Gregory Dirr’s sculpture REcycled REef will be installed this month at the entrance to South Beach Pavilion. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

Gregory Dirr’s REcycled REef sculpture was a tangle of curved rebar coated with concrete and covered with an assortment of glued-on plastic in mid-February. Plans were to add a layer of mortar and paint it shades of red, green and blue. Recycled material makes up a large part of Dirr’s works, but he doesn’t want to be known as the recycled artist.
“I want you to fall in love with something first and then be tricked into liking something that makes you feel moral about something. … Because it’s too late. You already like it, and now you’re looking at it and you’re going, ‘Oh, wait a minute. There’s these little objects in it. Oh, this is something I could have possibly thrown away.’
“And then you’re — before you know it — you’re like, ah damn, I’m PC, I have to worry about plastics now.”
The completed piece, to be unveiled at Palmetto Park Road and State Road A1A in mid-March, is the latest addition to Boca Raton’s growing collection of public art.
Dirr supplemented plastic he picked up at the beach with bags of discards donated by cleanup firm 4Ocean and recycled items he bought from Resource Depot in West Palm Beach.
“Every time I go to the beach I usually clean up a little bit, but it’s just, I couldn’t get enough myself to do it,” he said.
First Dirr bent the rebar, also recycled, into position and then strapped the metal together and welded it in place. He wrapped the assembly with chicken wire to hold the concrete.
“We had to like let parts of it dry and set up first because of weight and counterbalance, so that probably took a total of three days. And then the plastic took the longest because it was just tedious and the fact that we had to like glue a little bit down and we had to wait for the tape you know to be removed and then we could do a little bit more, a little bit more,” he said.
“It was actually the fun part because you know we could just come out here and glue it. It was like doing a mosaic or collage or something so it took the longest but it was the most fun.”
Work on REcycled REef began in mid-January. Dirr took off a week in February to work nonstop on a public art installation in West Palm Beach. He was joined by more than a dozen volunteers to paint a series of storm drains along Clematis Street and North Flagler Drive.
The colorful artworks aim to raise awareness of the dangers of stormwater pollution.
“It’s beautiful, it turned out awesome,” Dirr said.
Dirr’s fiancée and business manager, Ashleigh Bremser, his parents and even the neighbors contributed to the Boca Raton project. The plastic ornaments include tape cassettes, keys, 3-D Star Wars things, electrical outlets, prize trophies and a small doll’s body — along with the ubiquitous bottle caps and water bottles. The final coat of mortar would cover much of all that.
“We’re going to lose a lot,” Dirr said. “I want it to look like that, though. I want it to kind of look like artifacts that are coming through or like fossils, you know. Like they’re there, but they’re not.”
When it’s finished, the sculpture will be roughly 7 feet high, wide and deep and weigh more than 2,500 pounds. Dirr has hired a company that specializes in moving artwork to get it from his home-studio west of Boca Raton to its display pad at the entrance to South Beach Pavilion.
A crew of four will temporarily remove a wooden privacy fence to load the piece with a crane onto their truck for the 11-mile trip. The $6,000 moving bill will eat up a good chunk of the $10,000 stipend the city awarded Dirr. Materials cost him more than $500, he said.
His concept for the piece was the top choice of Mayor Scott Singer and City Council members Yvette Drucker and Monica Mayotte, who picked him over four other artists in December. He was Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke’s second choice. Boca Raton also is furnishing the concrete pad to support the sculpture.
“I think it’s incumbent on us to make sure that we have signage that educates the public because education is a big component of this project,” O’Rourke said at the time.
Dirr said his sculpture has to be visually pleasing before it can convey a deeper meaning.
“People are going to be like, what is that? And then they’ll get up to inspect it and be like, ‘ah, garbage thing. I got to not throw away garbage while I’m here,’” he said.
“With me art is less about the physical thing and more about the concept. I like the fact that it’s super simple, but it gets that point across.”
This is Dirr’s third piece of public art in the city. He painted a mural at Red Reef Park in 2018 and a tunnel at Spanish River Park in 2019. Murals are always financially better, he said.
“I could spend $200 on paint and then do something the size of this house and get paid like $15,000, right?” But he’s concerned that too much of his portfolio is in his murals, which appear both nationally and internationally.
Dirr, a graduate of the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, plans to continue seeking commissions from cities, preferring them to private clients, he said, because “you know exactly what it’s going to be. There’s no questions; there’s no changing of prices.”
Dirr hopes that viewers will respond to REcycled REef as a work of high art, even though it’s recycled material. “I want you to fall in love with the piece first and then go, ‘Hey, this is just made out of stuff.’ And then you like it even more because of that, you know.”

Gregory Dirr created his sculpture from concrete and objects that came partly from beach cleanups. It will weigh more than 2,500 pounds and measure about 7 feet high. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The three-building Aletto Square as planned has an automated garage with room for 360 vehicles and a rooftop pool. The completed Tower 155 condo is at right. Tower 155 resident Alan Neibauer says people from all over Boca have signed his petition against Aletto. Rendering provided

