By Jane Smith

    Rogue sober homes are so overwhelming south county coastal communities that leaders of the three largest cities are grasping at anything that holds promise to protect their neighborhoods.
    They all want a seat on the Palm Beach County state attorney’s drug treatment task force.
    “We definitely want to be involved with that task force,” said Susan Haynie, Boca Raton mayor.
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said, “We have been at the table from the beginning pleading for real assistance.” His city is known as the “recovery capital of America” because of its numerous treatment centers and sober homes.
    The state Legislature awarded State Attorney Dave Aronberg $275,000 to review drug treatment laws and report back by year’s end.
    Said Alan Johnson, chief assistant state attorney, who volunteered to set up the task force: “I have received hundreds of emails from people who want to be involved in this project.”
    The money began flowing July 1, the start of the state’s budget year. Johnson was fine-tuning the task force in the final days of June.
    Aronberg was chosen because of his “drug czar” role in helping the state clean up the pill mill industry in 2011.
    Prosecutor Justin Chapman will lead the task force, which will be divided into at least two groups, Johnson said.
    A former captain with the state Division of Insurance, Ted Padich, will head the law enforcement group. Before joining the state, he spent 20 years on the Boynton Beach police force.
    Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman will assign an officer to that group. In 2015, Delray Beach police responded to 144 heroin overdoses, 10 of which were fatal. Through May of this year, 202 heroin overdoses occurred in the city, resulting in 18 fatalities.
    The heroin overdoses peaked at 64 in March. To combat that rise, Delray Beach police started Operation Street Sweeper in late February. Undercover officers bought narcotics from known dealers, resulting in at least 30 arrests.
    Boynton Beach will also assign an officer to that group.
    Police Chief Jeffrey Katz said the group can be successful if the members put their heads together and combine resources, just as they did when fighting the pill mill crises.
    Through early June, Boynton Beach dealt with 121 overdoses and seven overdose deaths.
    The other group of the task force will have a mix of providers, elected officials, Florida Association of Recovery Residences President John Lehman, a drug court judge and activists.
    This group will hold its first meetings from 2 to 5 p.m. July 13 and 14. The meetings will be open to the public and held in the West Palm Beach Police Department’s community room.
    FARR has a voluntary certification program for recovery residences, the industry preferred term for sober homes. Starting in July, state-licensed drug and alcohol treatment centers will be barred from discharging patients or referring clients to recovery residences that are not certified.
    But the association didn’t receive any state money for this budget year.
    Boca Raton was the first community that tried to regulate recovery residences, Haynie said, “but unfortunately we lost.”
    In 2003, the city was sued in federal court over zoning laws created to protect its neighborhoods. Boca Raton lost that case in 2007 when the judge ruled that the zoning laws discriminated against recovering addicts.
    Cities, including Delray Beach, also lost court cases when recovery residences and their clients sued under federal disability and fair housing laws. Sometimes the judges awarded multimillion-dollar damages to the recovery residence operators and their clients. Addicts in recovery are seen as a family unit protected under federal laws.
    Johnson, of the state attorney’s office, admits that’s a “tightrope to work with, but it can be done effectively. … We’ll have to educate (the cities) about what can be done within the federal laws.”
    Addicts and their families are lured to South Florida by the pictures of paradise painted by tourism officials. They are also recruited to come here by profit-seeking providers.
    Once they are here, a 28-day stay in a treatment center is the norm, thanks to the Mental Health Parity Act of 2008 that requires health insurers to provide the same level of treatment for addictions as they would for other medical problems. From there, patients are released to recovery residences where they live with other recovering addicts.
    In Palm Beach County, rogue operators have infiltrated the drug treatment industry — with allegations of insurance fraud, patient brokering and kickbacks, Johnson said.
The FBI began raiding such places nearly two years ago, but so far there have been no indictments.

2015 overdose deaths
Ten of the deaths occurred at motels, another nine at recovery residences.
Boynton Beach       28
Delray Beach          25
Boca Raton             20

Source: Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office

    Public record: 1) a record required by law to be made and kept; 2) a record made by a public officer in the course of his legal duty to make it; 3) a record filed in a public office and open to public inspection.
    These definitions are from Merriam-Webster. My definition is that a public record is what you as a taxpayer have a right to know about how your government operates.
    This summer our cities and towns will be preparing budgets for the next fiscal year. They will be considering new or upgraded records management systems. They will be considering how to best manage their telecommunications and data systems.
    They will be looking at how best to distribute information to their residents. Some will be improving their streaming audio and video to provide greater resident access to how decisions are made by their elected officials.
    This is the year we as taxpayers should demand our municipalities make easy access to public records a top priority.
    Why now? Because property tax values have increased for the fifth straight year and municipal coffers are returning to record 2007 levels. In other words, the cash is available.
    And, of course, there is what we should learn from the continuing public records litigation in Gulf Stream.
    No matter how small and discreet a town wants to remain, it doesn’t pay to not have systems in place to handle any and all requests for information from its residents — even residents who might use Florida’s open records laws for vindictive purposes or use despicable dramatics and the filing of questionable lawsuits to further their self-interests.
    Every small town in our area should be asking itself: What would it do if it suddenly were besieged with public record requests for everything from text messages to telephone communications to emails and meeting transcripts? Would its officials balk, circle the wagons and decide to fight the requests in court, or hire additional help and meet the demands as the spirit of the public records law demands?
    It’s easy to tell which way most benefits the taxpayer.
    What other small municipalities should study from Gulf Stream’s situation is the impressive way the town has reacted to its unique situation by investing in improved public records management and new platforms for resident involvement in government operations.
    This year, let your elected officials know that access to public records is your right as a taxpayer. Even if you never plan to file a Freedom of Information Act request, tell them you want your tax dollars invested in an infrastructure that will assure transparency in local government.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

‘The accomplishments are not generated by the manager but by the commissioners,᾿

says William Thrasher, Gulf Stream town manager.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett  

