South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Developer, county spar over lake
Despite a lack of permits, construction continues after warnings and violations
A developer has defied Palm Beach County over the past year by constructing a massive lake without proper permits, drawing the ire of the neighboring community.
The county has issued multiple orders to stop the work and over a dozen notices of violations against the development group, which has excavated a nearly half-mile lake over its 140 acres of land south of Boynton Beach Boulevard and east of 441 by Valencia Reserve.
The county says the land is for a water-skiing lake. The property owner’s lawyer says it’s for agricultural purposes.
Despite complaints from angered residents and a lack of proper building permits, Palm Beach County has been powerless to stop construction and has no recourse until at least Jan. 23, when a magistrate court will hear the case.
Why can’t the county do anything immediately?
The dilemma began last year when a property group, West Boynton Ranches Holdings, purchased the land. The registered agent for the group is Darin Montgomery, a Lake Worth Beach resident who’s previously competed in national water skiing competitions. In October, 2019, county officials told the group it wouldn’t be able to build a lake on the property. Despite the warning and lack of permits, construction of the lake began in February. Over the past year, the group excavated and filled in the lake and has continued construction on the land.
Mark Perry, an attorney representing the ownership group, said they have an agricultural exemption to build on the land and there are no plans to create a water-ski facility. He added that the initial plan was for an irrigation system but said they’re now looking at turning it into a fish farm.
“We have not placed a boat and skier on the lake and as of today we are not planning on doing that,” Perry said. “So long as we have not put a boat and a skier on that lake, I don’t think we’re in violation of anything.”
Residents at the neighboring Valencia Reserve, a resort-style adult community, have grown frustrated by the constant construction, which they claim has caused flooding issues for some of the homes. David Schulson, who sits on the Valencia Reserve legal committee, has been frustrated by the delayed response from the county, which he believes led to the festering issue.
The ownership group “had basically started snubbing their noses at the rejection and then COVID hits by mid-March, so code enforcement isn’t functioning the way it normally would,” Schulson said.
Palm Beach County “doesn’t have code enforcement hearings, so the ownership group, under the cover of COVID so to speak, continues to excavate, and it really isn’t until the summer that the county begins to wake up,” Schulson said.
“It’s been a flagrant disregard for all the county laws and regulations. They’ve just utterly disregarded it with impunity. They could care less about the consequences. So they’ve just gone about their business and the county for now a year has basically stood by and watched.”
On Thursday, Perry tried to defuse the situation, saying his clients have directed him to set up a meeting with the county to “work out our differences.”
“We understand the neighborhood’s concerns, and we have decided the best way to handle this is to meet with [county] staff and handle the concerns,” Perry said.
Earlier this month, Palm Beach County code enforcers, along with law enforcement officers, visited the property to deliver a stopwork order. They weren’t allowed on the land due to a no-trespassing sign and were forced to leave the order outside.
On the surface, a stopwork order seems like it should immediately go into effect. But Al Malefatto, a West Palm Beach attorney who specializes in land use and environmental issues, said that’s not the case.
“The county can give notice and request or demand compliance, but they don’t have the authority to enforce that without either a magistrate’s order or a court order,” Malefatto said.
“If the property owner isn’t allowing them on the property voluntarily, they would then have to go to court to get a search warrant to go onto the property.”
Ramsay Bulkeley, executive director of the Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning & Building Department, said the department was hamstrung from entering the land because “absent exigent circumstances,” police want to avoid potential trespassing issues.
“However, by them violating the stop-work order so flagrantly and blatantly,” Bulkeley said, “it doesn’t help them in front of a magistrate when we go and say, ‘Four times they just ignored us and kept on.’
“It doesn’t help their case at all. We still think it’s a win-win by them just ignoring us, because all that evidence is going to come up in the hearing.”
During a Palm Beach County commission meeting Dec. 22, Mayor Dave Kerner said he has no intention of letting the work continue.
“This is not something that will continue to go on in our county, and our residents have made that clear,” Kerner said. “So we’ll use every avenue and every button and every lever we can to enforce the law.”