A water line break has Delray Beach asking residents and other customers of its drinking water system to limit non-essential water use and high-consumption activities such as lawn irrigation and car washing.

The city’s water utility also serves the town of Gulf Stream.

The city reported on Jan. 3 that a contractor working on the construction of a deep injection well for the city’s water treatment plant “mistakenly caused a pipeline break.”  The break was in a raw water pipeline that sends water into the plant for treatment.

The city said it is using utility interconnections with the cities of Boca Raton and Boynton Beach to keep water flowing while repairs are being done.

“At this time, the water supplied through these interconnections is disinfected using chloramine rather than free chlorine, which is the disinfectant currently used by our system,” the city said, indicating it was a precautionary measure.

“If you have specific concerns — such as for dialysis, aquariums, or other sensitive uses—please contact us for additional guidance,” the statement said.

Anyone having questions is advised to call the Delray Beach Utilities Department customer service team at (561) 243-7312 Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“Once the situation is fully resolved and normal operations are restored, we will promptly notify our customers,” the city statement said.

— Staff report

By John Pacenti

Tallahassee’s drip, drip, drip erosion of home rule is about to become a tsunami as Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican supermajority’s war on municipalities is now aimed at draining their lifeblood: property taxes.

If the most extreme proposal — HJR 201 — in the Florida House succeeds in eliminating virtually all property taxes on homestead properties, then towns and cities would have to find new ways to pay for simple services beyond policing — or cut them out of their budgets entirely — municipal leaders say. That’s what’s on the table during the annual two-month session of the state Legislature that starts Jan. 13.

Forget about money for fireworks, festivals and events — never mind whatever Republicans in the Legislature find “woke,” like Pride celebrations. The questions would now be more basic, like how to fund a fire department.

“We would face some pretty serious reductions,” said Boca Raton City Council member — and mayoral candidate — Andy Thomson.

“Imagine if you just wipe out our revenue. That is a catastrophe — a catastrophe,” said Democrat Rob Long, the newly elected District 90 state representative and former Delray Beach vice mayor.

“It’s as though Tallahassee is deconstructing the recipe of what success looks like, and then just deteriorating what quality of life will be in cities,” said Ocean Ridge Town Manager Michelle Heiser.

Make no mistake, the proposal to eliminate property taxes has support. With property values increasing, municipalities are flush with cash and spending like drunken sailors, critics say.

David Wesley Cornish, a new Boynton Beach resident, said at his city’s Sept. 8 budget hearing that placing the burden of raising revenue on property owners is “un-American.”

“Why does it have to be the people in here who own property, who follow the rules, who go to work every day and do what we’re supposed to do to make the community better, and we’re the people getting penalized,” Cornish said. 

Legislation being considered

At least eight proposals to eliminate property taxes in some way are under consideration in the Florida House of Representatives. HJR201 would eliminate all non-school ad valorem taxes for homestead properties.

The idea is to put one or more of the initiatives on the 2026 November ballot. Those measures would have to reach a 60% threshold — something that is not easy, as supporters of measures on abortion and marijuana found out last election.

HJR 201 made sure to protect funding for law enforcement, knowing no measure would withstand opposition from the powerful police unions. The bill would force municipalities to keep a certain level of police services but make them find ways of paying for them that don’t include taxing homestead properties.

A war on municipalities

The Coastal Star spoke with numerous public officials. Some insisted on talking on background, as many expressed concerns about potential retribution from Tallahassee.

What they said was this: Many lawmakers who are leading this charge hail from Podunk counties with no idea of the needs or finances of South Florida cities like Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Boca Raton — or even small coastal towns, the officials said.

They say DeSantis wants to distract from his failure to rein in home insurance costs and/or that he spent $50 million, by some estimates, in taxpayer dollars to fight abortion and marijuana initiatives in 2024.

The governor created his own Elon Musk-inspired Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) to target mostly Democrat-run counties like Palm Beach, Orange, and Hillsborough.

He unleashed Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who has often cited fantastical figures to bash those same Democrat-run counties, according to municipal sources.

Over the past few years, any number of bills have been designed to strip away home rule. 

Municipalities, including Delray Beach and Palm Beach, have filed suit against the state over SB180, signed into law last year. It effectively froze local growth management and planning efforts in local municipalities.

Then there is the newly strengthened Live Local Act, which takes the power away from municipalities to keep out big, unwieldy developments.

There have been others, from prohibiting handbills and environmental lawsuits to regulating restaurants. 

“Four years ago, they started it in subtle ways, so that it became more normalized to see bits and pieces kind of get carved off,” Heiser said. “And then all of a sudden, now there’s this issue in your face that almost everything is being preempted.”

DeSantis’ brand of white Christian nationalist governance in 2025 included using the state transportation department to erase intersections and crosswalks that honored LGBTQ communities, often paving them over in the middle of the night under the guise of traffic safety.

Many new preemptive laws, said one elected leader, provide provisions to remove those from office who dare to stand up to Tallahassee and invoke home rule.

“Threatening fines and removal from office to suppress local home rule prerogatives is undemocratic and unconstitutional,” Delray Beach Commissioner Juli Casale said.

“Home rule is provided for in the Florida Constitution and by statute. Home rule enhances democracy by enabling local elected officials to address local concerns and solve local problems, as they were elected to do so.”

‘A weird cultural divide’

Many municipal officials say there is an unprecedented disdain in Tallahassee for municipalities of any size. 

“I think for all municipalities in the state of Florida, they need to remember that, per our Constitution, the cities and counties exist at the permission of the state,” Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur said at the Dec. 8 meeting of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.

Brodeur’s headquarters is in Lake Mary in Seminole County, with a population of about 17,000. It is about as far from diverse South Florida communities as heaven is wide. 

“They think that local governments are crazy and not trustworthy, and they want to eliminate them in some manner. And this is one way of doing it,” Thomson said.

Long said it all adds up to deflection and distraction, not governance.

“It’s just a really misguided belief about how economies actually function in Florida, and there does seem to be a real weird cultural divide between local government and state government that I don’t fully understand, given the Republican mantra is small government’s good,” he said.

An unfair tax?

DeSantis, speaking to the Forum Club on Oct. 15 at West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, explained his thinking on the proposal. 

“It’s almost like you are renting from the government,” the governor said. “So what we said is that it’s not like we are eliminating it from every property, but as your personal homestead property, we want you to be able to own that free and clear.”

Boynton Beach City Manager Dan Dugger, at the city’s Sept. 8 budget meeting, said he would vote to eliminate property taxes because he lives in the city and pays “a substantial amount of property taxes.”

“We’re going to have to look at more of a fee-based system so that we can actually replace that revenue,” he said. “And we also have to look at what Tallahassee is proposing as a solution or alternative funding source.”

Dugger said he has heard about elevating sales tax to where municipalities will have an allocation based on population, including demographics such as income and age.

“It’s an exciting thing, and at the same time, it’s something that definitely is a precarious situation that we have to navigate through, and there’s going to be some challenges, but we can definitely get there,” Dugger said.

Core services in jeopardy

Palm Beach County Administrator Joe Abruzzo said eliminating homestead property taxes would decimate the county’s budget and force painful cuts to essential services.

“That’s roads and bridges, that’s planning, zoning and building, that’s Parks and Rec. It’s massive,” he said, and warned that Palm Beach County Fire Rescue would lose about $250 million in potential impacts to fire-rescue funding.

Abruzzo explained how Tallahassee fundamentally doesn’t understand local government, pointing to Ingoglia’s use of the Consumer Price Index to falsely claim the county wasted $344 million last fiscal year. Ingoglia provided not one example of waste, though.

“The Consumer Price Index doesn’t match what we’re purchasing of any sort here in the county,” Abruzzo said.

He said the county, through property taxes, pays for 30 departments to the tune of $600 million. Another $120 million in capital outlay is earmarked for construction projects.

“Local government would not be able to function. It’s not a joke, it’s not a fallacy,” he said. “Our local governments would be beyond devastated.”

Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore said recent state laws “while well-intentioned, have nonetheless introduced certain constraints on the traditional home-rule authority exercised by municipalities.”

As a result, Moore said the laws have created adverse impacts on Delray Beach’s ability to effectively self-govern on a local level, “particularly in areas where community character and neighborhood quality of life rely on finely tuned, place-specific approaches.”

