UPDATE ON MARCH 09, 2015:
The Boca Del Mar Improvement Association (BDMIA) will discuss the next step in the board’s fight to defend the community’s Master Plan following its loss of an appeal to reverse the county commission’s decision to hand developers their re-zoning requests to replace the green space with housing and new roads.
BACKGROUND:
On June 26, 2014, the Palm Beach Board of County Commissioners voted 5 to 2 to approve rezoning the green space/golf course embedded in Boca Del Mar’s Master Plan to allow a housing development in the winding fairways. The Commission showed a reversal. A few years ago, the county commission fought a developer in court to protect the community’s Master Plan and golf course, and won.
Boca Del Mar citizens have been fighting to preserve their Master Plan and the former Mizner Trail Golf Course for more than nine years now, with many fundraising efforts, taking time off work to attend hearings, and hold rallies, like the one in March, 2014, captured in the video above. At the rally, political challenger for District 4 seat, Andy O’Brien, attended and garnered significant support and signatures from attendees to enable him to run. Incumbent Steve Abrams was invited also but declined to attend, citing his concern over appearing at a meeting while he was a commissioner facing an upcoming vote on the fate of Mizner Trail.
In August, 2014, the Association (BDMIA) filed a brief with the courts, challenging the zoning decision of the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) to allow housing development throughout the narrow fairways of the former Mizner Trail Golf Course, which is part of the community’s Master Plan.
In November, about a week after the elections were over, the developer circulated a press release claiming they would pursue legal action and fines in an effort to deter the BDMIA’s pending legal appeal of the county’s decision.