southern palm beach county - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T09:20:18Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/southern+palm+beach+countyAlong the Coast: More safe roads enforcement coming to State Road A1Ahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-more-safe-roads-enforcement-coming-to-state-road-2016-03-02T17:57:28.000Z2016-03-02T17:57:28.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong><br /> <br /> Motorists traveling along State Road A1A in southern Palm Beach County from March 7 to 13 may be seeing more flashing emergency lights as the South Florida Safe Roads Task Force conducts another in a series of concentrated education and enforcement efforts. <br /> Officers from several coastal communities, as well as from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol, will be out in force that week to highlight the importance of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians all sharing the road and following safety laws. Authorities will be issuing verbal and written warnings as well as citations, but the focus is on raising awareness and ensuring that those walking, bicycling or driving on A1A understand and follow applicable laws.<br /> “This campaign’s main purpose is education,” says Highland Beach Police Lt. Eric Lundberg, a task force founder who is helping coordinate the upcoming effort. “Our goal is to restore compliance with Florida laws and protect everyone on the road.”<br /> Lundberg did not say specifically when law enforcement agencies in Palm Beach County and north Broward County will be conducting saturation efforts, but the task force previously has focused on weekend mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings.<br /> “Those are the times when motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians have the most interaction,” he said.</p></div>Editor's Note: Old Ocean a holdout among vanishing ocean viewshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/editor-s-note-old-ocean-a-holdout-among-vanishing-ocean-views2015-11-04T19:50:32.000Z2015-11-04T19:50:32.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p> There are few places left in southern Palm Beach County where you can see the Atlantic Ocean. Private homes and condos block most of the views. Only along the public beach in Delray Beach, in spots where sea grapes have been trimmed along Boca Raton’s public beach and at the inlet bridges are glimpses of the ocean still visible. <br /> Manalapan provides some stunning views along A1A, but the increasing number and size of scattered beach cabanas may soon leave that stretch with views of the ocean limited to all but the property owners.<br /> There is one stretch of road, though, where for generations those “in the know” could drive to check on the beach conditions or simply cruise by to catch a glimpse of moonlight on the ocean. It’s named Old Ocean Boulevard and is what remains of the old coastal route through Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes. <br /> Before the hurricane of 1947, this was the road many from Palm Beach took — traveling the dune-top road down to a gas station and shell shop in Briny Breezes and then a bit farther to the polo fields in Gulf Stream and beyond to Delray Beach and Boca Raton.<br /> Briny pioneers tell tales of Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and his wife stopping off in Briny to buy gas and chat with the station owners on their way to and from Eastover, their home in Manalapan. <br /> A1A runs to the west now, the gas station and shell shop are gone and the polo fields are mostly golf course, but historic Eastover and Gulf Stream Golf Club remain — as does Old Ocean Boulevard. <br /> I’ve traveled this bit of road in both directions for more than 30 years — sometimes taking my elderly mother or aunt for a ride to feel the sun on her face and see the rolling blue expanse of the ocean, and sometimes just to check for myself to see if the surf’s up or if the sand is inviting me down for a walk along the shore. <br /> At night I often drive home along this road from dinner with friends in Briny Breezes or the county pocket, listening to jazz on the car radio and stopping to catch a glimpse of moonlight on the water.<br /> Could I (and others) still do these things if Ocean Ridge’s proposal to turn this stretch of road into a one-way “promenade” happens? Maybe. But what if Briny Breezes chooses the un-neighborly option of turning “their part” of the road private? <br /> If these changes are implemented, we all stand to lose an important connection to local history. And for those of us not lucky enough to live on the water, there will be one less place to catch a glimpse of the ocean.<br /><br /><em>— Mary Kate Leming, editor</em></p></div>Along the Coast: Beach management funding an issue for towns without ready projectshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-beach-management-funding-an-issue-for-towns-witho2012-10-03T16:20:03.000Z2012-10-03T16:20:03.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b>By Tim O’Meilia</b></span></p>
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<p>Four southern Palm Beach County coastal towns are part of the 23 percent. </p>
<p>That is, beaches in South Palm Beach, Manalapan and Lantana won’t benefit in the near future from an inlet-to-inlet beach management plan now being assembled by state, county and local officials. But they’ll be asked to pay a 23 percent share of the cost of annual monitoring of the entire 15.7 miles of shoreline between the Lake Worth and Boynton inlets, based on the length of each town’s beachfront. The town of Palm Beach will pay the rest. </p>
<p>“We don’t have a pending project, so how do you convince people we should be a part of it?” said South Palm Beach Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer. “It’s a hard sell.”</p>
<p>An environmental impact study now under way may yield a new approach to saving the eroding beaches south of the Lake Worth pier to Lantana’s public beach, but only projects already designed are being included in the regional plan now. A South Palm Beach-Lantana project could be added later. </p>
<p>Fischer, representatives of the other two towns and Palm Beach County officials agreed to meet soon to discuss apportioning the costs. An estimate won’t be available until next month. They all attended the monthly meeting of the group putting together the regional plan Sept. 18 in Palm Beach.</p>
<p>“Funding is going to be the question,” said Lantana Town Manager Deborah Manzo. Manalapan Building Official Bob Donovan agreed. Lake Worth has yet to send a representative to any meeting. </p>
<p>“We want the entire (region) to have a monitoring commitment,” said Danielle Fondren, chief of the state’s Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems, which is guiding the writing of the plan. “It should not cost more than what people are currently paying.”</p>
<p>None of the three towns is paying for monitoring now, although South Palm Beach expects to continue paying 20 percent of the cost of the environmental impact study.</p>
<p>The rationale for developing a regional plan is to consider inlet-to-inlet as a whole and develop an overall approach, thus streamlining state permitting for individual projects within the region and making them more effective. </p>
<p>That doesn’t guarantee quicker examination by federal agencies that also issue permits for beach restoration projects. </p>
<p>It’s a pilot program for the state Department of Environmental Protection. If it succeeds, the area from the Boynton Inlet to the Boca Inlet could next see a regional approach. Ocean Ridge beaches are included in the region. </p>
<p>Despite lacking a project in the regional plan, the towns will be asked by DEP to sign a “letter of participation,” indicating that they will continue to help write the plan. That does not commit them to signing the plan when it is completed, perhaps by the end of the year, Fondren said.</p>
<p>A 1.3-mile project from southern Palm Beach to Manalapan was killed by county commissioners earlier this year. But the commission revived the idea in June, so long as the new plan does not include a series of offshore concrete breakwaters and several groins from the original plan. </p>
<p>Commissioners were concerned about the effect of such structures on sea turtle nesting and sea grasses.</p>
<p>County officials already have said they will not perform any more dune restoration in South Palm Beach because it is ineffective. In many areas, the condominiums sit atop the natural dune. The environmental impact study is being done together with a plan for south of the Lake Worth pier. But the state, which was paying 50 percent of the study’s cost, has no money in next year’s budget for its share. The county, Palm Beach, Lantana and South Palm Beach will have to decide how to pay for it. </p>
<p>“Conceptually, we’re still on board,” South Palm Beach Town Manager Rex Taylor said. </p></div>