By Rich Pollack
Highland Beach residents will get a chance to pitch their objections to the development of a beachfront county park directly to the decision makers, but they might be swimming upstream if they hope to change their minds.
At the invitation of town leaders, County Commissioner Marci Woodward, Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Cirillo and other county employees will host a public outreach meeting in February that will include a short presentation on plans to develop the 5.6-acre Milani Park. Comments and questions from residents will follow.
While county representatives likely will be greeted with vocal opposition, they have remained steadfast in their determination to develop the property, which straddles State Road A1A.
“Commissioner Woodward was quite firm that she wants to move forward with a park,” Highland Beach Mayor Natasha Moore said. “She was also firm on her wanting to do it during her current term of office.”
During a two-hour meeting with Woodward, Cirillo and two other county representatives, Moore and Town Manager Marshall Labadie had a chance to point out longtime concerns that residents have about development of a park.
“It was a good dialogue,” said Labadie, who added that the outreach meeting will be hosted in Highland Beach but will be a county-run meeting.
“We will partner to house the meeting, but it will not be a Town Commission meeting,” he told commissioners during a regularly scheduled commission meeting last month. “We will be part of the audience.”
The meeting with county leaders came following a letter the town received in August in which County Administrator Verdenia Baker said that the county is beginning the design and permitting process for the park and plans to move forward.
The county could have delayed its decision to initiate development for another five years as part of a 2010 settlement agreement with the town that came 23 years after the county bought the property from the Milani family in 1987 for just under $4 million. The county chose not to exercise that option.
Since the town received that letter, concerned residents have once again voiced opposition to the park’s development, opposition which has been going on for more than three decades.
Labadie said the public outreach meeting will be a chance for county leaders to hear directly from residents, including those who live in the Boca Highland Beach Club & Marina, which is adjacent to the planned park on the west side of A1A.
“This is their opportunity for the county leaders to hear from the community what you have been hearing,” he told town commissioners.
During last month’s meeting with county leaders held in Highland Beach, the county representatives reiterated their commitment to creating a passive park that would have a boardwalk to the beach on the east side of A1A and parking for about 40 cars on the west side.
That plan, which Moore said appears to be the final concept, comes after county officials had initially suggested the park would include more than 100 parking spaces plus lifeguards, bathrooms and other amenities that are not included in the current conceptual plans.
“The good news is that if there has to be a park, this is the better option,” Moore said.
Still, residents have concerns for safety and traffic impact.
“My community does not like this idea,” said Commissioner Evalyn David, who lives in Boca Highland.
While the county has the final say in how the park is developed, the town does have a bit of leverage from 43 conditions for development it placed in the 2010 settlement agreement.
Several of those conditions are outdated and the town and the county will need to come to agreement on any changes.
“The county recognizes the need to form some level of partnership with the town,” Labadie said.
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