New guard house for Secret Service at Mar-a-Lago? Not just yet, Palm Beach says

The Town Council has deferred a decision on a new Secret Service-requested guardhouse for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, citing concerns the project could exacerbate traffic issues already seen around the estate.

The council voted 4-1, with council member Lew Crampton dissenting, to rehear the requests for a special exception modification and site plan review at the May 10 Development Review meeting.

Council member Julie Araskog said she would like to either have the Secret Service listed as the applicant or have a representative from the agency present at the meeting, along with a possible updated traffic management plan.

“I’m constantly sitting there for 20, 30, 40 minutes,” Araskog said of getting stuck in traffic near Mar-a-Lago.

Each former president can designate one residence for Secret Service protection, and for Trump that residence is Mar-a-Lago, said Harvey Oyer, the agent for the project.

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Architect Rick Gonzalez and his team spent 10 months last year going back and forth on the design and specifications for the guardhouse with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which must sign off on the plans because Mar-a-Lago is a National Historic Landmark.

The proposed one-story guardhouse would be 232 square feet and sit about 30 feet inside Mar-a-Lago’s main gate off South Ocean Boulevard, on the left side of the road coming toward the house.

The guardhouse design is architecturally consistent with Mar-a-Lago, Gonzalez said. Features include a restroom, a desk for Secret Service agents, impact glass and all poured concrete, he said.

Council members questioned the location of the guardhouse on the property, asking why it could not be closer to the main house to allow more cars to queue inside the main gate and not on South Ocean Boulevard.

The Secret Service does not want the guardhouse any closer to the main building for safety reasons, Oyer said. “They will not put it any closer to the house because bad guy in bomb in car, you want to keep him as far away from the house as possible,” he said.

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Right now, the Secret Service has a tent in the same location, and the agency has stopped people on South Ocean to screen them, Oyer said.

“This is the main historic entrance for club members, and I mean, the bottom line is this is where they want to do it,” he said.

Council member Ted Cooney said while he understands the Secret Service’s need to secure the property, his biggest concern was “the inability to get cars off the road.” Cooney said he went back and looked at the original declaration of use agreement and traffic plan for the property.

“In light of the issue and growing pains we’re having as a community, I have some concerns about making it permanent. Really, I think you have the ability to get one or two cars off the road,” he said.

Council President Pro-tem Bobbie Lindsay said the Southern Boulevard Bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway next to Mar-a-Lago backs up in the mornings and evenings to the point that it’s basically unusable.

“You don’t want to be anywhere near there after 3:45 (p.m.),” she said, adding, “What concerns me about this is its location, and I don’t know how much the Secret Service looked at other locations, and whether they looked or care about the impact on our little town.”

The Landmarks Preservation Commission reviewed the project before the council, and asked about possibly moving the guardhouse to another location, Oyer said. But the Secret Service has been emphatic that the planned location is the one where the guardhouse needs to go, he said, and the agency actually wanted the guardhouse closer to the road and farther from the house.

Right now, Oyer said, the Secret Service can and does stop cars in the street.

“So we’re trying to strike a happy balance between their needs and the obvious needs of the town that you’re trying to protect,” he said. Moving the guardhouse to one of the other entrances would not work for them, he said.

Oyer said he would be happy to take the council’s comments back to the Secret Service and Mar-a-Lago, but that he feels it would be “kicking the can down the road.”

Araskog suggested having the Secret Service look at using the service entrance just to the north of the main gate into Mar-a-Lago. “I think that would be worth looking at,” she said.

But Gonzalez noted that the location of the proposed guardhouse is in part to protect the vast east lawn between the main building of Mar-a-Lago and South Ocean Boulevard. The wall could be scaled by someone trying to get in, and the Secret Service needs to be able to watch that lawn while also screening vehicles entering the property, Gonzalez said.

Crampton said he’d prefer to approve the project with the condition that Oyer’s team bring back a traffic plan for the council’s review and approval.

Resident Nader Kazeminy said he saw similarities between the request for a guardhouse and a previous request from Mar-a-Lago to build a dock for law enforcement and security purposes. At the time, Kazeminy said, law enforcement officials said the dock was necessary for the president’s protection. “Myself along with a number of people put holes in that,” Kazeminy said.

In this case, Kazeminy said he believes the insistence on putting the guardhouse inside the main gate is less about security than it is about appearances. “I’m quite sure the ex-president wants everybody going through the front door so they have the best impression possible,” he said, calling it a “vanity play.”

Kazeminy proposed a system where the Secret Service could be posted in a Bath & Tennis Club parking lot south of Mar-a-Lago where vehicles could be screened. Approved drivers could then drive across Southern Boulevard into the Mar-a-Lago Club entrance on the west side of the property.

William Gilbane of North Lake Way said traffic must be a consideration. “If you approve this guardhouse, we’re never going to fix the traffic down there,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach delays action on Secret Service request for guard house at Mar-a-Lago