News

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The city-owned Wildflower parcel on the Intracoastal Waterway now has the papers to prove it’s a park.
    City Council members changed the site’s designation on Boca Raton’s comprehensive land-use plan to “recreation and open space” and rezoned the property as “public land.” Before, the 2.3-acre property at the northwest base of the Palmetto Park Road bridge was labeled “commercial” and zoned for “local business.”
    No members of the public commented on the changes at the council’s June 13 meeting. Neither did council members. The comp plan ordinance required at least four votes for adoption. It and the zoning ordinance both passed 5-0.
    Last July, council members changed part of the vacant parcel from residential to commercial to accommodate a long-planned restaurant. Boca Raton bought the land in 2009 for $7.5 million.
    But voters decided in November to reserve all city-owned land on the Intracoastal for “public recreation, public boating access, public streets, and city storm water uses only.”
    In other business, the council approved hiring Applied Technology and Management Inc. to provide engineering services for a seawater intake and pump station system for Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s saltwater tanks.
    The previous month ATM won the contract to develop architectural plans for the restoration of Lake Wyman and Rutherford parks.