To reduce negotiation time, Palm Beach considers template for declaration of use agreements

The town is working to streamline the process for creating and approving declaration of use agreements.

During the Town Council's development review meeting Sept. 13, Director of Planning, Zoning & Building Wayne Bergman presented a draft declaration of use agreement template for council members to review.

The template, which will need further review and editing by town attorney, John Randolph, includes language that addresses conditions of use for businesses including occupancy, hours of operation, parking, restaurant seating, noise and valet services.

Related: Town Council gives final approval to use agreements for Royal Poinciana Playhouse renovation

Bergman, who worked with council member Julie Araskog on creating the template, noted that council members often invest much of their public meeting time negotiating agreements with project applicants.

A template, he said, would reduce much of that negotiation time, as applicants would be provided with the agreement as part of their first submittal application, and would be returned prior to presenting their projects to the council.

"The thought was perhaps we can spend a little bit of time at the staff level with the applicant and present them with a template that they could basically take a stab at creating before the project is even presented to you for a special exception request or a variance," Bergman told council members.

"Granted, they'd still have to be tweaked, they'd still have to be changed, and we'd still have a discussion in public. But at least we could come up with the majority of categories of items."

Council members were receptive to the idea of using a template, noting that some applicants — such as the Vineta hotel — have spent months negotiating them with the council.

The Vineta, Bergman pointed out, first presented its declaration of use agreement in June, and the document has yet to be executed. The project was approved by the council in April.

"I think this makes a lot of sense," council member Ted Cooney said of the template. "I think typically what happens now is the applicant's attorney takes a first stab at an agreement. I think this would level the playing field and be more consistent with how staff reviews applications.

"This creates a better starting point. Each declaration of use is going to be custom-tailored to the situation or business or operation. But at least this seems to cover a lot of the potential issues."

"I think this is very important," Araskog added. "I think also having a declaration of use in our backup is great too. I think what we saw when we looked at all the different projects, whether it was the Carriage House or whether it was the Palm House, I think what was amazing when we talked about this as a group, is that we each brought a new thing that we thought was good to put in. So I think the template is great."

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach considers template for declaration of use agreements