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Delray Medical gets city clearance to build four-story tower

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — An ordinance allowing Delray Medical Center to construct a four-story building on its campus on Linton Boulevard received final approval Tuesday from Delray Beach City Commissioners.

The proposed structure will be four stories high, which the city’s normal maximum building height of 48 feet can easily accommodate. However, hospital buildings require extra mechanicals — ventilation, oxygen lines and other systems — between floors that push the height requirement to 60 feet.

The ordinance commissioners approved Tuesday gives Delray Medical the extra 12 feet.

The building’s 140 rooms are not intended to expand the hospital’s bed count; rather, it will allow Delray Medical to convert to all private rooms. In addition to the new building, Delray Medical plans to construct a five-level parking garage.

One city resident expressed fear that extending the maximum height for Delray Medical might create a precedent that will cause other developers to want to build beyond the city’s normal 48-foot limit. But commissioners generally were complimentary of the project.

Delray Medical still will have to come before commissioners one more time for city approval before beginning construction.

Also Tuesday commissioners OKed agreed to put on the March 12 ballot a proposed charter change that would allow the commission to set procedural rules on how members vote during meetings. Currently the city charter requires commissioners to vote by roll call. Commissioners still will be required to vote and the vote recorded in the minutes regardless of what procedures are used.

Commissioner Al Jacquet voted against putting the proposal on the ballot.

Commissioners also gave final approval to an ordinance that would put the house at 170 Marine Way, known as the Marina House, on the local register of historic places.