In their 2015 annual membership elections, residents of Boca Del Mar, the largest and oldest Planned Unit Development community in Florida, have given its board of directors a show of confidence to continue the community’s legal appeal against Palm Beach County commissioners to protect the integrity of their PUD Master Plan.
The new board is the strongest yet to commit to protecting the 1971 Master Plan and preventing a housing development to replace the Mizner Trail former golf course, which is designated in the model Master Plan as green, recreational space intended for the use of the community.
The majority vote was not deterred by the pressure of a $500,000 offer from developers of the proposed Mizner Trail housing project to drop the appeal no later than Jan. 16. Citizens in Boca Del Mar have organized and fought for more than a decade to prevent the loss of their course and prevent the increased traffic, safety, drainage and other issues resulting in overdevelopment.
Shortly before the election, letters were circulated to various association boards predicting that assessments would be raised, the lawsuit would fail, and massive legal and financial loss would occur if BDMIA did not drop the lawsuit. One letter was signed by Paul McDermott, the former BDMIA president who had headed the BDMIA board for decades. Another was unsigned.
Of the four seats open on the nine-member board, three were won by incumbents who oppose the development and a fourth was won by first-time board candidate, Jonathan Palmer, who also opposes the development. Palmer handily defeated pro-Mizner-trail-development candidate Terrence “Terry” Kollman. Kollman has been an outspoken supporter of the developers and the proposed development of Mizner Trail in various media and at commission hearings.
One of the first acts of the new board was to appoint the fifth-place candidate, Thomas “Dale” Haley, to replace the vacancy created by the recent resignation of board member Anne Nebenzahl. Nebenzahl had expressed objections to spending funds for the legal appeal.
Residents and board members of some homeowner and condo associations which had received the letters of alarm came to the annual meeting to persuade the board to drop the lawsuit. Some who had been in favor of development for a long time re-asserted their opinions at the meeting.
President Frank Lewis explained the history and rationale for the appeal, re-affirming that attorney fees had been negotiated to a cap of $60,000. Responding to questions of where the money came from, Lewis assured residents that the funds did not replace or reduce any services being provided, or reserve funds, and no plans to raise assessments had been made.
The source of the appeal fund is an account that had been put aside for years to build a BDMIA office, which did not materialize due to objections from surrounding residents, he said. The BDMIA Vice President followed with a point-by-point response and correction of assertions raised in the letters.
In 2005 developers moved to put townhouses on the golf course. Until 2014, the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) had sided with the residents, even defending the county’s decision to deny development in Mizner Trail after the developer sued the county.
In 2008, the 15th Judicial Circuit Court sided with the county, ruling the developer had no development rights on the Mizner Trail property.
In 2012, residents’ grassroots efforts worked to open the Boca Del Mar nominating and elections process to be more inclusive. The 2013 elections resulted in the first major change in the BDMIA board in about 30 years.
Then in late 2013 and 2014, although the development application had not substantially changed, the political tide had. The county zoning advisory board reversed its position– one of the members characterizing the protesting residents as “greedy. ”
The BCC’s staff of planning professionals found ways to fit the application in, and last June the BCC reversed nine years of support and voted 5 to 2 to re-zone Mizner Trail to accommodate the owners-developer’s application to build housing on Mizner Trail (#1984-00152).
The BDMIA subsequently appealed. That appeal is pending in circuit court. The final hearing could take months.