'Stuck in time': Can workforce housing help Greenacres, Palm Springs retain Hispanic core?

GREENACRES — The key to keeping housing costs in Greenacres and Palm Springs affordable for the working-class people now living there may require a giant bet on an idea many embrace but few understand.

The area has the potential of becoming Palm Beach County’s hub for workforce housing , said Kelly Smallridge, who grew up in Palm Springs during the 1980s and is now the CEO of the county’s Business Development Board.

Bringing more apartments and affordable homes to the communities, she said, not only would spur their economic development but also show everyone how important they are to the county's economy.

“There's still the misperception that workforce housing is lower-income, and it's not,” Smallridge said. “It's for people who get up and go to work every day and are the economic engine.”

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Smallridge's thoughts are in line with what officials in Greenacres and Palm Springs have discussed in recent months. Both have targeted their mostly built-out commercial corridors for redevelopment and are taking inspiration from how parts of other Palm Beach County cities have grown.

But they need land. They need money. And they need developers willing to buy into their dreams of vibrant business corridors that include homes and apartments that the teachers, nurses, construction workers and others who live there can afford.

Smallridge knows the consequences if the region fails to act.

“It doesn't matter what companies we bring here if they can't find a workforce and the workforce can't find housing,” she went on to say. “We're really missing a very important leg of the stool.”

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Palm Springs and Greenacres have learned they face a similar set of challenges.

• The area lacks enough homes and apartment rentals to meet the needs of its growing population. In many cases, five people are living in homes that 30 years ago housed two.
• Both communities are mostly built out “horizontally,” with the land within their borders filled with single-story homes and shopping plazas whose storefronts are separated from their walkways.
• Commercial areas are lined with privately-owned properties without a unifying design. Some planners call the corridors “faceless.”
• An overreliance on homeowner property taxes for revenue, making the tax burden higher than it might be.
• Some areas still work on septic tanks instead of sewers.

The Palm Springs Community Redevelopment Agency envisions establishing high-density districts along its busiest streets, Congress Avenue and Lake Worth Road, that mix housing, stores, restaurants and offices.

Village Manager Michael Bornstein says they would be like Renaissance Commons in Boynton Beach and PGA Commons in Palm Beach Gardens.

He said the village has identified “obsolete” plazas that could be transformed. Its planners have discussed three possible zones.

• A “South Village” or downtown near Second Avenue North and Lake Worth Road.
• A Lake Worth Road District would cover some of the 300 acres between Military Trail and Keller Canal. It would be centered around its existing multinational Hispanic and Caribbean restaurants.
• The Congress Avenue District would be dedicated to the arts, complementing the G-Star School of the Arts and the Hamilton Piano store.

The Palm Springs CRA is creating a master plan with proposed new development rules to allow mixed-use and high-density residences to be built along the corridors for the first time.

Bornstein said a key issue is uniting fragmented, individually owned parcels. The CRA can purchase land and create an incentive package for developers, such as financial assistance, faster permits and granting height bonuses in exchange for public spaces and amenities.

Palm Springs hopes to have its first public meetings on these plans before the end of the year, Bornstein said.

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Greenacres will follow a different path than Palm Springs. Officials say Greenacres is reliant on developers because it doesn't have a CRA and is left with playing dealmaker between landowners and builders, as it did in bringing The Pickleball Club to 5 abandoned acres along Haverhill Road.

Greenacres has identified areas along 10th Avenue North, Lake Worth Road and Jog Road for redevelopment.

• A high-density area with businesses, residences and a community space at Jog Road and 10th Avenue North, next to Greenacres Community Park.
• A smaller mixed-use development with neighborhood-style businesses along 10th Avenue North, between Jog and Military Trail.
• A “food and beverage district” at Military Trail and Lake Worth Road, complete with a gateway arch.
• Turning three shopping plazas on Jog and Forest Hill Boulevard into housing, retail, restaurants and offices.

Gigi Chazu, Greenacres’ director of economic development, said the lack of walkable downtown or activity centers forces residents to travel outside the communities to eat, shop and have fun. Officials say that puts the city at risk of losing young professionals to other cities that can offer more.

"Now they only come to sleep,” Chazu said. "We want them to come spend time here and offer them things to do here so they ultimately have a better quality of life.”

Chuck Shaw replaced Joel Flores as mayor in the March election. The founding principal at Liberty Park Elementary and Okeeheelee Middle Schools, he has seen the area's population explode and grow more and more diverse.

Shaw wants to tap Palm Beach County's $200 million bond to build workforce housing in Greenacres but questions whether the city can find the land to do so on a large scale. He said he is wary, for example, of building a three- or four-story building "that becomes a distraction to the single-family homes that are around it."

A more viable option, Shaw said, may be to repair and rehabilitate existing homes and improve the infrastructure on which they rely. That path, he said, could help people like older residents remain in their homes and not add to the demand for new housing.

Workforce housing can fuel economic development, officials say

Smallridge said Palm Springs and Greenacres have plenty of advantages in their efforts to change. They are centrally located and boast younger, employable populations, and the land is still cheaper than in other cities.

Buildings with workforce housing will allow Palm Springs and Greenacres to increase their densities and in turn, lure private companies to invest and have a presence in the area, Smallridge said, especially in fields such as technology, distribution and manufacturing.

“Workforce housing will attract corporations, whether it be retail restaurants or otherwise,” Smallridge said. “Companies follow where people live.”

She pointed to buildings such as The Spruce in West Palm Beach, where the developer received incentives in exchange for renting about 30% of its 270 apartments at workforce prices, as an example of a public-private partnership that Palm Springs and Greenacres could follow.

FAU Professor Ken Johnson, an authority on housing in South Florida, said high-density development may “break with tradition" but that time is ticking away. If the communities don’t hurry to create new housing that will allow their residents to stay, Palm Beach County stands to lose the backbone of its workforce, he said.

“We don't need buildings with tons of bells and whistles,” Johnson said. "People just need a place they can afford."

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Unlike other Palm Beach County municipalities, Greenacres and Palm Springs residents are eager to see their communities grow and welcome the idea of workforce housing.

Gisela Bustinza, owner of Vyda Salon along Jog Road, said she would be thrilled to have workforce apartments built next to her medical spa in Greenacres.

“That would mean more customers for my business,” Bustinza said. “And, a place my employees could afford to live in closer to work.”

Monique and Natasha Cabrera, two cousins who now manage their family’s Tropical Bakery and Restaurant, said the diverse population of Latinos that has moved into Palm Springs and Greenacres is the reason small businesses in the area have thrived.

They say area families have become a tight community where neighbors make an effort to support each other's establishments. They want to see new housing that builds on that, and they want to give people a chance to discover what Palm Springs and Greenacres have to offer. That extends to helping existing businesses improve their roofing, exteriors and landscaping.

“We need a facelift,” said Natasha Cabrera. “We need to give people that are not from here a reason to come visit us.”

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: 'Stuck in time': Can workforce housing help Greenacres, Palm Springs retain Hispanic core?