Stet NewsWelcome back. For you today, West Palm Beach sets the population pace, but residents want fewer jets overhead; Riviera Beach water park site to become police headquarters; and artists nest in Lake Park.
But first: Thank you on this Veterans Day to everyone who served.
⏫ West Palm leads county’s growth since 2020
The latest measure of city growth is out and offers a glimpse of where Palm Beach County stands at the midpoint between the 2020 and 2030 U.S. Census head counts.
Some highlights of the 2025 population estimates released in October by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research:
- The county’s largest city, West Palm Beach, added the most people since 2020, with 9,529 more residents, bringing the city’s total to 126,944 as of April 1, 2025.
- The county’s fifth-largest city, Palm Beach Gardens, has grown 9% to 64,547. Gardens added more people over the past five years, 5,365, than Boynton Beach and Delray Beach combined.
- Jupiter growth slowed to just 0.3% over five years. In 2020, Jupiter had 1,865 more residents than Palm Beach Gardens. Now it has 3,301 fewer.
- Only three cities grew at a faster pace than Gardens since 2020: the tiny Village of Golf, 11% to 284 people; Mangonia Park 18% to 2,530; and Westlake, a developer’s city that registered just 906 people in the 2020 U.S. Census but now has grown to 6,685, a whopping 637% growth rate.
- Cities grew at a faster pace over the past five years, 4.7%, than areas in unincorporated Palm Beach County, which grew at a 3.7% pace.
- Overall, the county grew to 1.55 million residents, adding nearly 64,000 residents since 2020, a rate of 4.3%. The state grew by 8.5% to 23.3 million.
- Thirteen cities lost population, a combined total of 268 residents, since 2020. They were: Atlantis, Briny Breezes, Glen Ridge, Highland Beach, Hypoluxo, Lake Clarke Shores, Manalapan, North Palm Beach, Ocean Ridge, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Shores, South Palm Beach and Tequesta.
- Three other cities — Cloud Lake, Gulf Stream and Jupiter Inlet Colony — each gained fewer than five residents over the five years.
Check your city: See Stet’s chart showing every city in the county.
Read more about the reasons behind the numbers at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🛫 PBIA under Secret Service flight restrictions
It will be at least a month before residents of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach will find out what, if anything, can be done to stop the nonstop roar of jets over their homes.
Why it matters: At a packed meeting on Thursday, dozens of residents told an airport advisory committee that the flight rules that went into effect on Oct. 20 to protect President Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago have shattered their once peaceful lives.
What they’re saying: “We can’t be outside anymore during flyovers,” West Palm Beach resident Raphael Clemente said of the impact of new rules that require each of the 200-plus jets that take off daily to bank northeast, sending them over his and hundreds of other Flamingo Park homes. “We can’t hear the TV. We can’t hear conversations in my house.”
Zoom in: The Federal Aviation Administration, at the request of the Secret Service, on Oct. 20 decreed that no jets could fly over Mar-a-Lago whether or not Trump is at the private club that is his official residence, which he visits often during the winter tourist season.
Zoom out: Before the new rules went into effect, jets fanned northeast and southeast when Trump was at Mar-a-Lago. When he wasn’t at his “Winter White House,” flights were allowed to head due east over Mar-a-Lago.
Requests to the Secret Service and FAA from local officials have received the same response: We can’t talk to you while the government is shut down.
Of note: About 200 jets a day take off from the airport. The impacts will get only worse in the tourism-heavy winter months when as many as 400 flights leave PBIA daily.
Read more about residents’ comments about why the Secret Service acted at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
🚔 Goodbye, Barracuda Bay. Hello, police station
Riviera Beach’s City Council has cleared the way to demolish its Barracuda Bay water park on Blue Heron Boulevard and build the city’s long-awaited police headquarters there.
In a series of votes last week, council members approved the site plan and rezoning for the public safety center. Plans include a two-story administrative office building, an evidence building, an outdoor training center and a gun range.
Why it matters: The police have been operating in leased space since last year when they left the police station that is part of Riviera Beach’s aging municipal complex at 600 Blue Heron Blvd.
Context: The new police headquarters is part of the city’s ambitious master plan to rebuild facilities, including City Hall, the water plant, library and athletic complex.
Voters approved a $35 million bond last year for the police station to be built at the Barracuda Bay site.
- Riviera Beach Police Foundation President Billie Brooks, a former council member, urged the council to approve the plans so her organization could start raising money to support it.
Catch up quick: Barracuda Bay opened in 2004. Riviera Beach residents could visit the pool and slides for $3. The center also offered water safety courses and exercise classes for adults.
The city closed the water park at 1621 Blue Heron Blvd., this year to make room for the police station.
- In 2023, the council approved a plan to build a pool as part of the athletic complex envisioned at the old City Hall site.
- During recent community meetings, residents supported moving the pool instead to Dan Calloway Park on West 10th Street west of Australian Avenue, city records show.
- At its Nov. 3 meeting, the council passed a resolution to allow the pool to be built at Dan Calloway or the athletic complex.
CORE Construction Services will build the police headquarters, which was designed by Boca Raton architects PGAL.
