PALM BEACH GARDENS — A soon-to-be-constructed park and nature trail in Avenir has raised concern for some Palm Beach Gardens residents over its accessibility and safety.
During the City Council’s June 4 meeting, multiple Avenir residents asked city leaders to postpone construction of the Gardens Nature Park and Trail until its design can be reevaluated. They said the current one limits access to the park’s core amenities for persons with disabilities, among other concerns.
Palm Beach Gardens plans to build the park on 24 acres near Avenir and Sandhill Crane drives that Avenir Holdings donated to the city in 2019. Documents show construction is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed by the fall of 2027.
Avenir is a mixed-use development in western Palm Beach Gardens consisting of residential homes, businesses, schools, parks and nature preserves. The community will have more than 4,000 homes when it is built out.
Recreation officials recently hosted community forums to hear from area residents ahead of the final planning stages for the park. A Palm Beach Gardens spokesperson said staff members are reviewing the comments and working on revisions. She did not elaborate on what those revisions might entail, or when construction of the project will begin.
Avenir residents express concerns over distance to park’s main amenities
Suzanne Kline is a resident of the 55-and-older Regency at Avenir community next to the proposed park. She said she and others in the community have concerns about whether its amenities will be accessible for persons with disabilities, whether police can monitor the park and the effect it might have on native wildlife in nearby conservation areas.
“We support a true passive park, but we cannot support the current design, which we believe is inaccessible, unsafe, and was advanced without a meaningful response to public input,” Kline said in a letter to The Palm Beach Post.
City documents show that under the park’s current design, a narrow, half-mile-long hiking path will separate the southern and northern portions. The path will run near a lake separating Regency from Sandhill Crane.
The park’s core amenities would be concentrated on the north end, while parking will be at the south, near Avenir and Sandhill Crane drives.
City documents show the park will feature an open-air pavilion, an interpretive nature trail with signs, a butterfly habitat, hiking trails and a fishing pier, among other amenities. The project will cost $3 million and includes a matching $1.5 million federal grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
In a petition to the city, Kline said the half-mile hike to the park’s core amenities would pose a physical barrier for persons with disabilities, would offer no vehicle access to allow for drop-offs near the picnic and pavilion areas and would potentially be in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in places open to the general public.
She also expressed concern the hiking path separating the two parcels could create a safety issue in the event of an emergency.
“If something happens, just say the ambulances were coming in through there, you had a fire, say something happens in the north end and people are trying to get out,” she said. “How are you going to navigate a path that’s 12-foot wide? How will people get out?”
Cynthia Lynn, a Regency homeowner, said she has concerns about the park’s proximity to surrounding conversation lands that are home to various wild animals.
Lynn said activities such as visitors picnicking and bringing food to the area could attract wildlife.
“We know that they’re there because we live on the other side of the fence,” she said. “But having children coming in, or any park visitors coming in, not knowing what’s there and having food with them will just lead to (danger).”
During the recent council meeting, some residents said the distance from the park’s main amenities to the parking area would it make it difficult for police to maintain surveillance over the site.
Citing a suggestion made at a community forum that residents tell police what they observe, one resident told council members she believed it was inappropriate to expect the neighboring community to monitor activities at the park.
“It’s not the job of the senior citizens that live next to this park to be your security for this area,” the resident said. “It’s the job of our paid police officers to make sure that it is secure.”
Kline said she favors relocating the pavilion and other amenities to the southern portion of the parcel, closer to the roadway, and keeping the northern portion as a passive park.
“This shortens walking distances, improves ADA access, speeds emergency response and strengthens security through a main dusk-to-dawn access gate that supports active police surveillance,” she said.
Julius Whigham II covers northern Palm Beach County and public safety for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Avenir residents call Gardens nature park plan unsafe, want changes
Reporting by Julius Whigham II, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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By Julius Whigham II, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