Related Story: Main foes of 12-story Aletto live next door in 12-story Tower 155

By Mary Hladky

An ordinance revision that gives greater certainty to developers that their plans to build downtown automated parking garages will be approved has won Boca Raton City Council support despite concerns that the council was bending to one developer’s will.
Discussion of the ordinance amendment spanned four city meetings, with council members conceding that they had not handled the matter well before passing it last month.
“This was not our best moment,” Mayor Scott Singer said at a Jan. 24 meeting, and other council members concurred.
At issue was an amendment to an existing ordinance governing downtown development that was sponsored by council member Monica Mayotte, who also chairs the Community Redevelopment Agency.
Developers already can build automated parking garages after getting city approval, but the amendment makes it easier for them by creating a presumption that they have a right to do so.
The amendment was general in nature, and not tied to any development project in the works.
But it came up for a vote just as Compson Associates is seeking approval for Aletto Square, a residential, office and retail project on 1.3 acres at 121 E. Palmetto Park Road that includes a fully automated parking garage.
Further, the amendment was written by Derek Vander Ploeg, the project’s architect.
Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke said that while the amendment was not drafted specifically for Aletto Square, she is concerned about the appearance that it stands to benefit that project.
Vander Ploeg said he had intended to use an existing process, called a technical deviation, in seeking city approval for the Aletto Square garage. However, he was told by city staffers that an ordinance amendment was needed and they asked him to draft one, he said.
“We were asked to do it and we did it,” he said. “Was there a conflict (of interest)? No.”
He also spent a weekend responding to 86 operational questions posed to him by staff.
Such collaboration with the city is not unheard of, he said, citing other instances where city staff has asked developers and others for their assistance.
Staff submitted the amendment to the council without making any revisions or comment. That’s standard practice when a council member sponsors an ordinance or amendment.
Singer asked City Manager Leif Ahnell questions about the amendment a few days before the council was to take it up. In response, staff suggested a number of significant additions.
That created tumult when the council met on Jan. 24 as CRA commissioners and again at the Jan. 25 council meeting.
Mayotte and others had expected staff to offer input and improve the amendment before it was presented to the council. Since that hadn’t happened, they agonized over what to do before deciding to put the matter off until their next meetings.
Mayotte was incensed, saying she had submitted the amendment to staff at least two months earlier.
“I can’t even fathom how (high-ranking city officials) put this on the agenda without analyzing it,” she said on Jan. 25.
Mayotte said the amendment came to her for sponsorship because she chairs the CRA. She disagreed that staff members routinely do not weigh in when a council member sponsors an amendment or ordinance, saying they have done so several times since she was elected to office.
A strong environmental advocate, Mayotte said she favored the substance of the amendment because automated parking garages can hold more cars in less space, which means they can be smaller than traditional garages. And they help the environment because drivers aren’t burning fuel as they navigate up and down garage ramps, she said.
Automated parking garages have existed for decades and are becoming more prevalent with improvements in technology. But the Aletto Square garage, if built, would be the city’s first large, fully automated garage.
The amendment does not address all the questions council members had about potential problems with automated garages. Among them are how drivers could retrieve their vehicles in the event of a power outage and possible queuing of vehicles waiting to get into the garage that would inconvenience other drivers.
Yet the council on Feb. 8 approved the amendment by a 4-1 vote, with O’Rourke dissenting because she wanted city staff to have more time to improve it.
“My vote is not against progress, but it is for due diligence and writing the best law we can write,” she said.
The council did make modifications suggested by council member Andy Thomson. The most significant is a provision that the garages must have an attendant on duty full time.

Related Story: Rules revision for automated garages aids proposed tower, making council uneasy

By Mary Hladky

Alan Neibauer first learned that a major development could be built across the street from the Tower 155 condo he has owned since 2020 when he saw a sign at the site announcing that the project was coming soon.
“I saw how massive it was,” he said. “It would change the whole look of the neighborhood.”
Now retired, Neibauer is a former newspaper reporter and editor and author of many books on computer hardware and software. He moved to Boca Raton in 2007 before relocating to Delray Beach. He and his wife, Victoria Milazzo, a former business owner, were lured back to Boca when they saw the building’s plans at the Tower 155 sales office.
The couple started researching the proposed three-building Aletto Square residential, office and retail development one block east of Federal Highway between East Palmetto Park and East Boca Raton roads. What they learned propelled them into spearheading opposition.
They have voiced their objections to the city’s Community Appearance Board, spoken out at City Council meetings and created a petition at www.change.org imploring city officials to reject the development.
It had garnered 547 signatures as of Feb. 15 and more than 100 people have signed a paper petition.
Neibauer and Milazzo also objected to an amendment to an ordinance the City Council approved on Feb. 8 that makes it easier for developers to get city approval for construction of automated parking garages in the downtown. Aletto Square, if built, would have an automated garage.
The couple’s opposition to Aletto Square centers on the size of the project, which they say is too large and inconsistent with the character of the neighborhood. They also warn that it will cause an increase in traffic that would clog East Boca Raton Road, Northeast First Avenue and other streets, and object to the negative impact they say it will have on Sanborn Square, located immediately west of the project site.
“The added traffic from this project would be disastrous, and a totally unnecessary and undeserved burden on residents and commercial business on the East Boca Raton Rd.,” the petition states.
Neibauer sees some irony in the fact that many of the project objectors live in the Tower 155 luxury condo. When that condo was proposed, downtown residents voiced many of the same objections about its size, an increase in traffic, and how it would change the character of the downtown.
Both Tower 155 and the highest Aletto Square building are 12 stories tall.
But those who accuse Tower 155 residents of being NIMBYs don’t recognize that many of the petition signers live elsewhere, Neibauer said.
“If you look at the people who signed the petition, you will see it is people from all over the city,” he said. They come to the area to relax or exercise in Sanborn Square, eat in restaurants and shop in small stores that would be displaced by Aletto Square.
“My attitude is, if you can’t defend your own home area, what good is it,” he said.

House from 1920s would not survive Aletto project
One of the buildings that would give way to Aletto Square is the Cramer House, constructed in the mid-1920s by builder Jack Cramer and real estate pioneer Harley Gates.
The two-story Mediter-ranean Revival house sits on East Boca Raton Road, which was Boca Raton’s Main Street in the 1940s and 1950s where everyone went to shop, said Susan Gillis, curator for the Boca Raton Historical Society.
Gillis had no luck in persuading developer Compson Associates to incorporate the house, which does not have a historic designation, into its plans for Aletto Square.
She then took to social media to try to find someone willing to bear the expense of moving the house to a new location in east Boca, possibly to the new Wildflower Park. There were no takers as of late February.
“We are kind of disheartened,” Gillis said. “We would love to see it preserved.”
Neibauer, who also laments the possible fate of the Cramer House, is nowhere near the end of his fight against Aletto Square.
The project has had only a preliminary review by the CAB and is not yet scheduled to be considered by the Planning and Zoning Board.
He and his wife plan to present the signed petitions to city officials when Aletto Square begins the formal city review process.
“I really care about the downtown,” he said. “I love the downtown.”

