Claims of unfairness. Talks of feeling threatened. And warnings to proceed “at your own peril.”
Such tense moments have resulted from the latest proposal to annex communities in Palm Beach County, this time near Boynton Beach.
Boynton Beach argues it’s entitled to annex nearby communities because it already provides them with water service. The city has envisioned ultimately bringing in as much as 4,500 acres, which could add nearly 35,000 residents to Boynton Beach.
But the county argues the early stages of the plan, as currently proposed, would be unfair to residents, some of whom already are raising concerns they don’t want their neighborhoods annexed.
Clashing over a plan
Boynton Beach City Manager Dan Dugger recently disagreed with the county over the matter. He warned that despite the county’s concerns, the city still plans “to proceed forward with the annexation.” That is, unless the county considers buying the city’s water facilities, he said.
“We’re here as far as a transactional process providing the county an opportunity if you guys would like to explore the purchase of that wastewater treatment plant or if not, we’re going to proceed forward with the annexation,” Dugger told county commissioners.
The exchange between Dugger and the county became tense when County Commissioner Gregg Weiss responded to this by telling Dugger to “do that at your own peril.”
“I didn’t come here to be threatened,” Dugger said. “What I need to impress upon this board now is I’m looking at the future of the city, and for a very, very long time I feel like Boynton hasn’t taken care of itself in an appropriate manner to where it looks out for its best interest, and I can tell you guys that the city has the assets, the city provides the water services.
“I’m here today not to sit here and tell you guys that we’re going to annex no matter what. I want to provide the county an opportunity to if we wanted to explore the county taking over utility operations, I’d be welcome to that.”
This graphic illustrates possible parcels of unincorporated Palm Beach County land that could be annexed into the City of Boynton Beach.
The details of the annexation
When the proposed annexation was presented to city commissioners in January 2024, they were told the plan could add nearly $3 billion in taxable value to the city. At that time, city officials said a feasibility analysis would be employed to review the city’s level of service and see if it could expand them, including public safety and water.
On Sept. 18, Boynton Beach city commissioners initially approved plans to annex two communities, which are just a fraction of the proposed 4,500 acres for annexation. The two communities are a portion of the Palmyra community along Lawrence Road and Bamboo Lane, which is 15 properties along a street outside of the city.
But after the city commissioners’ Sept. 18 approval, the Palm Beach County commissioners discussed their issues with the annexation during a meeting on Sept. 25. The commissioners’ biggest concern is how the annexation of Palmyra and Bamboo Lane is considered “voluntary,” questioning whether there’s any actual volunteering by residents.
According to state law, any municipality may annex land that is compact, in an unincorporated area and shares a border.
This could be done in a few different ways, including through voluntary annexation, when a property owner or multiple property owners requests an annexation, or through a referendum, meaning people would vote either for or against the annexation. Other methods, such as enclave annexation and legislative annexation, exist too.
In this case though, Boynton Beach city officials say that the water service agreements in place with the residents at Palmyra and Bamboo Lane grant the city the power to employ a voluntary annexation on behalf of the customer because some county residents receive water from the city.
“The plan was always to annex the portions of the area that are within the utilities service area. It’s not by accident that the utility service area and the future annexation area are the same boundary because that was always part of the plan,” City Planning and Development Director Amanda Radigan said. “The discussion that’s happening now and my best interpretation is that the city wouldn’t have the right to annex properties if we are not servicing them because the water service agreements would be null.”
A ‘gray area’ of law?
County officials still are not convinced that this annexation is fair.
“The people we’re representing don’t know that just because they get their water from the city, that suddenly means one day they become part of the city,” County Commissioner Marci Woodward said during the Sept. 25 meeting. “There’s ways to do this. There’s a number of annexation options.
“Hopefully, we can come to a better way to get there if this ends up happening instead of just saying, ‘You have power of attorney because of a water agreement.’”
County Attorney Darren Leiser told commissioners during the meeting that he hadn’t found any case law regarding voluntary annexation via power of attorney.
“But I am aware that it is out there. There are other jurisdictions that have these similar powers of attorney. It’s a gray area of the law,” he said.
County Vice Mayor Sara Baxter called the city’s lack of providing a vote or a voice to residents “egregious.”
“You have no options. ‘Here you go, you have to do this.’ It’s very sad,” she said during the meeting.
Some residents in the communities ripe for annexation say they’re worried about the possibility of higher taxes and changes in emergency response times from different agencies servicing the area.
“Those of us who live in the potential annexation areas — I happen to be one of them — are very happy with the services we enjoy from from PBSO and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue,” Debbie Murphy, one of the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Association’s vice presidents, said to the County Commission at the Sept. 25 meeting.
County commissioners agreed to write a letter objecting to the Palmyra and Bamboo Lane annexations, which was sent to Boynton Beach commissioners on Sept. 30.
The letter argues there is not enough proof that the city has the power to execute these voluntary annexations, such as the fact that some of the current residents were not the ones to sign the water utility agreements — the original landowners before them did.
Radigan, the city’s planning and development director, said these documents may be considered transferable from owner to owner, however.
During the Sept. 30 meeting, County Mayor Maria Marino said the county would look into the possibility of purchasing the city’s water facilities.
“If we can get a win-win-win out of this scenario, that’s going to be optimal for the county, the residents and also the city as well,” Dugger said.
A few days after the County Commission meeting on Sept. 30, Boynton Beach city commissioners gathered for a meeting on Thursday during which they discussed the annexation issue.
City Commissioner Thomas Turkin said he does not want to be beholden to the county.
“I just don’t trust that if we stop midway through that the county is then going to do their due diligence and take us seriously,” Turkin said. “I think they’re going to look at that as weakness, and they’re going to look at that as, we got them to do whatever, and at the end of the day, they’re not the ones that are elected by our residents for the City Commission district seats.”
City officials plan to discuss the annexation issue again at their next public meeting on Tuesday.
