A five-year legal battle over an oceanfront lot in Boca Raton could end tonight.
On the agenda for the city council meeting is a proposed settlement that would allow construction of a four-level, 10,325-square-foot house at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. In return, Delray Beach-based Azure Development would drop its lawsuit against the city. Each side would pay its own legal fees.
The issue dates to 2016, when Azure filed a development application. The lawsuit began in 2019, after the city council denied a variance the project needed because it would have been so close to the water.
In its lawsuit, Azure argued that city officials worked in secret to ensure that the environmental advisory board would issue a recommendation against the project. Council members cited that recommendation when they denied the variance. Azure sought public records to support its theory.
Six months ago, a state court judge found that while officials produced many of the records, it did not produce others that could have been “damning” to the city. The failure “led to the filing of the lawsuit.” Robert Sweetapple, Azure’s attorney, said the ruling justified his contention that Boca Raton had been operating a “secret government.” The city, Sweetapple said, now had to process Azure’s application.
Months of negotiation followed, with Azure and the city working on a design that the council could approve. Indeed, the memo from Deputy City Attorney Joshua Koehler notes that the settlement will take effect only if the council grants the variance at a hearing on a date to be determined.
Azure, Sweetapple said, has submitted a project that is “very, very scaled back.” Azure’s engineer said current rules “could potentially support three dwelling units,” not just one. The home would be far enough back from the Coastal Construction Control Line to not make it an issue, Sweetapple said. The home would have sea turtle-friendly glass.
The engineering firm also points out that the height of 38 feet would be below the allowable limit of 50 feet. That top level, the firm says, would contain “amenities, which are necessary due to site restrictions.” The house is “designed to harmonize with its surroundings.”
This lot, and another just to the south, became political topics nearly a decade ago when reports spread of plans to develop them. Public opposition grew quickly, to the point where the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District sought assessments on each. Neither the district nor the city expressed interest in buying them.
Based on the litigation, pandering to that sentiment harmed the city and laid the ground for the proposed settlement. Boca Raton lost three court rulings concluding that then-council members Monica Mayotte and Andrea O’Rourke prejudiced themselves before the quasi-judicial hearing by saying that they would vote against the variance for 2600 North Ocean.
Azure, Sweetapple said, has “met the strictest requirements” with its latest design. “The staff recommends approval.” I’ll follow up after the meeting.
City staff requests override of preservation board decision
Also on tonight’s agenda, city staff is asking the Boca Raton City Council to override one of its advisory boards.
Boca Raton wants to move the Singing Pines Children’s Museum from north of City Hall to a site just south of Boca Raton Middle School and near Meadows Park. In its place, the city staff wants to construct a home for the building and code enforcement departments. It’s part of the plan for a new downtown government campus that could include private development. The plan is a council priority.
The museum has been closed since the pandemic. The buildings date back more than a century. City officials explored other options—including a move to Sugar Sand Park—but found no takers. The proposed site would be near the Junior League’s community garden, which the Brightline station displaced.
The move requires a certificate of appropriateness (COA), which the historic preservation board must grant. According to the staff memo, the board opposed the move for several reasons. Board members believed that the new site would offer “less visibility” and should remain near City Hall. They also worried about the loss of green space.
Council members, however, can override the denial. City staff members contend that the new building would be appropriate on the site near Meadows Park.
I would expect the council to side with the staff. During spring planning sessions, council members and administrators said they want to move as quickly as possible on the downtown plan. Which brings us to my next item.
Boca seeks “cone of silence” for selecting downtown campus developer
On tonight’s agenda is approval of a “cone of silence”—a set of rules banning public discussion of what the legal department memo calls “city-initiated procurement activities.” That means any solicitation for contracts.
The focus of this proposed ordinance surely is a possible public-private partnership, known as a P3, with a developer for that downtown campus. Seven years ago, when the city first examined this idea, a consultant priced the cost of a publicly funded campus so high that the council backed off. Under a P3, the developer would pay for all or part of a new City Hall and police station in return for permission to build housing.
I’ll have more after the meeting.
New doc on Boca murders at odds with police findings
Though a recent documentary hinted strongly that a Swedish serial killer committed two of Boca Raton’s most infamous murders, the police department does not believe that he is the culprit.
“Under The Radar” focuses on Peter Mangs, who investigators suspect killed as many as 15 people in that country, all of them immigrants. The documentary notes that he was living in Boca Raton when Nancy Bochicchio and her 7-year-old daughter, Joey, were shot in their car after being abducted in the Town Center mall parking lot.
Those murders happened in December 2007. Nine months earlier, Randi Gorenberg was shot dead, left in her car just outside the city. She had been to the mall. In August of that year, a woman and her son were carjacked in the mall parking lot but not harmed. According to the documentary, Mangs reportedly hung out at the mall while living with his father.
A police department spokesman said the filmmakers met with investigators in 2021. “They wanted information from us. They were suggesting hypotheticals.”
After the documentary dropped last month, the spokeswoman said, “We got a lot of [media] inquiries.” Investigators found “nothing to back their claims.” Similarly, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman—that agency responded to the Gorenberg murder—“ruled out” Mangs as a suspect.
I wrote a retrospective piece on the Bochicchio murders in 2017. After the retirement of Capt. Matthew Duggan, the lead investigator is Det. Scott Hanley. “We’re still putting resources into” the case, the spokeswoman said. “We want to solve it.”
Restauranteurs have an appetite for Delray
Apparently, restaurant demand in Delray Beach remains far from peaking.
On the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting of the site plan review and appearance board is a proposal to convert the building at 101 SE 2nd Ave. from office to restaurant. There would be 6,000 square feet of interior dining space and another 300 square feet outside. The Miami-based owner bought the 0.31-acre site in 2021 for $3.6 million.
Delray CRA to try and fill community advisory board
At its Thursday meeting, the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency will try to finally complete the agency’s community advisory board.
The previous city commission abolished the two appointed members of the CRA board, which now is the commission itself. In their place, the commission created the five-member board to provide community input on agency priorities. Startup has been slow. But Commissioner Rob Long has the appointment to complete the board, which then would begin meeting.
Another agenda item is appointment of a committee to help with the redevelopment plan for The Set. West Atlantic Avenue has been a political issue. This discussion will show if it still is.
East Palmetto Park Road condos will have EV charging stations
An interesting thing happened Monday when the city council approved construction of a luxury condo at 280 E. Palmetto Park Road.
The developer’s representative noted that a new state law removes any requirement to provide electric vehicle charging stations. Tallahassee dropped that requirement in a bill that abolished climate change as a priority in a state that might be the most vulnerable to climate change.
This condo, though, will have them. As the developer sees it, the stations are a “business decision.”