    Gulf Stream ranks high on a short list of South Florida communities that value longevity in public service.
    Rita Taylor is in her 27th year as town clerk. Joan Orthwein is in her 21st year as a town commissioner, ranking as Palm Beach County’s second-longest-serving elected official behind Cloud Lake Mayor Patrick Slatery, who’s served 38 years.
    And William Thrasher has just completed 20 years as a Gulf Stream administrator, the last 16 as town manager.
    It is not easy to last two decades in municipal management. Managers have to operate within the shifting political whims of their elected bodies and often wind up in the crosshairs of blame, justifiably or not, when things go wrong.  
    Consider that just up the road in South Palm Beach last year, the Town Council hired a new manager from New Jersey and then terminated him six months later.
    The Florida City and County Management Association says the average tenure for town managers is about six years.
    Thrasher thinks the longevity of service in Gulf Stream should be considered part of the legacy of William F. Koch, who served as the town’s mayor for 46 of his 91 years, until his death in 2012.
    Koch was a powerful influence on Thrasher and his colleagues, they say.
    “I have to say I loved Mayor Koch,” Thrasher says. “He was the greatest person I’ve ever been in contact with. He was a very hard outer shell person, but with a very loving heart.”
    As Taylor puts it: Koch “had a lot of empathy for mankind.”
    Thrasher’s path to Gulf Stream was unlikely in the socioeconomic landscapes it crossed. He grew up baling hay in Ottumwa, Iowa, known as the birthplace of the fictional Radar O’Reilly, the character in Richard Hooker’s M.A.S.H. novel. He came to Florida with Phyllis, his wife of 48 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Florida Atlantic University and wound up doing finance work for the city of Pahokee, 55 miles and several cultural light-years from Gulf Stream.  
    He answered an ad Koch placed for an assistant to the town manager, and Thrasher found his mentor and career in the same place.
    “Mayor Koch was always a surprise as it relates to what he knew,” Thrasher says. “He knew so much. He was so influential but would never give the pretense of being that influential.”
    Thrasher says working alongside Koch helped him develop a commitment to Gulf Stream that has endured through some difficult challenges in recent years.  
    Thrasher and other town officials have been named as defendants in dozens of lawsuits filed by residents Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare over numerous disputed issues. The town also is in the middle of an arduous project to move its utility lines underground — an initiative that probably will take roughly a decade from conception to completion a couple years from now.
    Thrasher says getting Florida Power & Light to cooperate on the project is “like trying to push water uphill.” But he says he’s determined to see it through and remains hopeful all the work will get done on his watch.
    “The accomplishments are not generated by the manager but by the commissioners,” Thrasher says. “Most of us just love the town. That seems to be the motivating factor. Government in its purest ideal is to serve people. That’s what I’m here to do. That cannot be boastful. You need to stay humble. You need to have humility and care about Gulf Stream.”

By Dan Moffett

    A strong economic tailwind is assisting Manalapan commissioners as they begin a series of budget workshops.
    Property values in the town continue to climb — up 9.9 percent over last year, nearly 3 percent above the Palm Beach County average.
    When it comes to tax bases, Manalapan is tiny but mighty: the 327 parcels in the town have a taxable value of $1.1 billion, with an average market price of $4.2 million that leads the county, according to the Property Appraiser’s Office.
    Even more favorable, only 41 percent of the households have homestead exemptions, a relatively low percentage that keeps more taxable dollars in play.
    Against this backdrop, a 15 percent increase in health insurance premiums for employees, a $45,000 hike in legal fees to negotiate a new police contract, or $6,700 for a new all-terrain vehicle seems like pocket change.
    Those are some of the new expenses in Town Manager Linda Stumpf’s proposed general fund budget, a $4.1 million draft that is about $88,000 lower than last year’s.
    Stumpf bases the 2016-17 budget on a tax rate of $2.85 per $1,000 of taxable value, which is 5.9 percent lower than last year’s $3.03 rate that ranked among the county’s lowest.
    With a flush budget, commissioners are considering rewarding some of their most loyal employees with a longevity recognition program. The town would give workers cash bonuses when they reach milestones of service — five, 10, 15, 20 years.
    The town has four employees with more than 10 years on the job and three with more than 21 years, Stumpf said.
    “Now that the economy has turned around, I think it’s the right thing to do to acknowledge them,” Stumpf said. Commissioners agreed, and said they would work on the details at their July 19 budget workshop.

By Mary Thurwachter
 
    A weeklong effort by police and the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association to slow traffic on South Atlantic Drive was successful, Lantana council members learned at a June 13 town meeting.
    Lyn Tate, treasurer of HIPOA and traffic calming committee chairperson, said that homeowners paid $225 to put up signs encouraging drivers to slow down — and police officers were on the island daily during the week of May 25-31 to issue citations and warnings to drivers who drove too fast anyway.
    Some of the traffic signs were stolen and will not be replaced, Tate said, “which is too bad because next time fewer signs will be put up to let people know.”
    Previously, islanders successfully lobbied for speed cushions to slow traffic, but the results didn’t achieve the desired slowdown. That’s when the idea for traffic calming weeks hatched during a discussion with the town manager, police chief and Tate.
    Similar efforts are planned for each quarter, Tate said.
    But Mayor Dave Stewart said the traffic calming programs could occur even more frequently.
    “We put a squad car there and sometimes there was someone in it and sometimes there wasn’t,” he said. “We do the same thing in other parts of the town.”
    Residents said it helped.
    “I think it made a difference,” Tate said.
    Six citations were issued for speeding, and there were other infractions as well. Fifteen citations were issued for drivers who ran stop signs. Tickets were also given to drivers who passed illegally, didn’t have a driver’s license, and one for a learners permit restriction.
    The stop sign runners were nabbed at South Atlantic Drive and Barefoot Lane, Tate said.

Town attorney Keith W. Davis and Mayor David Cheifetz congratulate

newly appointed commissioner Keith Waters (center).

