News

By Steve Plunkett

The Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District has abandoned plans to seize four oceanfront parcels by eminent domain after being told the City Council will not pay for the properties.
Arthur Koski, the district’s executive director, said City Manager Leif Ahnell told him April 30 that council members do not want to spend city tax dollars to acquire the properties.
“The city has advised me today that they are not of the appetite to put up the money for us to do any eminent domain work on the beach,” Koski told beach and park commissioners that night. “And I think our budget probably precludes us from doing that on our own.”
Koski said appraisals he ordered on the parcels “were somewhere in the vicinity of approximately $20 million.”
District Chairman Robert Rollins said he thought all along the city would finance the deal.
“They’re the ones who requested us to explore the possibility,” he said.
But Koski said Ahnell did not explicitly say the city would pay in his Aug. 24 email.
“There certainly was an expectation that that would happen,” Koski said.
The targeted beachfront properties were vacant 2500 and 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. and long-occupied 2330 N. Ocean, which occupies two parcels.
The City Council ignited a firestorm of controversy in 2015 when it gave a zoning variance for 2500 N. Ocean, whose owners propose building a four-story home east of A1A and the Coastal Construction Control Line. The site got permission to build from the state Department of Environmental Protection but still needs final approval from the city.
The owner of 2600 N. Ocean has submitted a plan for a four-story duplex.
To use its power of eminent domain, the beach and park district would have sent its appraisal to each parcel owner along with a notice of intent. Then both sides would have negotiated, with the district suing to condemn the property only if a price could not be agreed on.
Instead, district commissioners decided Koski can close his file on the process.
Commissioners and City Council members will meet May 9 to discuss the district’s recent purchase of the Ocean Breeze golf course in north Boca Raton. Commissioners said they will ask council members to use some of the $65 million the city will get from selling its municipal golf course west of Florida’s Turnpike to pay for redesigning Ocean Breeze and building a new clubhouse.
The joint meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Center behind City Hall.