Home Content CategoryBoca Matters NOALF: It’s not about an Assisted Living Facility

NOALF: It’s not about an Assisted Living Facility

by Katie Barr and Les Wilson

This is part 2 in our NOALF series on the Park Square development proposal. That proposal is to change Boca’s zoning laws for single family neighborhoods so the Park Square developer can bulldoze the former Science of the Mind Church on Palmetto Park Road and build a multistory apartment building; all under the guise of being an Assisted Living Facility.

In this installment of our series on this topic, we return to the studio and interview Boca resident Holli Sutton. Holli is leading the effort to stop Park Square from changing Boca’s single family neighborhood zoning laws. Watch the video.

We’ve seen this movie before

In a proverbial “Camel’s Nose Under the Tent” move, a Boca Raton developer is trying to change Boca’s zoning. They are doing it under the guise of an assisted living facility at the single family zoned property at 2 SW 12th Ave and Palmetto. This is so multi-story, high density apartment buildings would be permitted in otherwise single family neighborhoods all over Boca Raton. The editors at WPTV, Sun Sentinel and Boca Mag won’t let their reporters tell the NOALF side of the story. So we are. #shame #noalf

… later, developers will point to the Park Square approval as the precedent for the council to make “housekeeping” changes to the zoning laws

Tower 155 alley encroachment
Tower 155 alley encroachment

Experienced residents know that with the right funding, political backing and the ability to keep quiet about a project, developers will tweak density and restrictions as was done for Tower 155 and put apartment buildings in other Boca Raton residential neighborhoods.

For now, they will say it only applies to this one property on SW 12th Avenue. But later, they will point to the Park Square approval as the precedent for the council to make “housekeeping” changes to the code and approve a bad project in other single family zones.

There are countless examples of this in Boca Raton. The “developer written” code changes have made Boca’s municipal code a tangled mess. You can stop this change that will make it worse.

Why you must sign the NOALF petition now

Once a project gets past a certain point in the process, developers can and will sue anyone who speaks against or protests their project. Informally known as “Haynie’s Law”, it was enacted after residents successfully passed a referendum to stop what at that time was the “Archstone” project (now the Promenade). Even though it was approved AFTER the successful citizen referendum, the law was applied retroactively and the referendum was overturned. #truestory

Sign the petition before it’s too late. NOALF!


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