This South Palm Beach dock is the source of a dispute with Lantana, which says it controls the water. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Patrick Sherry and Larry Barszewski
The waters between Lantana’s Hypoluxo Island and the town of South Palm Beach are roiling with a dispute between the two towns that could be heading to court over which town controls dock permitting in the channel.
Lantana officials say they may sue their neighbor, with whom they thought they had good relations, over South Palm Beach’s effort to exert control over the permitting of docks for that town’s condos in the channel that Lantana says it has jurisdiction over.
The South Palm Beach Town Council at its Aug. 11 meeting approved an ordinance that affirms its permitting jurisdiction over docks, sea walls, piers and other waterfront structures within its boundaries.
That led the Lantana Town Council to call a special meeting on Aug. 17 because it says those structures would be built in water it controls, so permits for those structures must be issued by Lantana.
The new Intracoastal Waterway fight — which has its origins in a 70-year-old dispute between the two towns — has been brewing since last September, when Lantana approved a permit for a dock construction at the Concordia West condos in South Palm Beach, only to rescind that permission in November. The construction of the dock there continued and Lantana has been seeking since then to have the new structure demolished.
Lantana Town Attorney Max Lohman argued that the only waters South Palm Beach has jurisdiction over are on the ocean side of the town. He criticized that town’s ordinance as contradictory, claiming the language simultaneously does not establish new permitting requirements while prohibiting the construction of waterfront structures without a permit.
“Honestly, I am dumbfounded, genuinely,” Lohman said. “People rarely surprise me, but this actually surprised me.”
Preparing to sue
Before the town can take South Palm Beach to court, Lantana officials need to initiate a state-required intergovernmental conflict-resolution process, which its council approved on a unanimous vote. The town’s dispute with the Concordia West and East condos, at 3555 and 3560 S. Ocean Blvd., also continues, and officials said there are at least seven others that could construct a dock in what Lantana says is its jurisdiction.
“This is a situation where we have to react to this and deal with it,” Lohman said. “Otherwise, you’re just going to have docks thrown in the water over there, and we’re going to be buying multiple lawsuits.”
But South Palm Beach officials are just as adamant that any permitting of docks or other structures for South Palm Beach condos should come from their town.
“My message to the town of South Palm Beach is that we have no option but to vigorously defend the right of our residents, for those property owners that live by the water to wharf out,” Mayor Rafael Pineiro said. “We have no choice but to take a position that we are a municipality, we will exercise our rights, and I will defend their right to do that. I don’t think we have a choice.”
South Palm Beach says it has zoning control over docks like this one, seen from the roof of Concordia West. The wooden dock, which Lantana says should be demolished, has a floating kayak launch. Hypoluxo Island is visible across the channel.
A channel with a history
South Palm Beach Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said Lantana was not “playing nice” with permitting, so the recent ordinance was an attempt to take back control as he said South Palm had before 1994. He also cited an attempt by both towns in 1994 to settle the dispute, but the effort ended without an agreement.
To make sense of what’s happening now, you have to go back almost a century, as detailed in a 1961 Palm Beach Post story.
Lantana’s original borders extended to the ocean, but in 1931 were pulled back to the eastern edge of the Intracoastal. When South Palm Beach incorporated in 1955, it set its boundary as the middle of the channel between the town and Hypoluxo Island.
Lantana took the issue to the state Legislature, which in 1959 asserted that the borders were as Lantana said.
Is a resolution possible?
Today, South Palm Beach’s situation is similar to one Lantana recently faced with the town of Palm Beach over 15 properties in the northernmost portion of Hypoluxo Island, along North Atlantic Drive.
The water adjacent to those properties is in the town of Palm Beach’s waters. The two towns reached an agreement in June that allows Lantana to process permits for boat docks, piers, pilings, boat lifts, floating docks and related structures.
While Lantana will use its own permitting standards and codes when reviewing applications, the agreement also indemnifies the town of Palm Beach from any claims or liabilities arising from its adherence to the agreement.
Titcomb was asked if something like that would work between South Palm Beach and Lantana.
“Will we get something like that? I don’t know,” Titcomb said. “I’m hoping we don’t get to the point of litigation, but I’ve expressed to their officials and others that I’m quite confident that on the legal issues we will prevail” because Lantana is interfering with the riparian rights of property owners that are protected by the state.
Lantana sent a certified copy of the resolution to South Palm Beach requesting a meeting for the conflict assessment. That meeting will take place at 1 p.m. Sept. 18 at Lantana Town Hall. If the dispute is not resolved, the resolution authorizes town officials to pursue legal action to protect Lantana’s jurisdiction and authority.
“If things degenerate to the point that we would have to sue another municipality, this is a prerequisite that we must complete in order to move forward,” Lohman said.
Council member Jesse Rivero said, “I hope their attorney and their town manager can maybe talk some decency or some sense.”
Robert Haughn and Mary Thurwachter contributed to this story.
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