By Rich Pollack

Voters will weigh in on five proposed changes to the town’s charter March 8, all of which could impact the way Highland Beach operates for many years to come.
“The charter is a road map forward for the town similar to the Constitution on a national level,” says John Ross, the founder of the Committee to Save Highland Beach, which is often critical of the Town Commission’s policy decisions. “This is supposed to have a lasting impact for decades.”
Ross, through his political action committee by the same name, has been campaigning against four of the five issues that will be before voters. He has done email blasts, distributed signs and launched direct mail campaigns asking residents to defeat the proposals.
“I’m fighting this because it’s giving too much power to the commission and taking too much power from the public,” he said.
Highland Beach commissioners and members of the town’s Charter Review Committee say the proposed revisions reflect issues that haven’t been addressed for decades as the town grew and evolved. The changes, they say, will help ensure the town is run efficiently in the future.
Commissioners at their March 1 meeting voiced concern about many of the points included in letters and brochures sent out by Ross’ organization, including an implication that passage of some of the referendum questions would lead to tax increases.
“I find a lot of these statements to be insulting, quite frankly,” Commissioner Evalyn David said. “It diminishes all the good work that we do.”
Following a discussion in which commissioners described some of Ross’ comments as “outright lies,” they agreed to email a “clarification” countering the “misinformation and rumors.”
Ross said he was disappointed by the commission’s reaction but believes it could work to his advantage.
“The best thing they can do for my side is to focus on me and the Committee to Save Highland Beach,” he said. “The issues are with their proposals, not with my emails, our posts or our letters.”
The proposal that is drawing perhaps the most attention would increase the town’s spending cap from $350,000 per project to about 5% of the town’s overall budget — which currently amounts to just over $1 million — before a referendum is required.
Town leaders point out that the cap has not been increased since 1991. They also note that they know of no other communities in Florida with a spending cap limiting commissioners.
“The cap is a unique spending limit that hasn’t been touched in 30 years,” said Town Manager Marshall Labadie.
Ross says the problem with the proposal is that it includes loopholes the town could use to find ways to avoid a referendum.
Town officials disagree and say raising the spending cap will let them keep up with the needs of the community without having to rely on a costly referendum. They point out that Highland Beach has grown significantly in the last three decades and has expanded critical services, including in the areas of public safety, water treatment and at the town’s library.
Also on the ballot is a proposal that would adjust commission term limits by allowing a third three-year term instead of just two in a single seat while limiting commissioners to a total of 12 consecutive years in any elected position.
Ross believes that is too long; he also opposes a proposal that would allow commissioners to increase their pay up to 5% a year by ordinance. Currently, any increase in commission salaries must be taken to the voters.
Commissioners point out that the commission has not received a raise since 2004. Commissioners currently receive $12,000 a year, while the mayor gets $15,000 per year.
Ross says he’s concerned with that question because while the increases can be only 5% a year, the ballot item doesn’t specify what the initial increase could be.
Another ballot item would remove a provision that requires elected officials to sign town checks. While commissioners say the provision is cumbersome and obsolete given modern technology, Ross says the measure further removes checks and balances in the system.
The final issue on the ballot is one that both sides agree on and one that Ross says gives more power to the voters. The proposal would require a referendum should the town consider outsourcing its police department, fire department or water treatment services to another agency or organization.
Labadie said the measure, if approved, doesn’t prevent the town from outsourcing services if voters are in favor of the decision.
“It doesn’t take outsourcing off the table,” he said. “It just puts it in the hands of the residents because it’s long-term quality of service implications.”
As the referendum vote gets closer and residents mark their mail-in ballots, Ross continues to speak out against the four issues while town commissioners have raised concerns about the veracity of some of his contentions.
To help residents understand the items, the town has set up a web page, www.highlandbeach.us/Vote2022. It includes the ballot language and the town’s reasoning for bringing each question before residents.

Police officer Nathania Lai and Lt. Michael Oh hop aboard as Highland Beach launches its new marine patrol vessel on March 1. The 28-foot boat cost the town $164,000 and will patrol mainly the Intracoastal Waterway. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Boaters along a stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway that includes portions of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach are likely to soon see a greater police presence on the water, largely in response to two fatal boat crashes since August.
On March 1, the Highland Beach Police Department officially launched its new marine unit, a 28-foot rigid-hull boat outfitted specifically for police usage. Equipped with twin 225-horsepower engines, the boat was manufactured in Fort Lauderdale and came with a $164,000 price tag.
Later that day, the Delray Beach City Commission accepted the donation of a 25-foot police boat from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The boat, Police Chief Javaro Sims said in a memo to commissioners, will be used primarily on the Intracoastal and on the ocean. The city is continuing to look for another boat since the one being donated is not suited for use on shallow canals.
“The addition of boats and the implementation of the marine unit will allow the Delray Beach Police Department to address numerous complaints related to boating and waterway users consistently received throughout the year,” Sims wrote.
Already boaters have seen an increased presence of law enforcement officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in response to requests from local communities and state Rep. Mike Caruso following the crash in January that killed a 63-year-old man.
While the cause of that crash and the one in August that led to the death of a 37-year-old woman, both in Highland Beach, are still under investigation, boaters say large wakes and high speeds make that narrow area dangerous. The speed limit is 25 mph from Oct. 1 to May 31, and 30 mph the rest of the year.
Highland Beach Commissioner Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a boater who has a home along the waterway, says having a stronger police presence on the Intracoastal in south Palm Beach County will make a difference.
“Having more police boats on this stretch of the Intracoastal is like having more state troopers on Interstate 95,” Gossett-Seidman said. “When there is a known police presence, people mind their manners and follow the law. They pay attention and that’s the difference.”
Gossett-Seidman will be among several local officials who are expected to join Caruso and FWC Capt. James Yetter on a “ride along” tour of the Intracoastal Waterway later this month.
“The goal is to find out what the FWC plans to do to alleviate the safety hazard and to find out when they’re going to do it,” Caruso said. “I think this is a high priority for the cities and towns and it appears to be a high priority for the FWC.”
Gossett-Seidman said she believes the boat tour will be an eye-opener for some onboard.
“Everyone there will be able to see what it’s like to be on that section from Boca to Delray that is just slammed by boat traffic,” she said.
Caruso said he has met with FWC representatives three times and has had numerous conversations to discuss steps that can be taken. He said he’s pleased to see increased enforcement.
“I think they’re responding properly,” he said.
While Highland Beach’s police boat is now in the water, it may be a while before Delray Beach is ready to launch its marine unit. Several steps need to be taken before the donated boat will be ready for use, according to a spokesman.