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan Mayor David Cheifetz says he’s “done a 180” on a proposal to sell the town’s water utility system to Boynton Beach after hearing some surprisingly good news from a hired consultant.
    Kevin O’Donnell of Nova Energy Consultants, of Cary, N.C.,  took a close look at the utility’s numbers and told town commissioners that it makes sense for them to stay in the water business. The town’s utility is profitable and is likely to stay profitable for years to come.
    Cheifetz says O’Donnell’s optimistic report is a compelling reason to abandon the proposed sale to Boynton Beach and take two steps necessary for ensuring the utility’s long-term stability: getting a finance plan in place to pay for roughly $4.75 million in infrastructure replacement and repair to aging pipes; and beginning talks with Hypoluxo to make sure that 600 customers from the town continue to get their water from Manalapan for decades to come.
    “Your net income after debt expense is roughly $750,000 to $800,000 for 2016,” O’Donnell told the commission. “In other words, you’re doing really good, bottom line. You’re looking at roughly 30 to 35 percent return on sales. In the utility industry — and I do a lot of work with municipalities — we don’t see return on sales that high.”
    O’Donnell said the steady income gives the town financial flexibility moving forward. The utility could transfer its debt to the town, and the town could be confident about getting its money back. The strong bottom line also means rates can hold steady.
    Hypoluxo is critical to the utility’s future, however. The water contract with the town ends in September 2020. Hypoluxo accounts for about one-third of the utility’s total water usage but also accounts for roughly one-half of the utility’s total revenues.
    O’Donnell recommends offering Hypoluxo customers a 20 percent rate cut in return for locking them into a 30-year contract. If Manalapan doesn’t offer them lower rates, they’re likely to buy water from another supplier when the agreement expires, O’Donnell said.
    “The biggest risk here is losing Hypoluxo,” he said. “The value of your system hinges on Hypoluxo.”
    In other business:
    • At the June meeting, the commission unanimously approved appointing  Keith Waters to fill the Point seat that opened with the death of Ronald Barsanti last month.
    Waters, 57, is the chairman of the town’s zoning commission and has chaired the architectural commission. He has been an opponent of easing the town’s restrictions on the size of residences that can be built relative to lot dimensions.
    Professionally, Waters is chief executive officer of WPO Development, a national planning and campaign management firm that offers development services to nonprofit groups. Originally from Kentucky, Waters worked in broadcasting with CBS Sports in the 1980s.
    “Keith has lived in the town for about 10 years,” Cheifetz said. “He has really served the town well. He’s a friend, he’s smart, he’s articulate and I think he’ll be a positive addition.”
    Waters’ term expires in March 2018.
    • The Audubon Causeway bridge project has fallen behind schedule again, according to Town Manager Linda Stumpf. The south side of the new span was to have opened June 1 but now is expected to be completed by early July, allowing the removal of weight restrictions.
    Stumpf said the contractor still believes the project can be finished before the end of the year and come in near the budgeted price of roughly $990,000.

By Jane Smith

    The Florida Association of Recovery Residences is struggling to pay for its sober home certification program after it did not receive state money.
    Starting July 1, Florida-licensed drug and alcohol treatment centers can no longer discharge patients or refer clients to recovery residences that are not certified.
    “The department has not and does not pay for a recovery residence to be credentialed,” said Paige Patterson-Hughes, southeast spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families. The $100,000 in state money given to the Boca Raton-based Florida Association of Recovery Residences in the last budget year was for setting up the system, not to pay for certifying sober homes.
    FARR continues to seek donations from the public and other stakeholders.
    The voluntary nature of the certifications explains the gap between the low number of certified recovery residences compared with the proliferation of sober homes in south county cities.
    In Delray Beach, the mayor estimates the city has hundreds of single-family and multifamily sober homes. FARR’s website lists 35 certified recovery residences as of late June.
    “The voluntary nature of the new statute has been viewed by many with much skepticism,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein. “I see it as a very small step in the right direction, although defunding even the voluntary registration demonstrates a lack of concern or understanding in Tallahassee.”
    Boca Raton officials said they don’t know how many sober homes exist in their city. FARR has certified three there.
    “We worked to get the voluntary certification last year,” said Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie. “We will continue to work on this issue to protect our neighborhoods.”
    The voluntary certifications are a step in the right direction, said County Commissioner Steven Abrams, whose district covers Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. “But ultimately the answer lies on the federal level.”
    Cities have been sued successfully under federal laws for violating the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act. People living in sober-living situations are seen as a family unit and cities have lost in court when they create zoning laws to ban them.
    Boynton Beach has 49 registered and possibly more exist that “are flying under the radar,” said Saleica Brown, the city’s business development specialist. FARR has certified 18 locations in that city.
    FARR’s president, John Lehman, said his nonprofit group has certified 84 programs operating 250 locations statewide, as of late June. Another 100 programs are in the pipeline, he said. FARR’s website needs to be updated, he said, and likely doesn’t have the most recent figures.
    The association charges a $100 application fee plus $300 per single-family home or duplex, with the amount capped at $2,400. The certification lasts for one year.
    FARR follows the state law detailing what a policy and procedures manual for a certified recovery residence should contain: job descriptions for all staff, drug-testing procedures, prohibition against using alcohol and illegal drugs, policies to promote recovery efforts, a good neighbor policy to address community concerns, rules for residents, copies of all forms provided to residents, relapse policy, fee schedule, eviction procedures, proof of insurance, proof of background screening, code of ethics and proof of satisfactory fire, safety and health inspections.
    The organization hires field personnel to inspect each home. The inspector interviews staff, volunteers and residents to make sure the home is following its policy and procedures.
    The certification process takes at least one month. “It depends on how prepared they are and whether they have residents,” Lehman said. “We can’t measure a residence without residents.”
    FARR needs $100,000 annually to do the certifications statewide, Lehman said. Most of the money would be for staff to make on-site visits. In addition, 25 percent of the certified residences must be visited for renewal, according to standards set by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences.
    The state allows FARR to charge a $100 renewal fee.
    Lehman also wants to set up an education arm to create a designation called Certified Recovery Residence Administrator. FARR would hold that person accountable because of the continuing education offered.
    The continuing education would be set up as a lunch-and-learn program, costing about $200,000, Lehman said.
State law allows the organization to charge up to $225 for the administrator’s application, examination and certification fee. The renewal fee may not exceed $100.
    That program was supposed to start April 1, according to state law.
    “What we are unable to accomplish without additional funding is random compliance audits and educational seminars to enhance the quality of services provided by certified programs,” Lehman said.
    Last year, Lehman helped CashBox Solutions create a PayPal-like software program for recovery homes and other businesses, according to the FARR website. He developed the payment-system software that he called “PayPal on steroids” at the request of a sober home operator.
    His wife runs CashBox and he spends 50-60 hours weekly on FARR as a volunteer, Lehman said.
    CashBox initially shared its office space, equipment and employees with FARR in Boca Raton. Lehman said the two entities began to separate in July 2015 when FARR received the state money. Since then, CashBox has moved to Boynton Beach, he said.
    A self-described recovering addict who has been sober since 2007, Lehman said he knows what a positive recovery residence experience can do. He attended his first 12-step meeting in 1978.
    Neither FARR nor DCF can police the recovery residences because federal laws protect recovering addicts as a disabled class from state and local discriminatory laws.
    That’s why south county cities are seeking federal assistance.
    South Florida is “ground zero for the heroin crisis in the country,” U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel said in early May. “We have to let people recover from addictions, but we have to keep our neighborhoods safe and healthy.”
    She was able to persuade an assistant secretary from U.S. Housing and Urban Development to tour Delray Beach sober homes. They saw suitcases and clothes on lawns, indicating that someone recently was evicted. The HUD secretary promised to work with Department of Justice lawyers to craft a joint statement to be released in August.
    “I consider federal assistance to be the linchpin for real change,” Glickstein said, “defined as true home rule authority for local governments to enact ordinances best suited for their cities and counties.”
    County Commissioner Abrams, who attended Frankel’s May forum, agrees. He was Boca Raton mayor in 2003 when the city was sued in federal court over zoning laws created to protect its neighborhoods. Boca Raton lost that case in 2007 when the federal judge ruled that the zoning laws discriminated against recovering addicts.

