News

By Sallie James
and Steve Plunkett

    It’s not over yet.
    Despite a court ruling that Boca Raton city officials erred in giving the Chabad of East Boca Raton permission to build a new synagogue and museum, Chabad officials aren’t giving up the fight.
    Spiritual leader Rabbi Ruvi New on June 27 said the synagogue will appeal.
    “We are going to appeal to the 4th District Court [of Appeal in West Palm Beach],” he said. “We have very strong grounds for an appeal and we are prayerfully optimistic for a positive outcome and for our appeal to be upheld and reverse the current ruling.”
    New acknowledged the setback, admitting that the route to building Chabad of East Boca Raton’s facility has been more challenging than expected.
    “It’s definitely … a more scenic route to our destination than we anticipated, but our resolve to build a center is as strong as ever,” New said. “We’re absolutely not discouraged as much as the opposition would like to delay and derail the project. That will not succeed.”
    He said the deadline to file an appeal is July 8, and he expected Chabad to file its appeal very soon.
    A three-judge panel of the county’s Circuit Court made the ruling on June 6 regarding the proposed building, set to be constructed on Palmetto Park Road east of the Intracoastal Waterway.
    City Council members should have disallowed the My Israel Center museum outright or followed a city code requirement for 239 parking spaces for the facility, the judges said.
    “The city may not pick and choose which sections of the City Code will apply to the ‘My Israel Center,’” they wrote.
    David Roberts, the owner/broker of Royal Palm Properties across the street from the proposed synagogue, at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road, asked the court in August to review the City Council’s approval of the site plan, saying its resolution “departed from the essential requirements of the law.”
    Roberts could not be reached for comment for his reaction to the ruling despite several phone calls.
    The council approved the Chabad’s plans in May 2015, despite the fact that zoning in the area does not permit a museum, Circuit Judges Meenu Sasser and Lisa Small and County Judge Ted Booras wrote in their opinion. Even granting the property owner’s contention that a museum in this case is a “place of public assembly,” they said, officials should have insisted that the .84-acre site have 239 parking spaces, not the 81 approved.
    New earlier had told neighbors that a Chabad providing 81 parking spaces would be “unprecedented” in coastal Florida. The downtown space his congregation leases at 120 NE First Ave. has just five parking spaces, he said. An 11,000-square-foot synagogue in Palm Beach has four and a 35,000-square-foot Chabad in Sunny Isles has 22.
    The Chabad has been trying to find a larger place to meet for years. This is the second time parking has tripped up its plans.
    In 2008 the congregation wanted to move into a 23,000-square-foot building near Mizner Park but was unable to meet parking requirements there.