By Mary Hladky

Boca Raton’s building certification program has launched, with the city sending out in late January the first notices to owners that their buildings must be inspected.
The city enacted an ordinance in August requiring safety inspections two months after a Surfside condominium’s collapse claimed the lives of 98 people.
The ordinance establishes certification standards similar to those that exist in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. But it is more stringent, requiring inspections of buildings 30 years old rather than 40, with additional inspections taking place every 10 years thereafter.
The ordinance divides the city into four zones, with buildings on the barrier island receiving the highest priority for review. Each zone was further divided into four groups based on building age in order to stagger inspection due dates.
The notices went to 14 barrier island buildings, mostly on North and South Ocean Boulevard. Inspection reports must be submitted by Feb. 1, 2023.
Officials initially said that 242 buildings in the city met the criteria for certification. They have since lowered the number to 191, although some of those include multiple buildings.
The ordinance applies to buildings that are taller than three stories, or 50 feet, or have an “assembly occupancy” that is more than 5,000 square feet and more than 500 people. Single-family homes and duplexes are exempt.
The city is in the process of hiring a code enforcement officer and an administrative staffer to help implement the ordinance. Officials expect to contract with an engineering firm soon.
The city also plans to create a public database that will list every building that must be inspected, when the inspection is due and whether the building is in compliance, among other things.
The ordinance was a priority for Mayor Scott Singer, who did not want to wait until the state or Palm Beach County took action.
Both the Florida House and Senate are working on certification legislation that, if enacted, would apply statewide.
The bill that is viewed as most likely to pass would require condos to be certified after 30 years if they are three stories or higher, or are 25 years old and within 3 miles of the coast. They would have to be recertified every 10 years after that.
It also would require condominium associations to conduct reserve studies every decade to make sure they have the resources to finance needed structural improvements. They would be barred from waiving a requirement that they put money into reserves to make those improvements.
Singer has said he is willing to revise Boca Raton’s ordinance so that it does not conflict with any state law that is enacted.

By Rich Pollack

As the cost of renovating a bathroom, making improve-ments to a condo building or even building a new home has increased due to skyrocketing material costs, so too has the cost of obtaining most building permits in Highland Beach.
Now there’s some relief in sight for property owners concerned by the rising prices for improvement or construction projects.
From now until Sept. 30, property owners requesting building permits will see a 10% reduction in most permit costs thanks to a unanimous Town Commission vote last month approving the discount.
“This is the town basically saying to residents that we know you have increased costs and we don’t want to make money on those increased costs,” said Mayor Doug Hillman, who introduced the idea of temporarily reducing building permit fees after hearing from a concerned resident. “We don’t want to make money as a result of increases in people’s expenses.”
In Highland Beach, building fees are based on a percentage of the work being done under the permit. It is 2.5% up to $500,000 and 2% over $500,000.
Should a homeowner be doing $10,000 of plumbing work on a bathroom renovation, for example, the cost of the plumbing permit before the change would have been $250. With the 10% reduction the charge will be $225.
If electrical work is being done for the same renovation, the cost of that permit will also drop by 10%.
Some individual projects such as replacing an air-conditioning unit or a hot water heater have small fees, with the minimum building permit fee formerly being $100. It will now be $90.
“This reduction won’t result in significant savings on smaller projects but on the larger projects the saving could be significant,” Town Manager Marshall Labadie said.
While the discount will be available for most projects, there are some exceptions.
It will not be applied to reinspection following failed inspections, nor will it be available for projects started without a permit.
During discussion of the discount, commissioners made it clear that they wanted to keep the reduction for only six months, until the new fiscal year. Between now and then, commissioners will review the rate structure to determine if changes are needed.
“We want to make sure that our fees cover the cost of the services and recognize the future volatility in the workload,” Labadie said, adding that the town is seeing an increase in permits requested.
The town staff will also look at building fees charged by neighboring and comparable municipalities, he said.
Hillman said that “our intent when we set building fees is to cover our costs and for the building department to make enough money to cover the administrative costs allocated to it.”
Labadie said Highland Beach is in a strong position to offer the discount because it has enough reserves in the building department fund to cover department costs.
While discussing the discount, commissioners agreed that giving residents a break on building fees had little downside.
“This is a generous way of recognizing the reality of the world we’re in now,” Commissioner John Shoemaker said. “It’s a gesture of goodwill from the town.”

