When Catherine Adler first moved to the West Palm Beach area in 1991, the city in South Florida had only a handful of high-rise buildings, most of them concentrated around the downtown area. Today, she reports, she barely recognises the regional metropolis. Since 2019, at least nine towers have been completed. More than ten others are currently under construction, some of them in single-family residential areas. Further changes are on the horizon: nine more developments have already been approved.
“There are cranes everywhere. You turn around, and suddenly something new is being built,” Adler remarked. “The beautiful waterfront, the historic districts and the charm — I don't know if that will be preserved.” South Florida has long been a stronghold of project development. For decades, the region flourished thanks to development-friendly policies that fuelled a condominium construction boom. This attracted holidaymakers, retirees, foreign investors seeking a second home, and affluent newcomers.
NIMBYism Reaches South Florida
In recent years, however, South Florida has faced an all-too-familiar obstacle: so-called NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard). While this phenomenon has long been prevalent in places with widely divergent policies, such as New York and California, after years of unchecked construction, NIMBYism has now reached South Florida. “We may have reached a turning point,” said David Foster, an Assistant Professor at Florida State University who researches housing policy. “There is nothing inherently partisan, conservative or liberal about homeowners’ opposition to development.”
Although South Florida, like most regions, has had its share of NIMBYism over the years, the movement has gained significant momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of people moved from the North East to South Florida. To meet the rising demand for housing, real estate projects expanded rapidly, often to the dismay of many locals, including Catherine Adler. This year, she co-founded the interest group “Save West Palm Beach”. Her concerns reflect traditional NIMBY complaints about increasing building density and the strain that new developments and residents place on West Palm Beach’s infrastructure. She also criticises the frequent lack of transparency in the approval process.
“During important hours, there is continuous traffic. How do you get to the hospital? How does the fire engine reach the fire?” Adler asked, adding: “The developers come, they build, they leave, and we are left with the city.” NIMBYism is not limited to West Palm Beach. In March, approximately 75 percent of Boca Raton residents voted against the transformation of the city's government centre by Terra and the Frisbie Group into a mixed-use project. This happened even though the renowned developers had reduced the original proposal from 31 acres to just under 8 acres to appease residents. Voters also elected Jon Pearlman, the leader of the anti-development campaign, to the city council.
Impact of the Live Local Act
Part of the increased concern is due to the state’s Live Local Act. In 2023, Florida’s legislature passed this law, which grants tax breaks to developers if they offer at least 40 percent of new units at prices affordable to individuals earning 120 percent of the area median income (AMI). The most crucial aspect is that, if these criteria are met, developers can bypass many local zoning regulations to erect tall structures without having to undergo public hearings.
Although the law aims to increase housing supply, accelerate construction, and lower rents, it has angered many communities and residents who feel deprived of their rights. In Miami Beach, the law threatens some of the city's historic Art Deco buildings, which residents and local officials stubbornly try to protect. For example, Allied Partners, owners of the adjacent Savoy and Arlington Hotels, built between 1937 and 1941 along Ocean Drive, plans to transform the 1.8-acre property into a 38-storey tower with 150 flats, 76 hotel rooms, and 257 parking spaces using the Live Local Act. The 480-foot high-rise would be one of the tallest in Miami Beach and would soar 27 storeys higher than its two neighbouring buildings.
Thanks to state laws, the application is going through the urban approval process this year without a single public hearing before the Miami Beach Historic Board, which would have been customary for any alteration of a historic structure. “What is bothering a lot of people is this almost unbridled development,” commented Ned Murray, Associate Director of the Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center at Florida International University, who researches housing-related issues. “The introduction of Live Local may have been the icing on the cake.” For Murray, the price cap does not adequately address South Florida’s housing affordability crisis, as the 120 percent threshold targets working professionals, not the lowest-income residents. In addition to the residential component, the Live Local Act also allows for significant market-rate commercial development.
