Key facts
- Hollywood, Florida, approved a 30-story beach tower with workforce housing.
- The city used Florida's Live Local 4.0 legislation to override county objections.
- Related Group will build the Portofino Hollywood project on city-owned land.
- The project includes 84 workforce housing units priced for renters earning 120% of area median income.
- A lawsuit challenging the project's lease is ongoing but faces challenges due to the lead plaintiff's bankruptcy.
Hollywood, Florida, has approved the construction of a 30-story mixed-use tower featuring workforce housing, utilizing newly granted home-rule powers under Florida's Live Local 4.0 legislation to bypass objections from Broward County. The city commission voted 6-1 last Thursday to greenlight agreements allowing Related Group to build the Portofino Hollywood project on a 99-year lease of city-owned land at 1301 S. Ocean Dr.
The project, which includes 84 workforce housing units priced for renters earning up to 120% of the area median income, faced a six-year opposition from environmentalists and residents of a neighboring condominium. Broward County had previously rejected the development in February, citing the site's designation for community use.
Florida's Live Local 4.0 law, intended to pre-empt local zoning and density rules to encourage workforce housing, was recently amended to grant cities home-rule authority over government-owned properties. Hollywood leveraged this change to revive the project after its initial rejection.
Related Group's attorney, Keith Poliakoff, noted the ironic use of the law, stating that while many municipalities feel Live Local diminished their governance, Hollywood used it to retain local control. The developer is also constructing a new community center as part of the agreement.
Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr, who represents the district, had sought to delay the rezoning hearing, hoping for a veto of the legislation by Governor DeSantis, which did not occur. Furr is set to be replaced by Caryl Shuham, who opposed the project, on the county commission.
A lawsuit filed by residents in June argued the lease violated a deed restriction mandating the land remain in public use. However, the litigation's progress is now uncertain as the lead plaintiff faces foreclosure and has filed for bankruptcy, which Poliakoff believes will ultimately lead to the lawsuit's dismissal.