By Mary Hladky

Another adult assisted living facility and a luxury apartment building could be coming to the downtown.
Engel Burman Boca LLC, an affiliate of New York-based developer Engel Burman, has proposed an ALF at 400 S. Dixie Highway where the Arbors office condominium building now sits.
Engel Burman has contracted to buy the condo owners’ units and will raze them to build two nine-story buildings on the 1.7-acre site. The north building would house an assisted living/memory care facility with 174 beds, while the south building would contain 70 apartments for seniors with one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
The Bristal at Boca Raton would include underground parking and a two-story garage providing a total of 187 spaces.
The project design by RLC Architects of Boca Raton will be a “re-interpretation of the Mizner tradition,” with a stucco exterior and clay tile roof, according to preliminary information given to the city.
The ALF would have a wellness center staffed around the clock to reduce the need for EMS units to respond to calls. The facility would contract with a private ambulance company to transport residents with non-emergency health problems to Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
Engel Burman said dining, recreational and entertainment amenities would be available and transportation provided to take residents to stores, cultural events and restaurants.
Other amenities include billiard and card rooms, fitness and activity rooms, a library, lounges and sitting rooms, a spa and movie theater.
ALFs proposed in the downtown have spurred controversy before.
The developer of the Concierge at 22 SE Sixth St. filed suit against the city after the City Council rejected it on grounds it would overburden the city’s fire rescue services and lacked adequate parking.
Then-Fire Chief Tom Wood said at the time that ALFs have 15 times as many calls for service per bed than does a typical multifamily development.
The developer also cited as discriminatory some comments by council members Monica Mayotte and Andrea O’Rourke about an ALF’s elderly residents. The council quickly reversed course, settled the lawsuit and approved the project in 2018.
But construction never started. Palm Beach County property records show the site was sold for $10.2 million in April 2021. The South Florida Business Journal reported the next month that the buyers were Maryland-based Omega Healthcare Investors and Connecticut-based Maplewood Senior Living.
A proposed ALF at 2 SW 12th Ave., closer to Interstate 95, has generated strong and coordinated opposition from residents who say it does not belong in a residential neighborhood and will generate too much traffic.
The Park Square project has not yet been considered by city boards.

Residences of Boca
The luxury apartment building would be at 41 SE Fourth St., immediately to the east of Bristal.
The Residences of Boca would be a redevelopment of four assembled parcels. The 12-story project would have 190 apartments and 342 parking spaces, according to preliminary information provided to the city.
Amenities would include an outdoor deck with a lap pool and social gathering space. A smaller deck would be on the roof.
The owner is identified as West Palm Beach-based Wexford Real Estate Investors.
The submittals contain little additional information, and project attorney Bonnie Miskel said she was not authorized to provide
more.

By Steve Plunkett

Rising prices for materials and labor and a lack of interest by contractors have forced another delay on the seven-year effort to rebuild the once-popular observation tower at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
The city asked for bids to build an ADA-compliant tower last December, estimating the cost at $1.4 million. It received just one bid — for $2.6 million.
Briann Harms, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, told district commissioners at their Feb. 7 meeting that she had met with city staff and the Friends of Gumbo Limbo after the bid came in.
“We all agreed that probably the best thing to do at this point is to wait a few months and see if things change as far as the pricing of certain materials ... and rebidding the project and hopefully solicit more bidders and more competition for the project,” Harms said.
The city owns Red Reef Park, which includes Gumbo Limbo; the district pays for capital improvements and all operations there. The Friends have promised to contribute $600,000 toward the tower’s reconstruction.
Commissioner Steve Engel agreed that the $2.6 million price was too much.
“Let’s wait, let’s see what happens. I don’t think it can hurt us,” Engel said.
Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said the city should reconsider the design of the ADA ramp. The Friends earlier proposed an inclined elevator like one in Maryland that they said would cost much less.
“While I’m disappointed about the amount, I suspect this has to do with the design and the structure,” Ehrnst said. “The ramp system that has been designed is significant. I just call into question, is that really the right way to do it?”
District commissioners rejected the bid and approved hiring a grant writer to seek out funding opportunities for various projects. Harms said that could help in completing the tower.
“The city staff will be monitoring the pricing. We’re going to keep checking on it and revisit it if the pricing changes or plateaus,” she said.
The Friends’ pledge is buoyed by a $250,000 promise from the Kosowsky family in remembrance of their son, Jacob, who died in a traffic accident in 2018. The tower’s viewing platform is to be named Jacob’s Outlook.
Stephen Kosowsky, who made the bequest more than two years ago with wife, Sharilyn, and daughter, Mia, posted the design plan on Facebook on Sept. 8, Jacob’s birthday.
“The design for Jacob’s Outlook is almost complete,” he wrote. “Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, the city and Greater Boca Beach and Park District are pushing to complete by Jacob’s next birthday.”
Boca Raton demolished the 40-foot-tall tower after engineers in 2015 declared it and the adjoining boardwalk unsafe.

By Mary Hladky

Mayor Scott Singer presented a bright picture of how Boca Raton is faring in the annual “State of the City” address to residents, pointing to accomplishments while also noting challenges ahead.
About 120 residents filled the Downtown Library’s meeting room to hear his Feb. 15 address in person, while others watched on Facebook or YouTube.
Singer drew strong applause when he said that crime in the city decreased by 9% last year for the second year in a row; the city’s tax rate remains one of the lowest of any full-service city in the state; the new downtown Wildflower Park will open in the fall; and the city and Boca Raton Arts District Exploratory Corp. are finalizing work on a long-term land lease that will pave the way for construction of a $140 million cultural complex at Mizner Park.
Other accomplishments he cited in the last year include Boca’s becoming the first city in the state to enact an ordinance requiring buildings to be inspected to determine if they are safe in the wake of the collapse of a Surfside condo; construction of the first school — Blue Lake Elementary — to be built in the city in nearly two decades; the city’s takeover of The Boca Raton’s western golf course, now the Boca Raton Golf and Racquet Club; and groundbreaking for a Brightline train station.
“The opportunity to be connected to a major transportation network, and to be one of a handful of cities in South Florida to be part of that network, has untold benefits for our city,” Singer said.
The city’s economy is thriving, with nearly 3,000 new businesses starting in Boca Raton in the last 22 months. Existing high-tech companies are growing and new ones are coming to the city, he said.
But the city faces strong competition from other South Florida cities in attracting high tech and must do more to convince these companies’ leaders that Boca Raton offers what they are looking for.
The goal, he said, is to help tech talent grow and stay in Boca Raton, building on Florida Atlantic University’s Research Park and Tech Runway while also increasing venture funding.
“Our Boca Raton brand is strong, but it will take more than that alone,” he said. “We are competing for talent, investment, amenities and the many things we enjoy. We must launch a new era of success today to create a sustainable path for the coming decades.” Ú

