Cemetery resale ban is now final, 5-0
Plus Rock the Plaza, Candlelight Concert, and a downtown tower funded at Town Square.
Cemetery resale ban is now final, 5-0
Boynton Beach commissioners voted unanimously May 5 to amend the city code and block private resale of plots at Memorial Park and Sara Sims Cemetery. The change responds to buyers who had purchased plots, split them into smaller parcels, and resold them at higher prices. Transfers are now restricted to immediate family, and owners who exit must sell back to the city at 80% of the original price.
Commissioner Aimee Kelley backed the change and called the situation frustrating. The practical follow-through is what matters next: enforcement, fee-table updates, eligibility paperwork, and whether nearby cities borrow the same model for their own cemetery land.
CRA spends $15.4M assembling the I-95 gateway
The CRA has spent $15.4 million assembling roughly 5.4 acres near the I-95 on-ramp at West Boynton Beach Boulevard, the parcel officials describe as a gateway to downtown. The agency paid $8.1 million in October 2025 for the former Inn at Boynton Beach site and $7.3 million this spring for 13 additional lots on the southeast corner of West Boynton Beach Boulevard and NW 3rd Street.
To close the second purchase, the CRA reallocated $2.5 million from a parking-garage line item. The next step is a request for proposals for a private developer. The Real Deal reported that the brokerage representing the sellers distributed talking points for public comments during a CRA meeting, which makes the public-process side worth watching as the RFP opens.
Town Square tower lands $160M construction financing
Time Equities locked in a $160 million construction loan from M&T Bank this spring for an eight-story, 465-unit apartment building at 120 SE 1st Avenue inside the Town Square footprint. The first phases of Town Square - City Hall, the library, the park, and the amphitheater - are already done. For residents who use Town Square daily, the next few years should feel noticeably busier downtown.
Four things worth your time this week
Saturday carries most of the weight. Rock the Plaza runs May 16 from 2 to 6 p.m. at Ocean Plaza, 640 E. Ocean Avenue, with reggae from Paul Anthony and The Reggae Souljahs, family activities, and free admission. The Candlelight Concert at 125 E. Ocean Avenue runs 6:30 to 9 p.m. the same night.
Earlier Saturday, Bones to Books at the Youth Library runs 1 to 2 p.m. and lets kids read aloud to certified therapy dogs. On Friday, May 15, the library runs a free online class on AI chatbots beyond ChatGPT from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
What to watch as the gateway RFP opens
The gateway assemblage is big enough to shape the first impression of downtown from I-95. The next RFP should tell residents what the CRA wants most: housing, street-level retail, parking relief, public space, or a mix that makes West Boynton Beach Boulevard feel less like a pass-through. Watch for the scoring criteria, whether public feedback is built in before finalist selection, and how the CRA handles lobbying questions after the earlier public-comment talking points.
A walkable Saturday: Rock the Plaza, then the Candlelight Concert
Rock the Plaza at Ocean Plaza is the cleanest Saturday pick: free, four hours, reggae from a real band, walking distance from the marina, and a built-in reason to stop inside the plaza businesses between sets. Start there at 2 p.m., keep the evening open for the Candlelight Concert up the street at 6:30, and you have a full downtown Saturday without moving the car much.
Why Sara Sims matters this week
Sara Sims Cemetery has been a Heart of Boynton landmark for generations, and the adjacent Sara Sims Park and Amphitheater is one of the CRA completed neighborhood projects. The cemetery ordinance will not make the redevelopment headlines the way the gateway land does, but for the families who use those plots, it may be the most consequential commission action of the month.