By Tim Pallesen
    
Residents have filed a second lawsuit to overturn city approval of the controversial Archstone project on East Palmetto Park Road.
    The lawsuit halts construction of the 378-unit project that was set for this fall after the City Council gave approval on March 11.
The council scheduled executive sessions after its regular meeting to discuss the litigation.
    Three neighbors named as plaintiffs — George O’Rourke, James Wood and Al Zucaro — say Archstone violates the intent of the city’s comprehensive plan.
    “We don’t want high-rise rental all over the downtown with minimal retail,” O’Rourke said.
    The developer’s attorney, Charlie Siemon, said the city will be able to defend its Archstone approval in court. “All of the charges in their lawsuit are based on opinions and have no basis in fact,” Siemon said.
    But the delay caused by the litigation could make Archstone and downtown redevelopment an issue in Boca Raton ’s municipal election next March.
    “This lawsuit is about politics — the price for it is the success of our downtown,” said councilwoman Constance Scott, who chairs the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. “Archstone is a great project that will revitalize the downtown.”
    Scott speculated that O’Rourke and Zucaro will become candidates to oppose council members who voted for the Archstone project.
    “A small group of vocal residents want to keep Boca as it is,” she said. “If we don’t keep our momentum so that we’re growing and moving forward, the result will be increased taxes.”
    Both O’Rourke and Zucaro denied that they will run for the City Council.
    “There is absolutely zero possibility that I will run for political office,” O’Rourke said. “But my greatest hope is that residents will come forward to run who are fair-minded and not bidding agents for the development community.”
    “I am not a candidate for any political office,” said Zucaro, a former West Palm Beach city commissioner. “I am simply a concerned citizen speaking out.”
    O’Rourke, Wood and Zucaro own single-family homes near the Archstone project.
    O’Rourke’s wife, Andrea, is president of the Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association, which collected more than 1,100 signatures last year to force a citywide referendum to overturn a previous city approval for Archstone.
    The city is fighting that referendum in another lawsuit filed last year that is awaiting an appellate court ruling.
    But Archstone developer Mark Guzzetta said the most recent lawsuit filed last month will delay construction. 

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