By Mary Hladky

The Boca Raton Police Department has increased its starting salary for officers to $75,216.
That amount is the highest of any police department in the state, according to the most recent salary data available from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Police departments across the country are experiencing great difficulty hiring and retaining officers for reasons that include the greater scrutiny they are facing over use-of-force cases, negative public attitudes about police and a difficult work environment because of an insufficient number of officers.
As a result, departments are actively recruiting and, when possible, raising salaries and offering other benefits.
“Thinking about a career in law enforcement?” the Boca Raton Police Department asked on Twitter in early February. “The City of Boca Raton is not only a great place to work, but also a great place to live and enjoy life.” The tweet also noted the new starting salary.
Police Chief Michele Miuccio declined a request for an interview. But the department and the city’s communications and marketing manager said the department realized in 2018 that salaries needed to increase after it experienced high turnover that left it with about 25 or 30 vacancies.
A big pay increase at that time was intended to “greatly assist the recruitment of new police officers to the city,” City Manager Leif Ahnell wrote in a memo to the City Council. Subsequent yearly increases have been 3% to 3.5%
The department, which has 217 sworn officers and 110 civilian employees, now has 11 openings, representing 5% of its officers.

By Steve Plunkett

State transportation officials have turned off traffic signals on Interstate 95 entrance ramps at Palmetto Park Road less than a month after activating them.
The signals were turned on at Palmetto Park Road on Jan. 31, making the interchange the first in Palm Beach County to have such devices. Ramp signals were also activated that day at the Atlantic Boulevard interchange in Pompano Beach and the Cypress Creek Road interchange in Fort Lauderdale.
The Palmetto signals were turned off “due to backups onto the arterial streets during the peak periods,” said Guillermo Canedo, spokesman for the local Florida Department of Transportation office.
The department “is exploring a range of improvements to address the queue backup issues before reactivating those ramp signals,” he said. “They will remain off for now.”
Also deactivated were the signals at Atlantic southbound and Cypress northbound. Those at Atlantic northbound and Cypress southbound are still operating.
Despite the setback Canedo said the activation has gone well, “meaning there has been a mid-to-high rate of compliance and a low incidence of crashes, only one at Atlantic on Feb. 14.”
The signals are designed to help control the entry of vehicles onto the interstate and improve traffic flow during rush hour. The FDOT says ramp signal systems have proved successful in managing traffic and reducing congestion in high-volume locations around the country.
Some backups happen when a driver does not pull far enough forward to activate the sensor loops at the ramp signal, Canedo said. Consequently, the ramp signal will not turn green, but will stay on red.
“The ramp signals should cycle every 3-5 seconds. If it doesn’t turn green, the sensors don’t see you,” Canedo said. “Please ask drivers to pull up all the way to the stop bar so the system sensors are activated.”
The stop bar is a white line painted across the road.
Ramps at Glades Road in Boca Raton and Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach will get ramp signals in the future as the Department of Transportation extends express lanes north. Glades Road, with its distinctive “diverging diamond” interchange design, is scheduled to open in late 2023.

Lantana beach and the south entrance to the park will be closed for two weeks beginning on Feb. 28 for a restoration project.

The undertaking is the result of an interlocal agreement with the towns of Lantana, South Palm Beach and Palm Beach.

Sand will be transported by trucks to Lantana’s beach (and South Palm Beach) from an existing stockpile at Phipps Ocean Park.

The Lantana Town Council approved the agreement during a special meeting Feb. 9.

Mike Jenkins, the engineering consultant for Palm Beach, told Lantana officials during a workshop last December that if dune projects are done in concert together over a larger area, they tend to perform better.

“One of the critical aspects of this is if Lantana joins in this program to maintain a beach through repetitive dune projects, those projects will then become eligible for FEMA funds if there’s a declared disaster after a hurricane,” Jenkins said.

South Palm Beach will pay for the sand in exchange for ocean access from Lantana.

Lantana Town Manager Brian Raducci said the beach closing would not include the Dune Deck Café.

— Mary Thurwachter

Second fatality in five months and other injuries reflect growing trouble on stretch of waterway plagued by congestion and excessive speeds

By Rich Pollack

It’s happened again.
For more than a decade Highland Beach residents living along the Intracoastal Waterway have complained that speeding boats throw off wakes that damage sea walls and docked boats.
They lobbied state legislators and the state agency with jurisdiction to create a no-wake zone and slow boaters down, warning that if nothing was done there could be dire consequences.
In August, those predictions came true when a 37-year-old woman was killed after the northbound center-console boat she was in crashed into a sea wall, ejecting her and six others, including children.
Then last month, a northbound center-console boat hit a wake and went airborne before crashing into pilings and hitting a docked boat. A 63-year-old grandfather died after he and two boys were tossed into the water. The injured boys were helped by residents from the nearby Seagate condominium and treated by paramedics before being taken to Delray Medical Center.
“We’ve had seven boating accidents behind our house over the years but there were no fatal crashes in the entire town until last year,” said Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a town commissioner who has lived beside the Intracoastal for three decades. “We’re in a more serious time now because there are so many more pleasure boats and less visibility of law enforcement due to budget cuts.”
Just two months before the first fatal accident, a 48-year-old Boca Raton man was seriously injured when a northbound boat slammed into the back of his smaller vessel. That boater, Harold “JR” Ewing, is still recovering from his injuries.
While accidents on the Intracoastal Waterway are not uncommon, the number of fatal boating crashes on the waterway remains fairly low.
Since 2016, there have been five fatal crashes on the part of the Intracoastal that cuts through Palm Beach and Broward counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which oversees the waterway.
That two happened along the 3-mile stretch in Highland Beach — within just five months of each other — has residents hoping something can be done soon to slow boaters down.
Following the second accident, state Rep. Mike Caruso reached out to leaders of the FWC, which is investigating the crashes. They told him a management team would soon be sent to the area to determine if a no-wake zone should be established, Caruso said.
In a Jan. 31 email, the FWC confirmed its staff had met with Caruso the previous week and that the agency would take steps to improve safety in the area.
The agency “previously met with county staff in regards to the application process for a boating restricted area,” an FWC spokesperson wrote. “We have also increased patrol efforts in this specific area.”
In addition, the town of Highland Beach hopes to launch its new marine unit, with a boat that will patrol the Intracoastal, by next month.

