DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — A proposed nursing home to be built in the Sherwood Park neighborhood in Delray Beach will not be moving forward — at least for now.
Residents gathered Monday evening to voice their concerns over the planned project, saying the area should remain residential.
"It doesn't fit," resident Paul Freeman said. "It's zoned for residential homes and we'd just like it to be residential homes."
A developer is in the process of buying Christ the King Monastery of St. Clare, an 11-acre property that would need approval to be transformed. It's a transformation the developer claims would help meet the area's need for senior living facilities.
"The key is that what we really want to do is this nursing home for this community," attorney Brian Seymour said. "And so, all the rest is to get that and there are things we can do if there are concerns. We're willing to deed restrict the number of trips so that we're not going to do any more than we're saying we're going to do."
In 2021, the developer submitted an application for rezoning the location along Sherwood Boulevard. But at Monday's Planning and Zoning meeting, the board determined the current proposal would need to be re-submitted since it's a different from the proposal that was started in 2021.
"I felt blindsided," resident Gregory Snyder said. "I was prepared to try and say something against the original plan, and I don't have any research on the new plan. So, I felt like they totally blindsided us."
At the moment, the project is not moving forward. Both residents and the board left Monday night's meeting with no clear date as to when the developer will present a new plan.