Overdevelopment, traffic, parking and building height and density are among the top issues that concern citizens, according to BocaWatch, a prominent citizens watchdog group and website (BocaWatch.org) focused on Boca Raton in Palm Beach County, Florida.
BocaWatch presented its platform and its organization at the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations’ (http://www.federationofbocahoa.com/) kick-off meeting of 2015.
The crowded meeting was one of its highest attended, according to the Federation. The audience included Federation members, other citizens, city officials, media representatives, and high-profile developers whose projects are in work or pending approval from the city of Boca Raton.
BocaWatch Presentation
Ann Witte, a BocaWatch board member, and an economic consultant and research economist, said BocaWatch helps express citizen input to city government, alerts citizens to important city meetings and workshops, distills “voluminous” government documents into digestible summaries, provides information on city processes and publishes articles and opinions on civic issues.
Official Website
The official website of BocaWatch is BocaWatch.org (also reached through BocaWatch.com).
Top Issues
Witte said the top issues of concern it hears from Boca Raton citizens are:
- Overdevelopment
- Traffic
- Parking – “No place to park”
- Loss of city’s character
- Height and density of buildings
- Speeding, especially in residential neighborhoods and near schools.
BocaWatch Organization
Board member Alfred Zucaro, an attorney based in Boca Raton, told members that BocaWatch was formed in 2012 as a Political Action Committee (PAC). It is not registered as a corporation under the state’s Division of Corporations. BocaWatch’s structure as a PAC is why the website displays “paid political advertisement” in the footer of its website, he said.
Zucaro previously served as a West Palm Beach city commissioner (1995 – 2002) and numerous boards and committees including the Economic Development Committee for Palm Beach County and the Economic Council of Palm Beach County.
BocaWatch Questioned by Developer
In audience Q & A, developer Glenn Gromann asked Witte how articles and topics were chosen for publication on BocaWatch, and why, for example, there are no articles on medical marijuana. Witte responded that the issues were determined by the input and concerns forwarded to them by citizens and by the civic concerns of the board; however, BocaWatch is open to citizen articles that met their standards for accuracy and a positive, “non-abrasive” tone. Witte invited Gromann to submit an article on medical marijuana if he desired to do so.
Mizner on the Green Controversy
Gromann, chairman of the Downtown Boca Raton Advisory Committee, is a prominent supporter of the controversial proposed four-tower, 30-story condo project known as “Mizner on the Green.” Boca Raton currently has a height restriction whereby buildings cannot exceed 100 feet in height, equivalent to about 9 stories. The project’s supporters, and its builders, Elad National Properties, are pressuring City Council for permission to exceed the city’s long-time height restriction from 100 feet to 300 or 400 feet. (The Mayor Susan Haynie has said she is willing to support a 140-feet height under the city’s interim 2008 design guidelines.)
BocaWatch supporters oppose height variances for the “Mizner on the Green” project. Witte emphasized that the group is not anti-development or against development on the site, as long as it complies with city zoning and planning regulations. An article published in BocaWatch likened the project’s architectural plans to more in keeping with a skyline in Dubai than the city’s reputation for more human scaled heights and architecture.
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Website Alert
[Since that meeting, BocaWatch has circulated an alert to its subscribers to not confuse the official BocaWatch.org website, or its newsletters, with a recently discovered corporation registered with a nearly identical name. The sound-alike name was registered as “BocaWatch.org, Inc.” on Dec. 29, 2014, with Florida’s Division of Corporations. The latter corporation lists Glenn Gromann as the registered agent and sole officer.
The official BocaWatch “for the people by the people” group has asked its subscribers to check the validity of communications it sees for the true-founding-date phrase, “founded in 2012.”]