A commercial real estate market website last month was posting the former Mizner Trail golf course property in Boca Del Mar as a sales opportunity.

Last year on June 26, 2014, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) approved a rezoning application for a developer to build over 250 housing units on top of the narrow fairways that run through the neighborhoods in south Boca Del Mar.

Over 50 conditions of approval, including environmental reviews, had to be met before building could commence.

The commission’s approval followed nearly a decade of bitter protests and court challenges from residents, as well as a legal battle and court challenge from the BDMIA, to protect the recreational area designed into the Boca Del Mar Planned Unit Development (PUD) master plan.

Last month, in a letter dated June 22, 2015, the board of directors of the Boca Del Mar Improvement Association (BDMIA) asked Rebecca Caldwell, Executive Director, Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning, and Building Department, about the status of the development.

The BDMIA also addressed complaints about the owners’ maintenance of the property and the former clubhouse.

In a reply dated July 2, Caldwell confirmed posting of the sales notice on the CRBE website inviting bids on the property. She wrote that no final site plan had been submitted to the Development Review Officer (DRO) for approval, which would be required for any development to begin.

“As you state, this appears to indicate that the commencement of development will not be immediate. Irrespective of who might purchase the property, the development approval and associated conditions will travel with it.”

Maintenance of clubhouse and Mizner Trail

Caldwell also wrote that one of the owners of the property had been contacted regarding the condition of the abandoned clubhouse and advised that it must be secured and the graffiti painted over.

She added she was enforcing the strictest possible interpretation of the county’s Property Maintenance Code, reducing by ten inches the allowable grass height in areas requiring maintenance.

Regarding vegetation in the open areas, Caldwell assured residents will be informed when the application for site plan and related landscaping plans are received.

The county’s DRO meetings are open to the public, but since it is administrative, no public comments are accommodated.

Caldwell wrote that “Applications in Process” on the county website is where to look to find out if a DRO application has been made, at this link: http://www.pbcgov.com/pzb/Zoning/index.htm