In a 3-0 vote, the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council passed a resolution Tuesday opposing amendments proposed by the developers of Minto West to more than double the intensity of current development approvals for the former Callery-Judge Grove land.
The Minto West proposal has been submitted to the county, with the Palm Beach County Commission planning hearings this summer and fall.
The Minto West plan includes up to 6,500 homes and 1.4 million square feet of non-residential space on the 3,900-acre parcel. The land, off Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, has current approvals for up to 2,996 homes and up to 235,000 square feet of non-residential uses. Minto Communities Florida purchased the property for $51 million last year.
Councilman Ron Jarriel said he thought the resolution lacked language that specified that the 2,996 homes were the allowable limit under state statutes. “I don’t think they should be allowed more than what the state would have allowed Callery-Judge,” Jarriel said.
Town Attorney Michael Cirullo said such language could be added but that the resolution had been prepared specifically to oppose the proposed amendments.
Councilman Jim Rockett said he believed the resolution sufficiently stated the reasons the council was opposing the increased density, and that the town could follow up with a distribution of some sort to residents informing them of what the council had done. He also suggested letters or e-mails to county commissioners to state their position.
“I would encourage you to send short memos saying, ‘I oppose Minto’s expansion, period,’” Rockett said.
Mayor Dave Browning said he had no problem with the language.
“For anyone involved in this, understand, it’s not one project out there,” Browning said. “There’s a whole lot of other landowners out there looking at this. The 2,996 basically matches what The Acreage has. That’s a house per acre and a quarter.”
Browning said the proposed 6,500 homes were more than any developer in the area should be allowed.
“If this gets two homes per acre, which is what this amount is, every other large landowner — such as GL Homes — will be wanting two homes per acre,” Browning said. “Every one of those will translate to trips up and down Okeechobee [Blvd.], so it will change Loxahatchee Groves like nothing else could.”
Nina Corning, who heads the town’s Recreation, Equestrian Trails and Greenways Committee, also opposed the Minto West expansion because of increased traffic.
She urged town residents to stay involved for the good of the community.
Rockett made a motion to approve the resolution, which carried 3-0, with Councilman Tom Goltzené recusing himself and Councilman Ryan Liang absent.
During council comments afterward, Goltzené said he thought the council had made a mistake regarding Minto West.
“We were offered the opportunity to help the water management district out with their system to increase water capacity, to increase water cleanup and the ability to drain the north side of Loxahatchee Groves quicker,” he said. “All of these things could have happened.”
That is unlikely to happen now, he said.
“I think that they know that they’re going to be contributing money toward impact fees to the county that could have been available to us,” Goltzené said. “I think when the county gets that money, they’ll keep it and they won’t give it to us because we won’t have a seat at that table.”
ABOVE: An overview of the proposed Minto West project.
