DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Residents of a Delray Beach neighborhood are fighting to prevent a zoning change that would allow for the construction of a nursing home where a shuttered Catholic monastery current sits.
Christ the King Monastery of St. Clare, 3900 Sherwood Blvd., was sold to a New York-based developer for $4.73 million in March 2022.
TL Management LLC wants to build a 240-bed nursing home in its place. But to do so would require the approval of the city's Planning and Zoning Board.
Christ the King Monastery of St. Clare, located at the corner of Sherwood Boulevard and Sutton Place in the Sherwood Park neighborhood off Military Trail, was built in 1967, but it fell into disrepair through the years, prompting the cloistered nuns who lived there to sell the 10.97-acre property.
The developer wants to rezone the property from single-family residential to medium-density residential, but several residents who live in the neighborhood have balked at the proposal, concerned that the zoning change would reduce their home values and increase traffic.
"Single-family homes only," one resident said. "That's what belongs here. That's what we have — single-family homes. They can make money with developing it with single-family homes."
They'll voice their opinions during Monday's Planning and Zoning Board meeting at City Hall.
WPTV met with several residents who were opposed to the project last year.
The original plan submitted by the developer was revised, stalling the request, but residents and attorneys representing the property owner will be back in front of the board Monday night to state their positions.
Nobody from the city or TL Management would comment.