More and bigger boats
Veteran boaters John and Maggie Chappelear, who live just off the Intracoastal, say multiple factors make boating — especially on weekends — more dangerous than it used to be. More and bigger boats on the narrow stretch of water moving at faster speeds create wakes that can cause havoc for smaller vessels, the Chappelears say. “It’s all about the wakes,” Maggie Chappelear said. “Wakes are killing people.”
Wakes and speed, Gossett-Seidman said, create a dangerous situation, especially for less experienced boaters.
“If you see a big wake coming you can just slow down and, in most cases, just ride over it,” she said. “If you don’t slow down, you’ll hit the wake full speed and hit it hard. You can’t always control a boat under speed that’s hit by a large wake.”
Gossett-Seidman, herself a boater, said that traffic on the Intracoastal has continued to grow to the point where some more experienced boaters stay home on Saturday and Sunday.
“Some weekends it looks like I-95 on the Intracoastal,” she said. “It’s just one boat after another.”
The migration of people from the north during the pandemic could play a role in that, Gossett-Seidman says.
“So many people come here and want to live the boating life,” she said.
Slowing down the transplants and other boaters has been a battle Highland Beach leaders have been fighting for years.
The speed limit on the waterway by Highland Beach is 25 miles per hour during manatee season, which runs mid-November through March, and 30 mph off season. Even if boaters go the speed limit — and that’s a big if — they’re going too fast for the conditions, the Chappelears say.
They believe that requiring a minimum wake speed would cut down on the problems, but persuading the FWC to lower the speed has been a challenge.
Maggie Chappelear, who sits on the town’s Natural Resources Committee, says she’s been told that a vessel congestion study, an accounting for tickets issued on the waterway and additional data would be needed before lowering the speed would even be considered.

Town especially vulnerable
The Chappelears and Gossett-Seidman say that one reason the stretch of Highland Beach has so many accidents is that boaters coming from the south have to stay slow until they get to the Spanish River Boulevard bridge and boaters from the north remain slow as they approach the Linton Boulevard bridge.
Some boaters, they say, try to make up for lost time when they get to Highland Beach.
Maggie Chappelear said that several blind corners on the waterway, where entering boat captains can’t see if traffic is coming, also create issues.
Although the FWC does have officers on boats patrolling the Intracoastal, local law enforcement officials say that department just doesn’t have the staffing and the resources to make a significant impact.
That is one reason why Highland Beach is launching a new marine unit focused primarily on the Intracoastal but also available for use on the ocean and inland waters.
The decision by the Town Commission to spend $164,000 on the boat — and to staff it with a dedicated officer — came following the first fatal accident.
The focus, says Town Manager Marshall Labadie, will be on slowing boats down, primarily by being visible and through education.
“We’re finding that some boats are going faster than the speed limit,” he said. “A presence during high-use periods will be very useful.”
Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann says the department has already hired an experienced marine officer to oversee the marine unit operations and should have the boat in hand soon. He hopes to have the boat in the water as early as March.
“Like everything else, our goal with the marine unit will be on compliance,” he said.

A push for state legislation
Caruso (R-Delray Beach) believes the state Legislature can take steps to enhance safety.
He said he plans to meet with sponsors of a proposed bill addressing several boater safety issues and possibly introduce an amendment that would provide regulations for safer conditions on the Intracoastal.
He said he’s also concerned about the impact that wakes from speeding boats can have on sea walls as well as on manatees and natural areas that provide wildlife habitat.
“We’ve got a lot of concerns, and slowing boats can alleviate many of them,” he said.

A fire of suspicious origin damaged the unoccupied Breakers Townhomes located near the corner of Palmetto Park Road and South Ocean Boulevard.
Photo provided by Boca Raton Fire Rescue

By Mary Hladky

The state fire marshal is seeking the public’s help in its investigation of how a Jan. 2 fire started in vacant townhomes on the site of a proposed luxury condominium at the intersection of East Palmetto Park Road and South Ocean Boulevard in Boca Raton.
The fire marshal’s office, which is heading up the investigation, is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification of persons responsible for the fire and has posted a sign on the site saying that arson is suspected. Money for the reward comes from the Florida Advisory Committee on Arson Prevention.
To report information, call 877-662-7766, 561-513-2547 or 561-620-6051.
The fire broke out at about 4 p.m., engulfing about one-third of the Breakers Townhomes in the Por La Mar neighborhood before Boca Raton Fire Rescue crews were able to extinguish it. No one was injured.
The fire prompted temporary closures of portions of South Ocean Boulevard and Southeast Wavecrest Way.
A fire marshal’s spokesman said in late January that the investigation is ongoing and that no additional information was available.
Katie Barr MacDougall, president of the Riviera Civic Association that includes Por La Mar, said residents have been complaining for months about homeless people going in the townhomes and about people, “mostly teenagers, going in there at night and partying. One of the neighbors thought there were kids in there setting off fireworks.”
Homeless people at the site is not a new issue. In 2020, a 26-year-old man was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his father in the parking garage of an office building on the property. Both were homeless.
The townhomes and the office building will be demolished soon to make way for One South Ocean, a 70-unit condo on 3.5 acres that is being built by Miami real estate investor Ramon Llorens.
The Riviera Civic Association supports the condo project. MacDougall has said that project architect Jorge Garcia of GarciaStromberg GS4 Studios in West Palm Beach was willing to accommodate its requests for small design changes.

