A new DMV office is set to rise in Palm Beach County’s Agricultural Reserve with the goal of serving the surrounding residents, but the development has experienced considerable opposition.
The building, which technically is a tax collector service center, is proposed for 15560 Lyons Road, west of Delray Beach. For County Tax Collector Anne Gannon, the project has been about six years in the making.
This new DMV office will serve the needs of the population that has exploded in the area over the years, Gannon said.
“We’re playing catch-up,” Gannon said. “We planned this building because of the growth and the anticipated growth.”
The new office will effectively replace the Delray Beach Service Center at 501 S. Congress Ave.
Though located in the county’s Ag Reserve, the new-office site is near many suburban communities, including Mizner Country Club, Seven Bridges and Saturnia Isles. Nearly a mile north of the site are the Plaza Delray and Delray Marketplace shopping centers, which have coffee shops, grocery stores, gyms and a car wash.
Unlike other planned developments, Gannon’s new DMV office proposal was not presented in front of the county commissioners before receiving approval from the county zoning director. In a letter from July, the zoning director wrote that the requested DMV office meets necessary requirements and can move forward.
Gannon said construction is expected to begin in February and would finish sometime in 2028.
Traffic passes 15560 Lyons Road in the Agricultural Reserve west of Delray Beach on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon proposed a DMV to be built on the site and construction is expected to begin in Feb. 2026. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
But this is frustrating for some folks who live near the future DMV office and would like to see it built elsewhere. Concerns grew so much that a group was created to oppose it.
The Lyons Road Coalition isn’t against the development of a new DMV office, according to co-founders Jack Kaye and Peter Feldman. They just want it built elsewhere, such as off Atlantic Avenue. “We’re not debating the need,” Feldman said. “We’re not debating anything but the location.”
Kaye and Feldman said they believe the traffic in the area will worsen and property values will drop, and the purpose of the coalition is for the people who live in the area to fight for the homes they bought.
The proposed development is estimated to generate nearly 500 trips per day, according to a traffic study conducted by the Simmons & White civil and traffic engineering firm.
Though Lyons Road has undergone a recent widening, Lori Vinikoor, the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations president, said the road still isn’t big enough to handle this type of development.
“Safety is a major issue,” she said. “The roads are over capacity.”
Vinikoor also takes issue with the project being built in the Ag Reserve, which has been a concern with other developments. Should developments rise on the county’s preserve land?
“The Ag Reserve was never designed to have anything like this,” she said. “The Ag Reserve was meant for farmers and residential. … It’s a terrible shame.”
But Gannon views the situation differently, saying that the people who moved to the Ag Reserve — including those who live in the neighborhoods right next to the DMV office project — are part of the Ag Reserve’s changing landscape.
“All the people that live there, they can assume some responsibility for the lack of agricultural land just by moving in that area,” she said. “We’re trying to provide a service for all the people that have moved in that area.”
Renderings depict the DMV that recently received administrative approval from Palm Beach County officials to be built at 15560 Lyons Rd. west of Delray Beach in the Agricultural Reserve. (Courtesy/Anne Gannon)
