Florida city council meeting explodes over developer's plans to bulldoze WW2 veterans' memorial
Memorial Park is a cherished 17-acre public haven in the affluent suburb of Boca Raton that has served as a community cornerstone for decades.
Memorial Park is a cherished 17-acre public haven in the affluent suburb of Boca Raton that has served as a community cornerstone for decades.
Residents of a coastal Florida city are furious over plans to erase a decades-old park honoring World War II veterans to make way for a sprawling new 'government campus'.
Memorial Park is a cherished 17-acre public haven in the affluent suburb of Boca Raton that has served as a community cornerstone for decades.
The multi-recreational facility was dedicated to WWII veterans back in the late 1940s, and has stood as a physical reminder of the city’s origins and its wartime legacy since.
However, real estate tycoon David Martin’s development firm Terra and Frisbie Group officially won the bid to tear it all down - clearing the way for a $2.5 billion, 1.5-million-square-foot megaproject.
But the move has sparked outrage, with dozens of residents in Save Boca T-shirts rallying against the project at a fiery city council meeting on Tuesday, where they demanded a public vote on the plans.
'I’m confused. Either you guys are completely incompetent, hopelessly tone-deaf, or truly think we’re the stupid ones. But we’re not,' resident Joe Majhess fumed. 'How did we get here?
'It’s our land, and you couldn’t seem to care less. You have no business operating on our behalf, behind our backs, or with willful ignorance towards the will of the public. Public land deserves a public vote.'
'The voice of the people is stronger than ever,' John Pearlman, founder of Save Boca, added. 'They’re saying stop this project, they don’t…