He said the added layer of Tallahassee bureaucracy can introduce complexities that make it more challenging for city staff to respond as swiftly and comprehensively as city residents expect.

He said the city hopes to “engage in the broader consensus on the appropriate balance between state oversight and municipal autonomy.”

Shifting the burden

In the meantime, non-homestead properties — such as businesses, rental properties and second homes — would see their taxes skyrocket, hurting economic growth and worsening the housing crisis, officials said.

Boca Raton would lose around $57 million if ad valorem taxes from homestead properties were eliminated. In most South County municipalities, homestead properties account for more than a quarter of the property taxes they collect — topping 55% in Gulf Stream.

Besides eliminating services, municipalities would look to recoup that revenue. One way would be to increase taxes on non-homestead properties: businesses, second homes and rental properties.

“Businesses would take the brunt. Or, you know, apartments. Those aren’t homesteaded,” Thomson said.

“So you’re talking about potentially increasing the affordability crisis, really for the renter, because it would be passed on. Of course it would be.”

The other option would be to start charging for services that are currently free, such as using the library, he said.

Thomson added that there is already property tax relief. The Save Our Homes Act caps increases in a homestead property value at 3% annually, even if the increase in value is double digits. Municipalities miss out on that extra revenue.

While the House proposals generally carve out public safety, Thomson warned that Boca Raton would still face major budget pressures that could indirectly affect police staffing or services if other revenue or cuts aren’t found.

Impact will vary

In Ocean Ridge, the worst-case scenario is a bit different.

Heiser, the town manager, said HJR201 would provide a modest financial hit because fewer than half of the town’s residents have homesteaded their properties.

“These bills are going to impact the cities that have the highest percentage for homesteading,” Heiser said, noting that Ocean Ridge’s large number of second homes and investment properties provides some insulation.

However, she expressed concern about the broader trend of state preemption of local authority. She asked how in the world a town is going to be able to lobby for special events if HJR201 passes. “If you couldn’t fund the event, you’re not going to be able to fund the lobbying that it would take to get the money for the event,” she said.

Gulf Stream’s lobbying

The main opposition to the potential property tax initiatives is the Florida League of Cities, which has stressed home rule and fiscal realism, calling it a “Tallahassee takeover.”

In 2025, the league honored Gulf Stream with its Home Rule Hero Award, noting Town Clerk Reneé Basel. The award notes local officials who went above their duties to reach out to state lawmakers to give a local perspective.

“Reneé played a key role in educating legislators on the importance of preserving home rule — the ability of municipalities to address local issues with local solutions and minimal state interference,” Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan said.

He said the timing was “particularly significant” considering the tax initiatives.

“These proposals would effectively dismantle the traditional home rule authority of Florida’s municipalities,” Morgan said. “Cities would be unable to provide even basic services without financial support from the state, shifting critical budgetary and policy decisions to lawmakers in Tallahassee — far removed from the needs and interests of small communities like Gulf Stream.”

Manalapan’s wait and see

In the meantime, next door in Manalapan — one of the wealthiest communities in the county — Town Manager Eric Marmer is taking a stay calm approach, feeling that there’s a lot of sound and fury coming out of Tallahassee, but, as of yet, it signifies nothing.

He said he isn’t losing sleep over the proposed property tax changes because he’s seen no workable replacement plan and prefers to focus on the work that needs to be done for his municipality.

“I don’t have the time to worry about it, to be honest, until it’s time to worry about it,” Marmer said. He called the proposal “an unfeasible proposition” but expressed confidence that residents understand the role taxes play.

“We don’t like property taxes, but this is why we can flush our toilets and we have running drinking water and the police show up at our homes.” 

On tap in the state Legislature 

Many bills are seeking to cut property taxes in the annual legislative session that starts Jan. 13. Any that are approved could result in constitutional amendments on the November ballot needing 60% voter approval. 

• HJR201: Eliminates non-school ad valorem taxes for homestead properties;

• HJR 203: Creates new $100,000 homestead exemption each year for 10 years;

• HJR 207: Establishes a new 25% non-school homestead exemption;

• HJR 209: Adds a $200,000 exemption for homesteads with active property insurance;

• HJR 211: Eliminates the $500,000 “Save Our Homes” portability cap, allowing residents to carry their full assessment reduction to a new property.

• HJR 213: Reduces the annual assessment growth cap for non-homestead properties — businesses, rentals and second homes— from 10% to 5%.

• HB 215: Requires a two-thirds vote from a municipal governing body to approve any millage rate increase above the state-defined rollback rate.

 — John Pacenti

Higher sea walls may be needed in future; will residents agree?

Robert Stalzer, the tennis pro at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, helps a hotel guest cross the flooded road in front of the resort after rains in late 2024. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By John Pacenti

State transportation officials have a short-term fix for the flooding that vexes Manalapan along State Road A1A from the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa to just past Town Hall: raise the road.

But a long-term solution given expected sea level rise will force either the town or Palm Beach County to tackle how to get private property owners to foot the cost to raise their sea walls, engineers told town commissioners at their Dec. 9 meeting.

Jeremy Nichols, a consultant with Allbright Engineering, representing the Florida Department of Transportation, said a data-driven study that analyzed chronic flooding problems found that both tidal surges and heavy rainstorms routinely inundate area roadways, driveways and sidewalks, disrupting residents and local traffic. 

New backflow preventers are helping a bit, but any driver during the recent king tides knows the problem is far from fixed.

The study used precipitation records, tidal data and elevation modeling, in addition to firsthand, time-stamped flood photographs from a September 2023 storm. “This gives us a high level of confidence in what we propose,” Nichols said.

It found that up to a foot of water accumulates at low roadway elevations. He showed photos of significant flooding in front of the Eau Palm Beach at the intersection of East Ocean Avenue and South Ocean Boulevard (A1A).

Nichols said the intersection was the “center of our study.”

“There’s flooding that occurs here during high tides and rainfall events that has generated a bunch of complaints,” he said.

Looking at the watershed as a whole, a lot of small basins drain toward the roads unless there are private drainage systems on abutting properties. “The roadway itself has a lower elevation than surrounding properties,” Nichols said.

That’s despite a $10.4 million state-financed project in 2009 raising A1A’s roadbed 18 inches and improving drainage on a 3-mile stretch south of the Eau.

The current plan presented to commissioners also includes sidewalk improvements off A1A north of East Ocean Boulevard that don’t lie in the town’s jurisdiction. Unfortunately for Manalapan, that $250,000 project will be the first on the checklist because it is the easiest and least disruptive.

Within the next five years, FDOT plans to elevate a portion of South Ocean Boulevard and upgrade the gravity drainage system for $6 million. The project would run from the intersection to just south of Town Hall.

Future efforts

Long-term plans include improving sea walls for both FDOT’s right of way and private property owners for $500 per linear foot. Installing a pump system would run $9 million to $10 million per mile.

“This project kind of addresses immediate current-day flooding and future flooding problems, both from tidal and precipitation,” Nichols said.

However, it is going to need town and resident buy-in. 

“There has to be a joint effort, whereas the sea walls need to start coming up with time,” said Aylin Costa, another engineer with AllBright. 

“There are other municipalities, and, you know, counties that have put in sea wall ordinances and things like that, where, when folks are coming in to do repairs, there’s a higher elevation that’s required.”

Property owners would have to bear the cost of increasing the height of the sea walls, while FDOT would pay for installing the pumps, she said.

Some coastal municipalities have gotten pushback from residents for trying to mandate sea wall height. Right now, it is a hot topic in Broward County, FDOT drainage engineer James Poole told the commission.

“How do you compel a private owner to raise their sea wall? They may not be interested,” Poole said. “They may be OK in accepting whatever vulnerability they might have to the sea level rise with whatever wall that they have out there today.”

Broward, he said, is mandating that any property owner who repairs a sea wall must meet new standards. Furthermore, this can trigger a mandate on neighbors to raise their sea walls because they are now a “weak link,” Poole said.

By 2060, every sea wall has to be 5 feet NAVD88 in Broward. “I know that Palm Beach County is keeping an eye on it and contemplating doing its own,” he said.

