Homeowners in the City of Westlake suffered only minor damage from the powerful EF-3 tornado that passed just to the east on Wednesday, Oct. 9 as Hurricane Milton came ashore on Florida’s west coast.
“We were incredibly blessed,” Mayor JohnPaul O’Connor said this week. “We were incredibly lucky it did not touch down [in the city].”
O’Connor said a few trees were downed, including one that landed on a woman’s car parked in her driveway. It was quickly removed by a number of Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who responded — some on duty, some not.
“That’s the beauty of living in a community with so many first responders as your neighbors,” he said.
Indeed, Westlake, which for several years has been the fastest-growing community in the county and among the fastest growing in the state, has billed itself as a bastion of affordability for first responders, teachers, government employees, soldiers, veterans and retirees.
In September, Minto Communities USA announced that Westlake has again been recognized among the top 50 master-planned communities in the United States, climbing the RCLCO Real Estate Consulting list from 31 to 24.
However, three major hurricanes hitting Florida in the last three years coupled with exorbitant home prices throughout much of the state and sky-high insurance rates have some real estate experts worrying that the state’s recent boom is about to go bust.
O’Connor dismisses the idea.
“We’ve always had hurricanes,” said O’Connor, who grew up in the county. “Our weather, though extreme at times, is very hard to beat year in and year out. As people get older, they’re always going to get tired of shoveling snow in the cold. I don’t think the migration is going to stop.”
In September, Westlake City Manager Kenneth Cassel said that 3,825 single-family homes have been built, sold or platted of the 4,554 originally allotted to the community. The county also approved 2.2 million square feet of retail, restaurant, office and other commercial development, much of which already has been gobbled up.
However, O’Connor did express his concern about skyrocketing home insurance rates driven largely by the repeated impacts of hurricanes on the state.
“It is a crisis,” he said. “People are getting priced out of paradise, and there’s no end in sight. We’ve got to lean on our legislature to get a handle on this.”
O’Connor said the idea of a one percent sales or even income tax with the proceeds going into an insurance disaster fund is worth exploring.
“I’m not a fan of big government, never have been,” he said. “But the average citizen can’t deal with these runway premiums.”
Meanwhile at the Westlake City Council’s Tuesday, Oct. 1 meeting, council members voted 5-0 to approve the final reading of regulations that prohibit the parking of 18-wheelers and similar vehicles on all public streets, alleys and rights-of-way for more than one hour in any 24-hour period.
The ordinance also includes watercraft, boat trailers, recreational vehicles (RVs), swamp buggies and buses; trucks with a gross vehicle weight in excess of 10,000 pounds, or rated over one ton, or height in excess of seven feet including any load, bed or box, or length in excess of 22 feet; truck tractor, trailer, semi-trailer or pole trailer; step-van or commercial vehicle; or construction and industrial equipment.
