Boynton exempts renovations from public art fee

Hunters Run, a gated residential community in Boynton Beach, will recover about $28,000 of fees to support a municipal public art program, and city commissioners agreed to narrow the scope of the fees.

Carl Sloan, president of the Hunters Run community, told the Sun-Sentinel “the concept of the law is terrific. But …  we’re in a private gated community, the public doesn’t come in to see our art.”

City commissioners rejected a proposal exempting all gated residential communities from the public art fee.

Instead the commission modified a city ordinance enacted in 2005 that required developers to pay a 1 percent public art fee on any  construction or renovation project valued at more than $250,000.

Debby Coles-Dobay, public art manager, Boynton Beach

The modification allows  developers in Boynton Beach to avoid paying the public art fee in connection with a renovation project.

The Hunters Run community, which has more than 3,000 homeowners, ran up a $28,414  public art fee due to a $2.75 million renovation of its clubhouse roof.

Debby Coles-Dobay, the city’s public art manager, told the Sun-Sentinel “there are many ways that Hunters Run could do something to celebrate what’s happening inside of that community. It’s not that the public has to access the art; it could just connect people on the inside to the outside.” [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth