Drive past the Galleria Mall on Sunrise Boulevard and you will see a fading anchor store and half-empty lot. What\u2019s coming are nine towers roughly 30 stories each, more than 3,000 apartments, a hotel and more than 4,000 parking spaces.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s 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\u2019s units as \u201ca\ufb00ordable\u201d for 30 years, the city must approve it through sta\ufb00 review alone. That means no public vote, no hearings, and automatic permission to build as tall as the tallest building within one mile.<\/p>\n
A group led by the developer Russell Galbut<\/a> is building the Galleria project and paid $73 million for the site. Mayor Dean Trantalis said the project \u201ctook our breath away.\u201d More than 200 residents showed up to oppose it; a petition against it drew over 1,080 signatures. Galbut\u2019s response was to call opponents \u201cidiots.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what should really give you pause. The law\u2019s definition of \u201ca\ufb00ordable\u201d 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\u2019s roughly 3,000 planned apartments, about 1,273 will have a \u201cworkforce\u201d label, meaning they\u2019ll still cost more than a mortgage payment in most of Florida.<\/p>\n 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 (\u201cnot in my back yard\u201d) thinking.<\/p>\n In the newest version of Live Local, residents who sue to block a qualifying project and lose can be ordered to pay the developer\u2019s attorney\u2019s fees, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. That\u2019s a legal shield for developers.<\/p>\n I\u2019m 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 \u201ca\ufb00ordable\u201d 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 a\ufb00ordability, it can start by making the word mean something again \u2014 and by giving city residents a seat at the table.<\/p>\n \u2014 Arlene Marcus, Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n