Wellington Planning & Zoning Manager David Flinchum gave a history of planning and zoning in Wellington at last week’s Planning, Zoning & Adjustment Board meeting in preparation for a major reworking of the village’s comprehensive plan and land use development codes to focus more on redevelopment.
When Wellington incorporated, it initially adopted Palm Beach County’s land use regulations, which were more focused on development than sustainability.
At the Nov. 9 meeting, Flinchum said he and his staff have been working on revisions to the code for the past six months.
“Wellington, like a lot of cities in Palm Beach County, took the county’s code as a template and initially adopted it or made revisions, and over time have added revisions to those county templates,” he said. “What we’ve got here in Wellington is a combination of things. Unfortunately, it’s built on layers, and we’ve got more than 800 pages in our current land development regulations.”
A lot of the regulations are outdated or will never be used.
“Wellington in its life cycle is 30 or 40 years,” Flinchum said. “Housing types have changed, commercial needs have changed, branding and uses have changed over time. Some are not as controversial as they used to be, and some are definitely needed to address the younger generations coming up, such as the work-at-home environment and people’s preferences to perhaps stay at home and work and not commute like they used to in the old days.”
Flinchum said that the current goal is to edit the land development regulations down to around 400 pages and concentrate on opportunities for redevelopment.
“Most of the codes you see are for vacant parcels of land,” he said. “We have a clean slate; the developer comes in with his ideas and goes through the hearing process and then goes vertical. We have to be a little more innovative than that. We do have some vacant parcels here in Wellington, but the most opportunities we have are the currently developed parcels. This rewrite will include incentives and will introduce some new housing trends and planning principles.”
The rewrite will include the level of approval for projects, whether it should be at the staff level, or through the Development Review Committee or a public hearing.
Flinchum reviewed an economic development initiative from 2008 that has seen much of it come to fruition, noting that the current rewrite will build on what the village has accomplished.
“It is a great reminder of where we have come from,” he said. “Basically, we targeted what we have here in Wellington and what we need to do.”
At the time, the focus was on antiquated commercial centers and housing areas.
“We did not have a town center, a true hub of Wellington, back then in 2008,” he said. “Our main street, Forest Hill Blvd., was absolutely terrible. It had invasive [plants], it was a very narrow road and it had absolutely no identity.”
Also, there was no recognizable brand for the equestrian area.
“You drive through there now, you definitely know you are in an equestrian area,” he said. “There’s fencing, there’s stone bollards, there’s signage — it has a distinctive look.”
The economic development initiative has a sustainable development “triangle” of environmental, social and economic parts.
“You look for those three things in your community,” Flinchum said. “What you have as far as environmental, you have your water quality, stormwater management and we have our equestrian issues. Economic has to do with local base businesses. Are there job opportunities to keep people here in Wellington or do they have to commute? The social are more your cultural-type things — our schools, our churches, our parks — what makes us a great place to live.”
Wellington staff has identified older shopping plazas and formulated suggestions for their refurbishment.
“The whole idea of this exercise in this code rewrite is to show you where we have come from in eight years, and by using some computer imaging, what we can do,” he said.
Flinchum said mixed use and vertical integration would be included in redevelopment efforts. Landscaping and residential mixed use in old commercial areas, with commercial downstairs and residential uses upstairs, is one concept that can be employed.
“It has a whole different look,” Flinchum said. “You’re going to hear us in the code rewrite looking for stuff like this, and there are several examples of this in the county, from Delray Beach to Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach.”
Some of the goals set out in 2008 did not come to fruition. For example, the proposed medical arts district did not come together as hoped due to landowners’ inability or lack of desire to work together.
The village still does not have a highly developed industrial zone aside from the Wellington Commerce Park area on Pierson Road, although there were missed opportunities in the State Road 7 area.
“You need that type of area to build a balanced village,” Flinchum said. “You need places for the trades, the cabinet maker, to have certain cottage industries. It’s an opportunity, so if you don’t want to work at home, you can have a local business with employees, provide a service and not have to leave Wellington. We’re realizing how valuable that flex area is.”
One problem that has come about in Wellington Commerce Park has been insufficient parking as staff at the businesses has grown. “We’re going to have to address parking in the flex areas,” he said.
Planning, Zoning & Building Director Bob Basehart said that the village is at least partly to blame for parking issues, because parking regulations were eased in an attempt to occupy numerous storefronts that were empty. “It was very successful, and now it’s pretty much completely full,” Basehart said.
The equestrian area has come a long way, but Flinchum said work needs to be done to bring what are now three areas into one body.
“We have Little Ranches, which is a remote section, we have Rustic Ranches out on Flying Cow Road, and we have the EOZD [Equestrian Overlay Zoning District] in the middle,” he said. “Each one of those have their own matrix, their own different regulations, and our goal is to combine those three into one matrix for the equestrian area. Once you start putting them together, you realize that they have very similar regulations.”
The village has also improved bridle trails, with new easement acquisitions, new surface treatments, fencing, signage and crossings.
“A lot of these trails have been connected,” Flinchum said. “They now go to Flying Cow Road. You can get to Section 24, the preserve out there, from internal trails.”
