By Cheryl Blackerby
Should private development, such as members-only beach clubs, be allowed on public beaches?
Voters may soon have their say.
The citizens group Keep Your Beaches Public got the green light from the Fourth District Court of Appeal in September to put on the ballot a charter amendment prohibiting private development on public beaches. The three-judge panel upheld a lower court ruling that requires the city of Boca Raton to go forward with the citizens’ initiative.
The legal battle between the citizens group and the city of Boca Raton and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District started in 2009 when Penn-Florida Companies proposed a members-only cabana club for the public-owned Ocean Strand as part of a $1 billion redevelopment and luxury hotel project in downtown Boca Raton.
The citizens group wants the Strand land to be used as a park or conservation area that is available to all.
The prime beachfront property, which stretches across 15 acres between the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean, was bought by the Beach and Park District in 1994 for $11.9 million and has remained vacant, a windswept parcel of sand and scrub.
The citizens group started collecting signatures in 2010 for a ballot referendum that would bar all private development on all of the district’s public beaches. The group got more than the 976 signatures it needed, but the city attorney declared the petition unconstitutional and told the city clerk not to process it.
The citizens sued, and in April 2011, Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown sided with them, ruling that the initiative should go forward. She denied the district’s motion to intervene in the case and the city’s request for a rehearing.
The city has since changed the zoning on Ocean Strand from multifamily R5 zoning to public lands, which the park district officials hope will settle the matter.
“There’s no need for the amendment since the city initiated rezoning,” said park district attorney Arthur Koski. “It would be foolish to spend the money to put it on a March ballot. It’s too late for the November ballot.”
But the amendment is still necessary, says the citizens group’s lawyer, Ralf Brookes. The group wants to protect all beaches in the district, not just Ocean Strand, and the citizens say they don’t want public land to be subject to the mercy of public officials.
“They’re not making any more beachfront property. We have to protect what we have,” Brookes said.
The city ordinance doesn’t ban all private development on the district’s coastal lands, he says, and city and district officials could change their minds about development at a later date.
“We want to make sure public beaches remain public no matter what. It shouldn’t depend on who’s in office,” Brookes said.
City officials seem more willing to seek privatization of public space, he says. “They give up a portion of a beach because the developers say they will fix up the rest of it. But then we’ve lost that beach,” he said.
“We’re delighted that the judges took the time to write the five-page unanimous decision saying the amendment is certainly something that can legally be done, and they explained why it’s an issue of great public importance,” he said.
With the ruling from the appeals court, the group will submit the petition and wants the proposed amendment to be placed on the ballot in March or in a special election. Ú
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