By: Samantha Mellman
For 30 years the Boca Raton Beautification Committee has helped our community blossom into the beautiful destination it is today. On May 15th the committee hosted its’ annual Landscape Excellence Awards at the Boca City Council.
Chairman of the Landscape Excellence Awards Barbara Benefield, and 12 other committee members gave six awards one for each category to businesses and neighborhoods. To qualify for an award the areas must be visible from city streets and meet standards of excellent landscaping.
Richard Randall, a 14 year committee member explains how recipients are selected, “I get calls throughout the year, different members drive around and see things, make notes of it, then they’ll call me and I put it on a list,” he said, “ I have a regular route that I drive when we start to think about this and we re-visit everything we can and I bring back pictures.”
As committee members go through these lists of pictures they narrow down their selections until they decide on the final nominees.
Mayor Susan Whelchel had the honor of awarding each nominee in this year’s ceremony by category:
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Large Commercial: Northern Trust Bank
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Small Commercial: Stitch Craft
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Mixed Use: 200 East Condominiums
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Industrial: Multi Image Group
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High Density Residential Multi Family: Sea Ranch Club of Boca
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Low Density Residential Gated: Santa Barbara
Second time winner Johann Leigh is the landscape chair and board of directors member at the Sea Ranch Club of Boca located on Ocean Boulevard by Spanish River Beach. This residential area is comprised of 37 acres of land that includes 4 large towers, a marina, and town homes.
“It was quite an honor to get this, we spend a lot of money and a lot of time to maintain the property,” said Leigh.
Don Lamm, a 20-year resident of the Santa Barbara neighborhood accepted the award on his community’s behalf.
“Originally their were 20 people on this landscape committee and they couldn’t get anything right, it was just horrible,” he said, “I volunteered and after my first project I said fire me if you don’t like it. Plus 20 years later I’m the only one that does it. I design it, I install it, and I spend thousands of hours in nurseries to pick out plant material and its just a love, its just something that turned out quite well.”
When Benefield moved from Lake Worth to Boca Raton her mother asked her why she didn’t buy a house in Lake Worth when she retired, “She came down to Boca to visit me and she said, “I see why” it’s a beautiful city. Even the side roads and mediums are nicely landscaped.”
Every year since 1980 Boca Raton has received the Tree City U.S.A. award that commends cities that follow four standards: A tree board or department, a tree care ordinance, a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita, and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
Over the past three decades the Beautification Committee has had a helping hand in fostering awareness to our local community by educating residents in proper selection and pruning of landscape material, understanding and appreciating proper tree care, and promoting higher standards of landscape design along right-of-ways and canopy within the city.
The Beautification Committee is ran by a group of volunteers to learn more or to become a committee member, meetings are held twice a month at the Boca Raton City Hall every first and third Wednesday at 12 p.m.