Boca Del Mar residents bordering the former Mizner Trail golf course have raised safety issues over the possibility of flying debris, structures and fallen palm fronds from shut-down courses when impending hurricanes and storms like Erika threaten Palm Beach County.
Constituents in Boca Del Mar Planned Unit Development have repeatedly asked over the years why the county can’t change the codes so that the owner of the closed golf course bordering their homes is required to maintain its property in similar fashion to the appearance of its surrounding neighbors.
Most recently, residents have publicly challenged their District 4 county commissioner Steve Abrams to do something more to effect more equitable code regulations between their properties and what used to be hub of their community.
Boca Del Mar homeowner William Vale sent a letter published by the Sun-Sentinel:
“To read county Commissioner Steve Abrams and code enforcement director Ramsey Bulkeley say they are powerless when it comes to requiring maintenance on the closed Mizner Trail Gold Course is laughable! Its also a slap in the face to the nearly 10,000 tax paying residents of Boca Del Mar. If the county can amend Boca Del Mar’s 43-year-old master plan and grant development rights where none existed, I’m sure they could simply Amend the Code Requirement and require Mizner’s owners to follow the same standards the rest of us do. What say you Commissioner Abrams?”
Abrams gave a long and legalistic list of reasons as to why residents’ requests to change the codes for the golf course were not reasonable or realistic. Abrams also attached a code enforcement officer’s report citing numerous times inspections were made and no code violations were found.
Last Thursday, August 20, a constituent responded to Abrams’ arguments and raised the issue of safety on the course during a storm. Millie Stanfield wrote to Abrams:
“Thank you for your detailed email which really doesn’t make me feel better about the situation. However, I have another question: What happens if a hurricane hits our area? There are so many overgrown trees and extensive amounts of debris on the course, that numerous properties on the perimeter of the golf course will be damaged for sure. Most properties have prepared their landscaping for potential storms so why are the owners of the golf course not held to the same standards of all residents of Boca del Mar? Look forward to your response.
Abrams responded:
“That’s a good question, especially with TS Danny floating around out there. I will try to find out the answer from staff.”
When Hurricane Erika came up closer as a threat, on August 26, Stanfield wrote again:
“As a follow-up to my previous emails, may I please have a response as to what the owner of the above golf course is intending to do re cleanup? Hurricane Erika will be impacting our area and I feel that the county and code enforcement needs to step up and represent the residents of Boca del Mar regarding this matter. Instead of the owner paying code enforcement fines in the past, that money would have been better spent by cleaning up the golf course. I would appreciate a prompt response to my emails.”
Abrams responded:
“Thank you for your email. At my request, Code Enforcement is contacting Compson to have their crew do an extra sweep of the property in preparation for the possible storm.”
A county staff member then inquired and Dutch Bliss, the original property owner, responded that he would send a person out to do the sweep before the weekend.
Stanfield wrote back to Abrams:
“Thank you for your prompt attention. Do you now think that the code should be changed to enforce owners of vacant golf courses to keep them in safe conditions on a regular yearly schedule by not allowing them to get in an overgrown state so as not to endanger all properties on the course’s perimeter with flying debris, trees, bushes, rest stop buildings in the event of storms and hurricanes. I think the county and the elected commissioners owe at least that much to the Boca del Mar residents given the circumstances surrounding this issue. As always, your attention is greatly appreciated.”
Abrams responded that now they were “going in circles” and reiterated his original arguments on why codes couldn’t be changed.
The sting of the off-and-on battle over the overgrown and neglected middle of the old fairways is sharpened by the fact that Boca Del Mar residents heavily protested the shut-down of their course in the first place.
In failing to keep up with even the minimal code enforcement standards for its property, the owners of the former golf course have ultimately paid the county over $200,000 in fines.
Residents fought for years against applications to re-zone their master-planned recreational area for housing developments. In 2014, the county reversed its long history of protecting the residents’ use and instead approved re-zoning to accommodate development plans for the owners, with a long list of over 50 conditions, including environmental reviews.
After their re-zoning victory, without completing the conditions, the owners put the community’s former Mizner Trail golf course up for sale as a highly desirable prime piece of development property. With the county’s re-zoning and other approvals in hand, estimates of the property went up to around $38 million dollars.
Also see earlier requests to improve enforcement of existing codes from the Boca Del Mar Improvement Association board (BDMIA) to the county and the county’s responses on the Boca Del Mar website.