If the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce wants to use Mar-a-Lago as the backdrop for its monthly breakfast series, the organization will have to pay for a shuttle service to bring in guests, just like other large events do at President Donald Trump’s private club.
That was the ruling the Town Council handed down at its meeting on July 14, when Chamber CEO Doug Evans stood before the dais to request that Town Hall waive the shuttle requirement Palm Beach imposes on other events at The Mar-a-Lago Club. The vote was a 3-2 split, with Town Council President Ted Cooney and Council Member Nicki McDonald casting the nay votes.
The chamber’s decision to move its breakfast to Mar-a-Lago next season came after construction-related projects reduced The Breakers resort’s capacity to host events.
Evans told the Palm Beach Daily News after the meeting that the council’s decision does not change his organization’s plans, and the chamber will shuttle its attendees into the private club at 1100 S Ocean Blvd. from a parking lot in West Palm Beach.
He emphasized that Mar-a-Lago’s main ballroom is the only available venue on the island with the capacity and high-end services to host the event, which attracts around 500 attendees each month to hear guest speakers, eat breakfast and network.
During the July 14 meeting, Evans asked the council to allow attendees to drive to Mar-a-Lago for the events. To help ease the event’s impact on traffic, he said, each breakfast meeting would begin at 6:30 a.m. instead of its usual start at 7:30 a.m., he said.
He said his organization was willing to bring in additional off-duty officers and make any other impact-mitigation efforts requested by the town.
“We’d see how to goes in October. If it doesn’t work, we’ll go to a shuttle system. If it does work, we’ll come back to you to talk about that October event,” Evans told the council.
The shuttle system is part of the traffic-management plan included in Mar-a-Lago’s declaration-of-use agreement with Palm Beach. The plan requires gatherings of over 200 attendees to transport guests to Mar-a-Lago via shuttles from the Hilton hotel, 1611 Worthington Road at Southern Boulevard. The hotel is near the newly renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport and a little more than 5 miles west of the private club.
The chamber’s request met with immediate pushback from Town Hall staff and officials. Town Manager Kirk Blouin and Police Chief Nicholas Caristo told the Town Council the influx of vehicles heading to and leaving Mar-a-Lago could create even more traffic congestion in the area around the Southern Boulevard Bridge during the island’s morning rush hour.
“If people are trying to get into Mar-a-Lago, it’s going to spill out onto the roadway. It’s only a one-way roadway,” Caristo said, referring to Southern Boulevard.
Mayor Danielle Moore said that while she’s concerned about the island’s traffic, she believed the early start time would allow attendees to reach the private club before the morning rush hour.
“According to Mar-a-Lago, there’s no traffic at 6:30 in the morning,” she said. “This is the manager of Mar-a-Lago who is coming in at 6:30 in the morning — he said the roadway is wide open.”
Council member Lew Crampton, however, mentioned potential traffic impacts when the breakfasts adjourn and cars leave the the club when the roadways are busier. The breakfasts typically last about an hour-and-a-half.
“It’s not just arrival time,” Crampton said. “It’s also leaving time.”
Moore said that if the exemption were not granted, she expects all large events planned at Mar-a-Lago to abide by the same transportation restrictions.
McDonald said she was unopposed to Evans’ suggestion of allowing attendees to drive to Mar-a-Lago for the chamber’s October breakfast event as a trial run.
“We can’t perfectly predict what’s going to happen in season, but I think doing a pilot while it’s not quite as busy might help us” make a decision, she said.
Council member Julie Araskog was worried that allowing an exemption for the chamber might require the council to revisit the town’s declaration-of-use agreement with Mar-a-Lago.
Even if the council allowed chamber guests to drive to Mar-a-Lago in October, he said, the traffic generated would not reflect what would occur during the height of the season, when more cars are on the road.
A shift away from using shuttles also would likely require the town to send more of its police officers to Mar-a-Lago to aid the security detail to help regulate traffic.
“I’m conflicted about this, but I don’t see it as being good for the town, and I don’t see it being good, particularly, for the South End,” said Crampton, who lives south of Sloan’s Curve.
Even though the Citizens’ Association of Palm Beach, an organization that represents the interest of South End residents, supported the trial period, Crampton said he would still vote against the request.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Town rejects Palm Beach Chamber’s request about Mar-a-Lago events
Reporting by Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News | USA TODAY Network
