By Steve Plunkett
As chainsaws whirred into the limbs and trunks of large Brazilian pepper trees, archaeologist Rodrigo Cardenas kept a close watch on the work at Ocean Strand.
“We just guide them on how to do it in a way that’s not going to harm the archaeological site,” Cardenas said.
In their first day on the job Sept. 19, crews attacked the exotic vegetation that has overtaken the parcel; that evening commissioners of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District approved spending $15,207 for signs declaring the property “Ocean Strand Park.”
The vacant 14.6-acre site between State Road A1A and the Intracoastal Waterway is expected to open to the public by the end of the year, said Erin Wright, who chairs the district board and was behind the latest push to develop the park.
“They said that’s totally do-able,” Wright said. “So we’ll have a nice ribbon-cutting.”
After the workers remove the larger growth, they will tackle the underbrush, clipping non-native plant life just above ground level to avoid disturbing what remains of a prehistoric midden, or trash heap, left by indigenous people circa A.D. 600 to 1400.
“So it’ll be like open. It’ll be nice,” said Cardenas, of the Broward County-based not-for-profit Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, which discovered eight pieces of prehistoric pottery while studying the parkland for the Beach and Park District.
Cardenas said the pottery fragments confirmed the significance of the site.
“You’re never going to find a natural ceramic. That’s something they made here,” he said.
The district bought the land, which includes 1.6 acres on the beach east of A1A, and two additional parcels, for $13.1 million starting in 1994. It banked the property without creating plans to develop it until Wright began her push almost three years ago.
District commissioners at first budgeted $75,000 to make Ocean Strand a pedestrian park in September 2020. That amount swelled to $600,000 to add an ADA-compliant path and fully remove exotic plants, then dropped to the current $300,000 after Cardenas’ group issued its study. Instead of clearing Brazilian peppers from the entire western tract, crews are focusing on the central portion with extra care for the midden on its west side.
Ocean Strand Park will open with a mulch path for pedestrians from A1A to the waterway, an asphalt path for people with disabilities and for bicyclists, picnic tables, benches and a kayak landing area.
The acreage is at 2300 N. Ocean Blvd., between the much larger Red Reef Park and Spanish River Park.
Also at the site are private construction crews building a three-unit condominium on the Intracoastal just north of the park. JJ Morley Enterprises Inc. paid the district $15,000 for a temporary easement to stage construction equipment and materials, park vehicles and enter and leave the area. The easement runs until February 2023 or until construction is complete and can be extended if necessary for $1,000 a month. After the work is finished, Morley will repave the asphalt road.
Comments