Editing Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (section)

===1970-1990: City facilities expansion===
By 1970 the city had a population approaching 7,000 people. City growth was slow but steady throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the population had still not reached the predicted 55,000 people envisioned by MacArthur. The 1970s saw the first hotel (a [[Holiday Inn]], now the site of the [[DoubleTree|Doubletree Hotel]]), first supermarket, first apartment rental community, first shopping center, first multistory office building (The Admiralty Building) and the construction of the North County Courthouse Complex.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=47-56}} Governmental and services structure continued to grow, with councils throughout the 1970s focusing on city facilities expansion.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=30}} In 1970, construction began on the City of Palm Beach Gardens Municipal Complex.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=30}} In recognition of his patronage of the city, MacArthur was made honorary mayor by the city council in 1972.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=31}} Garden Boulevard, the location of his transplanted banyan trees, was renamed MacArthur Boulevard in his honor on July 4, 1972, over MacArthur's temporary opposition (having stated in a letter to Mayor Walter Wiley just two days prior, "I had no interest in having a street named after me, or I would have done so when I named all the streets.").{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=35}} It would become the city's first historical district. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=48}}   By 1980, the city council had elected its first woman councilmember, Linda Monroe, who would later go on to serve as the city's first female mayor.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=33-34}}

On July 3, 1976, the expansion of [[Interstate 95 in Florida|I-95]] to connect Palm Beach Gardens with Miami was completed and opened to the public. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=52}} Ending at PGA Boulevard, it would not be until Dec. 19, 1987 that the final 44-mile "[[Interstate 95 in Florida#Missing Treasure Coast Link|missing link]]" between PGA Boulevard and Ft. Pierce would be finished—completing the final gap in the 1,919 miles of the [[Interstate 95|interstate highway]] between Miami and [[Maine]]. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=52}} In 1979, [[Sikorsky Aircraft]] opened a facility at the Pratt & Whitney site along the Beeline Highway, where it would make, improve, and test helicopters including the [[Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk|UH-60 Black Hawk]], [[Sikorsky S-92|S-92]], and the [[Boeing–Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche|RAH-66 Comanche]]. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=54}} In 1978 ground broke on the construction of the [[PGA National Resort|PGA National Resort Community]], under developer E. Llwyd Ecclestone on 2340 acres of land acquired from MacArthur.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=60}} The master-planned community was estimated to cost $500 million at the time, with a target of 6900 homes to construct over a 15-year period, as well as an office park, shopping center, light industrial zone, and golf courses.{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=60}}  The community would become the new permanent home of the [[Professional Golfers' Association of America]]. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=60}}

In 1983, the city's first community recreation center was built on Burns Road. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=55}} The opening of the {{convert|1400000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} Gardens of the Palm Beaches (subsequently shortened to [[The Gardens Mall]]) in 1988—then Florida's largest mall with 150 stores anchored by [[Burdines]], [[Sears]] and [[Macy's]]—initiated a new wave of development;{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=60-61}} as did the sell off in 1999 of approximately {{convert|5000|acre|km2}} in the city by the [[MacArthur Foundation]].  Development of this property happened quickly and led to much new growth in the city, particularly with further improvement of roads, additional parks, and the expansion of the north campus of Palm Beach Junior College into [[Palm Beach State College|Palm Beach Community College]].{{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=47}} As a condition for approval of development on the Gardens Mall, the developers were required to build a second fire station (now Fire Station No. 2) at Campus Drive and RCA Boulevard. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=41}} On January 1, 1995, the Palm Beach Gardens Fire Department became the provider of emergency medical services in the city. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=41}}  By 1989, growth was so rapid that there were five hotels under construction or completed that year alone. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=57}} Thousands of homes and commercial properties were developed during this time by a small handful of developers with close associations to MacArthur, including Otto "Buz" DiVosta, Vince Pappalardo, and Seymour A. "Sy" Fine. {{sfn|PBGHS|2012|p=54-60}} The city adopted an Art in Public Places ordinance in 1989 and has amassed an eclectic collection of works.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbgfl.com/content/78/188/default.aspx|title=Art in Public Places|publisher=City of Palm Beach Gardens|access-date=January 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715060111/http://www.pbgfl.com/content/78/188/default.aspx|archive-date=July 15, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The city suffered much damage to its tropical [[landscaping]] in the hard [[Cold wave|freezes]] of 1985 and 1989, but has experienced no freezing temperatures since then.