A long-simmering dispute between the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors and one of the area’s oldest community organizations may have finally reached a boiling point after more acrimonious exchanges at the board’s Wednesday, Jan. 28 meeting.
Supervisor Richard Vassalotti has asked for an agenda item at ITID’s Wednesday, Feb. 25 meeting to discuss termination of the Acreage Landowners’ Association’s nonprofit user agreement with the district.
The termination would sever all ties with a group that has been a leader in community involvement since the early 1990s but in recent years has suffered a major decline in membership.
“We’re not trying to stop the ALA from existing,” ITID President Elizabeth Accomando said this week. “But the outbursts at meetings and the personal attacks [on supervisors] on social media… something has to change.”
“I want to hear what the other board members say, and I want to hear what the ALA has to say,” Supervisor Patricia Farrell said about Vassalotti’s request. “I appreciate the fact that people have a right to speak, but there has to be some decorum.”
Supervisor Betty Argue, a longtime supporter of the ALA, could not be reached for comment for this story. However, at the January meeting, when Vassalotti floated the termination idea, Argue said, “You’re not going to shut people down in the community who disagree… You’re penalizing the Acreage Landowners’ Association, and it’s wrong.”
Terminating the agreement would mean that the ALA would not have first priority for facilities use and would receive no automatic fee waiver, ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson said. “They’d have to apply for through the normal process.”
During public comment, former ALA Secretary Karla Bowsher, accused the supervisors of financial impropriety, failure to respond to public records requests, embroiling the district in a so-called “whistle-blower” lawsuit and having an ALA member improperly removed from the Dec. 10, 2025, board meeting at Vassalotti’s request. Bowsher cited case law that she believes backs up her allegations and passed the citations to the board.
Bowsher, an Acreage resident and former reporter who now publishes a Substack blog, The Acreage Advocate, said she resigned from the ALA “because I knew I was about to get a lot more vocal, and I didn’t want it to reflect on the organization.”
Supervisors voted 4-1 to accept and file the citations, which is standard procedure with documents offered from the public. Vassalotti’s was the lone no vote.
Meanwhile, ALA President Bob Morgan said this week that the group is moving forward with distributing a survey asking residents of the Acreage/Loxahatchee area about their preferences regarding future growth and land use.
Some 10,000 e-mails went out Tuesday, Feb. 3 to residents, sharing the survey. Responses will be used to revise the Acreage Neighborhood Plan, which the ALA maintains and updates.
The document, in theory, is used by Palm Beach County officials to guide them in land use decisions.
The survey also can be found on the ALA’s web site at www.acreagelandowners.com/anp-poll1.
In other business:
- The board heard from representatives of the financial advisory firm Piper Sandler about options for financing all or part of the $20 million that will be needed to get the M1 Impoundment Project — also known as the “640 acres” — from the drawing board to shovels in the ground.
The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners recently earmarked $8 million for use in the project, which has an overall estimated cost of $75 million to $100 million.
“This [project] is going to be crucial if we have a major rain event like we did in 2012,” Accomando said. “But I can’t imagine our [ITID] taxpayers having to foot a $100 million bill.”
Accomando said the district will be looking at every possible source for money, including direct federal funding, and state and federal grants. The $8 million earmarked by the county can be used to secure matching grants, she said.
Design is already underway, but it is likely to be at least 2028 before actual construction begins, ITID officials have said.
The impoundment “is extremely important to our future, especially with all of the growth we’ve seen in the area,” said Vassalotti, a longtime resident.
- The supervisors awarded a $1.3 million contract to Ferreira Construction for the M-0 Outfall Canal Structure project. The district was awarded a Resilient Florida grant of $630,853 with a required match, for a project total of $1,261,706, leaving the district with a total cost of $717,750.
- The supervisors awarded a $246,000 contract to National General Construction for restoration of the Coconut Park Pier. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved $105,000 for the pier, which was destroyed by the October 2024 tornado that tore through the area. The board authorized $141,000 from its parks and recreation reserves to pay the remainder of the cost.
- The board voted to amend the scope of the expansion to Acreage Community Park South by removing a $346,000 restroom and an $80,000 scoreboard from the plans. Instead, a leveled, multi-purpose, open-play recreational field will be created.
