Author: Joel Engelhardt

Joel Engelhardt is an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor based in Palm Beach Gardens. He spent more than 40 years in the newspaper business, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post. As a reporter, he covered countywide growth, the 2000 election and the birth of Cityplace in West Palm Beach. As an editor, he oversaw probes into the opioid scourge, private prisons, police-involved shootings and more. For seven years, he worked on the paper’s editorial board. Joel left The Post in December 2020. He and his wife, Donna, have lived together in Palm Beach Gardens since 1992.

From OnGardens to Stet News

Dear loyal OnGardens reader,

Thank you so much for subscribing to OnGardens.org for the past few years. I know you haven’t seen much on the site lately. That’s because I’ve been putting all my energy into a new local news website, StetNews.org.

Stet is reporting about Palm Beach County with a focus on north county. While the stories won’t be strictly aimed at Palm Beach Gardens readers, we won’t forget you and your issues. We will work hard to keep up with the many exciting news stories and events in your community.

Stet News publishes a newsletter every Tuesday morning and we’re looking to expand. We were first to report on the lease agreement that allowed for an ice-rink complex in Palm Beach Gardens’ at an existing city park. We’ve dug into controversies in Riviera Beach, like Fane Lozman’s lawsuit over a dock and his submerged lands on Singer Island. We were first to report on a massive new apartment complex planned for Lake Park as well as several recent developments shaping downtown West Palm Beach, such as plans to alter the stairway at the Harriet Himmel Theater in CityPlace.

Many of you are already following Stet News. Thank you.

If you’re not, I hope you’ll consider signing up. It’s free. But if you want to help us financially, we’re a tax-deductible charity organization and contributions will help us offset the cost of gathering the news.

Go to StetNews.org to learn more and to sign up for local news. It’s free.

Thanks much,

Joel Engelhardt

OnGardens and Stet News

MORE: UF pulls out of Avenir hospital

Hockey in, gymnasium out

Palm Beach Gardens to vote on 40-year lease to allow a nonprofit organization to build an ice-rink complex at Plant Drive Park.

If you’re a subscriber to OnGardens, I invite you to follow StetNews.org as well. You can read the rest of this story at no charge and keep up with news of not only Palm Beach Gardens but many other parts of the county as well.

Here’s the first part of the story, below. Please click here to read the full story at StetNews.org.

Two major proposals for recreation in Palm Beach Gardens are going in opposite directions.

Moving forward: A nonprofit organization’s $40 million plan to build two ice rinks with the backing of a company associated with hockey great Wayne Gretzky.

What’s happening: The City Council will consider leasing a city park for 40 years to the Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation at its meeting Thursday.

The park is named Plant Drive Park. It is east of Military Trail and south of Burns Road behind Palm Beach Gardens High School.

The dual ice rinks would replace a girls’ softball field used by Palm Beach Gardens High School and dedicated to the memory of slain softball player Amanda Buckley. The project also would eliminate a basketball court and a skateboard park.

What they’re saying: In its memo to the council, the city called Plant Drive Park “a marginal recreational facility (that) attracts malcontents who engage in illegal activities, including vandalizing the premises.”

Rejected: Plans for a $50 million gymnasium, pickleball, mini golf and restaurant complex on 14 acres in the Gardens North County District Park.

What’s happening: The city selected developer Mammoth Fieldhouse, a subsidiary of Mammoth Sports Construction of Meriden, Kansas, in September.

Yes, but: Negotiations hit a snag in January when Mammoth revised its financial approach, Stet News learned through the city’s response to a public records request.

“The terms of the proposal are completely opposite to the city’s stated intentions conveyed to the Mammoth team almost a year ago,” city purchasing agent Km! Ra wrote on Jan. 9.

“Therefore, we will be moving forward with other options for Gardens District Park and will not be engaging into any further discussions with Mammoth.”

Read more about Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation’s efforts to build in Palm Beach Gardens here and here.

Joel has published the rest of the story at StetNews.org, a website he co-founded. Click here to continue reading.

‘It can’t be just a Costco box:’ New Tiger Woods arena draws criticism

Exclusive: Palm Beach State College trustees want more details about prefab metal building that would replace air-inflated dome.

This story is appearing simultaneously in StetNews.org and OnGardens.org.

A proposal to rebuild the Tiger Woods-led indoor golf arena at Palm Beach State College with prefabricated metal instead of an air-inflated dome met sharp resistance Tuesday from the college Board of Trustees.

Trustees leasing 10 acres off of PGA Boulevard to the star-infused TMRW Golf League refused to immediately endorse the proposal for a metal building in place of the dome destroyed in November in high winds.

The clock is ticking on TMRW Sports Group, which has committed to broadcasting on ESPN its first match at the one-of-a-kind facility in January 2025.

Slow going for legal challenge to Gardens annexation

City argues against motion to speed up the proceedings. Early voting begins March 9.

This story originally appeared Tuesday at StetNews.org.

It’s beginning to look like a lawsuit fil e d Jan. 5 will not stop the March 19 Palm Beach Gardens annexation election.

Quick catchup: Residents of Hidden Key sued to block the election involving the largest of five zones, Zone 1. The court did not issue its first order until Feb. 7, after Hidden Key filed a motion to speed things up.

Zone 1 has more than 7,000 residents. Overall, the city is seeking voter approval to annex dozens of neighborhoods in five zones with more than 8,000 residents, all east of Interstate 95.

In its Feb. 12 reply to the motion to expedite the proceedings, the city argued the issue does not require “immediate resolution,” as the four Hidden Key residents who sued will suffer no harm if the vote is held on March 19.

“However, harm may come … by denying 5,220 of their fellow voters residing in Area 1 the right to vote,” City Attorney Max Lohman wrote in the city’s reply.

Gardens takes fight over county road money to Tallahassee

Palm Beach County opposes cities’ efforts to get part of fees developers pay for roads.

This story originally ran Tuesday in StetNews.org.

The fight between cities and counties over who gets the money developers pay for road work could be decided this year by the Florida Legislature.

Cities back a bill that would give them control of the money that otherwise goes to counties. Counties object.

At stake in Palm Beach County: $20 million a year in developer fees that go to roads.

Gardens annexation faces court challenge

Hidden Key residents file suit to block annexation, claiming Palm Beach Gardens City Council didn’t follow the law in putting proposal on ballot.

A 70-home gated community at the eastern edge of Palm Beach Gardens’ massive proposed annexation area sued Friday to block the March 19 vote that seeks to add thousands of residents to the city.

The city’s failures at public hearings in November and December are so great as to make a mockery of state laws designed to limit annexations to compact and contiguous areas, four homeowners from Hidden Key say in the suit that aims to block the annexation of Zone 1, the largest of five areas sought by the city.

“This annexation is unwelcome and unwarranted,” Hidden Key resident and petitioner Kenneth Glueck said in a statement. “Hidden Key is no more a fit for Palm Beach Gardens than it is for Miami.”

‘This isn’t us against you’ — Gardens puts annexation on ballot

‘You didn’t tell us you were coming. You didn’t ask if we wanted you to come and now that we’ve told you ‘no,’ you’ve refused to leave.’

Dozens of Palm Beach Gardens neighbors picketed Wednesday outside City Hall and lined up to tell the City Council they do not want their homes to be part of the city.

They object to being part of an annexation of 1,300 acres east of Interstate 95 containing an estimated 8,300 residents.

The City Council told the opponents their messages were heard before voting against them, taking the final steps to place annexation on the March 19 ballot.

“I respect your passion, and I appreciate every one of you and what you had to say and delivered to us,” Council Member Carl Woods said. “You guys are my neighbors. This isn’t us against you, by no means. If you don’t want it, don’t vote for it.”

A $35 million brain center was closed for four months. We may never know why.

If you care, call FAU Vice President of Public Affairs Peter Hull at 561-297-1352 and let him know that the public would appreciate a public university that promptly replies to public record requests.

Florida Atlantic University doesn’t want you to know how it spent $35 million of taxpayers money on a building that doesn’t work.

After the university opened the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute in Jupiter with great fanfare in January it shut it down with no fanfare on July 30.

Little is known about the reasons behind the shutdown, the cost to reopen the building, the loss of experiments caused by the shutdown and who is going to pay for it all.

On Monday, the university said the building reopened — sort of. Research and lab animals cannot return until other thresholds are met and that could take up to eight and a half months, an internal email provided by the university said.

The state put up the money to construct the three-story, 58,000-square-foot building. A foundation headed by David J.S. Nicholson gave FAU $10 million to help run innovative programs within it.

In a state often credited with the best public records laws in the nation, FAU has gone to great lengths to keep you in the dark on why the building closed and who’s paying to fix it.

OnGardens.org made numerous attempts to get more information but the university as the sole keeper of records that could have answered basic public questions stonewalled.

Here’s how:

How one community holds the key to annexation’s ‘Holy Grail’

Whichever city winds up with Hidden Key has the inside path to Lost Tree Village.

Palm Beach Gardens’ massive annexation of 1,350 acres east of Interstate 95 has spawned a fierce competition with neighboring North Palm Beach over a single, critical spit of land called Hidden Key.

Hidden Key holds another key, the key to the greatest annexation prize of them all, the gated, uber-private, golf course community, Lost Tree Village.

Possessing the 70-home waterfront community of Hidden Key brings Lost Tree Village into reach.

Inflatable canopy may be out at Tiger Woods-backed golf arena

TMRW Sports Group confirms it will rebuild in meeting with Palm Beach State College trustees.

The backers of a new indoor golf arena rising in Palm Beach Gardens are rethinking their commitment to an inflatable dome after a storm last week ripped the parachute-like canopy to shreds.

Meetings in the next few weeks with architects and engineers will determine if the Tiger Woods-backed TMRW Sports Group changes course and rebuilds with steel or concrete walls instead of an inflatable canopy.