what we think is a manipulation of that code – whether it was done intentionally, through negligence, or if it just happened.”

“The developers are trying to buy lots and build big houses. It’s a business,” Bordelon said. “But it’s at the expense of what our neighborhoods are. I don’t want a 15,000 square foot house across from me, and neither do my neighbors.”

Bordelon also said a developer offered to reduce a home proposed near his from three stories to two if he did not express his opinion at a council meeting.

Resident Frederic Sternbach likewise said he was not against development, but was against “greedy developers and greedy builders who are doing this purely to make an extra couple million dollars.” He called the idea of putting 15,000 square feet of living space on a 16,000-square-foot lot “absolutely ridiculous.”

Richard Warner said developers have a history of pressuring the city on height limits.

“Building these mausoleums in residential neighborhoods is offensive, but at the same time, you have a history of rich, corrupt developers bullying the city about height limits and winning, so they continue to expect to win,” Warner said.

He suggested stronger enforcement: “If you have a little guy who illegally sticks a porch on his house, they come and say you have to tear it down,” Warner said. “Admittedly, it’s not easy to tear down the third story of these homes, but maybe enforcement would catch people’s attention.”

Resident Mark Griffith said many new homes are “voluminous on the inside, luxurious on the inside, and ghastly on the outside.” He said developers will always push limits. “It’s how you make money in the construction trade sometimes,” Griffith said, “and you have 15 feet where maybe you should have had 12.”

Councilwoman Stacey Sipple, who voted for the resolution, said she has lived in the city for more than 50 years and has seen the changes that many residents are fighting against.

“We’ve never had three story homes,” Sipple said. “We’ve had unique neighborhoods that had charm, scale and character, then all of the sudden out of nowhere, these oversized buildings just came out and towered over them. They’ve ruined the character, diminished the privacy, and they’ve permanently changed the feel of the community.”

Developers and others who wanted to keep third stories said the homes blend in and that a ban would be unfair to projects already planned.

Gary Brown, a developer with CJM Communities, said he understands the city’s duty to protect neighborhood character but is concerned about fairness “when dozens have been built already throughout the Boca Raton area.”

“A two story limitation would significantly reduce the home’s size, diminish the property’s development potential and value, and potentially make the project infeasible,” Brown said.

Christopher Beale, another developer, said he has never received a neighbor’s complaint about one of his three-story homes.

“When you drive around, unless you really look for them, they blend in like a two story house,” Beale said. “I can tell you, from designing them, it’s really tricky to do it, and when you do it, it blends in just like the rest of the two-story houses.”

Marc Elkman of Empire Development said his company has built many three-story homes in East Boca and has focused its business on them.

“If no one is proposing changing 25-feet, what’s the difference if there are two floors or three floors?” Elkman asked. “It doesn’t hurt anybody on the other side. It just gives you a little bit more space within to create some fun spaces for families. We don’t build boxes, we build really nice homes.”

Before adopting the resolution, Koehler added new language that exempted the five houses already proposed – a suggestion from Thomson.

“People think of compromise as a bad thing, but oftentimes a good solution involves both sides being a little upset, where nobody gets exactly what they want,” he said.