By Linda Smithe
On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, seven of our dedicated Loxahatchee Group members took half a day out of their lives to attend and speak at the Palm Beach County Commissioners Zoning Hearing Meeting. It all started with Kevin Ratterree of GL Homes requesting approval of a concept concerning +/-1,250 homes, +/-1,600 acres of farmland across multiple Palm Beach County districts. Patricia Behn, Palm Beach County Planning Director, said it was unprecedented to have a developer seek informal approval without submitting an application. Instead, GL Homes submitted a glossy high resolution 10-minute video describing all the virtues of their conceptual plan that included having water from Lake Okeechobee flow up hill.
After sitting through hours of presentations, the public comment period was cut from 3 minutes to 2 minutes per person. Commissioner Sachs questioned this process and could not even get a properly worded motion for the record. Drew Martin (our group's Conservation Chair), Kay Gates, Gail Ladd, Sam Cintron, Sheila Calderon, and myself, witnessed an unprecedented display of the ‘shell game’ and spoke against the proposal. We were not the only ones to speak out against this proceeding. Heidi Mehaffey (1000 Friends of Florida), Myrna Rosoff (past President of the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations), Karne Marcu (past Palm Beach Commissioner), Joe O’Donnell (Save the Agricultural Reserve), and Lori Vinikoor (President of The Alliance of Delray Residential Associations) all spoke against both this project and process.
At the end of all of this, there was no actual vote. There were only comments that were mostly vague. As Mayor Weinroth said, “This is only the opening salvo.” Now GL Homes and Palm Beach County will spend thousands of dollars developing and reviewing the application. After the expenditure of that much human and financial capital, will the Palm Beach County Commissioners be able to vote no on the application?
What the Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group’s response is will be up to you. Please write your commissioners BCC-AllCommissioners@pbcgov.org and attend meetings to speak out. Please!