BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — Boca Raton City Council will take up a major expansion of the Residences at Martin Manor tonight, with a package of votes that could reshape a longtime public housing site on North Dixie Highway.
The 10.04-acre property at 1350 North Dixie Highway is zoned Multifamily Residential (R-5-A) with a Residential High (RH) future land use designation. Phase I of Martin Manor, already approved, covers the northern portion of the site with three residential buildings and a clubhouse organized around an outdoor amenity area.
Phase II is in front of the council tonight as a universal conditional amendment tied to three items on the agenda: Ordinance 5742 and Resolutions 121-2025 and 171-2025. The request comes from DM Redevelopment II, Ltd., a partnership between the Boca Raton Housing Authority and Atlantic Pacific Communities.
The plan would add two more three-story residential buildings totaling about 98,738 square feet and 105 additional low-income units, bringing the overall count on the property to 200 low-income apartments. One building, identified in the site plan as Building 4, sits toward the center of the site; Building 5 runs along the southern and eastern edges.
A key feature of the proposal is what stays, not just what gets built. One of the original 1940s structures from the former Dixie Manor complex remains on the south side of the property. Under the Phase II plan, that building would be preserved and reused as a small museum and community space under a conditional use approval for an “institution of an educational or philanthropic character.” Staff notes the site sits in a neighborhood “with a rich history,” and the museum is intended to reflect that.
The application also aims to change how the project meets the street. The Phase II site plan adds new sidewalks with street trees along both frontages: a six-foot-wide sidewalk on North Dixie Highway and an eight-foot-wide sidewalk on Glades Road. The design meanders around existing mature Live Oak trees and keeps two large banyan trees at the southwest corner, combining preserved trees with new plantings.
To make that layout work, the developer is seeking variances to reduce building setbacks. Along the east side yard, the required 62-foot setback would drop to 25 feet, a 37-foot variance. Along the south street yard on Glades Road, the setback would go from 32 feet to 28 feet, a four-foot variance. Staff says the changes would allow the buildings to come closer to the street, preserve more open and green space inside the site, and minimize the visual impact of surface parking areas.
Parking is another major piece. Under the code, the combined uses on the property would require 398 off-street spaces. The applicant is asking for a technical deviation to provide 259 spaces instead, a reduction of 139 spaces. A parking demand study submitted with the request concluded the low-income housing would generate fewer vehicles than a market-rate project, and staff backs the deviation in part because it allows more green space on the site.
The package also includes abandonment of a portion of an existing utility easement at the southwest corner of the property and creation of a new easement to match the current design. Staff supports the change, describing it as tied to past roadway expansion for the project.
In its written analysis, the Development Services Department says the Phase II plan is consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan, adds needed low-income housing, preserves a 1940s building, improves sidewalks, and keeps mature trees along Glades Road. The new museum use, staff adds, meets the criteria for conditional use approval and is compatible with existing and planned development in the area.
The project has already cleared two advisory boards. The Community Appearance Board voted 6–0 on July 15, 2025, to recommend approval with conditions, and the Planning and Zoning Board backed the package on August 21, 2025, and again on November 6, 2025, with unanimous votes. Staff is recommending council approval of the universal conditional amendment, site plan changes, technical deviation, variances, easement abandonment and museum conditional use.
Tonight’s council meeting is a full regular session. In addition to the Martin Manor items under the quasi-judicial section, the agenda includes an ordinance to restrict prolonged nighttime anchoring of vessels, a fourth amendment to the 2024–2025 budget, and introduction of land use and rezoning ordinances tied to the Atrium CIMD site on Clint Moore Road.
