Sylvester Stallone gives passionate plea for manatees in Florida
Sylvester Stallone cited concerns for marine life in a passionate plea at a council meeting to install a seaweed barrier at his home.
After hearing outcry from neighbors and concerns from Town Council members about a proposed seaweed barrier near his North End Palm Beach home, action star Sylvester Stallone pulled the plans during a testy public meeting on Dec. 19.
But council members — Council President Bobbie Lindsay in particular — implored Stallone to stay involved in the issues in which he shared his own concerns: the health of the Intracoastal Waterway, derelict vessels in the body of the water and an effort by Riviera Beach to build a mooring field for boats south of Peanut Island.
Stallone’s representatives had said in state and federal applications that the barrier was necessary to prevent seaweed and other debris from washing up on his beach. But an October public notice from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said agency officials believed that was a secondary concern, with the primary purpose being to “exclude boaters” from the area directly next to Stallone’s home.
Neighbors first heard about the project earlier this month when several received a notice seeking public comment from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
A project engineer sent an email soon after the Town Council meeting to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to withdraw that application, according to publicly available records.
The Army Corps has not responded to a request to confirm that application was withdrawn as well. However, the project no longer appears on a map or in a database on the Army Corps website.
Here are three key moments from the Dec. 19 meeting at Palm Beach Town Hall.
1. Stallone made a passionate plea for his project.
Stallone attended the meeting with his wife, Jennifer Flavin Stallone, and members of the project team, including local attorney Maura Ziska and Matthew Butler, an engineer with Isiminger & Stubbs Engineering Inc.
Stallone’s team had applied to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps for permits to complete the project, which would have been a floating barrier that rose 8 inches above the water and extended 10 inches below. It would have been anchored into the bottom of the waterway using a system of nylon ropes and eyelets secured into the substrate by six piles, records show. The barrier would have allowed marine life to swim underneath, and creatures to swim around the barrier at each end, Butler said in an email to the state Department of Environmental Protection that was reviewed by the Daily News.
There were three pieces to the proposal, Public Works Director Paul Brazil told the council at the meeting.
The first was the application to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the barrier. Next was a request for a submerged land lease submitted to the state. That would have been necessary to complete the work of installing the barrier into the sandy bottom of the Intracoastal, Brazil said. The third piece was the application to the Army Corps.
Each piece was submitted to the relevant agency for review by celebrity wealth manager Lester Knispel on behalf of Southpaw Trust, the entity through which Stallone in December of 2020 paid a recorded $35.375 million for the property at 1480 N. Lake Way in Palm Beach, records show.
The estate where the famed “Rocky” and “Rambo” actor and his wife live includes a 262-foot private beach on the lake, along with a two-story mansion, a guesthouse and a pool pavilion.
The property is near the very northern edge of Palm Beach and the Palm Beach Inlet, with a view west toward the Port of Palm Beach and a view to the northwest toward Peanut Island, which is a popular recreation and party spot for boaters and kayakers.
Stallone thanked the council and residents for coming to the meeting. “We’ve lived in a lot of places, and we have never really enjoyed or respected an area so much in our life,” he told the council. “It’s just a jewel.”
His property is a unique piece of land because of its location and how the current flows through the area, he said. The spot also has a lot of “interesting aquatic life,” Stallone said.
But there used to be even more, he noted.
The area has been adversely affected by boaters, Stallone said.
“There’s a lot of traffic that comes in there, because of our notoriety,” he said, adding that while there are “lookie-loos,” there are also fishermen and tour boats. Vessels will come into the area next to Stallone’s home, drop anchor and stay there for 10 hours while they have a party or fish, he said.
“We’re trying to make this pristine,” he said.
He noted there is a lot of bird activity in the area, eliciting laughter from those at the meeting when he mistakenly said “penguins” instead of pelicans. He laughed, and joked, “I gotta study up on my geographics a little bit.”
Stallone also raised the issue of derelict boats, or vessels that have been left to rot in the waterway. People also dump trash and other waste in the Intracoastal, he said.
“It’s unbelievable to me that you can have your house … and you can have some guy sit there for 10 months and do his laundry in front, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Stallone said. He added that he is working with President-elect Donald Trump, with whom he is friends, on the issue.
“It’s almost something that’s been kind of lax, and no one’s really paying attention,” Stallone said. “Well, I’m going to pay attention. Trust me.”
He cited recent manatee deaths in the state in saying that he wants to clean up waterways and prevent more damage from being done.
