By Tim O’Meilia
With the Imperial House facing another winter without a seawall, the South Palm Beach Town Council voted on Dec. 15 to ask Palm Beach County to intervene in a dispute between the condominium and the town of Lantana over beach access.
The 58-unit co-op adjoins the north end of Lantana’s oceanfront beach and needs the access to move construction equipment onto the beach to erect the seawall.
“We can’t support them financially but at least we can support them morally,” said Councilman Donald Clayman. South Palm Beach has no public beach of its own.
The council questioned whether Lantana could deny access to the beach under its agreement with the county when the town acquired Dorothy Rissler Road between the Ritz-Carlton and the south end of the Lantana beach.
Mayor Martin Millar opposed the letter. “It’s not our fight. We shouldn’t get into their fight,” he said.
On Dec. 14, the day before South Palm Beach met, the Imperial House offered to pay Lantana $5,000 for access, an offer Lantana Mayor David Steward called “insulting.”
Lantana wants a $213,500 payment from Imperial House which officials said is the cost of having to re-engineer its own seawall plans, change its permit and build an additional section to its seawall last year when the co-op delayed its plans to build a seawall. The co-op offered $35, 000 last month.
Imperial House directors say they can’t afford the fee on top of the $500,000 cost of building the seawall. Lantana granted emergency access in November so boulders could be moved in to shore up the condo’s temporary wall of blocks after a storm washed away a sidewalk near the six-story building.
“I’m deeply disappointed in Lantana’s denying access,” said Councilman Brian Merbler, who made the motion to send the letter to county officials through County Commissioner Steven Abrams. “For all intents and purposes, it’s shakedown of a quarter of a million dollars.”
Imperial House must begin work in January to complete the project by April 1, when turtle-nesting season begins and construction is forbidden.
Although he agreed it was a private fight between the co-op and Lantana, Merbler said, a damaging northeaster “would be a catastrophic event for the Imperial House and for the town of Lantana.
The 223-unit Mayfair House, five buildings north of Imperial House, began work on its own seawall. Lantana wanted $75,000 for access, but Mayfair House will use its own property although the project will cost more than the original $1.6 million.
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