The Palm Beach County Commission is expected to take up a controversial land-swap proposal on Wednesday that has drawn intense criticism from many environmental experts and residents.
Under the deal, GL Homes is asking the commission to let it build a 55+ luxury residential development on 682 acres of protected land it owns in the Agricultural Reserve.
In exchange, the private developer says it will spend $150 million on a water reservoir on the Indian Trails Grove land it owns in The Acreage, located 20 miles away.
That's the swap. But it requires changing decades-old conservation laws meant to protect the wetlands and people from issues such as flooding.
How did we get here?
A quarter century ago, Palm Beach County voters agreed to purchase 22,000 acres of farmland west of Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Boynton Beach and preserve most of it against development. Under the Comprehensive Plan, developers that own land within the Ag Reserve can build on only 40% of it while 60% remains preserved.
GL Homes wants to go beyond that threshold. Which brings the commission to this historic vote, an all-day public hearing Wednesday, at 9:30 a.m, as critics and proponents of the development make their case. Experts argue there is no case to be made as more development in the Ag Reserve could have costly environmental impacts that extends beyond the area.
The commission was originally slated to hear the proposal nine months ago when the developer requested more time to assess that reservoir water project and address “several questions/unresolved points.”
“This proposal threatens our drinking water supply here in Palm Beach — and beyond to our neighbors in Broward, Miami and even down to the Keys,” said Cara Capp, the Everglades Restoration Senior Program Manager.
Capp says the land that GL Homes wants to develop in the Ag Reserve is “dangerously close” to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. That’s an area where the aquifer that provides drinking water for all of South Florida is naturally replenished.
“So it will negatively impact not only our urban drinking water supply, but also water supply for the Everglades, which relies on healthy and abundant water upstream,” Capp said. “So just a tremendous amount of risk.”
Capp said the protected farmland also acts as a buffer to nearby communities, reducing the impact of potential flooding.
“Open space is a critical tool for managing regional flooding and provides areas for natural flood buffers,” Capp added. “Whereas the built environment like homes, roads, and building being proposed here generate excess storm water runoff and contributes to worse flooding.”
Capp says more development in the Ag Reserve changes the area from a resource "into more of a hazard."
Experts also worry this could set a dangerous legal precedent.
Said Lisa Interlandi, Policy Director at the Everglades Law Center: “If you allow conservation easements to be abandoned, then there's really no conservation land that's safe anywhere in the county.”
Interlandi echoes a growing concern that if the deal goes through, other developers will seize the opportunity to encroach the Ag Reserve.
“This is maybe the first proposal that we've heard that would allow development in one area in exchange for preserving land in another area,” Interlandi said. “But if this project goes forward, it won't be the last and it will basically be the beginning of the end for conservation lands in Palm Beach County.”
Misha Ezratti, President of G-L Homes, gave WLRN a tour through the nearly 700-acre plot of natural, grassy wetland owned by his company in the Ag Reserve.
It was largely barren. No homes. No roads — except for the muddy ones that lead to a farm producing organic tomatoes and herbs and an equestrian community called the Sunshine Meadows.
Ezratti said he was especially trying to persuade those skeptic horse owners as well because “the benefits” of developing in the Ag Reserve “far outweighs any of the negatives.”
Ezratti noted that it was former commissioner Melissa McKinlay who presented the land swap idea to GL Homes. McKinlay, who was term-limited, supported the project during her time on the dais.
And so while we acknowledge that it's a policy change to let us use preservation from another area outside the Ag Reserve in order to un-preserve this land inside the Ag Reserve," Ezratti told WLRN.
“We think that what the county, the residents and everybody in the region are getting in terms of the water quality improvement, the county park, all the civic uses and the workforce housing is transformative and we're hoping that everybody would agree with us.”
Every local resident who showed up at a recent neighborhood meeting agreed with G-L Homes. More than 30 people gathered to discuss the proposal at the Valencia Grande, a housing development near the Ag Reserve.
GL Homes has offered other "benefits" to the county:
- The Water Resource Project on its Indian Trails Grove land in The Acreage, 20 miles northwest of the Ag Reserve, aims to improve water quality in the Lake Worth Lagoon, Loxahatchee River, and Grassy Waters Preserve.
- Hyder West development in the Ag Reserve, in exchange, includes 277 workforce housing units along with 100-acres of land for a park,18 acres of civic land for a synagogue and a facility for people with disabilities, Jewish education and other programming.
Rabbi Yossi Schapiro, Director Chabad of West Delray, believes the residential benefits outweigh the long-term environmental impacts.
“The question is are we opening up the Ag Reserve? And by opening up the Ag Reserve, it will allow for more construction. But if every construction project has to have the equivalent of what they’re giving back, we’ll be looking at state of the art parks, playgrounds across the county. Civic centers. Communal centers,” Schapiro said.
Schapiro’s organization could receive a land donation under the plan, according to the Palm Beach Post. He believes more density, more walkability, would help the religious community in the air feel more connected and decrease driving around the 55+ community.
“It is already paradise,” Schapiro said. “Could [you] imagine what it will become with that amount being built and that amount of infrastructure before being forced to be put back within the community.”
Danielle Hartman, CEO for Rales Jewish Family Services in West Boca Raton, agrees.
“You heard people tonight saying that there's nowhere to go, nowhere for them to take their kids, nowhere to walk around with parks in that area,” Hartman said.
“We need all those amenities. But my main focus is on older adults and reducing isolation and loneliness and creating housing opportunities for older adults that they can feel not stretched from month to month, fearful of whether they're going to run out of their savings and have be homeless.”
Luxury homes in the Ag Reserve area could go for $1 million dollars each — much more than homes could fetch in The Acreage. Workforce housing, Ezratti said, would adhere to the county's area median income requirements.
Last year, Palm Beach County Water Resources Manager, Paul Linton, raised questions regarding the water project on the Indian Trails Grove property in the Acreage, issues regarding "maintenance responsibilities" and that despite certain regional benefits, it could take years to acquire proper permits for it to be built.
GL Homes says the reservoir in the Acreage will improve water quality in the county. The Post’s editorial board urged the commission to reject the land swap — in part arguing that the federal, state and regional agencies equipped to manage water had not signed off.
Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Maria Sachs have shown disapproval of the project in the past. She visited proponents for the project near the Ag Reserve and horse owners at the Sunshine Meadows. Sachs told WLRN she also questioned why a private company should be building a reservoir.
“Private developers develop houses, they make money, they make a profit, they employ people, they pay taxes, and that's all good,” Sachs said.
“But it's up to government, because we represent the people to make sure that our sensitive environmental lands are preserved and that all restrictions are placed on sensitive lands.”
Sachs is one of seven commissioners who will soon decide whether to change the decades-old plan limiting development in the Ag Reserve.
“The sweeteners are there, but you gotta make sure that this is a good deal for the people,” Sachs said.
