Four Freedoms Park Redevelopment

At a glance

Based on human-made captions; names, votes and numbers may be misspelled or garbled.

What: Four Freedoms Park, home of a city-run preschool (state voluntary prekindergarten program) and community center, would be leased for 99 years at $1 a year to the Bimini East developer, with a one-acre replacement park inside the development.
Where it stands: the lease is part of Ordinance 55-26, approved October 21, 2026. Dozens of residents, parents and preschool staff opposed it; some members said they would prefer to keep the park.
Next: the city has not chosen a new preschool location; a historic designation nomination is to come to council.

Preschool staff said the program has served an estimated 900 to 1,300 children since it was licensed in 1992 and is an educational program rather than a daycare.
The City Manager said current students will finish the year, no new registrations will be taken, adult programming is being moved out, and the program will move to another city facility. The South Cape Community Center was considered but is not state approved because it has no playground; no new site was named.
Staff keep their jobs; the playground equipment (a recent purchase of roughly $213,000 to $218,000, per speakers) is to be moved to the replacement park.
Larry Nygaard said young children and a waterfront bandshell and marina are not compatible, but that he would keep the change as small as possible. Jennifer Nelson-Lastra had asked him to keep the building.

A resident has nominated the park; the City Manager said council must consider the nomination but that it does not pause the vote. A speaker asked what the original deed says.
Dr. Derrick Donnell noted the preschool building was not part of the founders' original gift; Laurie Lehmann said she would leave the park alone.

About 28 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-21 - City Council	28

2026-11-02 - City Council Regular Meeting — Agenda listed Resolution 314-26, declining the nomination of Four Freedoms Park as a historic resource, as a public hearing. Vote not available yet.
2026-10-21 - City Council — Residents, parents and preschool staff asked to keep the park and school; the City Manager outlined the wind-down and relocation plan, and the lease was approved as part of the Bimini East ordinance.
2026-10-07 - City Council — Residents and the preschool director opposed the 99-year lease and asked to preserve the park; a resident formally nominated it as a historic or cultural resource under Code Section 2-120.194 and asked for the required hearing. No council decision.