City of Lake Worth and mangroves along the Intracoastal. And can the municipal golf course be sold to developers?

Dispelling some of the more common myths.
Once again. . .

• Did the City of Lake Worth remove mangroves along the Bryant Park seawall? No.
• Did the City remove mangroves from the municipal golf course? No.
• Was the “Living Shoreline” a City project and responsibility of the City to maintain? No.
• Can the City’s golf course be sold? No. Find out why at the end of this blog post.

How did the issue of mangroves become an issue in the first place? The answer is several years ago it was discovered some in the environmental community and even a former Lake Worth commissioner were attending meetings held at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council (TCRPC) to get misleading and sometimes completely false information “into the record” about our City at public comment.

The effect this had on our City is difficult to gauge but it most certainly was an attempt to make the City Commission and staff look irresponsible and seemingly uncaring about the environment which was completely false.

For example, was it true as was stated
at a TCRPC meeting that:

“. . . the City stopped a 600-foot planting of mangroves along Bryant Park, leaving just the seawall and riprap and that it also took out 1,500-feet of mangroves along the golf course shoreline.”

NOT TRUE.

Read more about this in a blog post titled, “The TCRPC and remember the topic of mangroves along Lake Worth’s Intracoastal?”

Aerial view of Lake Worth municipal golf course, 1973. Note “gaps” along shoreline for a view of the Intracoastal waterway.

Volunteers made mistakes and planted mangroves
in the wrong locations along the Intracoastal and
those had to be removed by the County
with a County permit.

You can also read more about the “Living Shoreline” off Bryant Park in the Intracoastal (aka, “Lake Worth Lagoon”) using this link. That project IS NOT the result of any City board despite what you may have heard.

The City of Lake Worth has very little control over what happens in the Intracoastal without going through the County first for approval. That’s not to say there weren’t efforts at lobbying for the “Living Shoreline” along Bryant Park but it was not a City project — it was a County project.

Below is part of a press release from the City two years ago. Click on image to enlarge:

Oh. And by the way, despite what you may have been told, our municipal golf course CANNOT and WILL NOT be sold to developers. Why? Because it’s deed-restricted land and can never be sold.