As O’Boyle, O’Hare ponder next moves,

mayor says effort exposed records abuse

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream’s RICO suit against residents Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare was laid to rest in a Miami federal appeals court June 21 when a three-judge panel upheld a lower-court ruling to dismiss the case.

    Jonathan O’Boyle, Martin’s son and a co-defendant in the town’s suit, hailed the decision as a victory for open government and citizens’ rights.
    “For public records laws, this is great news — worthy of dancing in the streets,” said O’Boyle, a lawyer affiliated with the family’s law firm. “The net effect (is) a civil right does not exist if the government can sue you to stop the exercise of that right. The social pressure, personal struggle and expense of being a defendant against a government who possesses virtually limitless funds will crush all but the most zealous, tenacious, wealthy and educated.”
    The town’s federal class action alleged that Martin O’Boyle used a group he founded called the Citizens Awareness Foundation to extort settlements from thousands of frivolous public records requests made to Gulf Stream and dozens of other municipalities and businesses across the state — communities including Miami, Bradenton, Cutler Bay and Fernandina Beach.

    The RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) action claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements were funneled to The O’Boyle Law Firm in Deerfield Beach.
    A year ago, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra threw out the suit, ruling it did not meet legal standards under the RICO statute.
    Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan, a lawyer, said appealing that decision made sense because the town’s suit was “a case of first impression” that had little legal precedent to guide the court.
    “We’re not particularly surprised because winning appeals is very difficult,” Morgan said. “We thought there was less than a 50-50 chance but it was definitely worth taking.”
    He said town attorneys have no regrets about filing the RICO suit because it “shined a light” on O’Boyle’s activities and drew attention to the problem of public records abuse.
    “It generated a lot of publicity and as a result we received a lot of information on the scheme O’Boyle hatched,” Morgan said. “We were able to gather a lot of evidence that will help our cases in the state courts. Also, to my knowledge, since the RICO suit, O’Boyle’s firm hasn’t filed another public records case against anyone in the state. We truly believe what they did constitutes racketeering.”
    The judges of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to empathize with Gulf Stream’s predicament but couldn’t support the racketeering case before them. While the pile of records requests from O’Boyle and O’Hare might have placed an unfair burden on the town, the judges found the behavior didn’t satisfy requirements for action under RICO.
    “The allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaint paint a frustrating picture,” said the 13-page opinion, written by Judge Charles Wilson and joined by Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Jill Pryor.

    “Accepting those allegations as true, the defendants have engaged in a concerted effort to capitalize on the relatively unfettered access to public records Florida has granted its citizens by bombarding small towns and municipalities with public records requests to which they cannot respond adequately. As distasteful as this conduct may be, the allegations do not support a RICO claim under our precedent.”
    Attorneys for the O’Boyles and the other defendants have argued in court documents that the town was engaging in “a collateral attack on the records requestors” in an effort to suppress free speech.
    “The records requestors have an absolute right to make public records requests and lawsuits,’’ the defendants’ lawyers argued. “Their motive for requesting those documents is irrelevant and cannot constitute extortion. … The public records act places no limitation on how many requests may be made. This lawsuit impermissibly seeks to limit the records requestors’ exercise of the rights granted to the records requestors by the Florida Legislature and not stop some other unlawful acts.”

    Besides Gulf Stream, the Wantman Group, a West Palm Beach engineering firm, was a plaintiff in the suit because of a dispute over a public-records request it received from the O’Boyles as a government contractor.
    O’Hare has argued that he never should have been named as a defendant in the case because he was not affiliated with The O’Boyle Law Firm, and the hundreds of public records requests he made to the town concerned legitimate issues that were not linked to the O’Boyles.  
    O’Hare said the RICO allegations have been damaging to his marriage and his company, Pineapple Grove Designs, which produces stone-sculpted architectural ornaments. He said the town overreached in suing him under a federal statute that is meant to combat organized crime.
    “I can’t begin to tell you how debilitating this RICO accusation has been for me and my family,” he told the Town Commission last year.  
    “The RICO suit was a legal misadventure concocted by Mayor Morgan and attorney Robert Sweetapple. There was absolutely no evidence to support the town’s wild claims about me,” O’Hare said after the appeals court decision.
    “There should be no doubt that the town and the town’s attorneys conspired to punish me for seeking redress in the courts and to stop me from requesting public records. This is not the purpose of government and it can’t go unchallenged.”
    Jonathan O’Boyle said the defendants are considering seeking compensation for damages to their businesses and reputations from the RICO suit, as well as recovering legal fees from the case that “have to be north of $1 million for defending the action.”

