Here’s my annual list of the top stories from 2024 for this area and what’s coming next year.
Brightline Spurs Development of Downtown Campus
Boca Raton moved full speed ahead on ambitious plans to redevelop the 30 acres around City Hall. City council members believe that it will create a new sense of place for residents, a destination for outsiders who come via the Brightline station and a draw for commuters who want to live near the station.
The city has attempted nothing this potentially transformational since Mizner Park, which opened in 1991. City council members hope that a developer will pay for a new city hall and community center, along with new park and recreation space, as part of a mixed-use project that features housing, offices, restaurants and shops. The police station would move to near the Spanish River Library.
According to the contract with the city’s consultant, the project’s cost could approach $2 billion. Yet there has been surprisingly little public comment. Mizner Park generated much controversy before gaining approval. It will be interesting to see what the public thinks of this project.
Elections Matter. Again.
March brought a new majority to the Delray Beach City Commission.
Mayor Tom Carney and Commissioners Juli Casale and Thomas Markert ran as a slate. Carney then led the new majority in successfully pushing for a budget that meant basically no tax increase for most property owners.
Carney, a Republican, especially exploited the fact that the election coincided with the GOP presidential primary. The county Republican Party backed Carney heavily, and Casale and Markert rode that coattail. They flipped the politics by defeating allies of Commissioners Angela Burns and Rob Long, who had won their own races in 2023.
That marriage of convenience may not last. Casale allies have criticized Carney on political websites. The commission must deal with such touchy issues as a possible historic designation for Atlantic Avenue, renovation of the golf course and a long-term plan for Old School Square.
On Moore, They’re Merrier
The commission did approve a raise for City Manager Terrence Moore, who mostly got favorable evaluations. With nearly three-and-a-half years on the job, he’s the longest-serving manager in 12 years. For now, City Hall is relatively stable.
Does the State Give a Hoot About FAU?
The search for a permanent Florida Atlantic president will stretch into 2025. The Board of Governors seemed in no rush to start a new hunt after killing the previous search in December 2023. In the race to see whether Florida Atlantic would first get a new president or a named football stadium, the stadium won.
A Significant Departure
After 16 years on the Palm Beach County School Board representing Boca Raton and West Boca, Frank Barbieri retired.
Countywide, Barbieri served as board chairman through the raucous days of the pandemic, when speakers assailed the board and Superintendent Mike Burke over mask mandates and other culture-war topics. For his district, Barbieri secured money to rebuild two elementary schools in Boca Raton and build a new one. His advocacy helped to reduce crowding at Boca Raton High School.
Barbieri’s successor, Gloria Branch, takes over as the district faces a potential financial crunch from the loss of students to voucher schools. Students will need a new kind of advocacy from Branch with her fellow Republicans in Tallahassee who are hostile to public schools.
An Expensive Departure
Boca Raton City Attorney Diana Frieser left on Oct. 31 after 25 years. She is getting $437,000 through April to not work, under a contract that a previous council approved in 2011.
This council didn’t want to question that contract or ask about Frieser’s role in drafting it. Council members also didn’t want to explain why Frieser had to go now. We just know that such a departure can’t happen again. Contracts with such generous severances are now illegal.
A Masterful Departure
Irvin Lippman announced his retirement after 11 years as director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. He leaves with the museum on a roll, its recent exhibitions having drawn national attention.
Lippman’s successor will be Ena Heller, who has been running the Rollins Museum of Art in Winter Park, affiliated with the college of the same name. According to a news release, since Heller took over in 2012, attendance has quadrupled and the operating budget doubled. She will start Feb. 3. The museum celebrates its 75th anniversary next year.
A Coming Departure?
The group seeking to build a performing arts center in Mizner Park next to the museum is short on money, and the city council is short on patience.
The Center for Arts & Innovation missed its required second fundraising threshold two months ago. The city council thus could have killed the agreement for TCAI to lease land. Instead, the council gave the group until Jan. 13 to raise more money and demanded more transparency after being surprised by the donation shortfall.
Instead, the group sent a letter seeking a complete rewrite of the lease agreement it signed in 2022. Council members haven’t commented publicly, but they surely aren’t happy. The curtain could come down soon.
Return of the Turtles
In May, the Coastal Stewards got the state permit that allowed the group to restart sea turtle rehabilitation at Boca Raton’s Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
The city already had obtained a new permit for resident turtles. Getting the rehab permit took longer because the process is more complicated. Obtaining it completed the transfer of the program to the non-profit Coastal Stewards that began in March 2023 when city officials wanted out of the business.
Thanks, Tallahassee
Gov. Ron DeSantis stunned cultural groups throughout the state when he vetoed $32 million that the Legislature had allocated for them.
The action was unprecedented and came without warning. Some groups immediately began cutting back. All stepped up their fundraising.
DeSantis at first offered no explanation. Then he claimed that a sliver of the money would have gone to “fringe festivals” that could have included drag shows. Because all allocations were in one budget item, the veto struck all of them. The governor has claimed that drag shows harm children.
Thanks, Tallahassee (again)
DeSantis signed legislation that makes it almost impossible to file ethics complaints against public officials. The action effectively neuters the work of the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, which the county commission created after three of its members went to prison on public corruption charges.
Among other things, the new law prohibits complaints based on secondhand knowledge—such as a news article. Complainants must have firsthand knowledge, which is rare. Every local ethics commission in the state opposed it.
School at Old School Square
The city will start offering arts classes at Crest Theatre. It will be the first activity there since the Delray Beach City Commission in 2021 evicted the group that founded the cultural complex.
Live Local, Build Local
The Legislature’s 2023 law to encourage affordable housing prompted several developers to propose residential projects in Boca Raton.
Collectively, they won’t come close to solving the housing crisis. Only 15% of the units in each project must be classified workforce or affordable housing. The big issue looming for the city council is whether to allow multi-family projects next to single-family neighborhoods.
Still Making Waves
The city council settled a lawsuit over construction of a home on the ocean.
Council members weren’t keen on the settlement, but they had no choice. A judge had found that the city improperly withheld records when the developer challenged the denial of a variance for the project.
The idea of development on that lot—at 2500 North Ocean Boulevard—and the adjoining property to the north had been political issues several years ago. In both cases, courts found that Boca Raton had wrongly blocked construction. The 2600 case remains on appeal.
Double Murder
One on September afternoon, the number of homicides for the year in Boca Raton doubled.
Devante Lashawn Moss is accused of killing two people at an oceanfront extended-stay hotel and trying to kill another. No details have become public about what led to the killings.
Bull Market in Boca
West Boca Raton High School won its first state football championship last month, beating Osceola 26-7 for the Class 6A title.
The Bulls did so without injured running back Javian Mallory. According to ESPN, he has offers from every school in the Southeastern Conference and the leading programs in the Big 10.
Looking Ahead
As for 2025, developments in some of these stories likely will come soon.
Jan. 9 is the deadline for bids to redevelop downtown Boca Raton. The council wants to pick a partner by spring. Four days later, the council could decide whether to let the performing arts group continue its effort. Several other major building projects are in the approval pipeline. I’ll be writing about those soon.
A plea conference is set for Jan. 8 in the case of the man who defaced Delray Beach’s LGBTQ Pride intersection.
The Sundy Village project in the city’s historic district should open this year. Expect the city commission to seek ways to improve performance at the city’s schools.
Neither Boca Raton nor Delray Beach has elections next year, but candidates still might file early for 2026. When they do so, I’ll report it.
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year. My next post will be Jan. 7.