Commissioner David Knobel said the standing water is an environmental concern because it becomes stagnant and collects pollutants from the cars. He wondered if the state Department of Environmental Protection would have any input on the project. 

Any drainage upgrades would have to meet state water quality benefit requirements, specifically by treating polluted roadway runoff before it enters local waterways, Costa said.

Cyclists enjoy unfettered access to the new bike lanes on the stretch of State Road A1A through Highland Beach and part of Delray Beach now that traffic-control barrels are gone. The $8.3 million resurfacing and drainage project lasted more than a year but is largely complete, according to state transportation officials. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

The bright orange-and-white barrels that lined State Road A1A through Highland Beach and part of Delray Beach for more than a year are gone, and that’s good news for many bicyclists and a good sign for anyone using the 3.35-mile stretch of beachside highway.

Since July 2024 the barrels, which were put up on the shoulder of the highway to protect construction workers and guide motorists during an $8.3 million resurfacing and drainage project, have been seen as a road hazard for bicyclists like Larry Burgreen.

A snowbird from upstate New York, Burgreen often rode his bike from his home in north Boca Raton to Delray Beach on A1A, but shelved the trip last season and during the past few months due to the construction.

“I wanted to start biking again but the barrels are there,” he said shortly before the barrels were removed, adding that he believed the ride would be unsafe.

Burgreen says he is looking forward to resuming his trips on the barrel-free sides of A1A.

“I am sure I will be trying out the new bike lanes soon,” he said.

Now that the barrels have been removed, bicyclists who rode in the lane of traffic alongside cars, SUVs and other vehicles can now use the newly paved and in some places marked bicycle lanes on either side of the road.

A cyclist navigates traffic while in the new bike lane in Highland Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The removal of the barrels is also signaling a long-awaited completion of the project, which originally had been proposed to take little more than a year.

The project, according to a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation, is scheduled to be completed within a few weeks. But a substantial amount of the work, including most of that which could disrupt traffic flow, is already completed, according to Highland Beach town officials.

In recent weeks, work including pavement markings and installing sod and pavers in driveways has been done, according to the town leaders. A remedial punch-out list of items — and a few more paver installations at driveways — are what primarily remains.

One of the last remaining steps will be a walk-through with Highland Beach and Delray Beach officials, along with FDOT representatives who will point out any “minor details that might have been missed” to the construction contractor.

While the paving of A1A was completed before the start of December, the barrels remained until shortly before Christmas, with bicyclists like Burgreen wondering why they hadn’t been removed.

The answer, according to an FDOT spokesperson, was based on safety concerns for both bicyclists and crews who continued to work in the area.

“The barrels in this area were placed to guide motorists and cyclists through the active work zone and to create a consistent, predictable traffic pattern during construction,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to The Coastal Star.

With completion of the project imminent, Highland Beach is moving forward with two projects: the embedding of lights in the eight pedestrian crosswalks on A1A and the resumption of a sewer lining project.

The sewer lining, which has already been completed on side streets, could cause some minor traffic flow issues, town leaders say, but they likely will be short term.

The embedded lights will augment pedestrian-activated flashing lights at entrances to the crosswalks on both sides of A1A, to go with flags pedestrians may carry for added visibility. 

Related: Along the Coast: Changing skyline

By Larry Barszewski 

A major mixed-use downtown development planned on the east side of Federal Highway just north of Ocean Avenue has been in the works for almost nine years, but construction still hasn’t started.

Boynton Beach city commissioners, serving as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, agreed to do what they could to help the project move forward. At the CRA’s Dec. 9 meeting, they increased the CRA’s subsidy for the eight-story Ocean One project to $11.5 million — $2.5 million more than they approved in May 2024.

The CRA receives tax money from the increased property value of developments in the CRA district. It is money from those tax revenues — to be generated by the Ocean One project — that the CRA has pledged to pay over 14 years to support the estimated $174.1 million project. 

“This is such a big piece of our downtown,” Mayor Rebecca Shelton said of the 3.5-acre site.

“I remember when it was a Bank of America building and you couldn’t go there. You’d get robbed in your car — and the prostitutes — and so, it was a blighted property for so long.”

She supported the increased amount of tax increment funding because “we’re so close to having what the residents want as a viable downtown and I do like the project.”
Ocean One received its first city approval in 2017, but the original developer failed to meet its CRA-imposed deadline to begin construction and sold the property in 2021.

The new owners, Hyperion Group (BB1 Development LLC), received approval in April 2023 for a revised project that includes 371 residential units and about 25,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. It also has green space and public plazas with outdoor seating. 

In May 2024, with Hyperion back before the CRA board seeking $11.5 million in tax increment funding, the board approved $9 million. In return, the developer agreed to provide 90 public parking spaces inside a planned garage, as well as 20 on-street spots, with 20% of the parking revenue to be shared with the CRA. 

But this past May, the developer put in a request that the CRA up the tax increment funding to $16 million, which commissioners at the Dec. 9 meeting said was too high.

While they wouldn’t agree to $16 million, they did say from an economic analysis that the $11.5 million was justified.

“What’s the alternative, right?” Commissioner Thomas Turkin said. “The alternative is you guys can’t perform, you have to sell the project, then we get a 10-12 story building, or another Live Local project which I think, again, is not what residents want to see.” 

Boynton Beach is moving ahead with its proposal for downtown, but it’s back to the drawing board in Lantana

The northern portion of The Villages, a mixed-use project in downtown Boynton Beach, is under construction. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: Lantana: Hotel project shelved, but Ocean Avenue still primed for major development

Related: Boynton Beach: Ocean One gets $2.5 million more from CRA

By Jane Musgrave

Boynton Beach Mayor Rebecca Shelton smiled Dec. 17 as she swung a sledgehammer, destroying the walls of the crime-ridden Inn at Boynton Beach.

“It’s the highlight of the last 10 months of being mayor,” Shelton said. “This is why I ran for office.”

The demolition of the 20-year-old hotel on the south side of West Boynton Beach Boulevard at Interstate 95 is seen as the key to a sweeping revitalization plan that is to transform the city.

“It sends a message: Boynton Beach is open for business,” Shelton said.

Exactly what will be built on the roughly 2-acre site is unknown. After paying $8.1 million for the land in October, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency now wants to buy 13 adjacent parcels — appraised at $7.5 million — to create what it hopes will be a signature project.

Community meetings will be held to determine exactly what will be built on what would become a 6-acre site.

“It is the gateway to the city and it needs to be beautiful,” said Shelton, who serves on the CRA board along with the rest of the City Commission.

An office building with retail on the ground floor is one possibility. Or, she said, a high-end hotel might be considered.

Chris Brown, the newly hired executive director of the CRA, said he hopes to have a deal in place with a developer in 2026.

But, he emphasized the redevelopment of the hotel site is just one part of a grand scheme to turn the city’s unsightly, traffic-choked entryway into a pedestrian-friendly area that will become a destination instead of a place people drive en route to somewhere else.

“I’m going to be spending a lot of time on Boynton Beach Boulevard,” said Brown, who was CRA director in Delray Beach during that city’s boom years.

In addition to the hotel site, the CRA owns other land on West Boynton Beach Boulevard to boost revitalization efforts.

It owns a lot on the north side of the road at Northwest Fourth Street and another one two blocks over at Northwest Second Street. It also paid $917,000 for two lots on the south side at Seacrest Boulevard, one that has long been home to the U.S. Post Office.

Like the hotel property, there are no firm plans as to what will eventually be built on those sites. The vacant land gives the CRA a blank slate to carry out its new vision, Brown said.

The city is also getting an assist from the Florida Department of Transportation, which owns the road. As part of a $64-million, four-year project to reduce congestion for motorists getting on and off Interstate 95, landscaping will be added to the stretch of  Boynton Beach Boulevard from I-95 to North Federal Highway.

Crews soon will begin planting trees along the sidewalks that were widened in a $7.2 million project that wrapped up in 2025. 

Aesthetics are important, Brown said. “If we can get some really quality development with quality architecture, we can change the nature of Boynton Beach Boulevard,” he said.

But it won’t be easy. Even in Delray Beach, where the downtown’s transformation in recent decades has been hailed as a model of success for other cities to emulate, it has been a decades-long struggle to develop the blocks on Atlantic Avenue from I-95 to the heart of the downtown that begins at Swinton Avenue.

