The Delray Beach City Commission on Oct. 21 denied a quasi-judicial petition to abandon public access rights on roads and open-space tracts within the Old Palm Grove subdivision, rejecting a bid by the neighborhood’s developer and some residents to remove the public access dedication from privately maintained streets.

The hearing drew more than an hour of testimony from residents and representatives for the applicant. Anthea Gianniotis, development services director, read the resolution and recounted the plat language that currently grants public rights for vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian ingress and egress over Estuary Way, Old Palm Lane, Eastview Avenue and several open-space tracts.

The applicant’s attorney, Andrew Kaiser, said Old Palm Grove’s roads and sidewalks were not originally intended to be public in the form they exist today and argued the community is being unfairly asked to shoulder maintenance and liability for a public amenity. "This public dedication was not part of the original plan," Kaiser said, and he told the commission an alternate public route to Hacienda park and the beach is shorter and available.

Developer Tim Hernandez and project planner Michelle Hoyland described the project as an intentionally designed traditional neighborhood development that was approved in coordination with the city and the Community Redevelopment Agency. They said the neighborhood’s design included a public-access route to improve pedestrian connectivity as part of the North Federal Highway redevelopment vision.

Opponents — many of whom live inside Old Palm Grove — told the commission the presence of public access forces homeowners’ association members to pay for maintenance and carry insurance and legal liability for visitors they cannot control. Multiple residents described incidents of vandalism, dogs and litter on private property and urged the commission to remove the public designation so the neighborhood could install security measures. "We are simply asking the city to remove the public-access designation from our private streets and remove our liability," homeowner Anna Zukavsky said.

Staff and some surrounding-neighborhood residents disagreed. Speakers from nearby Kokomo Key, La Hacienda and other neighborhoods described using the Old Palm Grove route as a safer, shorter walking and bicycle link to La Hacienda Park and Atlantic Avenue. Several neighbors and the city engineer said the public-access dedication fosters walkability and is consistent with the city’s North Federal Highway redevelopment plan and broader comprehensive-plan goals to maintain connectivity.

The Planning & Zoning Board earlier had deadlocked on the petition. City staff’s formal recommendation was denial, and after public testimony the commission voted to deny the abandonment request. In the roll call recorded at the meeting, Commissioner Marker voted no and Commissioners Cassell and Deputy Vice Mayor Burns voted to deny the application; the motion carried.

Why it matters: The vote preserves public pedestrian and bicycle connectivity in a neighborhood that planners designed two decades ago to improve walkability along North Federal Highway. The decision also keeps in place the unusual arrangement under which privately maintained streets and common areas are legally open to the public, a configuration residents said exposes them to liability and maintenance costs.

Ending: The commission’s decision maintains the status quo while highlighting a recurring city planning tension: how to balance walkable connectivity and public access with the maintenance and liability burdens that can fall on private homeowners in compact, mixed‑use neighborhoods.