Sylvester Stallone said Thursday he will abandon his plan to install a barrier in the Intracoastal Waterway to prevent trash and seaweed from washing onto the shore of his lakeside North End home.
The famous actor and filmmaker, who was accompanied by his wife Jennifer Flavin at Thursday’s Town Council meeting, made the decision after facing stiff opposition from neighbors, Mayor Danielle Moore and all five council members.
“You are great neighbors and you’ve been here a long time, and we respect your work and the way you see this,” Stallone said. “This was not just a vanity thing.”
Neighbors objected that the proposed seaweed barrier would block public access to a section of the Intracoastal Waterway, long used by kayakers and boaters, near Stallone’s home and beach. The town’s elected officials agreed that approval of the project would set an unwanted precedent that other lakefront property owners might seek to follow.
“I think this is a bad precedent for our town and I think it’s bad idea,” Moore said. “I believe it would be taking away the rights of boaters and the public to use this particular area.”
Neighbors and council members also said the barrier would be aesthetically detrimental and create a safety hazard for recreational users of the scenic waterway.
Resident Ron Silverman said there is a strong current that moves through the Intracoastal waters, and that the navigational channel is used by the largest boats that come into Palm Beach.
“If you are out there in the channel, and the big boat comes, you have to get out of the way quickly,” he said.
North End resident Minnie Pulitzer, the daughter of iconic designer Lilly Pulitzer, said Stallone’s barrier could trigger far-reaching, unwanted consequences.
“If you allow this, you set a precedent for it to happen all the way down through Palm beach,” she said.
Stallone had filed an application seeking environmental permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to install a floating fence to protect his 262-foot stretch of private beach from seaweed and trash.
The application was submitted on behalf of Southpaw Trust, the entity through which Stallone paid $35.4 million for the property at 1480 North Lake Way in December 2020.
The barrier would have risen eight inches above the water and extended 10 inches below and would have been anchored to the bottom of the lake with nylon ropes and eyelets secured by six piles.
The Town of Palm Beach did not have regulatory authority over the plan. But the council unanimously decided, even after Stallone’s pledge to withdraw his applications, to submit a letter to the regulatory agencies stating the town’s objection to the installation of private seaweed barriers in public waters.
Neither the DEP nor the Army Corps had reached a decision on Stallone’s applications as of Thursday’s council meeting, which was called so the elected officials could discuss Stallone’s proposal with one another and with the public.
The Army Corps of Engineers had said that the barrier’s primary purpose would be to prevent boaters from getting too close to Stallone’s property.
Stallone was accompanied Thursday by attorney Maura Ziska and Matthew Butler, an engineer with Isiminger & Stubbs Engineering. But he chose to address the council and the public himself early in the meeting, before the council members opined on his applications or received public comment.
“We have lived in a lot of places, and we have never really enjoyed or respected an area so much in our life,” Stallone said. “It’s just a jewel.”
Stallone said he’s concerned about boaters’ environmental abuse of the Intracoastal Waterway and the City of Riviera Beach’s stated desire to establish a mooring field for boaters in the Intracoastal Waterway near Palm Beach’s northern shore.
He raised the issue of derelict boats abandoned in the waterway and lamented boaters’ dumping of trash and waste in the water.
“You can have some guy sit there for 10 months and do his laundry in front [of Stallone’s house], and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Stallone said. “It’s almost something that’s been kind of lax, and no one’s really paying attention. Well, I’m going to pay attention. Trust me.”
Stallone said he wants to clean up the waterways and protect them from being damaged even more.
“I think it’s really necessary to keep that place beautiful and pristine for everyone forever,” Stallone said.
Council President Bobbie Lindsay told Stallone the council could not support the barrier. But she said she could understand his frustration and desire to protect his privacy.
“It’s tough being so famous,” she told Stallone. “We have lots of celebrities and important people who live here, but you’re the only Rocky and the only Rambo.”
Lindsay encouraged Stallone to work with the town to help clean up the water.
“Today, we’re being asked by our residents to not support this particular application,” she said. “We also at the same time invite you to work with us as closely as you’d like to go after some of these injustices that are happening in our waterways and right in front of, not just you, but every lakefront property that I know of.”
Stallone’s decision to drop the barrier project was announced by Ziska, the project attorney. The surprise declaration sparked applause throughout the meeting chamber.
“On behalf of all the neighbors, we cannot thank you enough,” North End resident Susan Gary told Stallone. “We’re so willing to work with you on the derelict boats and prohibiting the mooring fields along our shores.”
Palm Beach’s Public Works Director Paul Brazil said Thursday the public comment period for the project permit had expired with both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida DEP. A separate comment period, on Stallone’s related request for DEP permission to install the barrier on state submerged land, does not expire until December 25 at 5 p.m.
The council said that, despite the expiration of the designated public comment period on the DEP and Army Corps permits for the Stallone application, it would still send letters to those agencies registering its opposition to any future projects with similar plans.
The public is free to do the same. Public comment may be sent to danielle.sattelberger@floridadep.gov and/or Jennifer.L.Alexander@usace.army.mil.
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