Hillcrest and Parkview at Hillcrest residents learned two powerful lessons at the Aug. 12 Planning and Development Board meeting at Hollywood City Hall.

Lesson 1: P & D Board members unanimously agreed Hollywood needs more affordable housing. And based on that insight, they recommended that the city commission approve the request by Harwin-Tobin LLC to build 110 affordable rental units at 1101 Hillcrest Drive. It is expected that commissioners will take up the issue in September. This is not Section 8 housing; it is made affordable by financial incentives the federal government gives to the developers who promise to keep the units affordable for a few decades.

Lesson 2: In a report to Board members, the City of Hollywood planning manager declared Hillcrest a “blighted” area. This second revelation became public when W. Tucker Gibbs, a land use attorney hired by the Hillcrest Leadership Council, was permitted to speak at the meeting for three minutes. Among other things, he described what he found in the planning department memo.

The author of the memo, Planning Manager Anand Balram, didn’t come right out and broadcast the word “blighted”. That insulting determination was buried in a dense legal citation that W. Tucker Gibbs had to research and decipher.

None of the Board members on the dais commented on the blighted slur, although Inside Hillcrest invited two attorneys for the developers to come to Hillcrest to take a tour. Dennis Mele, a prominent attorney, promised to come with Elizabeth Somerstein, the other Greenspoon Marder lawyer who spoke at the Board meeting. Inside Hillcrest will update readers when we learn what Mele and Somerstein think of our community.

The proposed building – called Hillcrest Village – stands in the heart of an already congested community. It is steps away from the main entrance to Hillcrest, at Washington Street and 46 Avenue. A public school is across the street, as is a charter school, which is directly across the street from the Hillcrest Village site, at 1100 and 1101 Hillcrest Drive, respectively. Both entrances to Parkview are within steps of that address.

Hillcrest buildings 19 and 20 are just north of the site, with Hillcrest high-rise building 21 around the corner, just past a traffic circle that a Board member referenced. The first part of Parkview at Hillcrest sits in the background, with a walking path that all members of the Hillcrest Planned Unit Development (PUD) share.  In an earlier meeting, via Zoom, a Parkview resident questioned how Hillcrest Village residents could use the walking path when the affordable housing advocates seem to suggest the site is and isn’t in the Hillcrest PUD, depending on what’s convenient for them at any given time.

Meanwhile, both W. Tucker Gibbs and residents of Hillcrest and Parkview at Hillcrest informed Board members about the crowded, congested area that lacks parking spaces. Steven Hurtig, President of Hillcrest 25 and of the Hillcrest Leadership Council attended the meeting and offers his insights throughout this article. As to the lack of parking spaces here, Inside Hillcrest covered a meeting several years ago between Mayor Josh Levy, City staff, and residents of Hillcrest buildings 19 and 20 thought the situation important enough to meet and discuss. But no matter. Every member of the Planning and Development Board recommended approval of Hillcrest Village.

During the main course presentation, Greenspoon Marder attorney Elizabeth Somerstein told the packed room about the adjustments her clients made, which is why the Board meeting was put off for several months while developers crafted a revised pitch.  She also falsely claimed that many Hillcrest community members favored this proposal. The truth is that although many residents had no problem with the two other affordable housing projects in our neighborhood, none want another high rise in the middle of Hillcrest Drive.

Hurtig also contradicted the attorney’s assertion, citing the fact that nobody from the audience spoke in favor of Hillcrest Village during the Board meeting or at any other time.  Hurtig also noted that over 2300 Hillcrest and Parkview residents signed petitions in opposition to the proposed development. Hillcrest leaders were promised that City staff would give the Board members the petition before the meeting.

In her new pitch, Somerstein touted “concessions” made by the developers; they reduced the number of units by 10, 110 instead of 120 in their original proposal. They are no longer trying to get the City of Hollywood to give them permission to pave over more open space than the City permits. This means the developers pulled their request for a variance to cover over 70% of pervious land. The new proposal rests at 65%.

In another purported bow to community concerns, Somerstein announced the composition of residents will change. Initially, the developers wanted to rent to people at 80%, 60% and 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Now they’ve included a fourth category, at 70% AMI. The developers have also decreased the number of units set aside for people who are at 30% AMI.

Somerstein also dangled an enticement to the community. According to the attorney, the developers have a legal right to give preference to Hillcrest residents in need, teachers and City of Hollywood employees. But she didn’t explain the legal justification for preference as Fair Housing Laws prohibit various forms of discrimination. Somerstein also didn’t offer a breakdown of how many Hillcrest Village units would go to the preferred recipients of the affordable housing units.

Other changes from the initial winter pitch include more parking spaces, up from 136 to 157.  Adding to the confusion, a Tobin-related LLC has filed a lawsuit over parking spaces against Parkview at Hillcrest. It still isn’t clear why Tobin filed the lawsuit now, and whether it is related to the need to produce an adequate number of parking spaces for Hillcrest Village.  City officials didn’t respond to an email asking if the Tobin lawsuit is in any way connected to the proposed housing development.  The City was contacted because the lawsuit cites City ordinance in connection with the parking space dispute.

Hurtig, though, was willing to comment.  He questioned the fuzzy math put forth by the developers and accepted by the City.  According to Hurtig, 24 of the newly added parking spaces are only part-time spaces at 1101 Hillcrest Drive. That’s because Tobin, who leases the land to the charter school, allows them to use 24 spaces at 1101 Hillcrest Drive during the school day.  So, Hurtig asked, what happens to Hillcrest Village residents who need those spaces when the school is using them.

Fuzzy math appeared a second time during the Board meeting. In February, the developers contended that the Hillcrest PUD was maxed out. That’s why they wanted the City of Hollywood to give them a variance to extend the number of units in the PUD.

Now Somerstein is insisting that the Hillcrest PUD is 51 units short. The developers want to use these units, along with “bonus” units that Broward County designates for affordable housing. The remaining PUD units, combined with the “bonus” units get the developers to 110 units, she said.  

W. Tucker Gibbs, working with Hurtig and Brian Belmonti, President of the Parkview at Hillcrest
HOA are looking into the shifting numerical goal posts. He also wants to see a metes and bounds survey the City prepared in consultation with the developers. The City and developers have access to this survey, so Inside Hillcrest asked a City representative to learn whether the City will let attorney Gibbs see it.

Somerstein also declared that our Declaration of Restrictive Covenants doesn’t apply to the Hillcrest Village site. Hillcrest and Parkview leaders believe the Declaration requires 80% of the current unit owners to vote to approve the extra units before more construction can occur.

Finally, and poignantly, a resident of Hillcrest building 20 described how construction work for Parkview at Hillcrest damaged the foundation of her building. She feared that work on Hillcrest Village – which is the closest building to the proposed new high rise, would inflict more damage.

Nobody on the dais commented on her concern.