By Rich Pollack

    Crime in the small coastal communities of south Palm Beach County remained relatively low in 2015, although a rash of car break-ins and auto thefts carrying over from surrounding larger communities may have been responsible for what appears to be a significant increase in at least one town.
    Overall, there were 162 combined major crimes reported in the six coastal towns of Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream, Highland Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge and South Palm Beach compared to 132 in 2014, according to figures reported last month by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
    While Gulf Stream and South Palm Beach saw small decreases in the actual number of crimes committed, Highland Beach and Manalapan had slight increases. In Ocean Ridge, however, the number of total crimes increased by 25, from 46 to 71.  
    The Ocean Ridge numbers include Briny Breezes, policed by Ocean Ridge, but very few of the crimes in the overall number were committed in Briny Breezes, according to Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins.
    Hutchins said a number of factors contributed to the increase in overall crimes reported by Ocean Ridge, including thefts from primarily unlocked vehicles and burglaries committed by people coming from surrounding areas.
    Those crimes, he said, in many cases reflected those that law enforcement agencies throughout South Florida have been experiencing in their jurisdictions.  
    “We had what we felt was a rash of thefts from vehicles,” Hutchins said. “We are working with surrounding agencies to try and combat this.”
    Hutchins said the increase in the number of reported crimes is something residents should know but not be overly concerned about.
    “It’s something for residents to be aware of so they can become more vigilant, which helps us bring the number down,” he said. “Perhaps their awareness and their vigilance will help us reduce the number of crimes in our community to zero.”
    Like the other small towns that line the coast of southern Palm Beach County, Ocean Ridge did not have any reported forcible rapes or homicides.
    The town, however, did have two reported robberies, which Hutchins said appeared to have occurred after people followed residents home from outside of town.
    Like Hutchins, Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann says it’s important for residents to be on the lookout for things out of the ordinary and call police about them.
    “We want to know when residents see something that doesn’t look right,” Hartmann said.
    In Highland Beach, the number of total crimes increased from 37 to 40, with a couple more larcenies and auto thefts reported than in 2014 but two fewer assaults. There was also one reported robbery in 2015, with none reported the previous year.
    Hartmann said visibility plays an important role in deterring crime and says that there’s no way of accurately knowing how much crime has been prevented.
    “There’s no measurement for what doesn’t happen,” he said.
    Overall crime in Palm Beach County remained fairly flat in 2015 with an increase of less than 1 percent. In all, there were 47,769 crimes reported in the county, 450 more than reported in 2014.  Homicides   countywide, however, increased from 78 to 97 and rapes jumped from 473 to 523.
    Among the larger cities in southern Palm Beach County, Boca Raton saw an 8.4 percent increase in reported crime in 2015, Boynton Beach saw a 12.3 percent increase and Delray Beach reported a 9.2 percent decrease.
    There were one homicide and 30 rapes in Boca Raton in 2015, up from no homicides and 16 rapes in 2014. In Delray, the number of homicides dropped from five to three while rapes fell from 30 to 25, and in Boynton Beach the number of homicides rose from four to eight, while rapes declined from six to four.
    Statewide, overall crime dropped about 1.6 percent, due largely to a 10 percent decrease in burglaries, while the state saw an increase in the number of homicides, rapes and motor vehicles thefts.

By Mary Thurwachter

    As developers prepare to build Water Tower Commons, a 72-acre retail and residential project on the site of the former A.G. Holley tuberculosis hospital east of Interstate 95 on Lantana Road, hundreds of trees need to be moved or replaced.
    “According to the tree survey performed by the applicant, the site has 451 total trees of various types,” said Dave Thatcher, Lantana’s development services director.  “Of those, 137, about 30 percent, are considered protected. The remaining 70 percent are not protected and can be removed.”
    Thatcher said property is being cleared and a fence will be placed around the perimeter.
    “The developer (Lantana Development LLC) will relocate 50 protected oaks from their original location to another spot on the property,” he said. The remaining 87 protected trees, with an average diameter of 15.7 inches, will be replaced with 512 new 4-inch-thick trees.
    Thatcher said there was a lot of misinformation floating around about what was going to happen to trees at the site. Even if the new trees aren’t as big as some taken down, there will be more trees in the end. And all the melaleucas, an invasive species, will be gone.
    Water Tower Commons is the biggest project ever in Lantana, Thatcher said. The site is about 4 percent of the town’s total land.
    The development is expected to create 700 permanent jobs and generate $13 million in new tax revenue for Lantana during the next 20 years, according to Ken Endelson, vice president of Lantana Development, a partnership between Southeast Legacy, headed by Kenco Communities’ Endelson, and Wexford Capital.
    Plans show more than 208,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store, pharmacy, restaurants, bank and fitness center. 
    Office space will be available, too, and plans call for more than 1,000 residential units on the north side of the property.

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach might be the first city in Florida to have a sidewalk policy.
    The program, approved unanimously June 7 by the City Commission, went into effect on June 8. It promotes the health and safety of residents, ensures modes of transportation other than vehicles and creates a clear method for spending dollars collected in areas where sidewalks can’t be built.
    “Kudos to all,” said Jim Smith, chairman of the sidewalk and cyclist advocacy group called SAFE (Safety As Floridians Expect). “It will serve as a guide for the city as it establishes objectives, goals and priorities for the construction and maintenance of sidewalks.”
    Smith told commissioners that they would be the first in Florida to have set a city sidewalk policy. His group made suggestions, including sidewalks within 2 miles of all schools and along all public roads that lead to parks, greenways/trail systems and public facilities.
    The program’s goals included his group’s suggestions and added sidewalk requirements along public roads leading to transit system stops and in the central business district.
    The policy also provides a method for citywide spending of the fees collected in such areas as historic districts where sidewalks are not part of the character of the neighborhood.
    In addition, the sidewalks will be built wide enough to allow for wheelchair access and have curb ramps, cross slopes and other features to promote accessibility.
    All told, the policy took about 10 months to create, said Mark Stivers, principal planner, who drafted the policy and sought input from city departments and outside groups.
    Stivers started to work on a text amendment to the in-lieu sidewalk fee ordinance shortly after he joined the city in July 2015. From that amendment, the city attorney suggested an overall sidewalk policy, Stivers said.  
    His boss, Planning Director Tim Stillings, told commissioners it was an “aspirational policy.”
    Mayor Cary Glickstein added, “It also is tangible. Now we can use the in-lieu funds collected.”

By Jane Smith
    
    A former Delray Beach city employee has pleaded guilty for his role in using a company that charged the city for goods that were never delivered, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
    Orlando Serrano, 47, pleaded guilty on June 21 to grand theft of more than $20,000 and organized fraud of more than $20,000. He was sentenced to 12 months in the county jail and received one day credit for time served.
    Serrano also received five years of probation and was ordered to do 100 hours of community service at the rate of at least eight hours per month upon his release from jail. He must repay the city his share of more than $133,000.
    Serrano, who worked for the city for nearly 19 years, resigned his post as a traffic maintenance supervisor in March 2015.
    Co-defendant Cesar Irizarry, 51, was a treatment plant operator for about 25 years before he resigned in August. Irizarry’s case is set for an Aug. 8 jury trial.
    Another co-defendant, Harold Bellinger, died in early March.
    Prosecutors say the fraud occurred in this manner:
    American Traffic Products & Services Inc. provided street signs, street sign posts and diamond asphalt and concrete saw blades to Delray Beach. But the city didn’t know that the Serrano and Irizarry owned and operated the company, a violation of the city’s code of ethics.
    Bellinger’s role required him to approve invoices for the streets and traffic divisions.
    The city made 59 purchases from American Traffic Products for $230,540.59 since 2007, prosecutors found. But because of record retention limits, investigators could review only purchase orders going back to Oct. 1, 2009. The amount of purchases reviewed was for $158,139.21. Prosecutors found a total loss of $133,444.87 to Delray Beach.
    The company’s address was the same as Irizarry’s home address in suburban Boca Raton, state records show. According to records subpoenaed from JP Morgan Chase Bank related to American Traffic Products, Irizarry is the company’s director and Serrano is an authorized signer and the contact person on the account.
    Between Oct. 6, 2009, and Feb. 20, 2015, the city paid for $158,139.21 of sign equipment from American Traffic Products, but it received only $24,694.64. That resulted in a $108,152.07 loss for Delray Beach, prosecutors found.
    During that time period, Irizarry and Serrano withdrew a total of $112,920.39 from American Traffic Products’ bank account, with $51,480.39 withdrawn by Irizarry and $61,440 withdrawn by Serrano. Some of that money, $27,560, was deposited into Bellinger’s personal bank account, according to prosecutors.
    Bellinger separately ordered $7,582.80 from that company on Oct. 8, 2009, for striping materials and reflective glass beads. The city paid for the items, which it never received.
    Between Oct. 7, 2010, and Feb. 13, 2014, Bellinger ordered 200 gallons of liquid road tack from American Traffic Products. The city paid $9,520, but the product was not delivered. He also ordered diamond saw blades from American Traffic Products for $7,920 between Oct. 10, 2012, and March 21, 2014. The city paid the bill, but it never received the saw blades.

