Preserving the Residential Character of Boca Teeca

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Golf Course "Contingencies" in Lennar Offer

It would appear that the "contingencies" in Lennar's offer to buy the current city golf course (on Glades Road west of the turnpike) may simply be a maneuver by Lennar to quiet Boca Teeca residents who are being asked to trust them.  But, the primary contingency assumes that Lennar could obtain Palm Beach county approval (not guaranteed) which if that does not happen then residents of Boca Teeca find out 2-3 years from now that Lennar owns the Boca Teeca golf course and there is no deal.

Also, since the city already has higher offers for the current municipal golf course, there is no guarantee that the city council will accept a lower Lennar offer that includes the Boca Teeca swap.  The city normally has a process of requesting official offers. (RFP) on city owned assets they are planning to sell.  This process has not officially started even though they have allowed developers to have access to the city golf course for doing environmental testing via soil and ground water.  Thus is expected tests since it is common for south Florida golf courses to have excessive levels of arsenic (carcinogenic) in the soil and ground water.  This is also the situation on the Boca Teeca golf course which is currently required to be monitored on an ongoing basis by the Florida dept of Environmental Protection (FDEP).

Are Boca Teeca residents content for waiting for a deal that may never happen or take several years?

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Lennar Offer Details

Lennar's revised offer to buy the city municipal golf course has a major contingency clause:

The closing of the transaction is contingent upon Lennar obtaining approvals for their residential development on the current golf course which would be expected to occur in approx 2 years!

These terms would result in the city being without a PUBLIC golf course for approx 4 years since it will take another 2 years to rehab/fix the golf course after Lennar/Wells Fargo doesn't maintain it for the next 2 years.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

City Council Meeting - Good News

Tonight's marathon city council meeting included excellent presentations by Boca Teeca residents Dottie, Harold, Cil & Robert as they expressed the will of the community opposing ANY development on the golf course.  After these speeches the Mayor announced that Lennar had submitted a proposal to swap the Boca Teeca golf course for the current municipal golf course on west Glades Rd., plus cash consideration by Lennar.  While Mayor Hainey and Councilman Ridgers were very positive on this proposal, there is still more details that have be resolved,including acceptance of the deal by a majority of the city council/ will councilmen Mullaugh, Weinroth & Singer agree to the deal?

While this is certainly a great move toward a resolution of the now closed golf course, the devil is in the details and the city must be made aware that the residents only want a 27 hole golf course on this property.  Accordingly, active residents of Keep Golf in Boca will continue to collect petitions from residents demonstrating their continued adamant opposition to any use on the property other than a golf course.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Lennar - Show Us the $$$

Lennar needs to show us the money if they are serious about wanting Boca Teeca residents to hand over the deed restriction so they can build on the golf course property.  How much money will it take to get a majority of residents to sign away their rights to the residential environment?

Lennar could start buying condo units at current market prices or they could offer $50k/each unit, but the $220/unit that MCZ offered with the support of the BTUOA & condo leaders is NOT going to work this time!  First, the last few public meetings of the BTUOA have been very good at bringing together many residents to oppose their lame support for negotiating with Lennar.  There have not been a sufficient number of condo leaders in attendance to even have a quorum at their last 2 meetings, which may be an illustration of the growing discontent for the 3 BTUOA leaders who claim incorrectly that they represent all residents of Boca Teeca.

Lastly, condo associations have ZERO rights in the deed restriction issue since only property owners have a vote in the deed restriction issue and many condo associations do not own even 1 unit.  Several of the condo associations that gave funds to the BTUOA are now regretting that support and are actively helping gather the petitions to oppose any change in the deed restriction.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Where are Lennar & Wells Fargo reps?

Lennar representative Bruce Grundt has not attended the last 2 public meetings of the BTUOA / since the May meeting where he presented a "moat" concept which was not received favorably by the audience of Boca Teeca residents.  See the "moat" rendering in the May post on this web site.

Mr. Grundt does not appear to be too interested in the feedback being generated by the recent grassroots efforts to organize against ANY development on the Ocean Breeze golf course.  The Boca Teeca residents are quickly being educated that they have control of the deed restriction that blocks ANY development and ANY USE other than a golf course on the ocean breeze golf course.  In order to make sure that Mr. Grundt understands that a growing number of residents actively oppose ANY development, please email him at Bruce.grundt@lennar.com to express your opposition to ANY Lennar proposal.

Marc Curtis is located in the North Carolina office of Wells Fargo & he hears from his sources in Boca Raton, but apparently he is not hearing from Boca Teeca residents since his comments are consistently in support of Lennar.  Accordingly, please cc Marc.curtis@wellsfargo.com on your opposition emails to Mr. Grundt.

Maybe these reps are still being misguided by the less than 10 residents supporting BTUOA who claim incorrectly to be representing all residents of Boca Teeca, so it is important to let these reps hear from the majority of residents who are actively opposing ANY development on the ocean breeze golf course.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Update / Petitions & Lennar

Thank you Boca Teeca neighbors for showing your support in assisting with the collection of petitions from your neighbors.  In only a few weeks there have been over 500 petitions collected from Boca Teeca property owners.  By comparison it took MCZ over a year to collect under 1,000 forms as they plied our neighbors with free food & drinks at the clubhouse.

Our organizational efforts have increased considerably thanks to the near unanimous opposition to ANY development on the golf course.  Vocal supporters have sprung up at public meetings as it has been a true rallying cry of Golf, Grass or Kiss Our A$$.

There have been some behind-the-scenes talk that the city would like to use a portion of the golf course for other recreational uses, but even BTUOA leaders expressed their opposition against any ball fields behind their condo on the East golf course.  While there were heated discussions at a recent meeting of Boca Teeca owners, it was clear that over 90% of those in attendance actively opposed any development and readily signed the petition opposing any development.

So, what does all of this mean to Lennar?  Well, it appears that Lennar is sticking with their moat proposal as indications are that they plan to close on their contract to buy the property in spite of the deed restriction support by residents.  Maybe Boca Teeca residents will need to start picketing some Lennar developments on weekends, or expand their anti-Lennar campaign on social media?