A longtime nonprofit in Palm Beach is asking the town to create a new zoning district specifically for cultural institutions, ahead of the organization submitting plans to the town for a major renovation.

The Society of the Four Arts, founded in 1936, is seeking two amendments — one to the zoning code, and another to the comprehensive plan — that would pave the way for the zoning district. Right now, the Four Arts and the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum are in a zoning district used by Palm Beach to regulate density in single-family neighborhoods.

“We have all at one time or another talked about (how) it would be appropriate to have both of those institutions in a more appropriate zoning district like almost every other municipality in America,” said Harvey Oyer III, attorney for the Four Arts. He spoke Jan. 10 before the Town Council, sitting as the Development Review Committee, to present requests for review and feedback from the council.

“You don’t find the Kravis Center, for example, in a single-family zoning district,” he said.

The council voted 3-2, with Council Member Lew Crampton and council President Maggie Zeidman dissenting, to table providing feedback on the proposals to the council’s Feb. 14 meeting. Council Member Julie Araskog motioned to postpone, saying the council did not have enough time to review the most recent draft of the proposed amendments.

Araskog also expressed concerns about adding a new zoning district during the town’s extensive review and rewrite of its zoning code, which is being led by a consulting team helmed by Ohio-based ZoneCo.

“I have a real problem with changing anything with our comprehensive plan or our zoning code until we’ve finalized” the rewrite, she said, adding, “I completely agree with staff that moving forward with something that we’re actually looking at right now in our zoning review is putting the cart before the horse.”

The comprehensive plan amendment requested by the Four Arts would remove any text that is inconsistent with the future land-use designation of “private group use.” The zoning code amendment would create the new zoning district, Oyer said, noting that there currently is not a zoning district in the town that aligns with Palm Beach’s future land use of “private group use.”

By delaying feedback on the proposals, the council delayed the application’s movement forward in the process.

Being in the R-B residential zoning district has created “a unique hardship” for the Four Arts, he said. Any time the organization wants to change something on its campus, variances are required and the nonprofit must spend additional money to request those, Oyer said.

The new zoning district would set the stage for the Four Arts to submit plans for renovations to two of its key buildings — the Esther B. O’Keeffe Building and Rovensky Administration Building — without needing to apply for so many variances, he said.

The uses that would be allowed in the new zoning district include museum, art galleries, performing arts centers, cultural arts institutions, libraries, botanical gardens, sculpture gardens, and offices and storage areas, Oyer said.

Oyer said he met with council members, ZoneCo principal Sean Suder, members of the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission and neighbors, and received generally positive feedback.

“No one was opposed to the concept,” Oyer said. “They all agreed this should be done, but they were most concerned about what kind of Pandora’s box could this open.”

Those concerns included the potential for new development opportunities created by the proposed amendments, and a desire to protect the residential area around the Four Arts, Oyer said. Among the changes that were made soon before the council’s meeting: Adjusting the setbacks in the proposed zoning district to match those in the Four Arts’ current residential zoning district.

The Four Arts and Flagler Museum also would forfeit any residential development rights based on the number of acres on each property, Oyer said. “No one that is our neighbor would be worse off,” he said.

The town staff and code rewrite consultants had planned to make similar changes to those proposed by the Four Arts as part of the zoning code project, town planner Jennifer Hofmeister-Drew told the council.

Oyer is “heading in the absolutely correct direction” with the new district, Planning, Zoning and Building Director Wayne Bergman told the council — with the caveat that he feels the requests are premature. Town staff and consultants working on the updated zoning code have a similar district in mind to the Four Arts’ proposal, but it could potentially include civic uses as well, he said.

“We told this to Harvey, but he is insistent at moving at a different pace,” Bergman said.

There are safety concerns that need to be addressed by the planned renovations at the Four Arts, Oyer said.

“If we were confident that the town was going to move this forward quickly, we of course would wait and do that with you,” he said. “But that’s not what we’ve witnessed so far, and we have been patient with this, and we need to move this forward.”

