The board said it needs to confirm if the developer needs a special exception for the design, known as a de minimis exception, to satisfy the state's Residential Site Improvement Standards or RSIS.
According to the city's amended Oceanfront-Broadway Redevelopment Plan for the Beachfront South sector, "fully-automated or semi-automated parking systems may be utilized" but whether local land use pre-empts the state's law is the question. That, and the proposed garage has smaller parking stalls than those established by RSIS.
290 Ocean LLC, which is both the developer and owner of the roughly 2-acre site in the Beachfront South redevelopment zone, is proposing a 109-unit building, consisting of eight residential stories on top of a three-level, 234-space, automated parking garage — one level is below street grade.