WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A group of West Palm Beach residents is urging city leaders to temporarily halt major new development and open a broader public conversation about how the city should grow, warning that unchecked projects are straining infrastructure and chipping away at the community’s character.
WATCH BELOW:
The grassroots effort —Save West Palm Beach -- including residents Sue Fuller, Catherine Adler and Fatima Sanandaji, is asking for up to a two-year pause on major development requests, a comprehensive infrastructure and traffic study, more transparency around developer impact fees, and firm protections for the city’s waterfront and historic charm.
Their concerns were sharpened after a recent Downtown Action Committee meeting where a 22-story condo tower with ground-floor retail and restaurants was discussed for the corner of Hibiscus Street and South Dixie Highway, just west of the Royal Park Bridge and the busy Okeechobee Boulevard intersection.
“I’m disturbed, because they actually all sat up there and heard discussions, and we saw all the graphs and photographs," said Adler.
Encouraged by mayor’s tone, but pushing for more
Members of the 'Save West Palm Beach' group, say they recently met with Mayor Keith James, a sit-down they had been seeking for months. They say the mayor listened and seemed receptive, but they stress the meeting was only a first step.
“We were really, really happy that he agreed to this, and he seemed receptive,” one of the organizers said. “He himself stated in April that he wanted to have visualizing and listening sessions, and in July, on July 6, he said he wanted to meet and collaborate and talk. And so here we were. We sat with him. We talked. He listened. I think he took it all in.”
The mayor, they said, asked them to return in October with a proposed agenda for a broader session that would include city officials, developers and residents.
“We proposed having a meeting with members of the community, with members of City Hall, with people who will represent the developers — a good cross section — sitting down and just having a conversation,” Adler said. “Just back and forth and discussing what we want, what they want, what we can possibly do to create a city where everyone feels they’ve had a say. It’s all about transparency and conversation.”
The group has distilled its platform into four main tasks.
1. Up to a two-year pause and a cumulative infrastructure study
Their first request is for the city to consider up to a two-year pause on any major development or infrastructure requests — including changes in height, zoning and density — until a cumulative study is completed on traffic and infrastructure.
“Of our four asks, the first one was up to a two‑year pause on any major infrastructure requests until there is a cumulative study done on traffic and infrastructure,” Fuller said. “So that we could know and understand what the current projects — the ones that will be completed in the next two years, which we expect to be eight to 10 that are currently under construction — and when they are occupied, what that impact is on everything that we have going on right now with all of the traffic and all of the new people moving in. So we think that’s really imperative before anything else gets approved.”
Fuller stressed that the pause is also about giving everyday citizens a chance to see the impacts for themselves.
“That’ll give citizens an opportunity to actually weigh in and assess,” she said. “The full occupancy and operations of eight to 10 buildings will actually give the actual citizens the opportunity to just step outside, drive in their cars and see whether or not we actually believe that what’s been passed, and what we’ve been told from an infrastructure [standpoint], is actually taking place.”
2. Transparency around impact fees
The second ask is for clear, public transparency on impact fees — the payments developers make to offset the strain their projects place on city services.
“Our second ask — was the transparency around impact fees,” Fuller explained. “We know that it exists. We’ve been told that there are impact fees that the builders and the developers are paying. We would like to understand and have citizens understand what that actually means.”
Their fear, she added, is that developers will profit and leave, while residents are left to cover the long-term costs.
“Our concern is that the developers will actually come in, develop, leave, and the city and the citizens are the ones that are going to be left paying and footing the bill, quite frankly.”
3. Protecting the waterfront and the city’s aesthetic
The third ask centers on protecting the waterfront and the overall look and feel of West Palm Beach. “The third thing is the waterfront,” ... “That’s very important. Protecting the waterfront and also protecting the aesthetic of the overall beauty of West Palm Beach.”
Adler said the city needs to understand its limits — how many people, how many cars, how many workers and visitors its infrastructure can realistically handle.
“Until we do a comprehensive infrastructure study, we do not know exactly how much West Palm Beach can handle,” she said. “How many people? How many cars? How many day workers? How many staff in all the different buildings? Even how many tourists?”
They also voiced concerns about newer buildings overshadowing the "charm” of older downtown architecture.
“There are buildings that have charm, and they’re getting hidden now because of all these glass and steel skyscrapers that are going up, and it’s a shame that there was no attempt to harmonize at all with existing, sort of funky charm,” she said. “It had its own quality of warmth and small‑townishness. You know, we’re losing that. We’re sad about that.”
4. Genuine listening sessions with a cross section of the community
The fourth pillar of their platform is a series of open listening and visioning sessions that include regular residents, city officials and developers in the same room. “As both Catherine and Fatima mentioned, the listening sessions become critical to all of this,” Fuller said. “We want to make sure that citizens have time — those that maybe aren’t down here full time. That’s why we’re proposing mid‑October. The mayor asked that we put together an agenda and that he would definitely consider [it] once he looks at the agenda. And we look forward to seeing him, the commissioners and the developers that will be attending.”
They argue that current advisory structures and invite-only events don’t count as true community input. “I think the other concern is that they believe that by sort of forming these one‑off groups, but really not including the citizens, that they are seeking input,” Fuller said. “That’s not input. Input would be coming to our meetings and actually engaging at the citizen level. And I think that’s the missing piece. It’s not hand‑selected citizens; it’s actually coming and being among the people. That’s really key.”
‘We are pro-growth, but thoughtful, balanced growth’
The members repeatedly emphasized that they are not opposed to growth, “Another point is that we are pro‑growth, but thoughtful, balanced growth that reflects the values of our community,” one organizer said. “And I think that’s always something everyone has to keep in mind — that we always have to keep the community in mind. And there has to be that discussion, and involve the developers, because it’s a two‑way street. We want to hear what they have to say.”
At the same time, they say they’ve felt shut out of the decision-making process. “I haven’t had any interaction or reach‑out. My building hasn’t, from other developers,” Sanandaji said. “They claim that they work with certain organizations and they have these events. Those events, you have to pay for, and they’re capped at a certain number of people. So that’s not really outreach.”
To help the public visualize the pace and scale of development, the group has created an interactive mapthat tracks projects across the city. “We have an interactive map, and right now we have 67 projects mapped on there," Sanandaji explained. “Four of them have been closed, but we just found out about three to four other projects. So every week we keep finding out about more. So now there are about 70, 71 projects that are going on in some capacity in the city.”
She called the number “very frightening.”
The group is also watching the Downtown Master Plan Update — known as the DMPU — which was lifted from a prior pause and is expected to come back before the Downtown Action Committee in September. “The DMPU was paused, and I think before a pause is lifted, we think that we need to have discussion and conversation,” Adler said. “What exactly is in the DMPU now, and what can be put in to create a city that is livable, walkable and will still be a tourist attraction, and where its citizens feel that they can live comfortably and have a quality of life? We want to maintain our quality of life.”
‘Success’ defined as community
As their coalition grows, organizers say they’ve been asked what “success” would look like for their effort. “Someone asked us, ‘What does success look like to this group?’ And I thought it was such a great question,” one organizer said. “We said, you know, it’s really simple and it seems basic. It’s just called community," Fuller reflected.
For them, that means infrastructure that stays ahead of growth, public access to a vibrant waterfront, architecture that reflects the city’s history, and a government that treats residents as partners, not afterthoughts. “Where you have infrastructure that’s well ahead of what is needed, and last but not least, you have citizens that have a voice in shaping their city,” she said. “This is not brain surgery. You would think it is. It’s just called community.”
The group plans to spend the coming weeks refining a detailed agenda for a mid‑October listening session that would bring community members, city staff and developers to the same table — and they say they will keep pressing for a more transparent, community‑focused path for West Palm Beach’s future.
The city told WPTV it will continue engaging residents and neighborhood organizations through established channels, including the resident partnership initiative. This initiative was designed to strengthen two-way communication between the City and residents by providing opportunities for neighborhood representatives to work directly with City staff, review planning information, ask questions of technical experts, and provide feedback that helps inform the city’s future.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
