The Planning Board approved the adaptive reuse of Presidential Place (3880 South Circle Drive) into 104 senior rental apartments, along with nine variances and a recommendation to allocate 12 deed‑restricted affordable units under Broward County’s bonus density rules, while placing conditions on permitting to ensure outstanding engineering and traffic items are resolved.

Cameron Palmer, planning manager, explained the application seeks to convert an existing assisted living facility with 104 rooms into 104 residential units by using a county bonus formula tied to deed‑restricted affordable units. Staff identified a discrepancy between the applicant’s requested 10 deed‑restricted units and staff’s calculation; staff recommended the allocation be 12 units to meet county formula requirements and noted many variance findings remained "inconclusive" pending technical reviews.

Tracy Slavens (Elevation Properties) and Ben Friedman (Elevation Financial) presented the adaptive reuse plan: retain the existing building footprint, retrofit rooms into studios and one‑bedrooms with kitchens, add parking areas at north and south portions of the site to increase spaces from roughly 47 to about 69, and implement a landscape/tree replacement plan that the applicant said would preserve a park‑like setting and a vital stormwater detention area.

Key technical items discussed included: a proposed parking rate of roughly 0.66 spaces per unit (applicant presented comparative data on senior housing parking rates and said senior housing generates fewer trips than an assisted living facility), curb‑cut calculations (the code measures curb cuts across contiguous areas, producing large nominal curb‑cut widths that the applicant said will not appear intrusive on the street because landscaping, sidewalks and swales remain), and the need to preserve the site’s detention/retention function (staff noted the property is the only detention pond in the neighborhood).

The applicant agreed to coordinate with the city’s traffic consultant and engineering staff and provided a tree disposition plan showing replacement of numerous trees and palms; staff located the landscape plan and confirmed it remained under review.

The board debated whether to make variances conditional on outstanding technical approvals. The city attorney and staff recommended consolidating the conditions on the site plan so that outstanding items (traffic engineering, stormwater and other engineering comments) must be satisfactorily addressed prior to issuance of building permit, rather than tying each variance to separate conditions. The board followed staff advice and approved variances 1–9 sequentially and approved the site plan with the condition that outstanding engineering/traffic comments be resolved to the satisfaction of city staff prior to issuance of the building permit; the board also approved the staff‑recommended allocation of 12 bonus affordable units and required a recorded 30‑year affordable covenant.

Applicant statements and next steps: Applicant said the project is privately financed and argued adaptive reuse preserves green space while meeting community need for senior affordable housing. Staff and applicant will continue technical coordination; building permits will not be issued until city engineering/traffic comments are satisfactorily addressed and the required covenants are recorded.