By Steve Plunkett
The city and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District plan to spend $15,000 in the coming budget year at Ocean Strand, mostly to cut the grass.
It’s the same amount that was set aside in the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. So far, only $2,520 has been spent maintaining the grounds at the 15-acre undeveloped site, which straddles State Road A1A between Spanish River and Red Reef parks.
The number is dwarfed by the $1.1 million the district would spend replacing the hammock boardwalk and paying for a science educator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Red Reef Park and even tinier compared with the $1.9 million budgeted to open and operate eight ball fields at the new Countess de Hoernle Park off Spanish River Boulevard.
Beach and park commissioners on July 18 tentatively adopted a rollback
rate of $1.01 per $1,000 of taxable value for fiscal 2012, which would generate the same taxes as the current year’s 99 cents per $1,000. A $456 million decline in property values district-wide was partly offset by $261 million in new construction, said Robert Langford, the district’s executive director. The district’s tax base is $19 billion.
The first public hearing on the budget proposal will be 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 12.
Commissioners wondered whether they could save money by mimicking Spanish River Park and closing Red Reef Park on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. But park officials told them closing the park has not saved Boca Raton a substantial sum. There is no need for gate attendants when Spanish River is closed, Recreation Services Director Mickey Gomez said, but seven lifeguards still patrol the beach.
Recreation Superintendent J.D. Varney said that when Spanish River Park is closed, city employees do maintenance work at other facilities that otherwise would be contracted out, saving about $85,000 this year. Also, Red Reef Park has taken in an extra $32,000 in parking fees on days Spanish River was closed, Varney said.
While no money is budgeted to build a park at Ocean Strand, consultant Curtis + Rogers Design Studio is developing a master plan for the controversial site. Commissioners asked the firm to determine what amenities are available at nearby parks to avoid offering the same attractions. No public hearings on designs have been set.
The site was discussed at beach and park district and city meetings after a developer in late 2009 proposed putting a members-only cabana club on the unused site to augment a luxury hotel planned for downtown.
Neighbors were shocked to learn Boca Raton’s comprehensive plan labels the parcel residential instead of recreational.
The city is working to amend the comprehensive plan. Meanwhile, a citizens group, Keep Your Boca Beaches Public, has sued to get a special election banning private clubs on public land on the barrier island. The city is appealing.
The beach and park district bought the Ocean Strand property in 1994 for $11.9 million, but never developed it. Ú
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