A Boca Raton property owner who had petitioned for permission to fill in a cove off the Intracoastal Waterway in order to build houses on the newly-created land was turned down by the city council this week, with the governing body rejecting a non-binding decision rendered in mediation.
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
William Swaim, who has garnered significant notoriety for claiming ownership of submerged properties across Florida and claiming the right to be able to develop them, is seeking to set up containment booms and pump fill into the cove at the end of NE 8th Avenue, just west of the Intracoastal Waterway channel. His plan, after creating a new swath of dry land, would be to build residential properties on the approximately 4-acres that would make up the site. Last month, a special magistrate issued a non-binding recommendation that a code enforcement order preventing Swaim from filling in the cove placed an unreasonable burden on his property. The city council had 45 days to either accept or reject the decision.
On Tuesday, the cove was a lively location despite cloudy weather. A group of teens were fishing from a small aluminum boat, while a family slowly towed a tube behind a jet-ski in the shallow water. Birds and reptiles rested along the shore, which consists of a combination of rip-rap, sand and bulkheading.
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The city council unanimously rejected the decision by the special magistrate, leaving litigation as Swaim’s last option in his latest quest to create new land on which to build.
“We’ve been trying to permit this property for quite some time,” said Swaim, who attended the city council meeting. “The property was high and dry until the 1950s when the subdivision to the west illegally dredged the property.”
Swaim, who is currently marketing the property for sale, claims that the cove was “illegally” dredged in 1957. In 2014, his workers discovered numerous international fiber optic cables running under the cove, which prompted him to file a $250 million lawsuit against the operators of the cables – GlobeNet and Caribbean Crossings. That action was dismissed by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John J. Parnofiello in January, ruling that the submerged parcel was state-owned. It was only the latest legal saga initiated by Swaim, who infamously claimed to own portions of what is now Hillsboro Inlet in Broward County. That suit, which went so far as to claim ownership of existing backyards and waterways, was likewise dismissed.
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
Despite the legal setbacks, Swaim still claims to be entitled to build on the submerged Boca Raton property.
“We applied for a permit 376 days ago and we are still waiting to get that permit resolved,” he told council members. “We went through the mediation process … and we got to the point where we don’t think there are any issues left. As far as we’re concerned, the mediation was very effective. We cleared out 90 percent of the things that were outstanding, and we’re still waiting to find out if there was anything else.”
He said he would “just to be treated like anybody else.”
Records show the East Boca property was, at one time, used as a dredge spoil deposit site by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was later dredged itself, becoming submerged. His attorney, Hope Calhoun, pressed the council to adopt the special magistrate’s findings, which also included a recommendation that the city purchase the property if no permits were to be issued for development.
“We’re just trying to get this property to a space where it can be developed as it should be,” said Calhoun.
Council members refrained from commenting on the substance of the case, but agreed the city should come up with a cohesive policy for cases emanating from the Florida Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution Act, a relatively obscure law that sets forth mechanisms to resolve disputes over environmentally-sensitive properties. Boca Raton is currently dealing with two other actions that reference the same doctrine.
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
A submerged area off the Intracoastal Waterway off NE 8th Avenue in Boca Raton, FL, June 2025. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
“It’s part of, and connected to, a couple of pending cases,” said Councilman Andy Thomson, who suggested the council meet in an executive session to discuss legal matters.
The majority of council members, however, indicated they wished to affirmatively reject the magistrate’s recommendation within 45 days, at which point inaction would mean the recommendation would be “deemed rejected” as a matter of law.
“There are state and, potentially, federal water issues that are very complicated,” said Councilman Marc Wigder. “For those reasons, I am not prepared to approve the non-binding mediation [decision].”
The council rejected the magistrate’s decision in a 4-1 vote, with Thomson dissenting.