“Thank you very much for your time,” Stallone said. “I have to go feed my penguins. They’re hungry.”
Speaking after Stallone, Butler pointed to a similar project at Islands of Islamorada, owned by fellow Palm Beachers the Frisbie family. The barrier is designed to reduce but not eliminate the amount of material that passes through, he said.
“We know it’s not going to 100% stop, but it’s going to reduce the flotsam that’s going to float in there,” Butler said.
Reducing boat traffic in the area is a secondary, not primary, goal of the barrier, he said.
2. The council members publicly shared their thoughts on the project for the first time.
Lindsay said at the meeting’s start that council members had just recently become aware of the proposal.
“We here are not allowed to talk about it in between meetings unless we have a meeting in public,” she said of her fellow council members, citing Florida’s broad Government-in-the-Sunshine Law. “The reason that we decided to call a quick meeting is so that we can talk about this issue to the public and with the public.”
Mayor Danielle Moore noted that it is unusual for the council to call a special meeting, adding that she believes the last time that happened was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking before Stallone’s decision to withdraw his plans from consideration, Moore told the council the barrier would set a bad precedent for Palm Beach.
The council before Stallone’s announcement was coming to a consensus to send letters of opposition to the state and federal agencies overseeing the applications.
“I think it’s appropriate that we object to this,” Moore said, adding later, “Unfortunately, I understand all the circumstances. But I also understand that I believe it would be taking away the rights of boaters and the public to use this particular area.”
Council Member Bridget Moran said the aesthetics of the barrier, as seen in the example of the one in Islamorada, were not good.
“It’s going to look like you’re always doing something” like a dredging project, Moran said. “It’s kind of offensive. I don’t think it’s what we want to put as our best foot forward.”
Council Member Julie Araskog knew the Stallones when she lived in California years ago, and said that as much as she would have liked to support the project, she was opposed.
“These are people who are very, very concerned,” she said of the neighbors who spoke Thursday. “And I think that their concern is a good one, and I’m sorry. I would so like to say yes.”
But, she added, she felt that the barrier would create a safety issue.
As the council members spoke, the Stallones nodded their understanding.
Lindsay said she met the couple earlier this year and talked with Stallone on Wednesday about the barrier.
She joked that she identifies with his predicament of boaters who come too close to his house: “It’s tough being so famous,” she said, laughing.
But, she added, she still opposed the project. And she called on Stallone to become involved with the effort to remove derelict boats from the Intracoastal and tackle the causes of seagrass death in the area.
“I think today we’re being asked by our residents, and you can see where this is heading, to not support this particular application,” Lindsay said. “And I would hope that when we do that … that we also at the same time invite you to please work with us to go after some of these injustices that are happening in our waterway.”
3. Neighbors vented their frustrations, and applauded Stallone’s decision.
Susan Gary, who lives near Stallone on the North End and called the project to the attention of many of her neighbors, thanked Lindsay for calling the meeting and said her concerns are primarily focused on safety and the environment.
She asked the council to keep one thought in mind: “If you buy a house near an airport, don’t complain about the airplane noise,” she said.
The barrier would have essentially closed off the area to the public, she said — a comment that was echoed by others who spoke to the council in opposition of the project.
Former U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Ron Silverman told the council that the barrier would create a safety issue.
“If you’re out there in the channel … and a big boat comes, you have to get out of the way quickly,” he said.
Jane Lindsay and Joel Scott, who live near Stallone on Manana Lane, told the council that the barrier would impact public use. “A barrier like this would merely trap the trash and push it farther down the line,” Jane Lindsay Scott said.
Minnie Pulitzer — daughter of fashion icon and designer Lilly Pulitzer, who lives in and grew up on the North End — implored Stallone to reconsider his plans.
“If you allow this, you set a precedent for it to happen all the way down through Palm Beach,” she told the council.
After neighbors’ comments, Stallone said he understood their concerns.
“You’re great neighbors and you’ve been here a long time, and we respect your work and the way you see this,” he said, adding that his plan for the barrier “was not just a vanity thing.”
After Ziska’s announcement that Stallone would withdraw the applications, the chamber erupted in applause.
“We cannot thank you enough,” Susan Gary told him. “And we’re so willing to work with you on the derelict boats and prohibiting the mooring fields along our shores.”
After Stallone’s departure, the council voted unanimously to still send letters to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps to register their opposition to future projects that could have similar plans.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