Future renovation plans

The planned work on two of the most prominent buildings on the Four Arts’ campus would solve “a multitude of noncompliance issues,” Oyer said. “Other than the King Library and the Hulitar Garden, nothing on that campus is being used for its original purpose.”

The Rovensky Building previously was a car dealership on the ground floor with apartments above, Oyer said. That has been reworked over the years into the headquarters for the garden club and the Children’s Library.

The O’Keeffe Building was the private Embassy Club built by groundbreaking Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner and real estate developer Paris Singer. It was renovated by another noted Palm Beach architect, John Volk, with the 700-seat Gubelmann Auditorium added.

While that auditorium has hosted some of the biggest names in the arts over the years, it needs a major update, Oyer said: There is no green room for talent and “inadequate restrooms.” It also is not up to Florida’s building code, he said.

The urgency comes as the Four Arts board members have said they will use their own money to cover the more than tens of millions of dollars that will be necessary to make the repairs, Oyer said, suggesting costs could be $120 million to $150 million.

“They’re not asking you for $1,” Oyer said.

Council response and delayed feedback

Speaking to the council via Microsoft Teams, Suder said he agrees with establishing some kind of cultural institution district in the town. However, he said he would rather do it as part of Palm Beach’s more holistic rewrite of its zoning code, rather than “within the confines of the current code.”

The current code uses outdated language and there are limitations that still need to be cleaned up, he said. The museums are “special-purpose campuses” that the proposed amendments are trying to fit into the existing zoning code’s framework, Suder said.

“My preference, or my recommendation, would be to create a new paradigm for these special-purpose properties,” he said, adding that he felt each property should be considered as a campus instead of its individual parcels.

Oyer said he had received the feedback from Suder, and much of it was included in the most recent draft that was submitted before the meeting.

Responding to Oyer’s statement that the Four Arts would forfeit any future residential development on the site, Council Member Ted Cooney said it was “a red herring,” noting that both the Four Arts and Flagler Museum are landmarked and would not be eligible to be turned into homes.

Cooney said he also felt that the request was partially based on building height. Only one or two stories are allowed in the R-B zoning district, and the Four Arts has three stories, with some taller heights in its plans, Cooney said.

Building height is not a factor, Oyer said, with three-story buildings already at the Four Arts, and the Flagler Museum standing at five stories, including the basement. “The issue when you have a 10- or 12-acre campus isn’t whether you have a three-story building, it’s whether you have a three-story building imposing on one of your neighbors,” Oyer said.

When Council Member Bobbie Lindsay mentioned that a draft of the zoning code could possibly allow bars and lounges in the new zoning district, Oyer said that was removed from the most recent draft. It did, however, still include a provision to allow restaurants, as the Flagler Museum already does, he said.

Had the council provided feedback at the Jan. 10 meeting, the proposed amendments would have gone to the Planning and Zoning Commission, possibly as early as February, and then returned to the council for two hearings. With the vote to defer feedback another month, that pushed back the timeline for the planning commission’s review to March at the earliest.

Oyer objected to the delay, saying he felt there was sufficient information for the council to provide feedback during the meeting. But three council members disagreed, saying they needed more time to review the proposed amendments.

Crampton said he supported the changes, and felt the meeting’s conversation was getting bogged down in “bureaucratic stuff,” as council members and staff went back and forth on the proper procedure for reviewing such amendments.

“We are moving in this direction anyway, in both the comprehensive plan work that staff is doing, and in the Sean Suder zoning review,” Crampton said of the Four Arts’ proposal.

Mayor Danielle Moore, who does not vote on town issues but provides feedback during meetings, said she felt the council was beating a dead horse by continuing to discuss the issue while not officially providing feedback. She urged the council members to send the proposals to the Planning and Zoning Commission, reminding those on the dais that the amendments ultimately will come back to them twice for review.

“We’re partners in this, but it really kind of feels unfair,” Oyer said. “We paid our fee. … It just doesn’t feel right that we’re getting deferred.”

Once the renovation plans are submitted to the town, they will go to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for review before heading to the council.

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach seeks new zoning district