PPG's Emerald Hills Rezoning Clears Hollywood's Board

Hollywood’s Special Planning and Development Board voted August 4 to recommend rezoning the 166.2-acre Club at Emerald Hills from Country Club to Planned Development, and separately approved the design and site plan for PPG Developments and First Eagle Management’s 284-unit program on the same property. Neither action is final. The city’s own agenda captions the rezoning item, File 25-JVZ-16, as a recommendation, which under Hollywood’s process now goes to the City Commission for the vote that actually changes the zoning.

Why it matters

The board vote is still the discretionary hurdle developers fear most on a project like this, the one where a packed chamber and a divided public comment period can sink a plan the staff already recommended. Staff had backed both the rezoning and the site plan, and the board followed that recommendation despite residents raising flooding and traffic concerns, according to The Real Deal’s report on the vote. That is the signal worth reading for anyone watching Broward’s stock of aging, privately owned golf courses as future infill sites: a staff-recommended rezoning with a completed land-use fight behind it (the City Commission set the density cap back in 2024) is now clearing its board-level test. The zoning conversion itself, from a golf-only Country Club district to a project-specific Planned Development, is what makes the site buildable at all.

The numbers

The rezoning covers 166.2 acres across four folios at 4100 N Hills Drive. The companion site plan, File 25-DPJ-16, lays out 284 dwelling units across eight development sites plus a rebuilt clubhouse. That is 76 units below the 360-unit cap the City Commission set in March 2024 through Ordinance No. O-2024-02, leaving the applicants room to add units later without reopening the land-use question.

What’s next

The rezoning ordinance still needs the Hollywood City Commission’s vote to take effect; a recommendation from the planning board is not an adopted zoning change. Commission action typically requires a public hearing and ordinance reading before it is final. Once adopted, PPG and First Eagle can pull the site plan forward toward permitting. South Florida developers eyeing similar golf-course parcels should watch the Commission calendar for when that reading is scheduled.