Title
An Ordinance Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Amending The City’s Adopted Comprehensive Plan By Amending The Text Of The Future Land Use Element To Add 8,000 Mid-Rise And High-Rise Residential Units And Reduce 200,000 Square Feet Of Office Uses Within The City’s Regional Activity Center (RAC); Providing For Transmittal; Providing For Conflicts; Providing For Severability; And Providing For An Effective Date. (25-L-50).
Strategic Plan Focus
Economic Vitality
Body
Staff Recommends: Approval of the attached Ordinance.
Explanation:
The proposed ordinance amends the City’s Future Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan to allow for redistribution of existing intensities in the Regional Activity Center (RAC) by converting 200,000 square feet of existing office capacity to 8,000 mid- and high-rise dwelling units.
This amendment ensures the RAC retains adequate capacity leaving a remaining balance of 1,300,000 square feet of office capacity in exchange for 8,000 additional residential units to support continued redevelopment, mixed-use intensification, and the City’s long-term fiscal sustainability. This type of recalibration is commonly done by cities in response to evolving market conditions.
Through coordination with Broward County Planning Council (BCPC), the City has confirmed a portion of this reallocation of development potential can be offset by impacts adopted in the 2005 RAC adoption/expansion. Specifically, the reduction in office square footage offsets a portion of potential trip generation associated with residential units, and a detailed traffic analysis will accompany transmittal to identify any potential impacts and provide alternatives to address concurrency. These refinements ensure infrastructure capacity remains protected and that the amendment is technically substantiated prior to County and State review.
The RAC was originally established to complement the downtown and surrounding areas and to function as a high-intensity, mixed-use district to prevent growth pressures from shifting into stable single-family neighborhoods. The ordinance represents a strategic reallocation of development potential within the City’s primary growth district in response to market demand, infrastructure considerations, and housing need.
BACKGROUND
The Planning and Development Board (PDB) recommended approval of this amendment in May 2025. Since that time, staff have coordinated with the BCPC to prepare the required transmittal package under BrowardNext. During this coordination, BCPC advised a more robust traffic impact analysis would be required to substantiate concurrency and confirm the net impact of the proposed reallocation remains within previously approved transportation thresholds.
As part of that refinement, the allocation tables were updated, residential categories were clarified into defined mid-rise and high-rise classifications, and office square footage was reduced to maintain consistency with adopted Level of Service standards. These modifications strengthen the technical defensibility of the amendment and ensure compliance through County and State review. They do not alter the underlying policy intent.
At present, 736 dwelling units remain within the RAC unit allocation. Without this amendment, the City will soon exhaust residential capacity within its designated urban core. With this amendment there will be 8,736 dwelling units (8,000 + 736 existing).
The reduction of 200,000 square feet of office capacity to 1,300,000 square feet does not jeopardize existing or anticipated development activity within the RAC. Current market conditions reflect limited demand for new standalone office construction, while residential and mixed-use products continue to demonstrate strong absorption.
Reallocating a portion of excess office capacity to residential use reflects current market realities and allows the City to accommodate anticipated housing growth within the RAC while preserving flexibility for continued mixed-use and employment-supportive development.
Although the hotel allocation within the RAC is limited and may appear constrained, the Comprehensive Plan contains a conversion provision that allows residential units to be allocated at a two-to-one ratio when replacing hotel units. Under this provision, for every one hotel unit converted, two residential dwelling units may be permitted within the existing development thresholds. By strengthening overall residential capacity through this amendment, the City is not only enabling future housing growth but also preserving flexibility within the hotel allocation. This approach supports continued hospitality investment in the downtown core while advancing broader economic development objectives of fostering a vibrant, sustainable Regional Activity Center.
In May 2025 the City Commission adopted a resolution, R-2025-253, allocating the use of 1,000 Flexibility Units from the City’s Unified Flex Pool to the RAC. The resolution outlined that the allocation of the units was until such time as the City Commission adopted a Land Use Plan Amendment to increase the development capacity within the RAC. Once the LUPA is adopted and recertified, the City Commission may direct staff to return the balance of unused flexibility units to the Unified Flexibility Pool.
Conclusion:
The proposed amendment represents a measured recalibration of development capacity within the Regional Activity Center. It responds to evolving market conditions, incorporates enhanced concurrency analysis, and ensures continued residential growth within the City’s designated urban core.
The refinements made since the Planning and Development Board recommendation reflect technical due diligence and intergovernmental coordination rather than a change in policy direction. Approval of First Reading will allow the City to proceed with County transmittal and maintain momentum in the continued evolution of the RAC as a vibrant, mixed-use.
Fiscal Impact:
Approval of this land use plan amendment is necessary to sustain continued redevelopment within the Regional Activity Center, which functions as the City’s primary economic engine. The RAC is designed to accommodate vertical, mixed-use reinvestment that generates significantly higher taxable value per acre than lower-intensity development patterns.
Without this amendment, the City will soon exhaust its available residential allocation within the RAC, effectively constraining the active development pipeline. Limiting redevelopment capacity in the City’s designated growth district would directly restrict future property value growth, reduce opportunities for tax base expansion, and impair the City’s ability to capture incremental ad valorem revenues generated through reinvestment.
Municipal fiscal sustainability depends on productive land use patterns. Compact, mixed-use redevelopment within the RAC leverages existing transportation networks, utilities, and public facilities, generating long-term revenue growth without proportional increases in service delivery costs.
Failure to maintain adequate development capacity in the RAC would slow reinvestment momentum, constrain private capital deployment, and limit the City’s ability to strengthen its fiscal position through strategic urban intensification. Approval of this amendment ensures that Hollywood can continue to grow its tax base responsibly while advancing economic vitality and long-term financial resilience.
Recommended for inclusion on the agenda by:
Cameron Palmer, Planning Manager
Andria Wingett, Director, Development Services
Jose Cortes, Assistant City Manager