A judge has dismissed a lawsuit that accused the city of Boca Raton of not yet completing a required analysis for a controversial redevelopment project.
Lorraine Blank, the city resident who represented herself as the plaintiff, was attempting to halt the progress of the city’s government campus plan, which proposes homes, shops, restaurants, offices and more near the city’s Brightline station.
At a hearing on Friday in West Palm Beach, Circuit Court Judge Reid Scott granted the city’s motion to dismiss, in part because a contract has yet to be established for the government campus redevelopment project. Under that reasoning, the time to complete the analysis had not yet expired.
The judge “interpreted things differently than I did,” Blank told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I respect his decision. I am disappointed but not devastated.”
Blank had argued in the lawsuit that an independent analysis is required of any proposed public-private partnerships, under state law. The analysis is meant to determine cost effectiveness and overall public benefit “before the procurement process is initiated or before the contract is awarded,” court records show.
Blank also had argued the project “will cause increased air, noise and light pollution, as well as increased traffic,” all of which could affect her because she lives near and walks on the site.
But the city argued they were still within the allowed timeline to complete the analysis because a final agreement has yet to be made for the government campus redevelopment project.
An attorney representing the city said at Friday’s hearing that the lawsuit “suggests that the analysis needed to be performed before we bind ourselves to contract with the potential private partner, and that’s just not the case.”
The Boca Raton City Council entered into a public-private partnership with development firms Terra and Frisbie Groups earlier this year.
At the time, the project included more than 1,100 apartments, 250,000 square feet of office space, a hotel and nearly 85,000 square feet of retail on about 31 acres at the intersection between West Palmetto Park Road and Dixie Highway.
Terra and Frisbie’s project, called One Boca, has since undergone revisions amid a public outcry.
Most recently, the developers again adjusted the plan, now proposing 769 residences, 186 condominiums, a 150,000-square-foot office building and a hotel on less than 8 acres near the Brightline station. And Memorial Park would anchor the area west of Northwest Second Avenue.
