West Palm Beach’s litigation prompts state to withdraw $80 million scheduled to be spent in 2023 to build connector between Okeechobee Boulevard and Northlake.
The state had $80 million on hand to begin construction next year of State Road 7 from Okeechobee to Northlake boulevards.
But on Thursday, state officials will slam the brakes on the controversial project by formally asking local officials to sign off on a shocking twist: Delay it at least five years.
Continue reading “Long-awaited State Road 7 project will wait five years longer”Final vote upcoming on proposal to raise threshold for Palm Beach Gardens City Council review of contracts to $1.18 million from $65,000.
The Palm Beach Gardens City Council is on the verge of giving its city manager far more purchasing power than other top administrators in the county.
The proposal backed in October on first reading by the council would empower City Manager Ron Ferris to approve contracts for goods and services worth $1.18 million without council review, up from $65,000.
Palm Beach County’s threshold is $200,000. In Jupiter, it’s $50,000. In Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, it’s $100,000. Delray Beach is $65,000.
Continue reading “Power of the purse: Gardens council to give city manager more control”With uncontested elections of Chelsea Reed, Bert Premuroso and Dana Middleton, Republicans will hold council majority.
The March 2023 Palm Beach Gardens municipal election is over without voters casting a single ballot.
Incumbent Chelsea Reed, former Councilmember Bert Premuroso and Dana Middleton will take office in March after no one filed to run against them during the two-week qualifying period, which closed Wednesday.
Continue reading “No Gardens election in March: Reed, two new members handed seats”Internal documents reveal Palm Beach Gardens’ concerns over missed deadlines, bond issue.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky expressed support for building two hockey rinks in Palm Beach Gardens before the project suffered a devastating crosscheck from city officials.
Gretzky, who recently bought a home in Gardens, had expressed interest in using the $43 million sports complex for his youth hockey school before the city terminated its relationship with the nonprofit behind the project.
Continue reading “Despite Wayne Gretzky, Gardens shot down hockey rink proposal”Proposal would have brought two ice-skating rinks, gymnasium to North County District Park
City officials have canceled a deal three years in the making to bring a $43 million sports complex with two ice rinks to a Palm Beach Gardens park, claiming that they have better, unspecified offers to pursue.
The termination of the contract with the nonprofit Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation came in private correspondence from the city manager and only became public when raised during the comment portion of the Nov. 3 City Council meeting by Councilmember Mark Marciano.
Continue reading “Gardens cancels $43 million indoor sports complex“Three candidates lined up to run for three seats; deadline to file is Nov. 30.
The makeup of the Palm Beach Gardens City Council could be determined in the next two weeks without a single vote being cast.
Three seats are open for an election scheduled for March 14. Three people, including Mayor Chelsea Reed, have opened campaign accounts and begun raising money to run. But so far none have drawn challengers.
Continue reading “Gardens election could be decided without voting”Work to start Nov. 9 but FDOT engineers concede $10 million project will do little to ease backups on PGA Boulevard by the Gardens Mall.
If you drive west on PGA Boulevard to get on Interstate 95 during the afternoon rush hour, you know the problem.
Cars back onto PGA from the ramp to the highway, starting where the ramp from PGA merges with a ramp from Alternate A1A.
A $10 million project to improve the southbound traffic flow, set to start Nov. 9 and last more than a year, may make it easier for motorists once they reach the highway. But, as project managers made clear at a launch meeting Thursday, the improvements will do little to ease the backups that bring westbound traffic near the Gardens Mall on PGA to a near standstill every afternoon.
Continue reading “Fast fix is no fix for PGA backups at I-95“At stake: Who controls money developers pay for road improvements, Palm Beach Gardens or Palm Beach County?
An appellate court has rejected Palm Beach Gardens’ arguments in its fight with Palm Beach County over how to pay for growth from new development.
The ruling forces the city to resume collecting impact fees from developers for the county, which decides how to spend the money.
It imperils the city’s new mobility fee program, which was designed to collect money from developers for projects determined by the city.
Continue reading “Appellate ruling favors county over Gardens on road-building“‘Not one dollar … will go up north,’ UF board chair Mori Hosseini says; aim is to raise $1 billion over 10 years.
When Dr. Herbert Wertheim was a young engineer working for NASA in the 1960s, he saw miracles take flight.
Now he’s a billionaire who just gave $100 million to the University of Florida. And he sees Jupiter as the next Cape Canaveral.
“We have what I call ‘sciencenauts,’” he told dignitaries and scientists gathered Oct. 12 at the UF Scripps campus in Abacoa. “They’re going to help us solve health-care problems, not only when you’re sick, but my number one emphasis has been how do we keep people well.
“So let’s think about Jupiter as a launch pad like we think of Cape Canaveral. And this is gonna be a launch pad for science.”
Continue reading “‘A launch pad for science:’ Wertheim’s $100 million gift to ignite UF Scripps”Palm Beach International Raceway owners seek County Commission’s blessing on Jan. 11 for updated 2.1 million-square-foot warehouse plan.
The conversion of a beloved local raceway to warehouses is back on track after the property owners eliminated a major hurdle that forced them to make an unscheduled pit stop in April.
The owners of the shuttered Palm Beach International Raceway west of Jupiter are moving forward on their own, without construction giant Portman Industrial, which pitched a 2.1 million-square-foot warehouse development before angry racing fans packed a meeting April 7 to block it.
Continue reading “Proposal paves way for warehouses at former racetrack”
