The Acreage Citizens Committee on Incorporation will hold its second meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 27, one day before the Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation meets to consider a local bill that would authorize a referendum on incorporation.
The committee meeting will be at Hamlin House in The Acreage at 6:30 p.m. The legislative delegation meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 28 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Clayton E. Hutcheson Agricultural Services Center at 559 N. Military Trail in West Palm Beach.
Committee Member Bob Morgan said the Oct. 27 meeting will begin later than the previous meeting. “There will be a meet-and-greet between 6:30 and 7 p.m., and the meeting will start at 7 p.m. for questions and answers,” Morgan said.
Nothing specific is scheduled for the meeting, but Morgan said there is a poll available for naming the new potential municipality at www.votelox2022.com. The place holder name in the draft charter is the Village of Loxahatchee. Other suggested names are the Town of Acreage Pines and the Village of Loxahatchee Ranches.
“We have a poll up now for the new municipality name, and we need the people to vote for what they wish the name to be if the referendum is approved,” he said. “We’ll be discussing that, as well as the petition. We want to be sure they are involved with that and to make calls to the individual representatives and delegates. Apparently, the calls make more of a difference than just the letters they get automatically from the petition.”
The delegation chair is State Rep. Mike Caruso (R-District 89) and the vice chair is State Sen. Tina Polsky (D-District 29).
Morgan urged residents to attend the committee meeting and bring their questions about incorporation and anything they have concerns about.
“Whatever we cannot answer at that time, we’ll get back to them and post any questions on the ‘community updates’ for anything that we weren’t able to answer,” he said, adding that he has been in touch with state representatives, updating them on relevant information about the local bill. “We know they are getting hammered from the back end from the developers to try to halt this. They’ve done everything they possibly can to try to stop this.”
He said developers have tried to stop the bill in Tallahassee and tried to stop the feasibility study, which was finally approved by the legislature authorizing the Indian Trail Improvement District to conduct the study. After conducting the feasibility study, it was turned over to the committee to complete the process.
If approved by the local delegation, the bill will be filed in Tallahassee and go through the legislative process to approve a special act authorizing the referendum. If approved next session, it would be placed on the Nov. 8, 2022, ballot for residents to vote whether or not they want to incorporate.
