Summer construction anticipated as county, town end long feud
By Rich Pollack
The decades-long battle between Highland Beach and Palm Beach County over development of Milani Park could be ending thanks to a compromise reducing the initial number of parking spots — with the county planning to put shovels in the ground as early as next summer for the $8.6 million project.
The town and the county have squared off for almost 40 years as the town fought to stave off the 5.6-acre park straddling State Road A1A at its south end with everything from legal action to residents packing a County Commission meeting.
In September, however, County Commissioner Marci Woodward and County Administrator Joe Abruzzo met with Highland Beach Mayor Natasha Moore and Town Manager Marshall Labadie and came up with a plan to address one of the most contentious concerns: too many parking spaces on the park’s west side.
While county leaders’ hands were tied by a 2010 settlement agreement that requires 100 parking spots on that side of A1A, the county and town leaders agreed to the installation of just 46 spaces in the park’s first phase of construction. The remaining 54 spaces would be part of a second phase that’s left up in the air to a time to be determined by the county.
“This agreement appears to be bringing a resolution to a decades-long battle between the county and the town,” said Woodward, whose commission district includes Highland Beach. “It is a collaborative agreement to bring the most palatable option for a small, peaceful park in a small, peaceful town.”
The agreement signals what could be the end of Highland Beach’s long effort to prevent the property — which the Milani family in 1987 sold to the county for $3.9 million — from becoming a park.
The town, since being notified in the summer of 2023 of the county’s plans to move forward with park construction, stepped up its efforts to stop the park, hiring consultants and lawyers and even proposing the county sell the property for housing development.
An acceptable compromise
Moore, however, said it became clear at some point that the county was not going to halt plans to move forward and that reaching a compromise on the number of parking spaces was a step in the right direction.
“It’s the best outcome we could get based on the circumstances,” she said. “Continuing to battle was a frivolous endeavor.”
Labadie sees the reduction in the number of parking spaces as an acceptable compromise.
“Nobody wants the park, but a parking lot with less spaces is more palatable,” he said.
The idea of compromising on the number of parking spots was not new when county and town leaders met in September and agreed on the 46 spots.
A similar compromise was first proposed in 2022 by then-Mayor Doug Hillman and it was once again brought up by Woodward in 2024 when she heard from residents in a contentious meeting.
It was shelved, she said, after town leaders passed a resolution opposing any park.
After hearing at a recent meeting from residents — including members of the Milani family, who asked for less parking — Woodward went back to county staff to see if a compromise on the number of spaces was feasible.
“The parking has always been the most contentious part of this,” she said.
Less parking, less traffic?
The challenge facing the staff was to find a way to reduce parking without having to reopen the 2010 settlement agreement, which contains more than 40 conditions agreed to by both the county and the town.
The plan the staff came up with includes green space on the western portion of the parking area.
“It’s going to be a large grassy area,” Woodward said. “It will be open space with trees all around it.”
Of the 46 parking spaces, four will be for people with disabilities, four will be for staff and 38 will be for general parking.
Ron Reame, on the board of Boca Highland Beach Club and Marina, which borders the park property, believes some of the area’s outspoken residents might find the reduced number of parking spots acceptable.
“I think this could quiet the turmoil to some degree,” he said. “This solution is certainly more palatable to the residents of Boca Highland.”
Reducing the number of parking spots initially, Woodard said, makes sense since there’s still no way of knowing how much use the park will get.
“Our parks people say that they think 46 spaces will be enough but we just don’t know,” she said.
Labadie says he believes reducing the number of parking spaces could address another concern of residents: traffic.
“One could reasonably deduce that less parking will mean less traffic,” he said.
Park design almost done
Moore said that as the fight to stop a park dragged on, it became clear that the county was not going to relent.
“There was a certain point where there was no opportunity to avoid a park,” she said. “It then became a question of how do we collaborate and cooperate.”
The mayor said that she and a few residents were brought in by Woodward to look at early designs and provide feedback.
“It was important that we were at least involved in the planning,” she said, adding that one of the upsides to the process has been an improved relationship between leaders of the two governments.
Woodward said that the County Commission has approved the budget for the park and that the design of both the west and east sides is almost done.
She said plans are for the heaviest of the construction to be in the summer when fewer residents are in town. She also sees the current plans as helping to preserve the east side of the park’s historical and archeological significance.
“The park is still going to happen, and I believe this will be even better for the residents of Highland Beach,” Woodward said.
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