Boca rebuffs plan to build homes on golf course
A Boca Raton panel has opposed a proposal to build homes on the Hidden Valley Golf course, siding with the crowd of neighbors who packed a city meeting last week to protest the plan.
Bucking the trend of allowing homes to be built on golf courses, Boca’s Planning & Zoning Board determined the golf course should remain zoned for recreation.
Boca Royale developers want to build 101 homes, a lake and clubhouse on the 55.12-acre course that closed in July 2006.
“Neighbors want to preserve the open space,” retired Palm Beach County Fire Rescue captain Joe Williams said at the public hearing, adding he’s been fighting off golf course rezoning since 2008.
“To me the big issue is rezoning. We would be taking something away from the homeowners,” board secretary Larry Cellon said.
“You cannot replace public land once it’s gone,” agreed board member Kerry Koen.
After the advisory group’s decision to rebuff the plan, it now goes to City Council in about three weeks.
Gunster land-use attorney J. Michael Marshall said his clients intend to push forward on the housing plan Planning & Zoning Board secretary
they’ve been working on for two years.
The City Council has a track record of siding with staff and the board’s recommendations.
Golf courses have drawn lots of attention in Boca recently:
The city just sealed a deal to sell the still-open municipal golf course in West Boca to GL Homes.
The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District is about to close on redesigning and reopening the closed former Ocean Breeze golf course in city limits.
In Broward County, the Deerfield Beach City Commission agreed in December to advance plans for county approval that would put 201 townhouses on the Century Village golf course that hasn’t seen golf play for four years.
Toll Brothers would use 23 acres and the rest of the closed, 83-acre golf course would be turned over to Century park.
In October, the Deerfield commission agreed that Crystal Lake Golf Club would become the site of more than 400 single-family homes. A proposal in Tamarac would put 525 singlefamily homes across two 18-hole courses.
In Boca’s Hidden Valley, the main sticking points were traffic on neighborhood streets, drainage to cure flooding and the impact on already crowded Boca schools.
“Adding additional cars will make things worse and a lot of young families are moving into the area,” said resident Francisco Reina.
Lead developer Brian Tuttle said plans for the new lake would ward off any flooding problem. He agreed to pay a voluntary $210,109 asked by the School District of Palm Beach County to offset impacts on schools.
But speakers who already fought a school boundary change weren’t convinced. “This is the last thing the city needs, more homes and more students,” said Beach & Park District commissioner Erin Wright, a Hidden Valley resident. Village for use as
Staff writers Anne Geggis and Lisa Huriash contributed to this report. mshatzman @sunsentinel.com