Joel EngelhardtElimination of skateboard park, traffic fears raise objections from neighbors of Plant Drive Park in Palm Beach Gardens.
Advocates of an ice rink and a skateboard park say the same thing: The sports they love promote sportsmanship and usher in a sense of community.
But in Palm Beach Gardens, an indoor ice rink is poised to replace a free outdoor skateboard park, drawing passionate responses and criticism of a $40 million plan to convert the city’s oldest park into a complex for ice hockey, figure skating and curling.
On Tuesday, arguments over the relative merits of the sports held no sway as the city Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board voted unanimously to move the ice rink to its next stage, the City Council.
As 13 people spoke against and eight in favor, Max Moogan, a 16-year-old sophomore at Palm Beach Gardens High School, summed up the emotional argument.
“What the hockey supporter said about the benefits of hockey are very true,” Moogan said. “However, I think there’s a lot to be said about sports like skateboarding.
“This ice skating rink is not a bad idea but in no way, shape or form should it come at the expense of this skate park.”
‘A marginal recreational facility’
The proposal for the 123,000-square-foot, two-story ice rink complex comes from the nonprofit Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation, formed in 2017 by financial adviser Mike Winter, who moved to the area from St. Louis and wanted to replicate the advantages of ice skating here.
It would be the only ice rink in north county.
He worked first to build the two-rink complex at the Gardens North County District Park, a plan terminated when his group missed key financial milestones in 2022. The city is paying for an $18 million fieldhouse there instead.
The city decided to allow an ice rink in Plant Drive Park in 2023 without soliciting comments from neighbors or the City Council. After getting two bids, city staff selected PBNAF and negotiated a 40-year lease of the park.
The first public airing came in April when the council approved the lease.
City officials bemoaned illicit activities in the 8-acre park, which is behind Palm Beach Gardens High School, describing it to the City Council as “a marginal recreational facility (that) attracts malcontents who engage in illegal activities, including vandalizing the premises.”
Plant Drive Park features the only free skateboard park in north county, a gated baseball field dedicated to high school girls softball, a basketball court and recently vacated pickleball courts.
At the April 4 meeting, just one member of the public, concerned about the loss of the ballfield, spoke in opposition. The city has been working to relocate the field.
No one addressed the skateboard park, which has been there for more than 20 years.
But publicity over the decision, including Stet News reporting, rallied residents who dubbed themselves “PBG Malcontents.” Alarmed at the lack of public notification, they descended on City Hall in the ensuing months.
The site plan approval, scheduled for City Council review Jan. 9, is the last opportunity for public comment.
Questioning $10 million pledge
Since the first proposal at Gardens District Park, Winter’s group has identified a mega donor. Billionaire hockey fan Larry Robbins moved to Palm Beach Gardens in February and has pledged $10 million toward the project.
Even that pledge, however, appears suspect to the Malcontents, who question whether PBNAF met the city’s criteria for raising $6.5 million by Oct. 3, as required in its lease.
PBNAF submitted a donation agreement from Robbins, a hedge fund manager, indicating he had already paid $2 million and would pay the remaining $8 million over the next two to three years.
The lease notes that “acceptable forms of ‘secured’ funds” include “committed and legally enforceable donor pledges.”
The city didn’t require proof that the money behind the pledge is legitimate, City Attorney Max Lohman said at a November council meeting, because Robbins gave a personal pledge and “his net worth, as of today according to Forbes, is $2.2 billion.”
Tree islands as open space
Unable to sway the City Council to reconsider its decision, opponents have pored over the development application, learning the arcane language of planning and acquiring expertise in parks, zoning and the law.
Residents cited concerns about the disposal of ice shavings, parking and traffic in the neighborhood fed by two-lane roads off Military Trail.
Heather Deitchman, an educator who lives about a mile east, and Mike Martino, a Gardens council member in the 1970s and 1980s, questioned the decision to keep the zoning public/institutional.
“The building does not belong in that zoning or property category because it’s not a public building,” Martino said in an interview. The city will own the building as well as the site, planners for PBNAF said in a public meeting Monday night, meaning it remains public.
The P/I zoning requires 15 percent of the property be counted as open space, or at least 1.24 acres.
The proposal calls for 2.7 acres of open space because it counts sodded edging and tree islands in the 311-space parking lot.
“My big issue is the open space — counting the tree line between the sidewalk and the street as open space,” Deitchman said. “People don’t play in the treeline or in a dry irrigation ditch.”
Landscaped areas count as open space; it’s not meant to be recreational open space, the planners said.
Rebecca McKeich, a restaurant server whose son uses the skateboard park, had never addressed a city body before this year, when she became incensed by the city’s approach to Plant Drive Park.
She combed through PBNAF’s application and added up the number of hours the facility would be open for public skating, relying on figures from a similar Arizona ice rink: 13 hours a week, she told the zoning board.
Ten of those hours of open skating would fall on weekday mornings, she said. And the Arizona facility charged $18 for a skating session, she said.
“How does this benefit the community as a whole?” she asked.
The benefits of hockey
Winter, who did not address the zoning board, said in an interview that Gardens residents will get discounted rates and the schedule has not yet been developed.
If the council approves the project in January, construction would start by July and take 16 to 18 months.
“We will be fantastic neighbors and look forward to kids and families enjoying our facility,” Winter said.
Ryan Sittler, son of hockey Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler, lives in Jupiter and is hockey director at Palm Beach Ice Works, now operated by Robbins. Several of the speakers favoring the project came from the hockey world and live outside the city.
He told the zoning board that ice sports offer intangible benefits.
“Imagine a place where children can learn values while having a blast on the ice,” he said. “Mental health matters. The rink will be a safe place where kids can escape.”
Mark Marciano, who served on the City Council when the concept first arose, has been a staunch supporter, saying the ice rink rounds out the city’s recreational offerings and reminding the zoning board that neighbors had opposed the North County District Park before it went in.
“Everything that the city ever touches does well,” he said.
Linda Monroe, a council member in the 1980s and 1990s and a former county planner, wondered if the city would be doing this if million-dollar homes were affected.
“I don’t know how anyone can say that this development is compatible with the residences across the street or to the north,” she said. “Think about the people who will be impacted.”
Zoning board members asked about the size of the restaurant that overlooks the ice rinks — 154 capacity — and about the amount of free skate time — daily with increased free skate time at holidays and in summer.
Two members said they thought Gardens had another skateboard park. When they learned it did not, one suggested that the city consider building a new one.
The board’s chairperson, Chuck Millar, who is running for an open seat on City Council, said the board is bound by the staff’s determination that the project meets the land development code without the need for any waivers. He entertained a motion to approve.
It passed 6-0.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