Downtown developments

Brown said one promising sign is that private developers are investing in Boynton Beach’s downtown area. In the next five years, 2,000 units are to be built, he said.

Already, Edgewater Capital Investments is at work on an eight-story complex on East Ocean Avenue that will have 336 apartments, 668 parking spaces, 8,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The project, Villages at East Ocean, extends to Boynton Beach Boulevard and is expected to be completed in two years. A second phase planned on the south side of Ocean Avenue will bring an additional 171 residences.

Other planned large residential developments, with commercial spaces and eight-story buildings, include Ocean One at the northeast corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway, The Pierce across from it on the west side of Federal Highway, and Town Square to the north and south of Ocean Avenue near City Hall.

Having people living in the city’s core to shop and go to restaurants is a game-changer, Brown said. “It will change the downtown,” he said.

The key, however, is giving them a safe, comfortable area so they will get out of their apartments and visit local businesses. 

In addition to making Boynton Beach Boulevard pedestrian-friendly, Brown said he wants to remake Ocean Avenue. Like Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, he said he wants to expand the sidewalks and install bricks to make the city’s long-struggling downtown more attractive.

Brown admits the CRA’s plans are ambitious. But, Shelton said, city leaders have ignored key areas for too long, which wasted resources and caused the city to stagnate.

For instance, instead of patrolling the streets, city police spent hours at the Inn at Boynton Beach, where drug deals, sexual assaults and domestic violence were common.

“Now we can put the cops back on the streets where they belong,” she said.

Likewise, the city doesn’t fully benefit from special events it hosts. After watching the holiday boat parade or the July 4 fireworks or attending the Pirate Fest & Mermaid Splash, people head somewhere else.

They go to Delray Beach or to the Key Lime House in nearby Lantana, Shelton said. “So, we don’t get any economic benefit from it,” she said.

She is hopeful the planned revitalization will change that.

Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.

The Villa Magna condo wants to improve its visibility along A1A, but current Highland Beach rules will not allow the bigger signs it wants. Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

The challenges kept coming for a beachfront condo in Highland Beach as its board members attempted to upgrade the entrance signs near their driveways on State Road A1A.

The first challenge, though not totally unexpected, came when they met with town leaders and learned that the signs they hoped to put in were too big and didn’t meet code.

Then came the news that the town doesn’t have a process for granting a variance, and the only way for the condo, Villa Magna, to get the green light to improve the signage would be to have the Town Commission change an ordinance that’s been on the books for years — a cumbersome and slow-moving process.

While all that was happening, the Villa Magna team looked up and down A1A and saw that many of the signs in front of buildings — those with the names of the buildings and addresses — were bigger than allowed under the same code blocking their project.

Yet there they were.

“It appears they were non-compliant and had been that way for a long time with no town action,” said Town Manager Marshall Labadie, who sent Highland Beach’s code enforcement officer out to measure, confirming what Villa Magna had found.

The bigger condos, many with longer frontage on A1A, tended to have the larger signs, he said. Many of those signs exceed the allowed 10 square feet for the face of the sign.

When Villa Magna officials went checking, they found signs that were larger than the 10 square feet Highland Beach allows, including ones at the Ambassadors and at Highlands Place — and even one of Villa Magna’s own current signs. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

How that happened, Labadie says, might have been the result of Highland Beach’s not having a full-time town planner until 2018 and no one to ensure the bigger signs met code when they were installed.

Those signs that do not meet the code will be considered a lawful non-conforming use, Labadie said, meaning that they will be allowed to remain as is. If those signs are replaced, however, the new signs will need to comply with the code.

What that code will be in the future is up in the air.

Once Villa Magna’s leadership brought forward the problems with the current ordinance on permanent signs, town commissioners agreed to take a hard look at whether changes need to be made.

With Labadie calling Villa Magna “the canary in the coal mine” alerting officials to what may be considered an obsolete provision in the code, commissioners agreed to ask for a recommendation from the town’s planning board on whether to keep the ordinance as is or change it.

If the planning board agrees that the ordinance needs to be changed, it would have to consider issues such as how big the signs can be and whether a variance process is needed for condo boards like Villa Magna’s.

In bringing their case to the commission, representatives from the 92-unit condo said one of the main concerns is safety.

Villa Magna is just north of the Delray Sands Resort, and visitors often end up driving into Villa Magna’s driveways by mistake and then have to back out onto A1A.

The problem is magnified when the sun goes down, says Joan Stein, a longtime Villa Magna board member and a co-chair of the decorating committee that is involved in the signage project.

“It’s very difficult at night,” she said. “You don’t see the sign until you’re on it.”

Villa Magna, which has three signs on A1A, is asking for five signs, the biggest of which would be 24 square feet.

The condo has 370 linear feet of frontage on A1A and three driveways, and its leaders believe the size of the signs is in scale with the size of the property.

With the request requiring a change in the ordinance, the decision on what size new signs can be may take several more weeks.

“It’s going to take longer than we thought, but it’s worth the effort,” Stein said. 

The developer backed out of this hotel and retail proposal at 210 E. Ocean Ave. in Lantana, but the town hopes for a future project there. Rendering provided

Related: Along the Coast: Changing skyline

By Mary Thurwachter

It looked like big changes were coming for Ocean Avenue, Lantana’s main drag and business district. 

During a special Town Council workshop on Dec. 8, representatives working with Kenco Communities displayed plans to build a seven-story hotel — with a rooftop pool — and a five-story building with shops, restaurants, a parking garage and its own rooftop pool that would have a water view and be open to the public.

Lantana has a four-story height limit, although it has made some exceptions and council members have said they would be willing to at least consider five stories for the land at 210 E. Ocean Ave. 

It encompasses four parcels on the north side of the road owned by sister-and-brother Marsha Stocker and Steven Handelsman. A few single-story shops and restaurants stand across the street and, at the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway, sits the Old Key Lime House, a brightly colored building that is Lantana’s largest business. That popular eating spot exudes the town’s old seaside fishing village vibe.

The Kenco proposal, which brought much interest and excitement, didn’t have that feel, and a few people said so.

Former Council member Ed Shropshire called the planned buildings “a monstrosity” that didn’t hold up to the town’s seaside village identity.

Nevertheless, the proposal, with early renderings that would be subject to change during any future site plan review process, drew mostly favorable support from both the council and the attending residents. 

Alex De Angelis of HdA Architects and Valentina Broglia of Urban Design Studio presented the plans.

Developer bows out

But a week after the workshop, on Dec. 15, Nicole Dritz, the town’s development services director, received an email from the developer Kenco saying it was no longer going forward with the plans.

“Unfortunately, we terminated our deal with Mr. Handelsman on Friday and will not be moving forward the project at this time,” it said.

Dritz said after receiving the email that she hoped to schedule a call with the developer “just to see if there were any big red flags.” 

“There was definitely a little bit of hesitancy on their part, which is why we originally offered to hold the workshop,” she said, “just to give them a little bit of peace of mind. If I had to speculate wildly, I just think they probably needed to be higher and denser than what we were maybe willing to do.”

She said that the town was “super bummed” that this project would not work out, but is ready to see who else is interested.

“There was a lot of support from the community,” Dritz said, “I really liked the use itself as a hotel, just the idea of bringing people into our downtown. It didn’t work out this time, but thankfully we found out early and we can kind of start to work with anyone else who’s ready.”

Although the developer terminated plans to build a seven-story hotel and five-story mixed-use building, the idea received some positive feedback. Rendering provided

Council members’ reactions

Jesse Rivero, the council’s newest member, admitted he was a little disappointed. “It’s been so long stagnant, the community was hoping for something new and exciting. Time will tell. For now, I’m optimistic,” he said. 

“There are other potential buyers,” Mayor Karen Lythgoe said. “And we now know the level of community support. The buyer is the one taking a huge risk in buying an expensive property and in these uncertain economic times, who can blame either side.” 

Lythgoe said her understanding is that Kenco wanted another extension and the property has already been off the market for a few months.  

Council member Chris Castle said he wasn’t disappointed but that he believes “the project could have made a good impact for the town. I believe more developers will come forward in time and with plans to achieve similar projects.”

Council member Kem Mason said seven stories was not acceptable to many residents from whom he had heard. 