By Rich Pollack

As Highland Beach residents prepare to vote on five recommended Town Charter revisions, much of the focus has been on one change that would significantly modify the town’s spending cap from $350,000 to slightly over $1 million.
During a Coffee with the Mayor last month to discuss charter changes, much of the conversation focused on the issue on the March 8 ballot that would allow elected officials to spend as much as 5% of the town’s annual combined budgets on a project without voter approval.
While some residents wondered why the town isn’t recommending just replacing the $350,000 cap with another fixed amount, Mayor Doug Hillman pointed out that the town needs flexibility to keep up with growing expenses — especially with the coming creation of a new fire department.
“If we set a hard number, that number will be inadequate in a few years,” he said, adding that Highland Beach is the only town he knows of with a spending cap and that the $350,000 amount has been in place since 1991.
Town Manager Marshall Labadie said the $350,000 cap equated to about 10% of the budget at the time it was approved. “The cap is a unique spending limit that hasn’t been touched in 30 years,” he said.
Although the spending limit ballot question may be getting quite a bit of attention, voters will also address four other recommended changes.
Among those are a question that would give the authority to increase commission salaries to the commissioners themselves through an ordinance but limit any increase to 5% per year.
Right now, only voters can approve a commission salary increase through a referendum. Commissioners are currently paid $12,000 a year, while the mayor is paid $15,000 a year.
Also on the ballot is a proposal that would extend commission term limits from two 3-year terms to three 3-year terms in one office and a maximum of 12 consecutive years in multiple offices. A housekeeping issue removing a provision that requires elected officials to sign checks is also before voters.
One of the least discussed ballot issues would take some decision-making power out of the hands of elected officials and give it to voters.
Voters will be asked to approve a change that would require a referendum should the town consider outsourcing operations of its police department, fire department or water treatment services to another agency or organization.
“The long-term implications of a decision to outsource a public safety service requires the action of the entire community,” Labadie said. “The way to protect a true local health and public safety decision is to let residents vote on it.”
Labadie pointed to the town’s decision to start its own fire department and separate from having Delray Beach provide the service as an example of why residents should have a say.
Highland Beach officials voiced concern over not having control of financial, operational and other issues in the contract with Delray.
“It’s the experience we’ve had with Delray and others that makes it important for the decision to be a community-wide decision,” he said.
Labadie said the measure, if approved, would not prevent the town from outsourcing services if voters favor that.
“It doesn’t take outsourcing off the table,” he said. “It just puts it in the hands of the residents because it’s long-term quality of service implications.”
To help residents understand the items, the town has set up a web page at highlandbeach.us/Vote2022 that includes ballot language and an explanation of the town’s reasoning for bringing each question to the voters.

March vote
Deadline to register: Monday, Feb. 7
Deadline to request a vote by mail ballot: 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26
Early voting: 10 a.m. -7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 to Sunday, March 6
Deadline to return vote by mail ballot: 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 8
Election Day: 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 8

Source: www.pbcelections.org

By Mary Hladky

Mayor Scott Singer is hitting the pause button on his idea to bring in Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to build underground tunnels to transport people around town.
Singer first raised the possibility in May as Miami Mayor Frank Suarez and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis were expressing enthusiasm for Musk’s tunnels that would be navigated by cars.
He suggested that The Boring Co. could build a tunnel from the Brightline station, now under construction east of the Downtown Library, to Mizner Park. Boring officials estimated the cost at $10 million to $15 million, Singer said at the time.
He also envisioned a second tunnel that would connect to the Town Center Mall, with stops along the way.
The idea landed on the back burner as more pressing matters arose.
But at a Jan. 10 meeting, Singer said he had rethought the matter. He no longer thinks a tunnel to Mizner Park makes sense.
“It will be challenging for pedestrians to want to feel comfortable to cross below grade and for us to make sure it is a safe and welcoming thoroughfare,” he said.
A tunnel to the mall remains a possibility, he said.
For now, Singer suggested to fellow Boca Raton City Council members that they wait to see what deal Fort Lauderdale reaches with Musk’s company so they can better evaluate costs and financing for such a project.
The Boring Co. submitted a plan to Fort Lauderdale in June for tunnels to and from the beach. Officials more recently were fine-tuning the plan and the city’s Public Works Department was to hire consultants to collaborate with Boring, the Sun Sentinel has reported.
In the meantime, Singer said he would continue to discuss the idea with stakeholders.

By Mary Hladky

After a 20-year career with IBM, former Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers is relocating to Tallahassee after being hired as chief information security officer for Florida Digital Service, which is part of the state’s Department of Management Services.
In announcing Rodgers’ hiring on Jan. 5, Florida Digital Service cited his private and public sector cybersecurity experience with IBM and the Navy Reserve.
For the past five years, he has been a “client architect partner” with the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and other governmental entities to assist with intelligence and security analytics. As a reserve officer, he has experience in operations at U.S. Cyber Command in Fort Meade, Maryland, as well as service as a cyber-intel division officer.
“Our relentless pursuit of top tier talent continues to pay off with the addition of Jeremy to the [Florida Digital Service] team,” state Chief Information Officer James Grant said in a news release. “With the support from our partners in the Florida Legislature, [Florida Digital Service] has consistently increased and strengthened Florida’s digital capabilities.
“The depth and breadth of Jeremy’s experience makes him uniquely qualified to lead our cybersecurity team and implement additional innovations across the enterprise.”
Rodgers was unavailable for an interview but confirmed in a text message that he had assumed his new position.
“It’s a great opportunity to serve the state of Florida!” he wrote.
Rodgers was nearing the end of his second City Council term when he was called to active duty and deployed in August 2020 to Qatar in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan.
Being unable to participate in City Council meetings remotely, he stepped down and council members appointed Yvette Drucker that October to replace him until his term ended. She won election to a three-year term on March 9, 2021.
Rodgers returned to the U.S. the next month and remains in the reserve as an executive officer for a Navy cryptological unit.

Boca Raton still has funds available to help city homeowners and renters who have experienced financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city received a $357,280 Community Development Block Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development last year that allows it to offer a rental assistance program and a mortgage foreclosure prevention assistance program.
People eligible to receive assistance include those who have lost jobs since March 1, 2020, lost employment hours, experienced illness or death of family members due to COVID-19, or whose businesses closed.
Applications must be submitted on the city’s website. Income limits, application requirements and frequently asked questions also can be found at www.myboca.us/HousingRelief, or by calling 561-544-8667.
— Mary Hladky