By Mary Hladky
Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District officials are making a renewed effort to be exempted from making annual payments to city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The city turned down the district’s previous request in 2020. Since then, the cost to the district has continued to increase each year, officials told City Council members at an Aug. 21 joint meeting.
The district’s payment for the 2019-20 fiscal year was $1.4 million. That rose to $2.3 million for the current fiscal year and $2.6 million for next year.
The money, the officials contend, would be better spent on needed improvements to parks operated by the district.
District Chair Erin Wright urged council members, who also serve as CRA commissioners, to give “strong consideration” to the exemption request and “give our beaches and parks the same priority that is given to the downtown area.”
She also renewed a request that district residents be charged the same amount as city residents to use the community center and tennis facilities near City Hall in the CRA.
Charging district residents more is “an inequity that is not only unfair to our residents but also blatantly disregards the agreement made between our agencies in 1986,” she said.
While district officials have long complained about both issues, they had thought that their payments to the CRA would end first in 2019 when the bond for building Mizner Park was paid off and then in 2025, when the agency was scheduled to sunset.
But in June, City Manager Leif Ahnell proposed extending the so-called “tax increment financing (TIF)” requirement to 2042. The City Council delayed a vote on that change until after the joint meeting.
If the City Council votes in favor, it would cost the district a total of $60 million, district officials said.
While previous joint meetings have been contentious, the Aug. 21 session proceeded with no acrimony. Yet tensions were apparent.
Several district officials noted there are no park or recreation areas within the CRA.
“I would feel much better about writing a check for $2.6 million knowing it was going to recreation …” said district Commissioner Robert Rollins Jr.
If the payment requirement continues, “we would look at all options,” said district Commissioner Craig Ehrnst.
Council members offered no assurances. Mayor Scott Singer said they would “consider” the exemption request.
CRA Chairman and council member Marc Wigder said he would be willing to consider charging district residents the rates city residents pay to use the community center and tennis facilities.
Council members Fran Nachlas and Yvette Drucker said they first wanted to know what impact that would have on the CRA.
Contacted after the meeting, district Executive Director Briann Harms said in an email that she and commissioners had anticipated that city leaders would suggest that the district formally apply for a TIF exemption again.
“I hope they will strongly consider the impact that the (TIF) extension will have on our beaches and parks,” she added, noting the $60 million cost to the district.
Yet the two sides found some common ground.
The city and district agreed that a parks and recreation master plan is needed and both should collaborate on creating one. Deputy City Manager George Brown said a master plan would avoid duplication while meeting future needs.
Council members also approved a conceptual plan for the district’s North Park project on the east side of the former Ocean Breeze golf course property.
The plan for the property includes pickleball and tennis facilities, multi-use and mountain bike trails, a dog park, playgrounds and a community garden.
Before the meeting, Singer advised Wright that the city received permission to add a railroad crossing at Jeffery Street and extend the road across the parkland to Northeast Second Avenue.
Wright said her last update was that the city was applying for the change.
“We didn’t know there was going to be four lanes going through our property. We honestly didn’t; it was unclear to us,” Wright said.
Years ago the Florida East Coast Railway assured the district it would not allow another crossing to be built in the city.
The district will incorporate the roadway into its planning, Wright said.
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