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Meeting Splainer Jan 21 2020 WEB

Meeting Splainer January 21 2020

by BocaFirst

On January 21 2020 The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District met to discuss negotiations with the City to jointly build the defunct Ocean Breeze golf course into a municipal golf course.

Discussion:

1. The District felt the City doesn’t have the experience to build a golf facility so the project would need to hire an experienced project manager.

2. The City got 33 responses to golf course RFI’s. One’s less expensive than the budget-engineered Price/Fazio variation but it included houses. Most responses were similar in scope to each other and came in around $13.5M.

3. The District created a list of concerns with the City’s newly proposed Interlocal Agreement (ILA) Amendment. The District said they would refuse to sign the new ILA Amendment. They claimed if they signed it, The District would face financial ruin because they felt the City could declare the District in default at the City’s discretion and at any time. That would require the District to pay off a $19M bond, plus all costs and expenses incurred by the City. 

4. On January 23 2020, The District sent this letter to City Manager Ahnell. In summary, it states that The District plans on proceeding under Section 7 of the ILA both entities signed on February 2 2018. Section 7 of that ILA states that The District will plan, design, and fund all costs. The City will not “unreasonably withhold” approvals.

5. The District provided five options/funding phases to the City and to the National Golf Foundation so as to obtain their analysis as to which plan/option will raise revenue the quickest.

Points to Ponder

  • Will City kick in $10M as discussed in previous meetings?
  • Will The District pursue leasing the Ocean Strand property and the east side of Boca National Golf Course for hotels?
  • Will The District cut back funding for Gumbo Limbo, beach renourishment and their CRA contribution in order to fund their plan for golf?
  • Will there be enough funding to build a tunnel under 2nd ave?
  • Will the January 27th joint meeting between District and City result in a compromise, prenups, or a divorce?

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