While Walgreen Co. has agreed to follow new

While Walgreen Co. has agreed to follow new urban design guidelines in the construction of 35 stores in the Chicago area (see the January/February 2000 issue), the drug store chain has refused to make substantial changes in the suburban design of one planned store in West Palm Beach, Florida. In December 1999, that led to a heated debate over whether the city should compromise its new urbanist master plan. City planners particularly opposed the parking lot between the sidewalk and the store, but Walgreen’s supporters asked that the city slacken its rules in order to secure some kind of investment in the area. Mayor Joel Daves, an otherwise strong supporter of the new urbanist master plan, broke a split vote on the City Commission, and the plan is now allowed to go forward without a site plan approval as the parties negotiate the design. Charles Wu, a city administrator for planning and zoning, says West Palm Beach asked for a planned development rezoning which would call for the building to be pulled closer to the sidewalk and the planting of street trees. The process is now stalled as Walgreen’s has missed the deadline for submission of a revised design. “The master plan was adopted as a neighborhood plan, but was not codified in the zoning code. That created a loophole for Walgreen’s to take advantage of,” Wu says.