    Delray Beach has renewed its parking agreement with the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach for 39 spaces on Gleason Street, near the beach. The parking spaces do not have meters, said John Morgan, environmental services director.
    Under the terms of the five-year lease, first formed in May 2001, the city agreed to pay the church $1,720.22 per month for the first year. The rental rate will increase by 3 percent on a compounded basis for each of the remaining years. The lease will expire May 31, 2021, unless terminated earlier.
    The other provisions of the lease remain. They include allowing the church exclusive use of the parking lot each Sunday, between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.; and from 6 a.m. to midnight on these religious holidays: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. One space is reserved for the church’s pastor.
— Jane  Smith

By Jane Smith
    
    The city’s policy of just one big event per month during high season will be retested July 5.
    That’s when Garlic Fest founder and organizer Nancy Stewart-Franczak will return to appeal the city’s denial of her holding the 18-year-old festival in February as usual because the Tennis Center has booked the Delray Beach Open for that month.
    On June 21, Stewart-Franczak packed the City Commission chambers with her supporters. Members of the Atlantic High School jazz dance team, wearing their Eaglette uniforms, asked commissioners to save Garlic Fest because it allowed them to earn money to be on the team. Other supporters included the school’s marching band and the local Boy Scout troop, as well as Dada restaurant owner Bruce Feingold.
    Rob Steele, new head of Old School Square, also asked that Garlic Fest be allowed. His budget needs the income. Garlic Fest paid $25,000 this year to Old School Square for use of its site, despite commissioners’ saying they no longer want events on that campus to stop it from becoming “the fairgrounds.”
    Over the years, Garlic Fest, run by the nonprofit Delray Beach Arts Inc., has donated about $600,000 to various groups whose members work at the three-day festival.
    The city is trying to recover costs and has estimated Garlic Fest should pay $61,000 for 2017, more than doubling the nearly $25,000 paid this year.
    Most promoters are seeing at least a doubling of fees because the city’s finance department has developed metrics that cover the entire cost for staff time, including hourly wages, vacation time and pensions. The metrics also consider the cost of staff “on the ground” at events, including maintenance and cleanup, plus administrative time associated with the event, stage rentals, trash boxes and liners, portable toilets, and so on.
    Stewart-Franczak has made changes to the Garlic Fest site plan by eliminating carnival rides and street closings. Delray Beach residents will be allowed in free during two hours on Sunday; all others have to pay.
    Only four commissioners sat on the dais during the June 21 meeting. The mayor was out of town.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said the city provides services for the tennis tournament 10 days before that event starts, overlapping the Garlic Fest’s proposed dates of Feb. 10-12. The city is trying to reduce the stress on services when its public safety departments are dealing with 10-12 overdose calls daily, Jarjura said.
    The commission, chaired by Vice Mayor Al Jacquet, voted twice on the Garlic Fest appeal. The first motion to deny the appeal ended in a tied vote, with Commissioner Shelly Petrolia joining Jacquet to deny it. Commissioners Jarjura and Mitch Katz supported the appeal.
    Jarjura, who has spoken about not voting against policy, tried to put together a compromise vote allowing the Garlic Fest to continue for one year, but in following years not to allow a waiver.
    Stewart-Franczak looked perplexed, saying she didn’t know whether she could find a different site. An exasperated Jarjura said, “Count your votes.”
    The city attorney said the vote would not be binding on future commissions.
    Katz then offered Jarjura’s motion, which also ended in a tied vote. According to Petrolia’s reading of the city charter, that vote would have killed the appeal. But when they turned to City Attorney Noel Pfeffer for guidance, he told them to keep voting.
    Jarjura then offered a motion to table the appeal to the July 5 commission meeting, when the mayor would be present. That motion passed unanimously.

Fest focus now more local
    Delray Beach wants festivals that are town-serving, since it no longer needs to attract masses into downtown as it did 30 years ago.
    Each special event has to pay a nonrefundable $150 application fee, which offsets the event permit fee of $150 for a minor event, $300 for an intermediate and $500 for a major event. Promoters are asked to provide parking solutions during their events.
    “Special events had largely been a free-for-all,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the June 7 commission meeting, “with no coherent strategy or policy or understanding of what these events factually cost the city, or how they impact public safety. … Sixty events in a compressed area is just too much.”
    Before sober homes became an issue, the complaints were all about the festivals, Petrolia said. “We’ve made this decision four times since 2013,” she said. “Tweaking is not what we are looking for.”
    She talked about the festivals drawing more people from outside Delray Beach into downtown. “We have addressed whether we really want that kind of thing. The answer is no,” she said.
    The city commissioners listed five major events they want to host or see happen in the downtown: Veterans Day Parade in November, holiday parade and events in December, tennis tournament in February, St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March, Delray Affair in April. No other major events are allowed in those months in the downtown core. The city also hosts July Fourth events in the summer.
    The fifth annual Wine & Seafood Festival was nixed because the promoter sought a November weekend when the city has set aside that month for its Veterans Day Parade. Stewert-Franczak’s for-profit Festival Management Group runs that festival and the Delray Affair for the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.
    The festival organizer is trying to reduce costs and allow the Wine & Seafood Festival to fall into the intermediate event category and be able to keep its November date, the city manager said in late June. The costs of city services would have to fall below $20,000 for an event to be characterized as intermediate.
    Chamber of Commerce President Karen Granger was disheartened. “The city is making it difficult for us to recoup the costs,” she said. Her organization had counted on income from the Wine & Seafood Festival to support its pro-business programming.
    “Events helped to create the vibe of the happiest seaside town in America,” she said.
    Bruce Gimmy, who owns the Trouser Shop on Atlantic Avenue, appreciates the more upscale events, such as the Howard Alan crafts and fine arts festivals, that draw clientele to his store. The events don’t have alcohol vendors, creating business for the city’s restaurants, are in the daytime and are free to attend.
    Both Alan festivals were approved on the condition that a parking program is worked out with the city.  The crafts festival, held Thanksgiving weekend, is considered an intermediate event with costs estimated to be $9,362.
    The fine arts festival in January is considered a major event. Costs are estimated at $14,700.
    “We do events all over the country,” Alan said, “and the best are in downtown Delray Beach.”

