Amendment G Keeps Deerfield Beach's Height Caps. It Moves the Rules on Building Size.

If Amendment G passes on November 3, how tall can a new building on the barrier island get? The answer is the same as today: 45 feet for commercial property and 55 feet for multifamily. Those caps stay in the charter either way.

What the amendment changes is less visible from Hillsboro Boulevard. It affects how much building can fit under those ceilings, and who gets to decide that number from now on. Since 2002, Deerfield Beach voters have set it. If G passes, the City Commission sets it through the normal land development code process. That shift is the real question on the ballot.

The height debate happened in July, before the ballot was written

The version on your ballot is narrower than the one the city started with this year. At a February community forum, Claude Dubois, general manager of the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort, said the hotel's owner would like to raise new acquisitions to "eight, 10, maybe 12 floors." Ira Wechterman, who founded Friends of Deerfield Island Park, said he didn't want "a wall of monstrous hotels and condominiums" on the drive down Hillsboro.

By the July 15 commission workshop, Mayor Todd Drosky said it had become clear many residents opposed the height recommendation. He backed keeping the charter's height limits and removing only the floor area ratio limit, which he called "the least intrusive amendment." At first reading, Commissioner Ben Preston asked whether removing the floor area limits could raise heights. Deputy City Manager Eric Power said, "There would be no way in which the floor area ratio or lot coverage amendment could increase the height above what is permitted by the charter regulation."

So the taller buildings floated in February aren't part of Amendment G. The ballot asks about everything else in Charter Section 11.01.

What stays in the charter and what comes out

The charter defines the "beach area" as all land between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

Today the commission can make these rules stricter, but loosening them takes another vote of the people. If G passes, the floor area and use limits move into the land development code, which the commission can change by ordinance.

What a floor area cap does under a 55-foot ceiling

Floor area ratio compares a building's total floor area to the size of its lot. If you run the charter's own numbers, this cap often binds before the height cap does.

Take a 10,000-square-foot multifamily lot. A 0.8 ratio allows 8,000 square feet of floor area. The 40% coverage rule allows a footprint of up to 4,000 square feet. That means a building using its full footprint hits the floor area limit at two full floors, whether the height cap leaves room for more or not. On a commercial lot, 1.0 and 50% work out the same way: two full-footprint floors. Remove the ratio, and the remaining limits on a beach-area building are the height cap, the coverage limit and whatever the code says.

That's the mechanism both sides are arguing about. Drosky said some barrier-island properties have become obsolete or are declining and can't be redeveloped under the current charter. He also said the commission should keep possible effects of the state's Live Local Act in mind. No specific parcel has been publicly named as one the floor area cap has held back. At a July 6 workshop, Power used Fire Station #75 and the Surfrider to show how flood-elevation rules and floor area ratio interact with measured building height.

Commissioner Daniel Shanetzky said the current limits help "moderate the pace and intensity of development." He raised concern that removing the floor area cap could significantly increase residential density. He also cited limited access to and from the island, aging utilities that have caused water pressure problems, and hurricane evacuation capacity, and said he wants a long-term vision for the island before any change. Preston said developers who can't make a project work under current rules can ask the commission for relief such as a variance, as has happened before. He also noted that a citywide vote decides rules that mostly affect barrier-island residents. Commissioner Tom Plaut said height is the public's main concern and favored keeping a height limit in the charter. He also said charter protections haven't always prevented unwanted outcomes, because developers have obtained variances.

The 2002 vote put these rules beyond a commission majority

The beach protections date to the November 5, 2002 election. The Original Save Our Beach group gathered signatures, and 75% of voters approved the amendments. Attorney Tom Connick says he wrote that language. He serves as pro bono attorney for the group and says he and many residents oppose the amendments because they would move decisions now reserved to voters to a commission majority.

A volunteer panel that advised the city in February argued the opposite. Nelson Stabile of the Urban Land Institute said strict zoning rules are "not in the right place" in a charter. He added, "We're not saying increase the height... We're not saying increase floor area ratios." Land-use attorney Michael Marshall said that over two decades the charter rules had discouraged private reinvestment.

The city's own voter guide is also being contested. Connick filed a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission, dated September 17. It argues the city's materials on Amendments D, E, G and H read as advocacy. On G, it says the website stresses what stays protected without explaining that the removed rules lose voter-level protection. The complaint acknowledges the printed flyer is more explicit on that point. Filing a complaint is not a finding that any law was broken.

Amendment H applies the same shift to the Main Beach parking lot

Charter Section 11.02 protects a specific group of city-owned land: the Main Beach lot in Block 11, the fire station and the parking behind it, parts of NE First Street next to city land, the Conrad House property, and a parcel deeded by South Florida Beach Properties LLC. Amendment H would remove three of its rules:

• the minimum parking space size of 10 by 20 feet
• the cap on significant commercial use, which today means more than 15 days a year
• the ban on counting these public spaces toward another property's parking requirement

Vice Mayor Michael Hudak proposed these changes. He said dropping the space-size rule would make room for compact cars, golf carts, motorcycles and scooters, and that the event provisions "unnecessarily restrict" what can happen on the property. He said a parking garage there isn't necessary because the lot mainly serves beachgoers. Shanetzky offered a narrower option: raise the commercial-use allowance to 30 or 45 days a year and leave the rest alone.

Two details bear on what H would actually do. Occasional city-sponsored events such as Founder's Day already don't count toward the 15-day limit. Connick's complaint also argues that deleting the paragraph removes the charter's limit on commercial use entirely, beyond lifting the 15-day number. At the July 6 workshop, Daniel Radison, who lives next to the lot, said it should stay parking. He said the current setup already backs up traffic and the location doesn't suit other properties' parking needs.

H leaves the garage rules alone. Any garage is still limited to two stories plus a possible below-grade level, and on the Main Beach lot it has to sit at least 110 feet west of Ocean Way, also called NE 21st Avenue.

Dates between now and November 3

G and H are separate Yes-or-No questions. Each one takes effect only if a majority of voters on that question approve it.

1. Saturday, October 10, 10 a.m.: City informational forum at Hillsboro Technology Center, 50 Hillsboro Technology Dr.
2. Monday, October 12, 1:30 p.m.: City forum at West Deerfield Community Center, 580 S Powerline Rd.
3. October 19 through November 1, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Broward early voting.
4. October 22: Deadline to request a mailed ballot.
5. Tuesday, November 3, 7 p.m.: Polls close, and mail ballots must reach the elections office by this time.

You can read the full amendment summaries in the city's charter amendment guide. The current charter text is laid out in Boca Post's July summary.

If you own on the barrier island or near the Main Beach lot and want to know how either result could affect what nearby land can hold, Amy Awerbuch is glad to talk it through. That's an information conversation, not a recommendation on how to vote. When you'd like a number for your own place, start with a free home valuation.