The Royal Palm Beach Planning and Zoning Commission met on Tuesday, September 27 and voted in favor of an amendment to the village code that will allow Royal Palm Beach High School to finally begin the process of obtaining of a new permanent panel.
The Commissioners heard the request to meet as the Local Planning Agency.
The Palm Beach County School District requested that the text be changed, adding the term “school board information board.”
This would allow the RPBHS to install a permanent digital sign.
Senior Planner Michael Owens attended on behalf of the school district. The sign would be used to provide school-related information only, with no commercial messages permitted.
Commission Chairman David Leland and Commissioner Philip Marquis questioned why there was still a temporary canvas sign at the main entrance to campus.
“The original sign was in poor condition. Until we can raise the money, we have put up a canvas sign. It’s been around for a number of years,” Owens explained. “As we go around the county, we try to update the digital signs. We wanted to assure the village that we will be working within the parameters. If this materializes, we can work towards getting a budget for the sign, which will be over $55,000 to $60,000. Then we can place it, and there will be no code enforcement violation.
It was also clarified that the revision would not allow private schools to put up similar signs. The motion passed unanimously.
In other cases:
• Meeting as a planning and zoning commission, council reviewed several sign applications and business approvals.
They unanimously approved the updated signage request at 1402 Royal Palm Beach Blvd. for Pediatrics from Soma Medical Center. In Buckingham Square, the new Skechers store at 310 S. State Road 7 may go ahead with a request to update the signage to the walls, windows and monuments of the old Tuesday morning store, with the staff and board approval.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car has received approval to move its bay used for operations to 10381 Southern Blvd. at 10231 Southern Blvd. The facility is moving elsewhere in the Village Shoppes Plaza.
• The Village continues to progress toward the construction of the new Crestwood Park at 900 Crestwood Blvd., near the BellaSera neighborhood. The park includes facilities for basketball, pickleball, tennis, and volleyball, in addition to four outdoor pavilions, restrooms, and a playground.
“We deliberately located the courts as far away from the residents as possible. Parking will be provided on the south side of the multi-use lot,” Planning and Zoning Manager Bradford O’Brien said.
The project has been carefully designed to retain existing trees and utilize the path along the M-1 canal for pedestrians and emergency access for fire rescue.
“I’m here on behalf of the Village of Royal Palm Beach, and we’re really excited to share the new plans for the proposed park,” said Donaldson Hearing of landscape architectural firm Cotleur & Hearing. “It’s a great little park and a great location. The site is 5.77 acres. This site was dedicated to the village as part of the BellaSera approval, which satisfied the leisure requirement. All of your engineering, planning and recreation staff have put a lot of thought into this. We looked at a lot of different plans and concepts, and this one was really meant to provide a multi-purpose pitch contiguous to the residential area, and then to the more active sports which are contiguous to the M-1 canal.
The motion for site plan and architectural approval passed unanimously.
• Two items related to a new telecommunications tower at 10719 Southern Blvd. were postponed at the request of Towercom due to the upcoming storm on the west coast of Florida creating problems for customer travel. These requests will be on the agenda for the next meeting of the Board of Directors, scheduled for Tuesday, October 25.
