Minto West has supposedly responded to the “community, stakeholders and various interest groups” by reducing the amount of residences they plan to build by 1,954. That is still 1,553 more than what the current zoning allows. Their new plan is to increase the commercial use space to 2.1 million square feet. That number does not seem to include the hotel or the 3,000-student college they also have in their plan. That is an absurdly large amount of commercial space to place in the middle of The Acreage.
People need to think about just how much square footage that is. The Sawgrass Mills mall is a little under 2.4 million square feet, and it is the seventh-largest mall in the United States! Have you been there lately? I used to live 1.5 miles away from it in Plantation Acres and moved here to get away from that kind of traffic and craziness. They have tour buses taking hundreds of people there every day. It is a destination. Traffic is a nightmare. Why would you want to live surrounding that kind of a mess?
I understand some of the residents of The Acreage would like a little more commercial development nearby, but this is not a “little” more. This is a monster.
Developments should be compatible with the surrounding area. The surrounding area is homes on a minimum of one-acre lots.
Minto needs to lower their numbers, not increase them. This will alter life in The Acreage forever. Believe me, I have already lived through this in Plantation Acres.
The Palm Beach County Commission needs to deny this application and make Minto get reasonable.
Janice Sommer, The Acreage
Non Residential does not equal necessarily commercial
GET your facts straight.