The Carefree 6

The Carefree Theater proposal is a five-story complex located at 2000 South Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. The project’s size, scale, inadequate parking, and increased traffic will have a detrimental impact on the quality of life for those living, working, and traveling on South Dixie.

• Inappropriate Location: 2000 South Dixie Highway is a 1.8671-acre parcel. Since the Carefree must be rezoned to allow for this large-scale development, it will need nine waivers from the city. Commercial Planned Developments require a minimum of 5 acres, nearly triple the size of the Carefree site.

 

• Too Big and Too Massive: As proposed, The Carefree project is 5-stories in height - with a roof ‘party deck’ adjacent to a historic neighborhood with single family homes. The project is out of character with the scale of nearby historic neighborhoods. The project has six movie theaters with up to 600 seats, 59 rental apartments and over 15,000 square feet of restaurant and commercial space that will overwhelm the community life.

 

• 600 Seat Movie Theaters on Site: The project includes six movie theaters with 600 seats in total. This level of traffic and activity on this site creates multiple safety concerns, parking challenges and noise issues.

 

• This Will Contribute to Already Unmanageable Traffic on South Dixie: Some studies suggest Dixie traffic has increased as much as 40% in the past two years. This project makes no effort to mitigate that risk to residents’ safety, especially that of families with children and to commuters.

 

• Parking Concerns: Today, residents in neighborhoods along South Dixie experience challenges with cars parking along their neighborhood streets, and local businesses have expressed concerns with not having enough parking for their customers. The Carefree project will only exacerbate this problem. The 378-car underground parking garage and current parking plan do not have enough parking for the intended usage and threaten underground aquifers.

 

• Construction Causing Neighborhood Chaos: There is no solution to mitigate parking concerns relating to workers parking on various streets in surrounding neighborhoods during the construction phase. This is a recurring problem with other ongoing developments in the city.