Living in Lantana - what the town is really like

"Lantana is a small coastal town in Palm Beach County that most people drive past on the way to somewhere bigger. If you are considering living here, the useful thing to know is that it runs more of its own services than towns this size usually do — its own beach, its own lifeguards, its own library.

Here is what living in Lantana is actually like, from things that are documented rather than things that sound good in a brochure.

The basics

Lantana is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County. It was incorporated in 1921, starting out at roughly one square mile with about a hundred residents. It takes its name from the lantana plant, and the town grew up around Captain Morris Benson Lyman, who arrived in 1884.

It sits on the coast between Lake Worth Beach and Boynton Beach, and it takes in the northern portion of Hypoluxo Island.

That history is not decoration. A town that has been incorporated for over a century has settled streets, mature trees and established infrastructure, which is different from living in a place built out five years ago.

It has its own beach — and its own lifeguards

The Town owns and operates Municipal Beach Park, its oceanfront park. The Town also runs an Ocean Rescue Division.

That second part is the one worth noticing. Plenty of small towns have beach access. Fewer staff it themselves. It means the beach is a town service with a town budget behind it, not an unguarded strip of sand.

It has two libraries, run by two different organisations

This confuses new residents constantly, so it is worth stating plainly.

The Lantana Public Library at 205 West Ocean Avenue is the Town's own library. The Lantana Road Branch at 4020 Lantana Road belongs to the Palm Beach County Library System. Two buildings, two operators, two different sets of rules and cards.

Again — a town of this size funding its own library tells you something about how it is run.

Green space

Lantana Nature Preserve, at 400 East Ocean Avenue, is a Town-owned preserve built on reclaimed land. It is a short loop of accessible brick path, boardwalk and concrete trail running through coastal hammock and mangrove. No pets and no restrooms, so plan accordingly.

Just outside town, Palm Beach County's John Prince Memorial Park is the big one — more than seven hundred acres around the lake, including a large area of lake itself. Nature trails, a bicycle path, fishing piers, boat launch ramps, canoe and kayak launches, a campground, a dog park, disc golf, ball fields, courts and picnic pavilions.

Between a town preserve you can walk in twenty minutes and a county park you could spend a weekend in, the outdoor range here is unusually wide for the area.

History you can still walk into

The Lyman house, built in 1889, stands at 300 East Ocean Avenue and is documented by Palm Beach County History Online. It operates today as the Old Key Lime House, a local waterfront restaurant.

One honest caveat: restaurants change owners, hours and concepts. Confirm before you build an evening around it.

Worth noting what we are not claiming. There is no officially designated historic district in Lantana. Individual historic structures are documented; a designated district is not. We are not going to write one into existence.

What new construction is available

New building in Lantana is limited, which is what happens in a town incorporated a century ago — most of the land was spoken for a long time ago.

There is one active new-construction townhome community: Everton by Pulte. It is gated, it is all townhomes, and Pulte states there are no CDD fees. Two floor plans, both three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.

If you want a wider choice of new construction, you will be looking just outside Lantana — the Lake Worth corridor has considerably more being built.

Who Lantana suits

It suits you if you want a coastal address without a resort-town price or a resort-town crowd, you like the idea of a town that runs its own services, and being central in Palm Beach County matters more to you than being in a marquee city.

It may not suit you if you want a wide choice of new-construction homes, a large yard, or a town with a dense restaurant and nightlife scene. Lantana is small. That is the point of it and also its limit.

Looking at Lantana seriously?

Call 561-704-0091 or book at nationalhousesearch.com/schedule. We will tell you honestly whether Lantana or the surrounding area fits what you are describing, including when the answer is the surrounding area.

Read next: the Lantana buyer's guide, things to do near Lantana, and schools, shopping and daily life.

Getting around from here

Lantana's position is the practical case for living here, and it comes down to two highway interchanges.

Hypoluxo Road has its own I-95 interchange. So does Lantana Road. Having two separate on-ramps within a small town is unusual and it means a backup at one does not trap you.

For Florida's Turnpike, Military Trail runs north and south through the middle of the county — take it north to Lake Worth Road or south to Boynton Beach Boulevard, both of which have their own Turnpike interchanges. For downtown West Palm Beach, I-95 north to Okeechobee Boulevard. For the airport, I-95 to Belvedere Road.

One thing worth knowing before you assume it works: Lake Worth Road does not have an I-95 interchange. It crosses underneath. Buyers and even some agents get this wrong.

We do not publish drive times. Traffic on I-95 through this county varies enough that any single number would be wrong for most people most of the time. Named roads do not go stale; minute-counts were never accurate to begin with.

Schools

We do not publish school assignments or ratings for any address. Boundaries change, and getting it wrong costs a family real money and real disruption.

Use the School District of Palm Beach County's own Find My School tool with your exact address. It is the only source that is current, and it takes about a minute.

Common Questions

"