Soil, water district to fight GL Homes’ land swap plan
District: South county zone would face flood, drinking water risks.
GL Homes’ proposal to build more in Palm Beach County’s Agricultural Reserve has drawn additional opposition, this time from the Soil and Water Conservation District.
The builder plans to ask the county to allow it to preserve land it owns in The Acreage/Loxahatchee area in exchange for permission to build more in the Ag Reserve, a 22,000-acre farming and land-conservation zone west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. Such a move would require changes to rules in the Agricultural Reserve, which require builders to set aside 60 acres in the reserve for every 40 they wish to develop there.
Current rules don’t allow land outside of the reserve to be preserved so more building can take place within it.
While GL’s plan has been embraced by Acreage/Loxahatchee Get more news about Palm Beach County at residents eager to see less development in their area, south county residents — led by the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations — have mounted a campaign against it.
Now, the Soil and Water Conservation District has weighed in, saying the plan would “negatively impact drinking water, increase the risk of flooding by overdevelopment and will put severe strain on an area deficient in many fundamental services.”
That finding is perhaps not surprising, given that the mission of the conservation district, one of 58 statewide, primarily is to help farmers and plant nurseries in the county get the most out of their crops as well as educate residents on ways to conserve and improve the environment. The district’s work includes helping farmers who work land leased from the county in the Agricul-
tural Reserve.
The district does not have the authority to block the plan, which would need approval from the County Commission. But opposition from an entity set up to protect the environment will bolster those who see the plan as a threat.
And that opposition is another indicator of the fissures opened by the proposal, which pits central-west county residents against south county residents, and COBWRA and the conservation district against the Indian Trail Improvement District, an Acreage/ Loxahatchee area governing body that has already passed a resolution in support of the plan.
Homes in the Agricultural Reserve would likely command higher prices than those in the Acreage/Loxahatchee area, where GL has county permission to build 3,900 homes on 4,900 acres it owns there.
After getting that county approval early this year, GL changed course, saying it wants to build instead on land it owns in the Ag Reserve. GL executives have said the switch is not all about making more money but is aimed at expanding its footprint in an area where it has already built high-end residential communities and where the road system can handle additional growth.
But COBWRA has mounted a campaign against the plan, saying additional building would clog south county roads, threaten agriculture
It could prove to be a divi- viewing them as a threat sive issue for the seven-memto agriculture and the envi- ber County Commission. ronment.
Melissa McKinlay, whose In an email to Boynton district includes the Acre- Beach residents who wrote age/Loxahatchee area, has of their opposition to GL’s said she likes GL’s plan to plan, Burdick said she has build less there. Two of her long been an advocate of and depress the value of colleagues, Steven Abrams “preserving the preserve.” homes whose owners thought and Hal Valeche, have gen“In my opini o n there they were buying in an area erally supported develop- has already been much too where growth would be limment proposals, arguing that much development in the ited. the county is growing and Ag Reserve,” Burdick wrote.
The coalition drafted a that the commission needs “Please be assured that I will form letter and asked resi- to accommodate and man- keep your thoughts in mind dents to download it and send age that growth. when this issue comes before it to commissioners to note Likely on the other side, the County Commission.” their opposition. As of Thurs- two new commissioners, That leaves Commissioner day, more than 1,600 resi- Mack Bernard and Dave Mary Lou Berger, whose disdents had done so, accordKerner, attended a COBWRA trict includes COBWRA resing to coalition spokeswoman meeting held to spell out its idents. She has not taken a Sharon Reuben. opposition to the GL plan. position on GL’s plan despite
GL is expected to present And County Mayor Pauthe coalition’s opposition. its plan to the county later lette Burdick has been wary this year. of development projects,