In 2012 South County Regional Park was renamed Burt Aaronson Park in honor of a long time Palm…read moreBeach County Commissioner from 1992 to 2012 when he had to leave office due to term limits. Instead of enjoying a hard earned retirement from a career as a furniture executive, Burt decided to run for commissioner at the age of 64. He became so influential in politics that people took to calling him The Godfather. Among his many accomplishments was to open the county's Special Olympics athletic and therapeutic center in suburban Lake Worth, supporting a bond issue that provided $100 million to buy land in the county's 20,500-acre Agricultural Reserve, west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, founding the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and cutting more than $70 million off the fees that residents in the unincorporated areas paid for garbage service. He was champion of the environment and was instrumental in preventing the Site One Landfill. Burt Aaronson passed away in 2018 at the age of 90 but his legacy still looms large in south Palm Beach County.
The land that the park sits on was purchased by Palm Beach County on March 28, 1977. The original 816 acres has now been expanded to 872 acres with several entrances to the park. The park was developed in phases, first in 1996 and more recently in 2008 with the construction of the Sunset Cove Amphitheater. This park has many amenities including four lighted baseball fields, two lighted basketball courts, a nearly five mile long bicycle path, a boat launch, community center, dog park, eight exercise stations, racquetball courts, playground, six pickleball courts, picnic pavilions with grills and tables, practice putting green and driving range, tennis center, two sand volleyball courts, Coconut Cover Waterpark, and the Daggerwing Nature center with two half mile long boardwalk trails.
This is one of my favorite parks in south Florida and I have been coming here for more than twenty years. When my daughter was young I used to take her and her friends to the waterpark several times a year. The small sized water park perfect for kids 12 and under. They have two water slides, a lazy river, a splash playground and a pool. In later years I came back to the waterpark with different camp groups and I always enjoyed the lazy river. Today the part of the park you are most likely to find me in is the Daggerwing Nature Center. Sometimes you can spot an alligator in the water below when you cross the boardwalk but you are more likely to spot some turtles. The nature center does a very nice Earth Day celebration every year and I love the butterfly garden in the front that is always filled with many different kinds of butterflies. One of my favorite park memories is getting to see Imagine Dragons at the Sunset Cove Amphitheater with my daughter in 2013 in support of their first album. I actually have so many great memories here. This is a park that truly has something for everyone whether you are into sports, nature, or play. This is a park worth driving out of your way for.
