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Parkland Planning and Zoning Recommends Special Exception Approval For Riverstone Shoppes Addition

Riverstone Shoppes Outparcel Preliminary Conceptual Design {City of Parkland}

By Bryan Boggiano

The Parkland Planning and Zoning board voted to forward a favorable recommendation for multiple applications to the city commission at their Thursday meeting to add a new building to Riverstone Shoppes.

Located at 7387 State Road-7, the new building would be located in the current parking lot on the plaza’s northeast side, encompassing 7,119 square feet. This addition would join three other buildings in the Riverstone Shoppes Plaza, which include 61,704 square feet of retail space, according to city documents.

It will be a single-story structure with five tenant spaces. These include a 427-square-foot retail space, 828 square feet of office space, a 2,184-square-foot health club/gym, and two restaurants at 1,884 and 1,776 square feet, respectively.

One of the planned tenants is Make Our Schools Safe COO and Board Chair Ilan Alhadeff and his wife, Lori, CEO, Vice Chair, and Broward County Public Schools Board Chair.

To develop the Riverstone Shoppes addition, plaza owners needed to request an amendment to the master plan and site plan.

Also, the city code requires the plaza to have 452 parking spaces. In its current form, the property would require 524 spaces, but the reduced parking requirement is due to a variance granted in 2005. The out parcels construction would remove 36 parking spots and require an additional 72 spaces.

The result is 327 parking spaces remaining, 38 spaces below the code-required 365.

But, the code offers an alternative calculation. For planned shopping centers, there could be one parking space for every 250 square feet of floor area for all uses for up to 10 percent of the gross floor area of the plaza.

Using that calculation, the amount of code-required spaces is 289.

According to a parking utilization study, no more than 225 spaces would be used during peak season during peak business hours.

Riverstone Shoppes Plaza’s new building addition also requires architectural appearance approval that will look at various building and landscaping requirements.

Development of the property would keep two entrances from Northwest 74th Place to the north and an additional entrance from State Road 7.

The proposed parcel is in blue. State Road 7 is on the east side.

The board expressed concerns about traffic congestion, drainage, and the proposed pergola at the building’s northwest corner. After deliberating, they voted unanimously to forward a favorable recommendation to the city commission.

Both Lori and Ilhan expressed satisfaction with the board’s Riverstone Shoppes decision, saying the new office space will help them expand their mission and their efforts further.

“I’m very excited and happy that we’re going to be able to move forward with our Make Our Schools Safe Office space, and I’m just greatly appreciative to the zoning board to be able to have that come to fruition,” Lori said.

The city commission will consider the item at their June 21st meeting, starting at 7 p.m.

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Author Profile

Bryan Boggiano

A University of Florida journalism graduate, Bryan plans to pursue geosciences at Florida International University for his master's. He has a strong interest in weather, entertainment, and journalism.