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach Vice Mayor Al Jacquet will step down from his City Commission seat on Nov. 8.
    The resignation is non-revocable. He is one of four candidates who qualified to run for the open state House District 88 seat. Qualifying ended at noon June 24. The election will take place Aug. 30.
    Others who qualified are: Angeleta Gray, a former city commission colleague of Jacquet; Edwin Ferguson, a West Palm Beach lawyer; and Sebrina Gillion, of Delray Beach.
    Gray has said County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor encouraged her to get into the race and will do some campaign events together. Jacquet, a lawyer, was an aide to Taylor’s challenger Mack Bernard when he was in the state House.
    Gray, a Realtor, has raised $1,962.03, according to the latest campaign finance report for the period ended May 31. The amount includes a $1,000 personal loan.
    Ferguson raised $13,582.88 during the same time period.
    Jacquet, who opened his campaign account in early January, raised $47,300, as of May 31. His contributors include developers with projects before the city: Atlantic Crossing, iPic and Swinton Commons.
    Gillion, a write-in candidate, qualified on June 22.
    The next campaign finance reports are due on July 1.

By Jane Smith
    
    The stalled Atlantic Crossing project sold in mid-June to partner Edwards Cos., of Ohio, for $38.5 million.
    The nearly 9-acre property, which sits at the prominent corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach, was sold in two transactions by a partnership controlled by Carl DeSantis, a real estate investor.
    “We are making this additional investment because this is a unique site. Redeveloping two city blocks is a rare opportunity to create a distinctly Delray environment that will benefit the entire community,” said Edwards Cos. President Jeff Edwards. “We’re committed for the long term and are eager to get underway.”
    The eastern side, which houses the aging 78,768-square-foot Atlantic Plaza retail/office complex, sold for $22.7 million.
    Through a partnership, DeSantis, of Delray Beach, lent $16.5 million to Edwards that under the terms of the agreement can increase to $33 million. The four Edwards executives personally guaranteed the loan.
    The mostly vacant western side sold for $15.8 million. Edwards was able to secure a $16 million loan from First Financial Bank of Hamilton, Ohio.
    “As I grow older, I have realized that there is still much I want to accomplish, but only a finite amount of time in which to do so,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement. “We have decided to sell Atlantic Crossing to the Edwards Cos., so that we can focus on these opportunities and new ones that we are vetting on a weekly basis.”
    The statement also said that although DeSantis is an active real estate investor, he is not a developer and “certainly not of large projects that take many years to complete. It’s simply not our forte.”
    The sale translates to more than $4 million per acre, which real estate consultant Jack McCabe said was the going rate for vacant land in downtown Delray Beach.
    “Delray’s won the All America City title twice — that’s very prestigious,” McCabe said. “Some of the old-timers are worried about the traffic, but the area is ripe for redevelopment.”
    The sale is subject to the outcome of a $25 million lawsuit, originally filed by the developers in Palm Beach County Circuit Court and now in federal court with an October jury trial date. The complaint has been amended four times.
    The developers sued the city in June 2015 claiming Delray Beach has not certified its site plan that was approved in November 2013 and affirmed by a previous City Commission in January 2014.
    The court recently granted the developers approval to depose 16 individuals, exceeding the limit by six. Mayor Cary Glickstein will be deposed, although Commissioners Shelly Petrolia and Mitch Katz will not.
    The city filed a counterclaim on June 24, requesting the release from escrow of two alleys and parts of Northeast Seventh Avenue.
    When finished, Atlantic Crossing will contain 343 luxury condos and apartments plus 39,394 square feet of restaurants, 37,642 square feet of shops and 83,462 square feet of office space.

By Dan Moffett
 
    Briny Breezes Town Council members gave preliminary approval to extending an agreement with the city of Boynton Beach for fire-rescue services at the town meeting on June 23.
    The town is in the final year of a fire-rescue contract with Boynton Beach that began in 2004, one of the longest-running arrangements of its kind in Palm Beach County.
    Alderman Bobby Jurovaty says the town has been pleased with the service it has received from Boynton Beach.
    “I think they’ve been doing a good job for us,” Jurovaty said. “I really haven’t heard any complaints. We’re happy.”
    Briny Breezes is a participant in a group of six coastal communities that is considering the possibility of forming a coastal fire district and providing its own fire-rescue services. A consultant study commissioned by the group found that Briny Breezes paid $329,813 to Boynton Beach for services in 2015 and is projected to pay roughly $343,000 this year.
    The study, by the Texas-based Matrix Consulting Group, found that Briny Breezes’ average cost per call was $3,300, the lowest among the six coastal communities. Boynton Beach also has turned in one of the best average response times in the group at 5 minutes, 41 seconds.
    In 2015, Boynton Beach responded to 107 calls from Briny Breezes — 26 for fire-related problems and 81 for emergency medical services.
    In other business, the Town Council voted 4-0 (with Alderman James McCormick absent with notice) to approve keeping the tax rate for the 2016-2017 fiscal year at $10 per $1,000 of taxable property value.
    Briny Breezes’ rate has held steady at the 10 mills since 2009, when the council decided to approve more than tripling the previous rate of $3 per $1,000 to deal with rising operating costs, shrinking reserves and the national economic downturn. The increase followed the failed sale of the mobile home park, which drained the town’s reserves. In 2008, the tax rate in Briny Breezes was $2.76.
    Taxable values for the town have edged higher in recent years, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office. Briny Breezes’ assessed value for 2015 was $38.56 million and is projected to rise in line with the county’s average increase of roughly 7 percent to $41.38 million in 2016, a 7.3 percent gain.
    The $10 rate is the highest in the county and the highest allowed by state law. The Town Council has scheduled its final budget workshop for Aug. 15 at 10 a.m.

