Prepare for next attack on the Ag Reserve
For the third time in six months, a proposal to undermine the will of Palm Beach County voters has been withdrawn, supposedly for further review.
But this isn’t the National Football League. Nothing will reverse the opinion that these three projects would undercut a massive public investment in a unique place.
The Agricultural Reserve Area is 20,000 acres between Clint Moore and Hypoluxo roads west of the Florida Turnpike. This coastal farm region supports jobs, supplies farm-to-table restaurants and prevents suburban sprawl from devouring all of South Florida.
Eighteen years ago, Palm Beach County voters taxed themselves $100 million to buy 2,400 acres in the reserve to keep development away from the farms. The second part of the effort involved restrictions on development.
Developers, however, they have pushed for two decades to weaken restrictions. GL Homes is the major developer in and around the Agricultural Reserve Area. Last week, the company pulled — for now — its idea for destroying the reserve to save it.
In May, GL proposed a swap. GL would get to build nearly 2,500 homes in the reserve that it could not build under current rules. In exchange, the company would build only about 40 percent of the homes the county commission had allowed GL to build northwest of the reserve in a project called Indian Trails Grove. The public would get 3,000 acres of preserve. Such a deal.
GL solicited friendly op-ed articles and cozied up to residents near Indian Trails Grove. They secured support from County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, whose district would include Indian Trails Grove. She faces re-election next year and could tell constituents that she got them 2,500 fewer homes.
And in August, the school board approved an agreement under which GL would donate land for an elementary school and a high school west of Boynton Beach — where the new homes would go. The company also promised $10 million for school construction. All of it, of course, depended on the county commission approving the GL swap.
But county planners ignored the promotional campaign. They noted that the extra homes would “alter the fundamental policy concepts to preserve agriculture in the Agricultural Reserve.” That land for schools would break a precedent against such “institutional” uses west of State Road 7 — the line in the sand against sprawl.
This swap, the planners said, would come as the reserve is “approaching fulfillment” of the master plan. What the voters wanted is working. So the staff recommended that the planning commission, an advisory board, deny the application at last Friday’s meeting. A Sun Sentinel editorial advocated denial. So GL Homes pulled the proposal to discuss the “merits and community benefits” of the swap.
The same thing happened in July, when a developer proposed putting workforce housing in the reserve. The staff said the project would allow new “densities and intensities” in the reserve and recommended denial.
It happened in October, when a developer wanted to build a 223-bed senior living facility on the southeast corner of the reserve. The rules allow 30 beds. Staff recommended denial. The more you look, the worse these projects get. That’s especially true for the GL swap.
Before the commission changed the rules for Indian Trails Grove, GL could have built fewer than 400 homes on the site. So at 1,477 homes after donating the land for preservation, GL still would come out ahead. And that generosity toward the school district? The schools would make GL’s new homes more valuable.
County commissioners who have voted to weaken development rules in the Agricultural Reserve claim they aren’t voting to develop land the public bought. But Lisa Interlandi of the Everglades Law Center responds that the overall plan included the public land and the development restrictions. “If you eliminate either,” Interlandi said, “the entire plan will be undermined.”
Commissioner Mary Lou Berger represents the reserve. The Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations opposes the GL swap. But Berger is term-limited. She inherited the seat from her former boss, Burt Aaronson. He represented District 5 for 20 years and now is a lobbyist for GL Homes.
Almost no one favors these three proposals but the developers. How about this? Any commissioner who supports them must repay the public’s $100 million. We can work out some friendly terms.
Email Randy Schultz: randy@bocamag.com