Save Boca Raton Beaches - Sign the Petition

Are you aware that a beach in North Boca Raton purchased by city taxpayers may be considered for development of a private beach club?

Residents have filed a petition with the city in order to request residents to vote on whether they want to protect public beaches from being used for private development. If you want to help protect the Boca Raton beaches, then please send us an email at saveboca4u@gmail.com and we will email you the petitions.

Time is short as this residential effort only has until approx. 12/21/10 to obtain 1,000 signatures of registered voters within the city limits.

Thank You for Your Assistance,
Save Boca Raton Green Space
"A residential advocacy group"
------------------Background Info on This Issue---------------
Boca Raton Ocean Strand land needs to be preserved for recreation, residents say

The oceanfront land was purchased by the city in 1994 to save it from development but the land is still zoned for residential use

By Angel Streeter, Sun Sentinel - July 20, 2010Residents who live near the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District's 15-acre oceanfront property recently fought off a developer. Now they want it rezoned to keep builders away for good. The request comes after their protests thwarted the developer, who recently proposed building a beach club on a portion of the Ocean Strand property on State Road A1A. In May, the park district board said it had no plans to sell or lease the property after residents came out in droves to protest the proposal. And just Monday — after the City Council noted they had not received a response from the park board inquiring about its plans for the property — board Chairman Bob Rollins sent a letter to Mayor Susan Whelchel reiterating the park district's plans to use the land for a park.

"In evaluating the comments received from the public on this subject, there does not appear at the current time to be any public benefit to be enjoyed by the community other than use of this property for park purposes," he wrote in the letter. But that's not enough for some residents. They contend the best way to protect the land from future developers is to change its zoning from residential to recreation. "The land usage has to be changed," said Andrea Stekloff, who lives in the Boca Towers condominiums just north of the property. "We don't want to have to go through this again in another 10 years.

"Penn- Florida Companies expressed interest in building a beach club on part of Ocean Strand as part of its Via Mizner project, a redevelopment project planned at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Camino Real in downtown Boca Raton. The mixed-use development, approved by the city Community Redevelopment Agency in 2006, would consist of a 118-room luxury hotel, office space, 192 condominiums and high-end retail stores and restaurants.

In April, Penn-Florida asked city officials to help it secure the beachfront part of the land from the park district. In a letter, the company called a beach club a necessary amenity to attract an exclusive international hotel that has expressed interest in Via Mizner. Since then, residents have been skittish, worrying that the developer would find some way to get ahold of the land, which the district purchased in 1994 for $11.9 million to save it from development. So residents asked the park district board on Monday to request a zoning change from the city. But the district's attorney suggested the board wait until it has developed a master plan, a sort of blueprint of how the land could be used. That process could take several months.