A Palm Beach County Circuit Court judge has temporarily blocked Riviera Beach from demolishing its Barracuda Bay Aquatic Center after a former City Council member alleged in a lawsuit that the city did not follow state law in providing notice of its plans.
The decision is a significant, though perhaps temporary, blow to the city’s multi-pronged, $50 million plan to build a new police department headquarters on the Barracuda Bay site, which is located at 1621 Blue Heron Boulevard. A majority of the city’s five City Council members expressed unease about that plan, though two of them voted to allow it proceed. A delay could allow for more community opposition to build and possibly require a new vote.
Barracuda Bay, opened in 2004, offers water aerobics and swimming lessons at reduced rates for city residents. Those lessons are particularly important in Riviera Beach, the largest majority-Black city in Palm Beach County, given that most Black children do not know how to swim and face significantly higher drowning risks than other children.
Former City Councilman Tradrick McCoy and some residents opposed the city’s decision to tear down Barracuda Bay, arguing that the complex was not beyond its useful life, as city officials claimed. He and others said the city should leave the complex in place and build a new police department headquarters on its former site at 600 W. Blue Heron Boulevard, which the department closed in 2023 because of leaks and mold.
Why would Riviera Beach leaders vote to close water park?
City officials said they preferred to build a new aquatic complex and use the old police department headquarters and City Hall site on Blue Heron as part of a public-private plan that would have a developer build new municipal facilities in exchange for access to city land.
The City Council voted on Feb. 4 to have the aquatic complex torn down to make way for a new police headquarters on the site. Three weeks later, McCoy filed suit, saying the city gave “defective and legally insufficient notice” of its plan to demolish Barracuda Bay.
The city’s notice “merely referenced the address of a proposed police department headquarters without identifying the parcel or geographic area affected.”
“As a result,” the suit states, “the notice is legally insufficient and fails to provide meaningful notice to interested or affected parties” as is required by Florida law.
McCoy sought an injunction barring the city from beginning demolition at Barracuda Bay, which the suit said was to commence this month.
Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes granted that injunction on March 2, giving the city 10 days to respond and directing it and McCoy to meet and pick possible hearing dates between March 16 and April 3.
Not the first lawsuit against Riviera Beach from McCoy
McCoy served on the Riviera Beach City Council from 2019 to 2025, when he was defeated by Bruce Guyton as he sought re-election.
McCoy’s relationships with his council colleagues were fractious and frequently volatile, though they acknowledged and were occasionally stymied by his attention to detail.
He and Douglas Lawson, then on the council and now serving as mayor, had a physical altercation after a meeting in January 2024. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office found probable cause existed to charge both men with simple battery, a misdemeanor, but dropped the case when the councilmen agreed not to pursue charges.
A month after the McCoy-Lawson altercation, McCoy’s colleagues voted to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to suspend or remove him.
Councilwoman Shirley Lanier said McCoy verbally assaulted her frequently and that she reported him to the police on multiple occasions. Despite those reports, and despite the extraordinary request of his colleagues, the governor did not suspend or remove McCoy.
While McCoy’s combative style on the dais frequently drew head shakes and eyerolls from his colleagues, he was a stickler for details and following what he saw as proper procedure. As a sitting councilman, he filed suit against the city on multiple occasions.
McCoy filed suit against the city’s water utility in 2020, arguing that it failed to give proper notice of a water rate increase. The city scrapped the rate increase and agreed to pay McCoy’s legal fees.
In 2024, McCoy, then-mayor Ronnie Felder and then-council candidate Fercella Davis-Panier, filed an ultimately successful lawsuit challenging how Lawson and some other candidates for office paid their filing fee. The city had improperly certified them as candidates, the suit alleged.
That same year, it was McCoy who tore into the city’s water utility for failing to quickly notify council members and the public that some drinking water had tested positive for a fecal contaminant. The resulting furor led to state Department of Health fines for the city, the contentious resignation of its utilities director and a renewed push to move forward with plans for a new water treatment facility.
Riviera Beach broke ground on that facility on Feb. 25.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education and Riviera Beach development for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Judge blocks city from demolishing aquatic center at center of lawsuit
Reporting by Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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