The Town of Loxahatchee Groves held a workshop meeting and barbecue with approximately 50 attendees on Saturday, Dec. 5 at Loxahatchee Groves Town Hall.
“This basically is going to be a meeting where we’re here to hear you,” Mayor Dave Browning said. “I was hoping we’d have a packed house. Maybe others will wander in. We’ll see.”
The meeting’s purpose was to get input about future plans for Okeechobee Blvd. The primary conflict is that some people want land on Okeechobee Blvd. to be able to be developed for commercial purposes, while others want it to remain residential.
Councilmen Tom Goltzené and Ron Jarriel opened council comments saying that they were there to listen.
Jarriel was critical of the town’s most recent attempt at planning for the roadway. “I think what we came out with earlier, as far as the overlay for Okeechobee Blvd., is ridiculous,” he said.
Councilman Ryan Liang said he was interested in listening and gaining a better understanding of what residents want. Browning hoped to hear from those living on Okeechobee Blvd., as well as those living in other parts of Loxahatchee Groves.
Goltzené requested suggestions for other aspects of Okeechobee Blvd., in addition to whether people were for or against developing it.
Town Manager Bill Underwood invited attendees to throw their ideas to the group. “Maybe we’ll get something that everyone agrees to,” he said.
Town Planner Jim Fleischmann briefly provided history of the Okeechobee corridor. The land, he said, is 450 acres, made up of 71 parcels ranging in size from less than an acre to more than 20 acres. The corridor is designated as Rural Residential 5, with agricultural-residential zoning.
Prior to the recent change of including Big Dog Ranch Rescue, the uses of the land were 41 percent agricultural, 24 percent vacant, 18 percent institutional, 16 percent residential and 1 percent commercial. Currently allowed land uses for the corridor are residential and agricultural. Potential uses, which would require land use and zoning changes, include commercial, institutional and recreational.
“We are proposing changes to the text of the comprehensive plan which would develop specific policies for the types of development that could occur,” Fleischmann said. “We’re looking specifically at the types of uses that should be allowed along the corridor and also the scale and intensity of development.”
Approximately 25 residents gave input into the roadway’s future.
Underwood kept a running list of what residents wanted. Many preferred small businesses, lowering the speed limit, finding ways for traffic control, adding roundabouts, adding businesses like tack shops and tractor repair, and increasing agricultural business. Residents did not want strip clubs, car dealerships, pawn shops, big chains like 7-Eleven or big box stores.
Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District Supervisor John Ryan suggested the possibility that developers GL Homes and Minto work with the town on traffic calming.
Sally Ciccone, a resident for more than 30 years, was unhappy with development to the west. “Minto and GL Homes, we might as well kiss it goodbye, Okeechobee. Because they’ve already got a set goal,” she said. “It just upsets me so much to see this happening here because I’ve lived here for so long. It’s happening all over.”
Resident Joyce Batcheler said that she has heard mostly negative feedback on the topic.
“For those of you who want more than what the town has tentatively suggested, it will never be enough,” she said. “For those of you who want no development at all, anything would be more than you want. Realizing that, perhaps everyone can agree to a little give-and-take to fine-tune it for the betterment of the town as a whole and something that the majority of the residents can live with.”
Todd McLendon, who is challenging Councilman Jim Rockett in the March 2016 election, was quick to point out his absence.
“I’m disappointed that my opponent in the next election is not here. I’d like to hear his opinion on this,” McLendon said. “The biggest issue on Okeechobee Blvd., why we’re all here today, the whole root of the matter comes back to the traffic on Okeechobee Blvd., the speed, and how it has depreciated the value of people’s homes.”
Rather than fix the current problem, he said, the idea is to approve commercial development. However, McLendon said, there won’t be enough commercial development to take over the road, which will not help the residents. Lowering the speed limit on Okeechobee Blvd. and Folsom Road is what should be done, he said.
“Where does it stop?” McLendon said. “Lower the speed limit on both Folsom and Okeechobee. Tell the county, ‘This is what we want for our community.’ This is what is going to preserve and protect us.”
Longtime resident Patricia Althouse, who lives on Okeechobee Blvd., explained the perils that residents of the streets are dealing with, and how they are having issues with home values. She suggested four lanes, medians, turning lanes and traffic lights to help with traffic calming.
LGWCD Supervisor Laura Danowski, who has lived in the area for 11 years, does not like traveling on Okeechobee.
“I avoid Okeechobee at all costs. It scares me half to death,” she said. “I think speed bumps and roundabouts are a whiff of a suggestion for traffic calming.”
Danowski suggested tack repair and recycle, a farrier supply store, tractor/mower repair, a senior living facility and more as ideas for Okeechobee Blvd. With 24 percent of the land (approximately 100 acres) on Okeechobee Blvd. vacant, she suggested that the town purchase some of the land.
“I’m sure that we could find the money as a town to purchase some of this vacant land and take control of what is happening here,” she said.
Mark Dahlmeier, an attorney with the law firm Jones Foster Johnston & Stubbs, spoke on behalf of a group of clients who own the almost 20-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Folsom Road and Okeechobee Blvd.
Dahlmeier represented his clients in opposition of the proposed floor-to-area ratio (FAR) rules.
“It is far too restrictive and doesn’t provide for an intensive enough use for the land that fronts Okeechobee Blvd. It proposes an unnecessarily low intensity and would greatly, and unfairly, impair the market value of our clients’ land.”
He asked that the council consider that there should be a difference between those that front Okeechobee Blvd. and the rest of Loxahatchee Groves, that everyone in the town benefits from Okeechobee Blvd. and the access it provides, and that Okeechobee Blvd. is no longer a dirt road.
“It’s our position that it’s just not fair to handcuff these properties that front along Okeechobee Blvd. and to tell them it’s illegal and they’re not allowed to develop,” he said.
After the speakers, the microphone returned to the council.
“We’re someplace between ‘Accept it because it’s coming’ and ‘We have to fight to preserve what we want.’ I’m inclined to work with the second side,” Goltzené said. “In doing that, we have to be realistic to the other side of that. Some of the forces are bigger than us and uncontrollable by us.”
Looking to the communities to the west, he said, might be helpful.
“But as to Okeechobee… we can work with the county. There’s a change coming in the county,” Goltzené said. “There’s a generational change in the county as the people who have worked there for years, the closed minds, are leaving. We can work with the new county folks… We need to look for solutions for our community.”
Jarriel said it comes down to either commercial or residential. He suggested setting FAR rules to deter landowners from suing in order to develop.
Browning stressed that he did not want to give up on Loxahatchee Groves. They lost the fight with Minto; now there is GL Homes.
“You have to fight smart. We have to get together. We have to preserve what we have. We’re not done,” Browning said. “Do not give up. If you have the heart that says ‘It’s already done; we already lost,’ do me a favor and leave… Sometimes we don’t win each battle.”
ABOVE: Town Manager Bill Underwood kept track as residents spoke.
