Fort Lauderdale’s planning and zoning board approved a comprehensive plan amendment for 353 acres in the city’s Cypress Creek area to encourage more residential development there.
The comprehensive plan amendment would allow construction of 2,560 additional residences in the 353-acre area, called Uptown Urban Village, which now has 239 residences.
Microsoft, Citrix and other employers in Cypress Creek, a leading commercial real estate hub in South Florida, are concerned about recruiting and retaining employees because the area lacks housing.
Cypress Creek has almost 4.1 million square feet of office space, the largest concentration of office buildings in Broward County outside downtown Fort Lauderdale, according to real estate brokerage CBRE.
The comprehensive plan amendment would allow the city to set limits on the size of new buildings in the Uptown area, rather than specifying their use. The amendment would allow developers themselves to designate interior space for residential, retail and other uses, and could enable them to bypass the city’s lengthy process of approving or rejecting site plans.
The comprehensive plan amendment is pending approval by the city commission and two affirmative votes by the county commission. [South Florida Business Journal] – Mike Seemuth