Planning commissioner gives up seat

Domenic R. Guarnagia says he’s frustrated by support for big projects.

A member of the Palm Beach County Planning Commission has resigned, citing frustration with large-scale development projects that have been recommended by the commission.

Domenic R. Guarnagia’s resignation comes two months before the Planning Commission takes up a controversial development proposal from GL Homes, which wants the county to change the rules of its Agricultural Reserve so the company can build more on land the developer owns there. GL’s plan calls for it to preserve 4,900 acres it had previously planned to develop in the Acreage/Loxahatchee area.

In his resignation letter, dated Oct. 3, Guarnagia specifically mentions GL Homes, saying the developer’s “interest is in building in spite of corrupting acres of productive farmland and greatly reducing the acreage of land that could otherwise benefit us all.”

Guarnagia, a retired architect and urban planner for Boston who now lives in Wellington, wrote that “frustration and inaction has overwhelmed me” and “I have no way of fighting the proposed changes.”

He reiterated much of what he said in his resignation letter in an email Thursday to The Palm Beach Post, but also said preserving the Agricultural Reserve as a large mass of arable land is critical for two reasons: the large percentage of winter vegetables that it produces for the U.S. and its role in absorbing huge amounts of rainfall through percolation.

He noted that he was especially frustrated when the County Commission decided to approve development projects that both the zoning staff and a majority of the Planning Commission had recommended denying.

GL Homes officials declined to comment about Guarnagia’s

resignation.

The 15-member Planning Commission serves as an advisory body to the County Commission, which makes the final decision on development projects like the one proposed by GL Homes.

Guarnagia was appointed by County Mayor Paulette Burdick, who has consistently opposed large-scale development projects as threats to open space, the environment and agriculture.

Burdick said Guarnagia “is going to be hard to replace,” though she wants to have a successor chosen before GL’s proposal is presented to the Planning Commission in December.

That proposal has drawn fierce opposition and support, with both sides mounting an email campaign aimed at swaying county commissioners and accusing the other side of distorting various aspects of the debate.

South county residents say approving GL’s plan would fundamentally change the Ag Reserve, a 22,000-acre farming and conservation zone west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach dotted with high-end residential subdivisions.

Residents in those subdivisions have argued that more building in their area would worsen traffic congestion, depress the value of their homes and threaten agriculture.

COBWRA, the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations, has led the fight against GL’s plan, holding meetings and urging residents — many of whom live in GL-built houses — to press county commissioners to oppose the proposal.

GL’s plan has the support of north county residents who don’t want to see the builder’s 4,900-acre Indian Trails Grove tract developed, even though the County Commission already has approved a zoning framework for 3,900 homes there. Like south county residents, they say more development in The Acreage/Loxahatchee area would increase traffic and destroy the semi-rural lifestyle residents moved to the area to enjoy.

Some farmers also have backed GL’s plan, arguing that agriculture would be served better by having farming operations situated in an area removed from busy residential subdivisions.

It’ll be up to county commissioners to weigh those arguments. As they do, several questions will be key, including:

■ Would approving the plan help or hurt agriculture? Farming is currently taking place on the Indian Trails Grove tract and in the Ag Reserve, which has been lauded for its unique climate and soil conditions. If commissioners are convinced that those conditions aren’t unlike what is found on the Indian Trails Grove tract, that would undercut the argument

South county residents say approving the GL Homes’ plan would fundamentally change the Ag Reserve.

that the Ag Reserve is so special its rules limiting development must be preserved.

■ How much worse, really, would traffic get in those portions of the Ag Reserve where GL wants to build? Despite its name, the Ag Reserve already features subdivisions and businesses, a reality some argue is too often glossed over in depictions of the Ag Reserve as a farming mecca. GL wants to add another 3,900 homes to that mix. COBWRA members say that would turn car trips into slog fests.

■ How ironclad is the promise that the 4,900 acres GL says will be preserved in The Acreage/Loxahatchee area will actually stay preserved? Opponents of GL’s plan say they aren’t confident GL or some other developer won’t come back in future years and convince a future County Commission to lift the restrictions on that land and develop it, too. They say such a scenario isn’t at all hard to imagine, given GL’s current proposal to change development rules in the Ag Reserve.

■ Would changing the rules of the Ag Reserve be a violation of a promise made to the public? That question is likely to generate the most heat as the debate plays out.

Opponents of GL’s plan note that voters approved the sale of bonds whose proceeds were used to purchase land for agriculture and preservation. Allowing more development in the Ag Reserve would fly in the face of the intent of voters who backed those moves, they say. And, they argue, allowing GL to preserve land outside of the Ag Reserve to facilitate development within it — something current rules prohibit — opens the door to other developers who want to do the same thing.

Others, however, note that some of the land purchased with bond money has already been sold — to farmers.

They also point out that GL’s plan would allow a vast, consolidated piece of land to be preserved, a stance very much in keeping with the mindset of voters who backed that bond sale to protect open space and agriculture.