By Mary Hladky
After months of acrimony, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and the City Council have approved an agreement that sets the stage for development of the former Ocean Breeze golf course property.
District commissioners unanimously approved an amended interlocal agreement with the city on March 15 and the City Council followed suit on March 23.
“I think it is a win-win,” said Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke.
The original agreement was signed in 2018 when the property was slated to become the Boca National golf course, with an 18-hole course, driving range, putting greens, clubhouse and other facilities.
But that plan was scuttled when the Boca Raton Resort & Club donated the Boca Golf and Tennis Country Club to the city in October, eliminating the need for Boca National.
The district has since wanted to develop Ocean Breeze for recreation, which could include more limited golf facilities.
But the district and the city clashed on how to amend the original agreement to reflect the new vision for the property.
City staff rejected some of the district’s proposed wording. District commissioners rejected the city’s proposed rewrite, saying it prevented them from hiring a consultant to create a master plan.
Frustrated commissioners, who wanted to start planning, stepped back from hiring a consultant and instead voted Feb. 1 to issue a request for information intended to garner ideas on the best uses for Ocean Breeze. Responses are due by April 9.
Those responses and a needs assessment survey, they said, would serve as a starting point for discussions between the district and city on developing Ocean Breeze.
Executive Director Briann Harms and commissioners also pressed City Council members to help resolve the deadlock. The dispute finally ended when the two sides reached a deal at the end of February.
“It certainly is a step in the right direction for the relationship between our two bodies,” parks Commissioner Robert Rollins said on March 1.
All along, city staffers have denied allegations that they had proposed major changes to the interlocal agreement that were unfair to the district.
City Council member Andy Thomson elicited City Manager Leif Ahnell’s final word on the subject on March 23, asking him if the city tried to change the agreement in “some dramatic way.”
“No, not at all,” Ahnell said.
District commissioners and City Council members scheduled a joint meeting, long delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, for April 26.
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