What’s next: Joby Balint of PGAL told Stet News that if the council approves the plans on second reading at the Nov. 17 meeting, construction could begin in early 2026.
- The city has estimated that it will take three years to complete the public safety center.
Of note: The city is soliciting proposals from developers to rebuild the old City Hall site, with presentations by two developers scheduled for Monday.
Keep reading to learn the council’s friction points about the decision at StetNews.org.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
🍊The Juice
🏷️ West Palm Beach is moving forward with the sale of three vacant lots to Related Ross for a downtown Publix northeast of Banyan Boulevard and Sapodilla Avenue. Ross already owns most of the rest of the block, which, as Stet reported in 2023, his company assembled over years. The move would enable construction of a full-size Publix and the removal of the smaller Publix in Ross’ CityPlace development. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚨 Palm Beach County commissioners signed a $3.3 million contract with the sheriff’s office for security due to recent threats and safety concerns. The commission met in private on Sept. 30 and did not disclose what the security entailed, citing a law that excludes the disclosure of crime victims’ personal information. (WLRN)
🏡 Is Florida’s political climate ripe for a property tax overhaul? Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature have yet to find common ground. (Florida Trident)
💵 The property tax bill for President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago jumped by about $100,000 to $802,220 this year. The president’s total tax bill in Palm Beach County climbed 8.5% to about $2.2 million. (Palm Beach Daily News $$$)
Haunted by Brightline. A conductor landed his dream job. Then people started dying. (Miami Herald via WLRN)
🌊 The decades-long battle between Highland Beach and Palm Beach County over development of the oceanside Milani Park could be ending thanks to a compromise reducing the initial number of parking spots — with the county planning to put shovels in the ground as early as next summer for the $8.6 million project. (The Coastal Star)
🦉 Florida Atlantic University has achieved its goal of being ranked among the nation’s top 100 public universities by U.S. News and World Report. The board of governors, which oversees the university system, has made such rankings a priority. (Boca Magazine)
Gov. Ron DeSantis attended the groundbreaking on a huge new pump station in western Palm Beach County Thursday that he says helps assure completion of a reservoir essential to Everglades restoration years ahead of schedule. The pump station would move 3 billion gallons of water a day, nearly three times the amount pumps move in all the water supply systems from Kissimmee to Miami. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel $$$)
🌳 Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Anthony Segrich says 15 silver buttonwoods were planted in the waterfront Bryant Park without commission approval. Some colleagues say he is micromanaging. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
✅ We love a meaty list, and Florida Trend is out with its annual 500 most influential executives. 561ers include Ava Parker, Gary Lesser and Kelly Smallridge. (Florida Trend)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, talks congressional shutdown and food options with Karis Engle, president and CEO of The Glades Initiative. (Listen now; watch after 4pm Wednesday)
561NSIDER: 🆕 Creatives find home in Lake Park
Studio on 10th, an art cooperative and studio founded by five artists, will celebrate its grand opening Thursday in Lake Park.
What’s happening: The five artists worked at Zero Empty Spaces in Legacy Place Shoppes in Palm Beach Gardens. When the space was rented to a long-term client, the artists had to move.
- Mixed-media artist Anthony Burks moved to The Peach, an artists’ collective in West Palm Beach. He and artist Erica Kyle share a space.
- Other artists returned to their home studios.
Ilene Gruber Adams, Faith Schwack, Patrick Williams, Nancy Blaschke and Clifton Webb founded Studio on 10th near downtown Lake Park just south of Oceana Coffee.
The artists represent a range of styles and mediums, but their collective vision is the same: “To foster creativity, collaboration and community engagement while offering visitors the opportunity to experience original art in an intimate studio setting.”
Why it matters: The new home brings more attention to Lake Park as a place where creative people can find others who share their spirit.
What they’re saying: “Lake Park has a thriving creative spirit, and we are excited to be part of it,” Adams wrote on Facebook.
Studio on 10th, following the Zero Empty Spaces formula, will feature rotating exhibitions of members’ works and hold open studio hours where visitors can meet the artists. Plus, the group plans to host special events and gatherings for other cultural organizations to highlight the role art plays in building a community.
Other artists who were part of Zero Empty Spaces are hoping that company founders Andrew Martineau and Evan Snow will find them a new space to lease.
Catch up quick: ZeroEmpty Spacestakes vacant commercial storefronts and turns them into productive, revenue-generating space until a long-term client can be found. They offer artists a low-cost way to show their work, a boost to retailers because it replaces for-rent signs with artists.
- Martineau told Stet News he had been hoping to rent space in Lake Park but two potential locations fell through and he is pursuing a lead in Boynton Beach.
For now, the five founding artists of Studio on 10th invite visitors to their grand opening from 5-8 pm Thursday at 1259 10th St., Lake Park.
— Janis Fontaine
🖼️ Thank you to the Cultural Council for Palm Beach Countyfor inviting Joel, Carolyn and Liz to last week’s opening of “Fiber Optics.” The first exhibition of the season showcases work by 20 artists who use thread, textile and technique as their primary medium.
- “Fiber Optics” is free to see and on view until Jan. 3 at the council’s headquarters in Lake Worth Beach.