Vice Mayor Mark Zeitler said he liked the hotel, restaurants and shops, wished the hotel didn’t have to go seven stories, but understood the economics of why that was in the plans. “Traffic would have been the worst part,” he said, “and it’s already a problem.”

At the Dec. 8 workshop, council members and residents, while interested in seeing more-developed plans, expressed concerns about a seven-story building on property that, for many years, was home to a handful of Key West-style cottages that had fallen into disrepair. Those were demolished in May 2024 and the property was sodded and enclosed with a chain link fence. Many trees were saved and some residents said they would prefer the property remain as is.

Owners now willing to sell

A bright spot for the town, Dritz said, was that it was able to convince the property owners to sell, rather than lease, as has long been their preference.

“Due to the current market conditions, I believe that it became apparent to the owners that it would be difficult at best for a potential developer to redevelop the property and make a reasonable rate of return on their investment under the terms of a lease,” Town Manager Brian Raducci said.

“As a result, I believe that selling the land became a more viable option for all concerned parties,” Raducci said.

“We will continue to communicate our desire for the site and what we envision for the properties going forward to ensure that any potential redevelopment will benefit our entire community.”

A million in fines owed

The Handelsmans still owe significant fines on the property, since the cottages had not been meeting codes for years. The fines, exceeding $1.1 million, “helped to nudge them in the right direction” as far as selling the property, Dritz said.

Dritz said the town has authorization to foreclose on the property. “But I think more than that our end goal is to have something developed there that’s going to kind of spur some economic growth in the downtown. It’s very much less about the fines to us and more about getting a development in there.

“We certainly don’t want the code fines to hinder any type of development effort, but if the owner decides just to sit on the property, then we have some legal action that we can take.”

Islanders’ views

Several Hypoluxo Island residents weighed in on the proposal.

Patricia Towle, who opposed the plan, was concerned about the increase in traffic and said the town should do a study on traffic during peak season before going ahead. 

“I live east of the bridge,” she said. “Right now, to get to Dixie Highway, especially in season, takes me maybe 15 minutes. If you put a seven-story structure there, with cars turning in and out, it’s gonna take me a half an hour.” 

Michelle Donahue said she was excited about the attention this parcel has attracted and was delighted to learn more about Kenco’s boutique hotel/restaurant proposal. “I’m sure if Kenco is truly interested, they’ll come back around with another offer, or the Handelsmans may find another developer with similar interests. My overall hope is that the entire parcel will remain intact and developed as a single project rather than being subdivided into four separate projects.” 

J.J. McDonough said he was happy that the Handelsmans are open and amenable to selling the property. He suggested the town not be so tied to having an “old fishing village vibe” and move on as other communities have. He said Lantana needs to do better self-care.

“We’re so frugally minded that we just can’t see the big picture,” he said. 

One of my favorite sections of the paper is philanthropy.

It’s not just pictures of happy, smiling people — although many of those photographed are indeed happy, smiling and looking good. 

The section is consequential because it keeps tabs on massive charitable giving that pays for vital services and innovation. The largesse also addresses systemic issues in areas such as health, literacy and the arts, while inspiring new solutions and strategies for social good by spotlighting what works. 

Amy Woods has been curating the section for The Coastal Star since August 2012. She’s leaving the paper this month after 13-plus years and we thank her and wish her well. 

“I helped spread the word about South County’s charity scene and its benefactors and beneficiaries,” she says. “The number of good deeds and the amount of good work being done in the area has been an honor and a joy to highlight. I have formed bonds and relationships with the administrators and the volunteers leading the charge for their important causes. 

“What has been most rewarding about my role at The Coastal Star is the ability to shine a light on the critical needs in the community.”

Previously, Amy was editor of Notables at The Palm Beach Post for 11 years. In 2023, she wrote her first book, 100 Things to Do in Jupiter Before You Die. Her second book, Secret Palm Beach: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, comes out this month.

As Amy goes on to devote time to her books, we welcome Lou Ann Frala, who has been a well-respected and admired copy editor at The Palm Beach Post since 1985, leaving during the pandemic in 2020, then returning in February 2022 as a sports copy editor. 

In her career, she also served as an assistant business editor, and she was op-ed editor for 12 years. Her career began on the sports desk of The Kansas City Star, and she served as sports editor on small papers in Texas and Missouri before coming to Florida in 1985.

Lou Ann, who was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia. 

She says she “is delighted to be joining The Coastal Star,” and we are delighted to have her on the philanthropy desk. 

To reach Lou Ann and our philanthropy section, send news and photos to our newly minted philanthropy email, philanthropy@thecoastalstarcom. 

Help us keep the good news coming — and keep smiling!

— Mary Thurwachter, Managing Editor

Mary Csar is moving to a Jacksonville historic district, closer to her kids. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Hladky

Mary Csar has been involved in preserving Boca Raton’s history almost from the moment she moved to the city in 1978.

She joined the Boca Raton Historical Society and soon was giving tours at The Boca Raton, the historic resort launched by famed architect Addison Mizner.

She changed her focus for a time, serving as president of the Junior League of Boca Raton, joining the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and later working in community relations at the now-closed National Cartoon Museum.

And then the historical society beckoned again, hiring her to coordinate events for the society’s 25th anniversary. When the executive director’s position opened, she applied and was hired in 1999.

After almost 27 years in that role, Csar retired in December. Olivia Hollaus, a former society board president, has taken her place.

“It will be a very smooth transition,” Csar said.

Over her nearly three-decade tenure, the historical society has strengthened its finances, professionalized with the hiring of curator Susan Gillis, and completely renovated the Old Town Hall, which houses its history museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gillis’ hiring was key. “That is when we really started documenting our collections and getting things in shape,” Csar said.

Csar launched the Boca Bacchanal in 2003, an annual fine wine and food event that is the society’s main fundraiser, to support its education and historic preservation programs.

Another early project was restoring two 1947 rail cars, a steam engine and a caboose, at the former Florida East Coast Railway station at 747 S. Dixie Highway.

The society sold the train station in 2020 so that it could invest in its biggest project — turning the Old Town Hall, at 71 N. Federal Highway, into a full-fledged museum.

That project was complicated by all the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. And its cost soared to $4 million after workers discovered that the old building had many unexpected problems, including disintegrated cast iron pipes that had to be replaced.

“We had no idea we would have to do so many renovations on the building. There were things that came up that we had to do,” Csar said. 

That prompted Csar to ask the City Council for $1.2 million in financial help. Council members were reluctant but eventually provided the money.

“We have to credit the city for really helping us out,” she said.

Further help came from a $1 million donation from museum supporters Barbara and Dick Schmidt. The Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum is named in their honor.

The finished museum includes a city timeline from the pre-Columbian era to the 21st century that runs along an interior hallway. Individual rooms are dedicated to specific subjects.

Among the highlights are the first settlers, Addison Mizner and the Cloister Inn, the World War II Boca Raton Army Air Field, Florida Atlantic University’s groundbreaking, IBM’s production of the first personal computer, construction of the Town Center mall and the 2001 anthrax attack on the AMI building.

Csar said the museum, which is open Wednesday through Saturday, attracts many visitors.

“The exhibits are very intense,” she said. “There is a lot to see. Our lectures are very well attended.”

Csar is now ready for her next chapter.

She and her husband are moving to Jacksonville to be near their son, who lives there, and nearer to their two daughters in North Carolina and New Jersey. “It is time to focus on family,” she said.

But she is not forsaking history. The couple’s new home is in the Riverside historic district along the St. Johns River.

“The whole area is a preservation district,” she said. “That excites me to no end.” 

By Mary Hladky

In a widely anticipated move, Republican Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer has announced his candidacy for Florida’s 23rd Congressional District, hoping to unseat Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz.

A strong supporter of President Donald Trump, Singer made clear in his Dec. 18 campaign announcement that, if elected, he intends to follow Trump’s lead.

“I’m running for Congress as an America First conservative who believes that we need leaders in D.C. who will work to build on President Trump’s success to secure our borders, defend our nation, cut waste, and bring taxes and costs down for all Americans,” he said on social media.

A video accompanying his announcement included a clip of a shout-out from Trump thanking Singer.

Singer also touted his record as mayor.

