News

At least two barge-loads of sand are being deposited every day to create the two new islands in a restoration project called Bonefish Cove. The red buoys and yellow silt curtains help to contain the sand and sediment until the islands are complete and ringed with limestone boulders. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

BELOW RIGHT: La Renaissance, shown in the 1960s Photo provided

By Mary Thurwachter

Residents of north Hypoluxo Island and South Palm Beach, who for decades have been navigating through La Renaissance channel for deep- water access to the Intracoastal Waterway, weren’t alone in being blind-sided this year by news of the construction of Bonefish Cove in the middle of the channel.

Also in the dark was Gail Martucci Klewicki, who lives on the south side of Hypoluxo Island. She and her sister Judi Martucci Hildebrandt own the submerged land in the central Lake Worth Lagoon beneath what has become known as La Renaissance channel. The land has been in the family since the mid-1960s.

Klewicki first learned about the lagoon project as she read the April edition of The Coastal Star, where a story told of the island residents’ battle to retain use of the channel, which — if plans had gone as designed — would have been buried under the middle of three Bonefish Cove islands. Boaters would have had to travel farther north to gain deep-water access through an unmarked, narrow and potentially dangerous passageway.

Bonefish Cove is a partnership between Palm Beach County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed to create valuable habitat for flora and fauna that had otherwise been lost or degraded because of past dredge and fill activities, stormwater discharges and shoreline hardening.

In February, residents on the northeast end of Hypoluxo Island received flyers in the mail about the project a few weeks before construction was scheduled to start.

Klewicki didn’t get one of the flyers. But when her community newspaper arrived, her eyes were drawn to the story — especially as she saw the words “La Renaissance channel.”

She hadn’t heard of that before, but she was very familiar with La Renaissance condo at 3230 S. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach.

Gail Klewicki and her sister own submerged land in the Intracoastal west of La Renaissance).

“Our father, Frank Martucci, and grandfather Carmine Martucci built La Renaissance in the mid-1960s,” she said. “They were true pioneers in the early development of condominiums in Palm Beach along the Atlantic Ocean.

“These adjacent parcels were planned for townhouses in the Intracoastal with a guaranteed path to the beach,” she said.

At one time, consideration was given to using some of that submerged land across A1A in the Intracoastal for building a condo resort extending over the water much like what is now called the Palm Beach Resort, parallel to the Lake Worth Bridge.

“We actually owned a time share there (Palm Beach Resort) that we just used in trade and travel,” Klewicki said, “but someone bought it about two years ago.”

She says the town of Palm Beach would still allow for docks to be built and she has the required survey.

Both her father and grandfather owned units in La Renaissance facing the Intracoastal, although they have since been sold. But Klewicki, who was renovating her grandfather’s unit decades ago, recalls routinely seeing boats cruising north up the Intracoastal and making a turn west of La Renaissance. She realized a channel was there.

“Turned out it’s got a name — La Renaissance,” she said. “It’s not on charts, but it has a name.”

Caught off-guard
Klewicki said she was “surprised” not to have been kept in the loop by the county, the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers because they had been in touch years before when efforts were made to allow docks in the Intracoastal Waterway across the street from La Renaissance.

While the boatyard never came to fruition, the plan did get approval from the town of Palm Beach. And throughout discussions on the matter, she was cc’d by officials from the county, water district and the Army Corps.

Had she been aware of the Hypoluxo Island boaters’ dilemma earlier, she said she could have offered another solution.

“I could have just sold the parcel to the boaters and they would own it and never have to worry again,” Klewicki said. She had read how Hypoluxo Island boaters were getting ready to hire an attorney to fight the loss of the channel and said she would have likely been able to sell the submerged land for less than the cost of a high-priced litigator.

“Of course, now there seems to be resolution, but that could have been the easy answer,” she said. The resolution involved eliminating the middle island and making the north and south islands of Bonefish Cove larger.

Klewicki and her husband, Raymond, have lived on Hypoluxo Island for 26 years. Until he died recently, her father, Frank Martucci, lived a few doors away from them.

Carmine Martucci, her grandfather, was 104 when he died in 2007.

The father/son team opened the luxurious seven-story La Renaissance in 1968.

Bonefish Cove update
Mayra Ashton, the county’s point person on the Bonefish Cove restoration project, said Palm Beach County continues to collaborate with the Army Corps on a design modification that leaves the traditional navigational route to the Intracoastal Waterway unaffected.

“Once a drawing of the new configuration is finalized by the Corps we will share it,” said Ashton, senior environmental analyst with Environmental Resources Management. “We’ve also maintained open dialogue with the municipalities and residents to keep them updated with status and information as it has become available.

“Sand to build the intertidal mangrove islands and oyster reefs will be transported from Peanut Island’s dredge material management areas and barged to the Bonefish Cove restoration project location south of the Lake Worth Avenue bridge,” Ashton said. “Once the intertidal islands are created, they will be stabilized with limestone rock breakwaters.”

She said yellow turbidity curtains (silt barriers) are in place around the northern portion of the active work area “to contain and minimize any turbidity plume resulting from placement of the sand within the turbidity curtains.”

Boaters aren’t likely to have problems crossing the channel during construction, but it’s possible.

“While permanent impacts to the locally preferred navigational route are expected to be eliminated with ongoing efforts to modify the project, short-term disruption due to staging of equipment is always a possibility as the project is constructed,” Ashton said.

The project is managed by Army Corps, so the construction schedule and work areas are not designated or approved by the county.

“Boaters should take extra precautions since it is an active construction site with construction activities planned both to the north and to the south of the local preferred route,” Ashton said. “To further prioritize safety, USACOE has committed to appropriate signage as needed in any areas temporarily requiring avoidance during construction. The current work area is well to the north of the route Hypoluxo Island boaters use.”

The first barge-load of sand was delivered to the project July 8.

Work hours will be 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, as approved by the town of Palm Beach. Construction of each island will take several months, with the contractor scheduled to complete construction of all the islands and oyster reefs and planting mangroves by summer 2025.

“When completed the islands and oyster reefs will provide critical habitat for threatened shorebirds and protected native mangroves, while below water sea grass and oysters will colonize, improving water quality,” Ashton said.