Martino: “Gardens Outhouse” at Lake Catherine Park

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MacArthur Boulevard in southeast Palm Beach Gardens is one of the most pleasant, peaceful, and attractively landscaped roads in the City. It is designed with traffic calming as one of its primary goals. The taming of vehicular movements is produced and enhanced by MacArthur Boulevard’s narrow lanes, selective on-street parking, signaled pedestrian cobbled and colored crosswalks, and its meandering median. MacArthur Boulevard’s beautifully landscaped median divides a roadway lined with gorgeous 25-year old oak trees in the landscaped swales guarding, hovering, and shading over pedestrian walkways, particularly, on the west side. It is home to the famous John D. MacArthur Banyan Tree on its south end, the Lake Catherine Sports Complex on the southeast streetscape next to Howell Watkins Middle School campus as the school meanders to the northeast. On the west side moving north from the Banyan Tree is the smart landscaping of a commercial property followed by the equally attractive streetscape of the Lake Catherine housing development. Continuing north one encounters the crown jewel of MacArthur Boulevard, the passively beautiful Lake Catherine Park with its gorgeous lake, tree lined walking path, Palm Beach Gardens Women’s Club Honor Park tree preserve, and other aesthetically pleasing fauna and passive amenities.

However, all of the above has recently been disrupted by what, in my opinion, was and is a callous and unforgivable decision by the City. Without notice or justification to the Public and without discussion at an advertised regular City Council meeting, the City has erected a glorified “outhouse” in the Lake Catherine Park. Further compounding the disrupting decision was the poorly selected location fronting and facing onto MacArthur Boulevard acting as an advertisement for offsite customers. To accommodate the “Gardens Outhouse”, and without regard for the streetscape and environment of MacArthur Boulevard and Lake Catherine Park, the City continued its uncaring and insensitive actions by shamefully cutting down to ground level two of the 25-year old Oak trees that umbrella the west pedestrian walkway and removing Park landscaping. From my perspective, these are thoughtless acts that have irreparably harmed the serenity of Lake Catherine Park and the tranquility of the surrounding neighborhood.

What other courses of action were available to the City one might ask? Well, if for some reason there was a public outcry for rest room facilities at Lake Catherine Park, which to my knowledge there was none, the City should have publicly noticed the Park property of its intentions and held an advertised City Council meeting to allow for neighborhood comment, discussion, and understanding. The City could have continued to honor the long standing commitments that were made by past City Councils not to have any buildings, facilities, or active recreational equipment or offerings that would affect the native passivity and peacefulness of Lake Catherine Park. Further, Lake Catherine Park is a fairly large park with more unobtrusive areas that should have been considered other than the poorly chosen ultimate location. Finally, if this facility was vital to the success of Lake Catherine Park at this location, which again in my humble opinion it is not, simply facing the entrances and water fountains of the facility to the interior of the park rather than to MacArthur Boulevard would have been a much more palatable choice.

It is my observation that in the last decade or so the City Council has methodically reduced its meetings with Gardens residents which has created transparency issues. An unhealthy communication problem has reared its ugly head. It is exacerbated when only one regularly advertised City Council meeting per month is held. This lack of transparency and communication has produced a list of serious breaches of confidence with the residents over the years. The “Gardens Outhouse” at Lake Catherine Park is the latest.