“As Mayor, I fought to keep taxes and crime low, while increasing investment in public safety, infrastructure and helping add jobs to our community,” he said.

Singer faces a crowded Republican field. Six other candidates include former state Rep. George Moraitis of Fort Lauderdale, and Joe Kaufman, who was the party’s 2024 nominee against Moskowitz.

The 23rd District covers Boca Raton and Highland Beach, runs west to Coral Springs and south into Fort Lauderdale.

It is now almost evenly split between Republican and Democratic voters. But that could change because Gov. Ron DeSantis and state legislative leaders are planning redistricting of its boundaries ahead of the 2026 election.

Singer was first elected to the City Council in 2014 and has served as mayor since 2018. He is term-limited from running again and his last day in office is March 31.

Moskowitz was first elected in 2022 and reelected in 2024, both times by small margins.

Singer, a lawyer who graduated from Harvard and Georgetown Law, has maintained a high profile as mayor.

He successfully lobbied Brightline officials to build a train station in Boca Raton that opened in 2022, and followed that up by spearheading plans to create a transit-oriented development on city-owned land abutting the station.

He was the force behind creating a public-private partnership with developers Terra and Frisbie Group to redevelop the city’s downtown campus. That has proved to be contentious, with the residents group Save Boca pushing to kill the project.

Once it became likely that democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani would win the New York City mayoral election last November, Singer launched a high-profile campaign to lure to

Boca Raton high net worth individuals and corporations opposed to Mamdani’s policies and plans.

By John Pacenti

When it comes to unhinged moments for this Delray Beach City Commission, admittedly, the bar is fairly high, as meetings routinely have devolved into shouting matches during Mayor Tom Carney’s term with the gavel.

Yet, the Dec. 8 commission meeting may live in infamy. 

Carney verbally sparred with Commissioners Tom Markert and Juli Casale over his favorite punching bag: the Downtown Development Authority. 

For a mayor who insisted months earlier that his colleagues follow decorum, the meeting was a lesson in Robert’s Rules of Disorder. One longtime political player called it “chaos.”

It started simple enough.

The commission was set to approve the DDA’s interlocal agreement and disperse $700,000 — funding for running the Old School Square campus that was delayed because of an audit about that management spearheaded by Carney.

The DDA gets most of its $2.7 million budget from an additional property tax of $1 per $1,000 of taxable value for property owners who live within its boundaries, generally along Atlantic Avenue and surrounding properties from Interstate 95 to State Road A1A.

The audit found “control deficiencies and documentation weaknesses,” but said the DDA agreed with recommendations to tighten up policies — by March — on purchasing and credit card use, among other things.

The DDA “admitted and, in the documents, they didn’t have all the receipts. So how do you not have any fraud?” Carney asked.

Carney proposed holding back some of the money from the DDA until the implementation of promised changes — and bedlam ensued.

No longer allies

It’s easy to forget that Carney, Markert and Casale ran as a slate and were elected in March 2024 in races that focused on development, city management and taxation.

The mayor refused to allow other commissioners to speak, interrupting them.

Markert, who says he has the most corporate experience on the dais, told Carney that the city audit was completely normal, finding insignificant deficiencies. “I would say, whoopty-do,” he said.

“I, as a commissioner, would like to know what is going on with your attitude toward the Downtown Development Authority,” Markert told Carney. “You take a swipe at them every time you can. We just finished an audit. I was hoping today you’d be coming in apologizing to the DDA.”

When Markert asked Carney about his experiences with audits, the mayor told him, “With my banks.”

“Where’s your bank? I missed it. Where’s it been?” Markert retorted.

Carney’s father established Carney Bank of South Florida and other financial institutions — none of which exist today.

Markert has been a strong DDA defender, saying that the organization has played a key role in making downtown a destination for locals and tourists alike, with its plethora of restaurants, unusual shops and thriving businesses. 

The DDA also stepped into the void in 2023 when the city couldn’t find anyone to run Old School Square — its pavilion, its museum, its banquet space — when the nonprofit that managed it for years was kicked out by a former commission for lack of financial transparency. 

It got even uglier at the Dec. 8 meeting when Casale — as if tagged in like a wrestler — took over for Markert and tried to defend the DDA, saying the mayor was wrong that 60% of the DDA’s budget goes to administrative costs. “You can’t keep saying inaccurate things,” she said.

She said Carney’s obsession with the DDA extended to writing a misleading op-ed in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. 

Casale didn’t mention that Carney also insisted on sitting on the DDA’s board over the summer after he discovered he was allowed to in the City Charter. Some appointed business owners said they were uncomfortable. 

He made a public records request for the DDA’s financials when DDA Executive Director Laura Simon said she would provide them in a one-on-one meeting. 

Taking it to the state

Now, state Sen. Mack Bernard has gotten the state involved, using the mayor’s op-ed on the DDA as justification. “It is legitimate to question the continued necessity of its existence,” Bernard wrote to the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. That committee voted at its own Dec. 8 meeting to authorize Bernard’s requested operational audit of the DDA by the Florida Auditor General. 

Bernard called the DDA “a monster” at that meeting. 

The Legislature could dissolve the DDA, which it established in 1971.

“Mack Bernard got a call one month ago, at exactly the time we all found out that this audit wasn’t going to produce misconduct, fraud, or misuse of taxpayer funds,” Casale said at her commission’s meeting.

Decorum? What decorum?

Carney repeatedly talked over Casale, saying he would not stand for being accused. It came down to decorum, with Casale saying the mayor had violated the city’s code of conduct and refused to support an important partner in the DDA.

She said four different people told her that Carney is intent on eliminating the DDA or reducing its scope. 

Carney said the DDA has ignored businesses west of Swinton Avenue. The mayor has explored creating a new taxing district for that area.

At one point, Casale had enough of the mayor’s interruptions and shouted, “Please stop!”

“I don’t understand why you want to eliminate them,” she said. “Just answer the question. It’s obvious, why?”

That is indeed the question.

DDA in the crosshairs

Simon says the DDA has always been transparent about its finances at its meetings. It has only been in the last few years, when the DDA board turned over, that the issue has emerged.

“We overcommunicate our financials,” she said. “We have had very little — if any — concern from the public regarding our financials.”

Some city staff and community leaders say the DDA has a reputation of being aloof and not playing well with others. Still, Simon says property owners in the DDA aren’t looking for a tax break by getting rid of the DDA.

“The property owners rely on us to keep their businesses in business,” Simon told The Coastal Star. Certainly, the blogs and newsletters are abuzz with the issue. So much so, the city auditor was forced — sources say by Carney’s complaining — to respond with a letter to the commission.

Internal Auditor Elena Georgiev on Dec. 15 clarified that while she did not find any fraud, her look at the finances was limited in scope. “The audit was not designed or conducted as an investigation, and no conclusion of wrongdoing was done in my report.”

But Georgiev also said that her findings were “significant in a public-sector context because they increased risk and reduced transparency, even in the absence of fraud.”

Which begs the question: Why didn’t Carney ask for an investigative audit?

Behind the scenes

Speaking on background, city officials and leaders have their suspicions that others could be pulling Carney’s strings.

Mary McCarty, the former city commissioner who went to prison for corruption while on the County Commission and got a pardon from President Donald Trump, is often seen gesturing or even shouting out to Carney during meetings. At a Dec. 1 commission meeting, Casale had to tell her that her behavior was not appropriate.

The Coastal Star has a pending public records request for communications between McCarty and Carney.

McCarty says she is not the impetus behind Carney’s obsession with the DDA — though the audit findings do cause her concerns. She explained her gesturing.

“I get very frustrated with the way Tom runs a meeting. He doesn’t ever ask for a motion,” she said. “It’s like they’re sitting up there around their kitchen table.”

And then there is the theory involving Andre Fladell — that the longtime political player is no fan of the DDA because of events it holds on the beach, which he considers his turf. Fladell is also an ally of McCarty.

Fladell, when contacted, said he was the one who reached out to Bernard, a former city commissioner, after Carney’s op-ed. He said he was disturbed by the audit’s finding on gifts. 

“I alerted Mack Bernard. I said to him that there is an issue with employees of the DDA spending money on alcohol and gift cards and not keeping track of who is receiving bottles of wine and gift cards,” Fladell said.

He said he had the same conversation with McCarty. He said Markert’s shot at Carney Bank on Linton Boulevard was “really bad” because the bank would give loans to small local businesses when the corporate banks would not.

He did describe commission meetings currently as “chaos.”

Casale said the alliance among her, Carney and Markert is no longer. “It went from Tom, Tom and Juli to Tom, Mary and Andre,” she said.

Carney’s big cudgel currently is his contention that 60% of the DDA’s budget goes to administrative or outside marketing costs. 

“The city auditor found the DDA had a lack of financial controls and the state has now opened a full audit,” Carney told The Coastal Star. “I don’t understand why my colleagues continue to protect the DDA at the expense of transparency and accountability to taxpayers.”

Turf war?

Simon appeared in front of the state’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee on Dec. 8 without any support from the city and has told Carney the DDA would gladly give the keys back to Old School Square if the city is unsatisfied with its management of the campus.

At the Tallahassee hearing, Jim Knight — chairman of the DDA’s board — said: “We don't want to run Old School Square anymore. We think it’s better to be run by a private agency, as opposed to a taxing authority, so forth. So we’re looking to hand that off sooner than later." 

Simon told The Coastal Star that she clarified for the legislative committee that the figure for administrative costs is 30%. 

Make no mistake, Simon is Delray Beach royalty, with her family being among its earliest settlers. And the question that Carney is just engaging in an old-fashioned turf war hasn’t escaped her.

Carney, after initially refusing to meet, finally sat down with her over the summer. 

“He said, ‘It’s just government, it’s just political. I do this to every board I join,’” Simon recalled. “He says, it’s not personal — it’s personal.”

Carney denied ever making that statement.

In the end, the mayor got his way at the Dec. 8 meeting. Only half of the DDA’s budget for Old School Square — $350,000 — was released while the DDA amends its policies and the state starts its audit.

At the end of the meeting, Carney had one more thing to add as City Manager Terrence Moore made a casual mention of city directors celebrating birthdays. It was Mary McCarty’s birthday, too, he noted. 

Save Boca battles unfavorable court ruling

The latest Terra and Frisbie Group plan for Boca Raton’s downtown campus has office, hotel, multifamily and commercial buildings (1-7) on 7.8 acres east of Northwest Second Avenue, with park and government space to the west. Rendering provided

By Mary Hladky

Terra and Frisbie Group, which plan to develop a 7.8-acre section of the city’s downtown campus, have unveiled new details about what they envision.

Boca Raton voters will decide whether the downtown campus project can go forward in the March 10 city election.

But the city and Terra/Frisbie are moving quickly to finalize a master partnership agreement and the 99-year lease of city land to the developers so that the project can move ahead quickly if voters give their approval.

Final City Council votes on both matters are expected on Jan. 20 in what will be pivotal decisions.

Though it now seems an unlikely outcome, a council majority vote against the partnership agreement and lease would kill the project unless the council takes some other action.

It would also nullify the March 10 ballot question that allows voters to cast up or down votes on the downtown campus redevelopment plan.

Yet it probably would be too late for the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections to strip the measure from the ballot. In that event, city and election officials would have to explain to voters in advance that the measure no longer is operative.

The project originally was to encompass the entire 31.7-acre downtown campus. But after residents who have banded together as Save Boca strongly opposed that, Terra/Frisbie agreed to leave the nearly 17.3 acres west of Northwest Second Avenue as recreation and park space along with a new City Hall and Community Center.

The developers confined the land they would lease to 7.8 acres on the east side of the street. Nearly 6.7 other acres on that side are part of the campus and will not be leased. They will remain under city control.

Latest design
Presenting their conceptual plans on Dec. 15, Terra/Frisbie said they plan seven buildings and a parking garage on the site.

They include a 120,000-square-foot office building and a 30,000-square-foot grocery store on a parcel immediately west of the Brightline station and east of the Downtown Library.Below that, a 180-room hotel would front Northwest Second Avenue.

Four residential buildings would be built south of the hotel with a total of 765 rental units.

A condo building with 182 units would be located east of the hotel.

The maximum height for the office building is proposed to be nine stories, while the other buildings can be up to 12 stories.

City officials have not yet provided a location for the parking garage but have said it will have about 1,900 parking spaces.

The city will own the garage but will share it with private users. It will include public parking.

The buildings will include restaurant and retail, generally on the ground floor.

A pedestrian promenade will run through the property from the Downtown Library to West Palmetto Park Road.

Council members did not offer their opinions on the plans, with several saying they needed time to digest what they had seen.

City’s proposed ordinance
In another matter related to the development project, Mayor Scott Singer has proposed an ordinance that would set procedures for when the city wants to sell or lease any city-owned land greater than one-half acre.

The ordinance is Singer’s answer to Save Boca supporters who insist that city residents be able to vote before the city leases or sells any city-owned land greater than one-half acre.

To enable that, Save Boca wanted changes to a city ordinance and the city charter so that a vote by the public is required.

The measures were aimed against the City Council’s plans to lease downtown campus land to Terra/Frisbie.

Voters were going to have their say on the ordinance and charter changes in a special Jan. 13 election. But Palm Beach County Circuit Judge G. Joseph Curley ruled on Dec. 1 that both be stricken from the ballot because one was unconstitutional and the other required a vote before Jan. 13.

Singer’s ordinance would require two public hearings before a sale or lease is approved.

Before each hearing, the city would have to mail a notice to all property owners within 500 feet of the city-owned land and post a notice on the land so that residents know what is happening.

Council members will consider the ordinance this month.

But Save Boca founder Jon Pearlman already has panned the idea, saying it is “a political maneuver by Mr. Singer.”

“It is a fake Boca law,” he said at the council’s Dec. 16 meeting, that still allows the council, and not voters, to decide whether land can be sold or leased.

Save Boca fight continues
Pearlman has not given up on the ordinance and charter changes.

The litigation has not ended between him and retired Boca Raton attorney Ned Kimmelman — who argued that the wording of the two changes is misleading, confusing and violates Florida law.

Pearlman now is seeking to have Curley’s Dec. 1 order vacated. He also wants the proposed ordinance and charter changes to go before city voters at a regularly scheduled election.

Kimmelman had dismissed Save Boca and Pearlman as defendants in his lawsuit in November, which prevented them from defending the two changes in court.

So Pearlman is also seeking to be returned as a party to the case. Curley ordered on Dec. 23 that the two sides schedule a hearing on that matter.

“The case is still ongoing, and we are actively fighting it,” Pearlman told the council on Dec. 15. “We are very confident that we will ultimately prevail and that these Save Boca laws will go before the voters, who will then have the opportunity to enact them into law.”

The legal sparring has grown increasingly heated over the past month.

In a court pleading, Kimmelman contends that Pearlman and his supporters began collecting voter signatures to place the two changes on the ballot before registering as a political committee, a violation of state law.

As a result, the signatures are invalid and the two changes cannot be voted on, the pleading states.

For his part, Pearlman has accused Kimmelman of “judge shopping” in order to get a favorable ruling from another judge.

That prompted Kimmelman to send Pearlman a letter, saying Pearlman “defamed” him. Kimmelman told him to “cease and desist publishing these falsehoods immediately or I will sue you for compensatory and punitive damages.”

If Pearlman prevails in the litigation, it might have no effect on the Terra/Frisbie project since no new election can be held before the one already scheduled for March 10 when voters are now expected to have a say.

But it would impact future land leases or sales, and city officials say holding elections for them would be cumbersome and costly and delay routine transactions that voters most likely would approve.

Project clears P&Z hurdle
The city completed a procedural step toward moving the project forward on Dec. 18 when the Planning and Zoning Board voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council lease the 7.8 acres to Terra/Frisbie.

But the board’s review was limited in scope. Members were not tasked with evaluating the project, but only to say whether the lease is “advisable” from a planning perspective.

Work has begun on an oceanfront four-story home in Boca Raton east of State Road A1A.

Delray Beach-based Azure Development LLC, which owns the .42-acre property at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd., applied for a building permit on April 30 after the Boca Raton City Council in October 2024 granted a variance to build a home on the sand east of the city’s Coastal Construction Control Line.

The application values what will be a 6,931-square-foot structure, across A1A from the Blue Water Townhouses, at almost $3.2 million.

The city’s Development Services Department issued the permit on Dec. 4 and collected fees of $69,122.

To get the permit, Azure had to meet 17 conditions, including that the building’s windows transmit no more than 31% of any interior lighting onto the beach, which is nesting habitat for protected sea turtles.

Azure first sought permission to build on the dune in February 2019 but was rejected by the City Council. The property appraiser’s office values the vacant land at almost $3.4 million.

— Steve Plunkett

Anyone who was at the Delray Beach Historical Society on Dec. 6 honoring the life of Bob Ganger had to feel his presence. The people who spoke acknowledged how deeply he had touched their lives, both as a mentor and a friend. 

I remember the first time meeting Bob at his office located in the alleyway a few doors down from my home, the historic Hartman House. Although the room was small and a bit dark, his brilliant light shined through and I knew he would help ensure Delray would retain its charm and character. 

The Florida Coalition for Preservation was and will always be his baby. There is no denying how much he saved from the wrecking ball, with Briny Breezes being near the top of the list, providing affordability for everyday folks to live by the water. 

Honestly, there was no scope above his reach in saving our shores. And the little guy and gal always came first with him.
As one of the speakers at the celebration of life said, what Bob’s name stood for was, and will always be, the best of the best.

— Benita Goldstein, Delray Beach

I was tickled by the article regarding Milani Park in the recent The Coastal Star.

I was reminded of a Highland Beach public meeting probably 10 years ago.

I was the only resident speaking for the renovation. There was talk about the arrival of drug traffic, that the portable johns are notorious for homosexual activity, the increase of traffic itself, nudity and sex on the beach, possible immigrants from Cuba, and uninhabited houses/apartments being vandalized.

Well, my words were forgotten when this Native American and his wife came charging into the room whooping and dancing like a Native American in a John Wayne movie.

Why? It seems there had been the discovery of the remains of a Native American, buried 500 years ago.

The entire audience immediately became lovers of Native American history. Unlike a movie with John Wayne under the stagecoach, rifle in hand, Native Americans circling, there weren’t no John Waynes in the bunch. 

Immediately, the crowd had many suggestions which, in my opinion, would result in very few visitors. There was talk about a Native American museum, researching the area for a possible Native American graveyard, pay parking for the lot, and no access to the beach because of the graveyard research.

The list went on. In my suspicious mind, I believed and still believe the only issue was to severely impede the visitors to this park.

— T. Hoy Booker, Highland Beach

Boca Raton will soon begin work on projects along the coast estimated to cost $6.5 million.

The City Council on Nov. 18 approved hiring Burkhardt Construction of West Palm Beach to serve as construction manager on the projects.

The work will include the replacement of three restrooms at Spanish River Park, the replacement of six lifeguard towers and the rehabilitation of three sea walls that protect against flooding.

The sea walls are located on the east side of Southeast Wavecrest Way near Lake Drive, at Jeffery Street along the Intracoastal Waterway and at east end of Northeast 32nd Street.

After design drawings are completed for each of the projects, Burkhardt will update the costs, which then must be approved by the City Council.

For now, the lifeguard tower replacements are projected to cost $1.6 million, the new restrooms almost $2 million and the improved sea walls $3 million. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has provided a $950,000 grant to help defray the sea wall cost.

— Mary Hladky

A special statehouse election primary will be held Jan. 13 for the District 87 seat that was vacated when former state Rep. Mike Caruso resigned his position after being appointed Palm Beach County’s clerk of court and comptroller by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The district includes most of Manalapan, eastern Lantana, plus South Palm Beach and points north to Juno Beach.

The state says the Jan. 13 election will have a Republican primary between Gretchen L. Miller Feng and Jon Maples, and a Democrat primary between Emily Gregory and Laura Levites.

The winners of the two primaries will face off in the special general election on March 24, two weeks after the county’s March 10 municipal elections.

Caruso replaced former Clerk of Courts Joseph Abruzzo, who was hired as county administrator by the County Commission.

— Staff report

Several hundred people gathered in downtown Boca Raton for the annual menorah lighting to mark the fourth night of Hanukkah and honor victims of the deadly attack in Sydney, Australia. Before the celebration began, the community paused for prayers and reflection, remembering the 15 people killed and dozens more wounded in the horrific shooting at Bondi Beach during a celebration on the first night of Hanukkah. For Rabbi Ruvi New of Boca Beach Chabad, who addressed those in attendance, the tragedy is deeply personal. Two of his cousins were wounded, with one, 20 years old, still hospitalized after being shot twice. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By John Pacenti

The Ocean Ridge Town Commission at its Dec. 1 meeting for 61 minutes grappled — in what Mayor Geoff Pugh called “a great discussion” — with whether single-family property owners could exceed the town code for house size in exchange for easements needed for flood control. 

It will come up for a second reading at the commission’s Jan. 12 meeting.

The town needs an easement on a property on Harbour Drive North, a street that frequently experiences flooding. The homeowner, according to Town Manager Michelle Heiser, wants to add 500 more square feet.

“The homeowner, like it or not, knows we need that easement and says, ‘This house my wife wants, it includes a bigger closet,’” Heiser said. 

The proposed addition to the home also would not be visible from the roadway and the ordinance is an effort to solve the impasse, she added.

The issue at hand is FAR — floor area ratio — the measurement of a building in relation to the size of the lot or parcel on which it sits. Currently, the town allows a 36% FAR for parcels up to 20,000 square feet.

For the Harbour Drive North home in question, which sits on an 11,761-square-foot lot, the proposed ordinance would allow the property owner to go from a 36% FAR to a 42% FAR, increasing the house maximum — now at 4,704 square feet — to 5,227 square feet.

“The proposed ordinance would create a sort of tiered approach to allow for properties to increase their FAR up to a certain percentage based on the town’s request for an easement,” Town Attorney Christy Goddeau said.

Goddeau said any prospective single-family residence would still have to pass muster with the Planning and Zoning Commission, be compatible with the neighborhood, and satisfy other factors.

Future consequences

Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy spoke out against the ordinance as proposed, saying the town has crafted rules to keep property owners from “maxing out” their residences. She noted that the ordinance really is because of an “uncooperative homeowner” on Harbour Drive North.

“To build an ordinance because of one property owner, because we need it now, I think, is a mistake,” Cassidy said.

“This is a blanket ordinance for the entire community that we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” she noted. 

Commissioner Ainar Aijala Jr. asked Goddeau if such accommodations would be a rare circumstance.

Yes and no, she said. Currently, there are only two properties, besides the one on Harbour Drive North, where the new ordinance would apply.

“But as you know, things change in town, given drainage issues and flooding issues, there may become a need that this is utilized more by the town,” Goddeau said.

Public comments were also pointed.

“I think it’s a really slippery slope, whether you’re doing it for one homeowner or only because of an easement or only on a certain street,” said former Mayor Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation. “The character of our town is based on the fact that we don’t have these Boca McMansions.”

Former Commissioner Terry Brown had the opposite viewpoint. “In my opinion, you’ve got to do horse trading. And this is an example of where you’re going to do it,” he said.

Cassidy asked whatever happened to the idea of the town abandoning the right of way. 

Heiser said that the town engineer did not see that as a good solution because of flooding issues and has already started the permitting process with the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District.

“It looks like we’re trying to solve a problem, but I want to make sure there aren’t unintended consequences that we just can’t foresee,” Aijala said.

Flooding issues

Commissioner David Hutchins and the mayor live on Harbour Drive North.

“When it floods on that street, it’s dramatic, and it can affect a lot of activities,” Hutchins said. “The reason we were looking at this easement was so we could move the water off the street, at least on a high tide.”

He said the homeowner has “got us over a barrel,” but the goal has always been flood control.

Pugh said it was time to make a deal. 

“So if you want me to tell everybody on my street who complains vociferously about the flooding on the street that we didn’t do it because we wouldn’t give that guy 500 more square feet,” Pugh said. “I’m not willing to do that.”

In the end, the commission passed the ordinance on first reading but with amendments, including a preamble that the commission intends for such easement swaps to be limited use and that it would periodically review requests. The commission also asked Goddeau to tighten up the language on whether the easement remains with the town if the property is sold and to explore if the FAR percentages could be lowered.

In the meantime, negotiations continue with the homeowner.