Las Olas makeover drama: Critics still upset about plan to take out olive trees

FORT LAUDERDALE — When Las Olas finally gets made over by the redesign gurus, the classic tree-lined median will be gone, sacrificed for wider tree-lined sidewalks.

Critics hate the idea of losing the olive trees.

Some of those critics showed up at a townhall-style meeting hosted this week by Commissioner Warren Sturman, who’s been hearing grumbling from folks not happy with the plan.

But some are defending the vision, including local developer Charlie Ladd.

“The island in the middle of the street currently has 15 trees,” he said during Wednesday night’s meeting. “If we move forward with this plan, we will be trading 15 olive trees for 187 oak trees.”

In 2021, commissioners signed off on what they called the redesign vision, but have said there would be tweaks along the way. City officials say the changes will make the boulevard prettier and safer.

The design concept won approval before Sturman was sworn into office last December.

“The plan was not written in stone,” Sturman told Wednesday night’s crowd. “We have to get it right. This is our jewel. We’ve got to get this right. We want to widen the sidewalks. This is the main purpose. Las Olas has been here for ages. And we want to make it more walkable. Number two, we have a tree canopy. Moving it to the sidewalk puts the canopy over the people.”

Big bucks

The entire cost of the redesign, from Andrews Avenue all the way to A1A, is an estimated $104.2 million.

After an outcry from some Las Olas Isles residents last year, commissioners decided to split the baby and focus on redesigning the west side (Andrews Avenue to Southeast 17 Avenue) while putting the east side on pause.

At the time, a consultant for the city came up with two funding options that would stick property owners near Las Olas with the bill.

If the tab were spread evenly among property owners, each would pay an extra $956 on their yearly tax bill over the next 30 years. An alternative plan would divvy up the bill based on the type of property: $524 a year for a single-family home; $374 per unit for a 100-unit condo; $441 per room for a hotel property; $2,444 for a 10,000-square-foot office building; and $2,004 for a 6,000-square-foot restaurant.

Uncle Sam, will you pay?

Fort Lauderdale has since applied for millions of dollars in federal grants to help pay for the redesign of the west end of Las Olas, home to many of the boulevard’s shops and restaurants.

“The commission was clear that was not something they wanted to pursue,” Ben Rogers, director of the city’s Transportation & Mobility division, said during Wednesday’s forum.

Longtime resident Randy King is one of those who thinks Las Olas should be left as it is.

“The vast majority of people want no change,” King told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Imagine someone wanting to make a change to Worth Avenue. They’d be stoned out of town.”

Chris Nelson, a Fort Lauderdale activist who lives near Las Olas, also torpedoed the plan to remove the olive trees and the median.

“Those olive trees are beautiful,” Nelson said. “They’re beautiful shade trees. We love them. It seems everywhere we look, trees are being ripped out.”

‘Bulldozers everywhere’

Las Olas has already been severely impacted by the work under way on the U.S. 1 tunnel, Nelson noted. He worries it will be just as bad when work starts on the famous boulevard’s redesign.

“There’s going to be bulldozers everywhere,” Nelson said. “It’s going to take away from the experience for a long time. I think we need to slow down a little bit and not do all these projects at once. I think Las Olas is beautiful the way it is. I think we need to at least put a hold on this project.”

So far, there remains one major obstacle to the redesign: There is no money yet to pay for it — the construction phase, anyway.

City Hall has the money to pay for the design phase.

Fort Lauderdale has already paid the Corradino Group more than $765,000 to help come up with the design concept, city records show. Stantec Consulting was paid $24,540 to come up with a way to pay for it, including the option of billing property owners.

Commissioner Steve Glassman was not at Sturman’s meeting but says he heard all about it.

In February, Glassman snapped at Sturman when he asked the commission to put the brakes on the redesign to give him time to get feedback from his constituents.

At the time, Glassman told Sturman he opposed putting on the brakes after the city had already paid the Corradino Group more than $700,000 to dream up a new design.

On Thursday, Glassman was again exasperated.

“The commission approved a conceptual vision plan in 2021,” Glassman told the Sun Sentinel. “That will be the blueprint. What we came up with is not a design. It’s a vision. But it’s a framework for the design.”

A design and engineering firm cannot choose from a buffet of options, Glassman added.

“There is no buffet,” he said. “There is a blueprint. The devil’s in the details. When a design firm gets in the weeds, they’re going to have to see what’s doable and what’s not. It will be up to them to flesh out all of those details.”

On June 6, commissioners are expected to select a design and engineering team to handle the project on the west end, from Andrews Avenue to Southeast 17 Avenue.

“The reality is, when it goes to engineering, they’re going to find things you can and can’t do,” Sturman said. “We all want what’s best for Las Olas. And we’ll get there.”

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan