An old dump site on city-owned land will undergo an environmental cleanup in Hollywood, clearing the way for a new mixed-use community with 618 rental apartments and space for new businesses.
The property spans about 34 acres, at 1600 S. Park Road, on the northwest corner of Pembroke Road and South Park Road.
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This is an artist rendering for new buildings with 618 rental apartments on an old dump. (City of Hollywood/Courtesy)
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Broward County commissioners have unanimously approved a land-use plan amendment that would allow residential construction, with some of the units set aside for workforce housing. The site plan calls for 618 units, although 740 units “is the theoretical maximum per Broward County’s land use policies,” said developer Eric Metz in an email.
Metz, who is working with developer Louis Birdman, said the project will be made up of five buildings that are five stories each. The approvals also allow for office space and general retail.
Metz said the proposed commercial site plan is a gas station with convenience store, a drive-thru restaurant, and office. “We anticipate that the office will have medical tenants given the proximity to the hospital,” he said in an email.
The construction timing is dependent on permits, which will come after site plan and other governmental approvals in 2025.
“This is a great example of repurposing an old and derelict city property that was an ash dump decades ago to instead provide much needed housing to serve the families of our community,” Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said. “It will be a great complement to the neighboring Hillcrest and Parkview communities.”
Today the site is a brownfield, which is a designation for a contaminated piece of land on industrial sites that have the potential to be reused.
In 2018 the city requested proposals from developers “for redevelopment of the property, which was historically used as a landfill and for Public Works operations,” according to a May 2024 consultant report.
Idelma Quintana, the commissioner who represents that part of the city, said the land has been “sitting fallow all of these years. It needs to be remediated before anything can be done with it.”
“I see it as a positive,” Quintana said.
She said the proposed height of the buildings was smaller than the buildings nearby, and will create “some walkable amenities to the community. That’s a good thing.”
About 15% of the homes will be set aside as affordable housing for moderate-income households at 120% of the area median income for at least 30 years. Today that translates to an income of $126,000 for a family of four or less to qualify for that housing, according to county records.
In 1985, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the area, known as the Hollywood Incinerator Ash Dump, a hazardous site.
According to a 2008 news article in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the southern section of the site was home to an incinerator between 1958 and 1973. A rock quarry company mined the northern end of the property, creating a lake. The city bought the property in 1963 and filled the lake with trash and downed trees, then topped it with the ash from the incinerator.
The city also used part of the property as a trash dump in the 1970s. It had recently been used as a dumping ground for hurricane debris, the news article said.
In 1996, the site opened as compressed natural gas fueling station.
A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted in 1997 yielded inconclusive results, but federal officials determined that the site didn’t pose a large enough health risk to declare it a high priority, according to a Sun Sentinel news article in 2006. Another study in 2008 showed unsafe levels of contaminants in soil and groundwater samples taken from property, according to a past Sun Sentinel news article.
The area will be remediated and brought up to environmental standards, he said.
Metz said the developer, Park Road Development, LLC, is handling the remediation process and all costs associated with it.
Broward County is the regulatory agency for the project, “which requires extensive environmental engineering and testing prior to approving the remediation methodology. During and after construction, there is environmental monitoring that will be required to meet Broward’s requirements,” Metz said.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash