Palm Beach Council delays decision on Park Avenue parks, anonymous donation

Plans for how to use an anonymous donation to spruce up two small Palm Beach parks will wait to be finalized — again.

The Town Council voted unanimously at its June 12 Development Review Committee meeting to give residents, staff and consultants until the Aug. 12 meeting to communicate about the designs for the pair of parks roughly across the street from each other at 240 and 247 Park Ave.

The designs for the parks drawn up by the Nievera Williams landscape architecture firm were commissioned by the anonymous donor, and the total cost of the project — again, to be covered by the donor — is expected to be upwards of $400,000, records show.

The park on the north side of the street at 247 Park Ave. is about 0.12 acres. The park on the south side of the street at 240 Park Ave. is about 0.16 acres.

This is the second delay for the parks after the council initially approved accepting the donation and approving the parks' designs in March. The next month, the council rescinded that approval after receiving concerns from neighbors who worried the freshly landscaped parks could draw more visitors and possibly attract crime, with new hedges and walls that would potentially obstruct currently clear lines of sight.

The proposed wall would be 18 inches of stucco on the bottom and an 18-inch tall metal railing on the top with a clear line of sight through it, proposed plans show.

Some neighbors also said they had not had ample opportunity to share their thoughts about the potential designs, while questioning the motives behind the donation. Those concerns were raised anew at the June 12 meeting — which was met with some frustration from the mayor and some council members.

"Just hearing the discussion, just turn down the donation," a frustrated Mayor Danielle Moore said. "Leave the ... park looking the way it looks: crappy."

Exasperated, she told the council to turn down the donation and say, "Thanks but no thanks. Take your 400 grand and go somewhere else," she said.

The donation provides the opportunity for major improvements to the pair of parks, Council President Pro-Tem Lew Crampton said. But, he said, the town should have involved neighbors in the planning process earlier.

The questions asked by residents at the June 12 meeting should have been answered weeks or months ago, Crampton said. Now the town is faced with a situation where officials should be able to accept someone's generosity, but "here we are, discussing a bunch of — unfortunately, and not your fault — silly sorts of things," he said.

Michelle Cohen, a resident of the Palm Beach Hotel Condominium that neighbors the south park, cautioned the council to be wary of any anonymous donation that might come with strings attached. She also said she's concerned about the potential for people to sleep or hide in the parks or have events there once the new landscaping is completed.

"We just want to make sure we're just cognizant of the issues and to make sure that these renovations are not going to be a nuisance to the neighborhood," Cohen said.

There are other parks in Palm Beach that do not allow events, and the Park Avenue parks will continue to be passive, Council President Bobbie Lindsay said, while Moore confirmed there are no strings attached to the donation.

Crampton said the town seemed stuck in a "do-loop of silly questions, that if anyone had trust in the process and trust in the town, they would know that all of this would be taken care of.

"Nobody is going to allow this to become a slum," he added.

Council Member Julie Araskog agreed with Crampton that the process was flawed, but disagreed that the questions were silly. When a park is made prettier, more people will come, and that could lead to potential security issues, she said.

The two parks "almost look like a vacant parcel, so we're trying to help improve aesthetics a little," said Cory Meyer of Nievera Williams. The updated layouts will have landscaping that is Florida native or Florida-friendly, with little upkeep and no pesticides required, Meyer has said.

The parks also would provide a place for Florida Power & Light Co. transformers that are necessary to build above ground as the town prepares to move power lines underground in that area, Town Engineer Patricia Strayer said.

"Our goal was to kind of create spaces that could be enjoyed by everyone," Meyer said.

The dog fountain at the south park will remain, and benches will be added for people to sit, proposed plans show. The project also would create paths around each park for walkers.

Residents Ann Heap and Dr. Rhonda Nasser, both neighbors of the parks, said they like the improvements, but have concerns about elements such as the wall and some of the landscaping.

"I think we have had problems along the way with communication," Heap said, adding, "We would be enormously grateful in having a nicer park than we have."

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach council delays decision on donation and Park Ave. parks