Drive past the Galleria Mall on Sunrise Boulevard and you will see a fading anchor store and half-empty lot. What’s coming are nine towers roughly 30 stories each, more than 3,000 apartments, a hotel and more than 4,000 parking spaces.
Here’s what should concern every Fort Lauderdale resident: City commissioners never voted on it. By law they were not allowed to. The Live Local Act was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023. If a developer sets aside 40% of a project’s units as “affordable” for 30 years, the city must approve it through staff review alone. That means no public vote, no hearings, and automatic permission to build as tall as the tallest building within one mile.
A group led by the developer Russell Galbut is building the Galleria project and paid $73 million for the site. Mayor Dean Trantalis said the project “took our breath away.” More than 200 residents showed up to oppose it; a petition against it drew over 1,080 signatures. Galbut’s response was to call opponents “idiots.”
Here’s what should really give you pause. The law’s definition of “affordable” allows rents up to 120% of area median income. In Broward that works out to roughly $2,421 a month for a studio. Of the Galleria’s roughly 3,000 planned apartments, about 1,273 will have a “workforce” label, meaning they’ll still cost more than a mortgage payment in most of Florida.
I understand the argument for the law. Florida has a real affordable housing shortage. For decades, cities have used zoning hearings to block new housing, sometimes for legitimate reasons, and sometimes out of plain NIMBY (“not in my back yard”) thinking.
In the newest version of Live Local, residents who sue to block a qualifying project and lose can be ordered to pay the developer’s attorney’s fees, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s a legal shield for developers.
I’m not against redeveloping a dying mall, and Fort Lauderdale has to grow. But a law that lets a group of investors buy a mall for $73 million, label a third of it “affordable” at $2,400 a month, and use that label to silence the people who live nearby is exploiting the housing crisis, not solving it. If Tallahassee wants to fix affordability, it can start by making the word mean something again — and by giving city residents a seat at the table.
— Arlene Marcus, Fort Lauderdale
Editor’s Note: Every Broward and Palm Beach legislator who was present voted for the Live Local Act in 2023. Only six lawmakers voted against it. One of them was Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville, now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.
Galleria can be great again
Galleria still has the potential to be great — with or without eight 30-story towers.
It can be just as successful as Boca Raton’s Town Center and Aventura Mall. It has the same kind of environment in a dense neighborhood with many upscale nearby residents. To achieve that goal, take everything from Town Center and Aventura Mall and bring it to Galleria: shops, anchors, restaurants, kiosks.
Town Center and Aventura aren’t competition; they’re too far away. The vast majority of people who live in Fort Lauderdale will not drive that far to shop.
— Anthony Billera, Fort Lauderdale
How Jolly will save lives
Seeing to it that fewer and fewer children will get lifesaving vaccines, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo will be responsible for deaths that should have never happened. There is a solution. Vote for David Jolly, because he will undoubtedly get rid of Ladapo if he becomes governor.
— James M. Cohen, M.D., Fort Lauderdale
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