Surf parks can provide reliable waves, something the Atlantic Ocean does not. Rendering provided
By Steve Plunkett
The best waves in Boca Raton would rise west of Dixie Highway if the parks district takes up a private company’s pitch to build a massive wave-maker, creating Boca Surf Park on about 24 acres at the district’s new North Park north of Yamato Road.
When it comes to surfing waves, the Atlantic Ocean along the city’s coastline just doesn’t cut it, the company says, with flat seas most of the time and only a few sporadic days on which the dudes can catch a decent ride.
The surf park — along with a recreation and entertainment complex and a golf-related facility — are being scrutinized for inclusion at the former Ocean Breeze golf course by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District.
District commissioners reviewed those proposals as well as one for a “state-of-the-art” Boys and Girls Club facility at what is now called North Park at their Oct. 20 meeting.
“Nobody’s going to get a contract tonight. … There’s a lot more information to gather. There’s a lot more public input needed,” said Briann Harms, the district’s executive director.
Commissioners at a special Oct. 7 meeting ranked the surf park their top choice of 10 offerings by for-profit and not-for-profit entities, discarding six proposals. Already it has drawn opposition from residents of the Boca Teeca condominiums, which are surrounded by the parkland just north of Yamato Road and unevenly quartered by Northwest Second Avenue and Jeffery Street/Clint Moore Road.
Erin Wright, chair of the district board, said the man-made surfer waves would not be produced by a pneumatic system that would be disturbing to park neighbors.
“That is not the wave system that they will be using. The pneumatic system is very noisy with a lot of mechanical equipment,” Wright said. “The Wavegarden system does not use that. It’s much quieter. It’s electric.”
The proposal by Boca Surf Park LLC, which was first received unsolicited in July and led to a request for bids and the resulting 10 offerings, has received the most buzz. The team is led by the hometown Cottrell family, which founded and operates the Island Water Sports surf shop in Deerfield Beach.
The surf park would be in the northwest quadrant of North Park. Its backers would build the park without district help and say it would generate about $600,000 a year in payments to the district. They seek a 49-year concession agreement with two 25-year renewals.
“The question I get the most is, ‘Why does Boca need a surf park — the beach is a mile away,’” Cheyne Cottrell said at the Oct. 20 meeting. “And the reason is, we’re the most densely populated surf state behind California in the country. We have over 250,000 surfers in the state. … And we have a hunger that no other place has for good waves. The problem is we only have 40 days a year of waves in Boca, and surfing is hard, it’s unpredictable, low-quality, tidal and just very low-quality waves in general.”
Another proposal is for a multiuse, indoor-outdoor recreation and entertainment complex in the southwest part of North Park. The facility would have a performance gymnasium, climbing walls, an obstacle course, cafe and event space. It would also include 6,000 square feet set aside for an indoor soccer training program.
Its backers say they would pay the district $150,000 to $200,000 a year from its expected $1 million annual net income.
The third proposal, from Kemper Sports for a golf facility, was the least detailed primarily because its backers switched from wanting a northwest location to the southwest sector.
They will return to the district board in November with fleshed-out plans.
Their original idea was to have a short course, a Himalaya-style putting green, driving range and a “village hub” with a clubhouse, restaurant and event lawn. They, too, project an annual payment to the district of $150,000 to $200,000 for their “family-friendly, social golf campus.”
Harms was authorized at the meeting to hire an outside consultant to conduct financial feasibility studies on all four proposals for a cost not to exceed $10,000.
Before the meeting began in the 155-seat Willow Theatre inside Sugar Sand Park, at least three dozen people were turned away from the standing-room-only crowd after the anti-development group Save Boca put out a call for its supporters to lobby the district to break its agreement with the city to build softball fields on 11 acres of Sugar Sand’s “urban forest.”
The site is home to protected gopher tortoises, the group said, and the softball fields would not be needed if a March 10 referendum vote voids plans for a redevelopment of Boca Raton’s downtown campus.
“The Beach and Parks District has the power to terminate this agreement and prevent any active work from going on at the site, until the voters have a say on the matter,” the group said.
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