BOYNTON SETTLES WITH COUPLE OVER RAZED SITE
BOYNTON BEACH — Gail and Leon Jenkins will never get their building back, but they will get $200,000 from the city of Boynton Beach to settle a lawsuit after the city demolished it.
The Delray Beach couple’s property, at 132 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. next to Seacrest Boulevard in the Heart of Boynton, was torn down in 2015 after the city deemed the four-unit structure unsafe. The building had been cited 73 times for code violations.
The city had warned that the structure would be demolished if it wasn’t up to code within 10 days. They were granted several extensions with a final deadline of Jan. 12, 2015. They were close but didn’t finish in time.
The couple, who owned the property since 1984, went to the City Commission to stop the demolition and also asked a Palm Beach County civil court judge to intervene. But the city tore down the
building before the hearing.
The Jenkins’ fo r mer attorney, Sue-Ann Robinson-Caddy, told The Palm Beach Post in 2015 that the couple put in $19,000 to fix the property and that their neighbors and friends also contributed money.
The Jenkins didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
In the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the couple, through attorney Larry Schner, said the city created a “significant detriment” to them and “behaved with flagrant disregard” for their property rights. The lawsuit includes claims of gross negligence, inverse condemnation, trespass, conversion and outrageous conduct causing severe emo- tional distress.
“The conduct of the City was outrageous and went beyond all bounds of decency and, to be regarded as odious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the complaint says.
The couple claims the city’s interest in the prop- erty was more than just to fix it up. The land is in the Community Redevelopment Agency’s plan to one day become part of Sara Sims Park. Then-CRA Director Vivian Brooks in 2015 said either the agency or the city would buy the site, but an offer hadn’t been made. But, she said, the demolition had nothing to do with the Sara Sims plans.
The couple put up signs on their empty property alleging the city “strong armed” them. A sign also read “They want this land, but don’t want to pay for it.”
But in the end, the city did.
With this $200,000 set-tlement, the property’s title will be transferred to the city, according to city doc- uments.