Newly discovered provision — never enforced — blocks development east of A1A
By Rich Pollack
Highland Beach town leaders are hoping to find a fix to ensure that a long-undiscovered clause tucked inside its sea wall restrictions doesn’t torpedo oceanfront property owners’ ability to build on their land.
Town Manager Marshall Labadie said that the town’s Building Department recently discovered a provision in the sea wall ordinance that prohibits development east of what is known as the state’s Coastal Construction Control Line.
That boundary line, designed in large part to protect the sand dune, was established in Palm Beach County in 1978 and revised in 1997.
Because the ban on construction east of the line wasn’t known, Highland Beach has been giving homeowners the green light to build within the restricted area.
“We as a town have been allowing it for 50 years,” Labadie said.
One reason for that, he said, is that the Florida Department of Environment Protection has been issuing permits for home construction east of the control line.
“We’ve deferred to state,” Labadie said. “The state has allowed it pending review of site conditions.”
In addition to dealing with the prohibition of development east of the Coastal Construction Control Line, the town is planning to address a zoning issue that requires a 120-foot setback from a beachfront property’s vegetation line or eastern property line unless there is a sea wall.
With a sea wall, that setback requirement is just 50 feet from the eastern property line or the vegetation line. But the state has been reluctant to allow new sea walls.
The result, town officials say, is that an oceanfront home built in compliance with the 120-foot setback would likely end up within the State Road A1A right of way, if not onto the roadway itself.
A third issue involves the elevation of construction on oceanfront property. The state requires homes that do not have a sea wall to sit at least a foot above the base flood elevation, which is usually 12 to 14 feet above the average ocean level.
To meet that requirement and also have underground-level parking, some property owners would be required to have an incline that could be too steep to be functional.
The state does allow for a lower elevation of parking facilities if there is a sea wall or if there are what’s known as breakaway walls stretching along the entire perimeter of the structure below the base flood elevation.
Again, however, the state is reluctant to permit sea walls, meaning breakaway walls are the most likely solution.
Those breakaway walls, Labadie said, would collapse and could cause a problem with storm surge during a hurricane, causing ocean water to flood A1A and possibly buildings on the west side of the highway.
“We would prefer a sea wall or building above the base flood elevation,” he said.
Labadie said the town is hoping to find solutions that will provide protection to the dune and help maintain its stability while at the same time not interfering with an owner’s or developer’s property rights.
The Town Commission is asking the town’s planning board to address the first two issues quickly and take a hard look at the breakaway walls issue.
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