A suspicious fire June 28 consumed the pavilion at Atlantic Dunes Park located on A1A near Linton Boulevard.

Two other fires damaged a tiki hut and a gazebo at private homes in Delray Beach and Gulf Stream on the same night.

The cause of the fires was under investigation. ABOVE: Delray Beach Rescue Capts. Andy Close and Brian Pollack

hose down the remains of the park structure.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Boynton Beach will host another workshop on its Town Square project, but this time commissioners have agreed to save the historic high school as part of the 16.5-acre development.
    The Town Square discussion threatened to overwhelm the 2017 planning session held by Boynton Beach on June 25. So, commissioners agreed to host another workshop on Town Square “to get some teeth into the plan,” said Commissioner Joe Casello.
    The city commission will decide the workshop date at their July 5 meeting.
    The four-block Town Square, bounded by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north and Seacrest Boulevard on the west, houses mainly municipal buildings: City Hall, library, old high school, police headquarters, fire station No. 1, Kids Kingdom Playground, Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Civic Center, Arts Center and shuffleboard courts.
    City commissioners also want to discuss asking voters to approve a $25 million bond to move the police headquarters and fire station No. 1 out of Town Square onto land at the northeast intersection of North Seacrest Boulevard and Northeast Sixth Avenue. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency owns that parcel.
    The city would build a 25,000-square-foot, three-story headquarters for the Police Department and a firehouse could easily be added, said Colin Groff, new assistant city manager.
    “Putting the public safety complex there would work,” Casello said. “And it would help jump-start the Heart of Boynton area.”
    The date of that discussion also will be determined at the July 5 meeting. At the planning session, commissioners also decided to create a policy to cover special events and monthly happenings. “We want Boynton-centric events,” said new Commissioner Justin Katz. “We don’t want secondhand events rejected by Delray Beach.”
    Garlic Fest was mentioned by three Boynton Beach city commissioners who scoffed at the idea of accepting an event that may be rejected by Delray Beach. Delray’s City Commission will revisit Garlic Fest’s appeal on July 5.
    Boynton Beach commissioners want to expand Pirate Fest, held in October; possibly turn the biennial Kinetics Art Exhibit and Symposium into an annual event, and maybe add a Boynton Brews Fest. Ocean Avenue in the Town Square plan would be a festival street that can be closed to vehicle traffic.
    On the next level of priorities set at the planning session, new Commissioner Christina Romelus proposed a review of parking alternatives at the city’s Oceanfront Park. Currently parking revenue goes to Boynton Beach, but money from parking fines goes to Ocean Ridge. The relationship dates back to the 1930s, when Ocean Ridge was created from Boynton Beach, said Vice Mayor Mack McCray.

By Jane Smith
    
    Boynton Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency wants to consolidate plans in its six areas this summer with the goal of giving developers and residents predictability on what can be done at each location.
    “We don’t want to miss the market,” said Vivian Brooks, CRA executive director, to the more than 100 people gathered on a Saturday morning in June at the city library. She is working toward receiving final commission approval in September.
    The CRA held three public workshops with residents, allowing them to select or “vote” on what they liked in each plan for the land use and zoning.
    When Brooks gave the same presentation to a group of real estate professionals, her talk became a “stakeholders forum.”
    “We can’t make our city into a city without your help,” she said.
    Resident Susan Oyer said she agrees with most of the changes, “but my issue is height. We all want to see growth that is well-planned, but none of us want to become like West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale with their concrete canyons.”
    Plus, she said, the taller buildings block the flow of the ocean breezes.
    Some residents, including Barbara Ready, objected to the method the CRA used.
    “The changes should have been voted upon separately if the CRA really wanted some true input,” said Ready, who also chairs the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board. “Instead, we were basically forced to approve the bad parts with all the rest.”
    She said the intersection of South Federal Highway and Woolbright Road was an example.
    The CRA staff wants to create a mixed-use node to allow up to 60 dwelling units to the acre and 10-story buildings. The northern corners have relatively recent developments, with Las Ventanas apartment complex on the northwest corner and a PNC Bank branch on the northeast.
    On the southwest corner, Sunshine Square did a makeover that allowed Publix to demolish its old store about five years ago and build a new one with 14,000 more square feet. None of the corners will likely be redeveloped in the next 20 years.
    The Riverwalk Plaza owner on the southeast corner wants to demolish the aging shopping center where a Winn-Dixie grocery story was the anchor tenant. In its place, Riverwalk owner Isram Realty wants to build a 10-story apartment project to take advantage of the waterfront views.
    Isram submitted basic plans in December to Boynton Beach. Recently Isram founder Shaul Rikman requested the city not review the project until the Aug. 23 Planning and Development Board meeting to allow him to focus on his family this summer following the death of his father.
    “The stars are aligning on the consolidated plans,” said Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation. “The commission will take up the plans on Aug. 16 that would allow Riverwalk to build 10 stories.”
    The nonprofit coalition is concerned about quality of life and environmental issues created by continued development of South Florida’s barrier islands and coastal communities.
    The property’s current zoning has a 75-foot or 7-story height limitation.
    Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant, who attended the public workshop, said he’s not for mixed-use zoning without an office component that could bring higher paying jobs for residents.
    He saw no problems with higher density at the Federal Highway intersections with Boynton Beach Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, which Brooks has said is a future site of a coastal Tri-Rail station on the FEC tracks.
    But Grant objects to increased density at the Woolbright and Federal intersection because it is already congested and three corners would not see redevelopment in the next 20 years.
    “I disagree with spot zoning, spot land use and spot regulations,” said Grant, who beat then-Mayor Jerry Taylor earlier this year in a runoff. Developers with projects in the city, including $2,000 from Isram, donated to help Taylor amass more than $40,000 in campaign contributions. Grant raised less than $3,000.
    Isram’s proposed apartment project would put 100 extra cars daily at the intersection during the morning rush hour, according to its own traffic study, Grant said.
    “I look at how many cars at rush hour,” Grant said. “The developer counts cars over the whole day.”
    During the stakeholders forum, developers objected to the CRA’s plans that call for retail on the ground floor.
    “Everyone wants to have an urban experience,” said Morris Kaplan, head of Kaplan Residential, which builds apartments. “The concept is great, but empty shop space is blight.”
    Rikman, of Isram, agreed the city has a lot to offer. He also said apartment developers are taking a big risk when nearby cities of Delray Beach and Boca Raton can command 20 percent higher rents, based on their better demographics.