Three members of the Wellington Village Council decided not to take a position on the Minto West development, instead, under the auspices of “insufficient information” and “not our business,” they kicked the can down the road.
Isn’t that what people in elected office do? I call it “trickle down” politics, emanating from Washington, D.C., where our estimable leaders get $174,000 per annum to do nothing.
Our neighbors asked for our moral support, perhaps something in response to Minto West increasing density from 2,996 homes to 4,549 homes (approximately a 28 percent increase) and commercial space from 235,000 to 2,100,000 square feet (approximately 9 times the previous amount). Oh, and yes, that’s more than two million square feet, in case your eyes didn’t catch the true numbers.
Want a baseline of how big that is? The Mall at Wellington Green is 1,273,000 square feet. It is something akin to our entire mall area with outlying buildings.
OK so Councilwoman Anne Gerwig never says no to a developer, and “sometimes she doesn’t leave Wellington for a week” and has “a neighbor who rides a bike everywhere,” but that’s not the plan here.
This is not the fantasy-land area where homeowners ride around on bicycles and golf carts. This is sprawl, period.
There will be tons of traffic, tractor trailers both ingressing and if storage is there, egressing, ad nauseum, on Southern Blvd., of course. Now add a couple of more communities (already in the wings but not factored in here), a college on Southern Blvd. to be started soon, and common sense tells us there will be traffic issues, as if the slow-moving aggregate dump trucks don’t back traffic up enough already.
At present, Wellington and Royal Palm Beach have vacancies in their commercial aspect, and this could only add to that and take away some customers from our local businesses.
This is urban sprawl at its worst. The developer starts with a little, and then wants more, and so it goes. Oldest story in the book.
The people in The Acreage should have the most say, and we should be good neighbors, holding Minto to the original plan and perhaps a bit more commercial, but millions of square feet? I think not.
At the western-most area, there should be an irrevocable easement ecosystem so that later, there cannot be more development, which might be the long-range plan.
As to the huge commercial aspect, we need to know that if the bio-lab dreams don’t come to fruition, we don’t end up with a big box store down the road, to fill in for the initial poor planning.
Both these areas are ripe for changes (development later), after all else is a fait accompli.
Our council did their ostrich impersonation, head in the sand with their excuses.
There will be no table for us to sit at once the county makes the decision, and no decision will be our legacy.
Are we going to give repeat performances when the other two projects start their planning and building processes? We are not isolated, we are affected and will be affected, the entire western communities spoke. Wellington’s silence was/is deafening. We are better than that.
George Unger, Wellington
Mr Unger,
You apparently have beef with Councilwoman Gerwig. Sure, she is bizarre sometimes, but Councilmen Coates and Greene also failed to support our nearby neighbors. You did not mention them!
Kudos to Margolis and Willhite for their support of our neighbors.
It is absolutely insane to say that the Minto project will not affect Wellington. Just wait, Big Blue Trace will be a quicker route to the Mall or SR7. Who wants to deal with the Forest Hill/ Southern Blvd. intersection, when all one has to do is take the straight shot down Big Blue to South Shore and breeze up Forest Hill. No doubt, Stribling will be used to head south rather than tackle the Forest Hill/SR7 intersection.
And, how come Councilman Willhite can go to a political meeting at the Old Wellington Mall, this past Monday, but can’t seem to make the Wellington Agenda Review on that same Monday? How much time does Willhite actually spend at his job or is he always doing something political that takes him away from his fire rescue job? Tend to Wellington business, Councilman Willhite, not other political activities.
Consideration should also be given that any person who seeks to run for Wellington Council in 2016 actually own and PAY property taxes. Do all councilpeople pay property taxes in Wellington OR are they renting? If they can vote and raise my taxes, they need to also pay the taxes they are supporting.
George, good letter. However, I am wondering how you got 2,996 homes to 4,549 homes is a 28% increase? I get it as 51.8% ( (4549-2996)/2996 ).
Also, after reading about this debate for so long I have one other question, Is ElizaT’s full name – Eliza T. Minto? LOL
You are 100% correct. They should have supported the MintoWest plan as
it will bring much needed jobs and revenue to the Western Communities.