Juno Beach-based FPL is so desperate for more employee parking that it asked the town for permission to pave over part of a small nature preserve at its headquarters to build a 200-space parking lot.
Members of a town board turned down the request this month, prompting FPL to withdraw it. Still, its presentation offers insight into the utility’s operation and how its parking solution was complicated by one of the rarest shrubs in the United States.
FPL shares its Juno Beach campus with parent and corporate giant NextEra Energy. The 58-acre property on U.S. 1 and Universe Boulevard is filled with coastal native plants and bound by a town agreement to preserve them. The headquarters has 900,000 square feet of offices across five buildings and makes up about half of the commercial space in Juno Beach…