BRINY BREEZES UPDATE

Watching the procedures in the development of a potentially face-changing well-located property, and how the problems are solved, will set the tone for future such developments, which, probably, are bound to come in due time.

Ocean Land Developments, Inc. of Boca Raton has offered $510-million to purchase a 43-acre trailer park called Briny Breezes, located about 12 miles north of Boca Raton on A1A along the ocean on one side and the intracoastal waterway on the other, and redevelop it over 10-15 years into residential and commercial property. In the 1920’s the community began. In 1958 residents bought the community and it was incorporated as a municipality in 1963. Each property owner had shares in the community based on size and location of each lot. The community’s Board of Directors in 2006 required that 2/3rds of the total shares (15,703) had to okay the deal going forward. 79.95% voted to go forward with this deal.

The Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has come up with a 14-page analysis of Ocean Land’s proposal, stating that risks to the environment and strains on the local infrastructure such as traffic congestion at the Woolbright/A1A during peak times, must be faced, and either right-of-way must be secured for adequate turn lanes, or perhaps the developer must purchase property on the corners.

The reported problems include:

• Absence of public participation procedures and concurrency management system (ignoring surrounding community input)
• inadequate
• density and intensity standards
• provisions for affordable housing
• provisions to protect manatees
• mechanisms to ensure intergovernmental coordination as the current governmental body is very informal and composed of people who stand to reap the benefits from selling which may be a conflict of interest
• lack of data and analysis
• for impact on public facilities and roads
• related to hurricane evacuation and planning
• lack of level of service standards for public facilities
• lack of financially feasible 5-year schedule of capital improvements
• objection to plan’s proposal to develop land use regulations later on rather than include them in plan submission
• incompatability with surrounding community
• too many units

The developers say the report was “as expected… and we’re going to be able to address the recommendations.” They also complained that they have asked the governmental “powers that be” to meet with them, but so far they have not come forth to do so.

Suggested ideas include traffic lights, pedestrian crosses and signals, and the question then comes up as to who pays for what, the developer or the county. Briny Breezes residents have had to deal with public acrimony over the possibility of this plan going forward. Another problem for the development to face is that currently inadequate water consumption supplies exist, where to get the needed water supply from, and how to improve that issue. The 60 water utilities of Palm Beach and Broward Counties already estimate that by 2025 300-million more gallons a day, twice as much water as what’s used now, will be needed daily for the expected million additional residents. Finding a way to economically use seawater for drinking and personal use might be one way to solve this problem although there are many issues beyond the cost of its preparation to be considered.