Boca Life

Boca Raton Advances ‘North Park’ Project With Trails, Playgrounds, Pedestrian Tunnels

by
Daniel Nee
September 9, 2024

Boca Raton’s North Park project received planning board approval last week, the board members voting unanimously to advance the proposal to construct a massive, 74.72-acre park on the grounds of the former Ocean Breeze golf course.

Located off NW 2nd Avenue, the park will feature a host of modern amenities and innovative concepts for recreation, including six miles of multipurpose recreational trails for walking and biking, a community garden, a “biscuit-shaped” dog park, colorful playground areas, pavilions, a restroom building and a maintenance building.

The future North Park in Boca Raton, a former golf course, Sept. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Renderings of the future North Park in Boca Raton, a former golf course, Sept. 2024. (Planning Document)

The park will also include pedestrian tunnels that will allow access to different portions of the park site without having to cross streets carrying traffic.

“People can safely cross without having to go to the surface,” explained Sr. City Planner Heather Hansen. “When the city extends Jeffrey Street, the city will provide safe access to both sides of the park.”

Access to the park will be provided from three driveway connections: two on Jeffrey Street and one on 67th St, Hansen said. The park will contain three parking lots with 327 spaces.

“This is a very exciting project,” said board vice-chair Larry Cellon. ” I’m thrilled, after all these years of no movement, to see something as complete as this design.”

There will be two playgrounds at the park for children, both themed with colorful coastal imagery. One will be aimed at capturing children’s attention with colorful, art-inspired aesthetics, and the other will be focused more on fitness. Both will offer fun equipment and up-to-code safe surfacing.

Renderings of the future North Park in Boca Raton, a former golf course, Sept. 2024. (Planning Document)

Another part of the park plan – also approved by the board, and covered in a separate story – calls for the construction of a privately-owned 77,218 square foot paddle and pickleball facility that will include 14 indoor pickleball courts, two indoor paddle courts, nine outdoor pickleball courts, locker rooms and other amenities. The facility is notionally named “Boca Paddle.”

The park will be especially bicycle-friendly. Plans call for 34 bicycle parking spaces that will be located throughout the park, and 22 more at the Boca Paddle site. There will be a shared use pathway located on Jeffery Street for access, and once inside, several mountain bike trails will be accessible to the general public. While much of the site will be re-graded, the former golf course use will help shape the mountain-biking portion.

The future North Park in Boca Raton, a former golf course, Sept. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Some work has already gotten underway to help prepare the site to become a park.

“The entire east side of the park is made up of invasive species and the city has already begun clearing some of that out,” said Hansen. “It will be reforested with native plant materials and house the bike and walking trails.”

The park’s primary public features include:

2.08-acre dog park
0.68-acre community garden
Two playground areas
Pavilions for resting, relaxing
Restroom facility
3,800 square foot maintenance building

Some residents of the adjacent Boca Teeca community raised concerns over traffic, as well as questions over security after the park closes at night. According to a traffic study, the park itself will produce 131 vehicular trips daily while the Boca Paddle site will generate 693 trips. The vast majority of those trips, however, will not occur during peak traffic hours.

The future North Park in Boca Raton, a former golf course, Sept. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

“Who’s going to be there after 90 days after they take pictures?” asked Robert Fox, a NW 2nd Avenue resident. “It’s going to be kids hanging out, doing what kids do,” he said, suggesting a 6 p.m. closing time.

“We can’t have people running around there late at night,” he said. “It sounds great, the pictures are nice … but I’m worried. I just wish we had a golf course and a little restaurant.”

The park will include security, access control and will be subject to a plan developed by the city parks district, officials said.

The future North Park in Boca Raton, a former golf course, Sept. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The property on which the park will be built is currently vacant and, in some locations, overgrown by invasive plants. Ocean Breeze Golf Course, the former occupant of the property, has sat inactive for several years since its closure and was purchased by the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District in 2018.

Deed restrictions that once required a golf course to be maintained on the site were nullified when the city purchased the restricted property, pursuant to a 1982 Florida Supreme Court ruling, Ryan v. Town of Manalapan. The previous deed restrictions were briefly discussed when a resident of a nearby property claimed he and his neighbors would be owed money since a golf course would no longer be located at the site.