On August 28, the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners voted 5 to 2 against a motion to hold off construction on the former Mizner Trail Golf Course until the legal appeal is settled in the courts.
There is nothing stopping the developer from commencing building. The commissioners voted 5 to 2 after the county attorney told commissioners the risk lay with the developer. The developer would have to remove any construction built in the interim if the courts ruled in favor of the homeowner groups.
On August 1, the Boca Del Mar Improvement Association (BDMIA) voted to file a legal appeal to overturn the County commission’s approval of the application. A group of homeowners also filed a lawsuit against the commission to stop development on Mizner Trail.
The commissioners voted 5 to 2 on June 26 to approve a developer’s application to build over 250 housing units including condominiums and zero lot line townhomes on the narrow fairways of the Mizner Trail Golf Course that snake past the backyards through green corridors designed for recreational space, views and buffers among neighborhoods in Boca Del Mar’s Master Plan. As late as March 2014, the county’s planning staff had consistently denied approval of housing developments on the former golf course over the course of nearly a decade, keeping the Planned Unit Development (PUD) of Boca Del Mar intact.
Up until December 2013, the county’s advisory zoning board had also consistently denied recommending approval of housing developments on the land.
In 2008, a 15th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the land did not have development rights in a case where the then-developer sued the county after denying its application.
Steve Abrams, District 4 commissioner, and Jess Santamaria, District 6, voted for the motion to halt construction until the legal case is settled.
Boca del Mar and its former south golf course, Mizner Trail, are in District 4. The Commissioner seat for District 4 is up for election on November 4, 2014. Steve Abrams and Andy O’Brien are running to represent District 4 citizens.