A proposed residential high-rise in downtown Fort Lauderdale will be the first test of the new city commission’s resolve to oppose excessive real estate development.

City staff have approved the proposed high-rise, called Alexan-Tarpon River, a 22-story, 181-unit development that would be built at 501 Southeast 6th Avenue.

But four members of the recently recomposed city commission voted to hold a public hearing May 15 to consider whether to approve the development.

Mayor Dean Trantalis and commissioners Steve Glassman and Ben Sorenson, who were elected March 13, voted together with a fourth commissioner, Heather Moraitis, to schedule the public hearing on May 15.

Trantalis, Glassman and Sorenson pledged in their election campaigns to scrutinize proposed real estate developments more closely. They also promised to kill a plan to build a streetcar system called the Wave in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Under the city’s approval process for downtown developments, a public hearing and a vote by city commissioners becomes part of the process if the commissioners decide it’s necessary.

Commissioners also may decide to hold a public hearing and vote on another proposed downtown development, RD Las Olas. It is designed as a 46-story building with commercial and residential components, and it would be one of the tallest buildings in downtown Fort Lauderdale. [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth