As Palm Beach County’s population continues to boom, the Agricultural Reserve remains an attractive area to build on.
Developers and county officials continue attempting to strike a delicate balance between managing the region’s growth and preserving, in perpetuity, one of the few swaths of relatively untouched land left in all of South Florida.
Now, amid this effort comes a proposal that calls for allowing the possible development of hundreds of homes, a hotel and commercial uses as part of a project known as Tenderly Reserve.
The plan, which has generated both excitement and skepticism, is in the early stages and subject to change in the coming months. Here’s what’s known.
‘Wave of the future’
The Tenderly Reserve proposal would be slated for a total of about 60 acres of land, with one 50-acre plot of land wedged at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Florida’s Turnpike, east of Starkey Road. The other 10-acre plot of land is east of Persimmon Avenue and directly south of Atlantic Avenue.
Jennifer Morton, the president of JMorton Planning & Landscape Architecture and the agent behind the proposal, said the project intends to incorporate residential, commercial and office uses, creating a “true mixed-use project.” The 10-acre parcel, which could be considered as part of the proposal, would not incorporate commercial or high-density residential uses, Morton said, and would instead be “more benign.”
A quarter of the homes would constitute workforce housing, and another portion of the site would be set aside as preserve land.
“When we go to the board, we’ll have a total package of conceptually what we’re proposing,” she said. “I don’t have any firm numbers yet.”
Palm Beach County Mayor Maria Sachs, who represents the area where the development could go, said she likes the idea of bringing in a mixed-use project.
“The way that we should be developing is for young families to be able to access restaurants and coffee shops and places of entertainment very close to where they live,” she said. “That is the wave of the future.”
The Ag Reserve’s master plan identifies the need for a commercial and retail-centric spot for the folks living there, Sachs said, and this project could cater to that.
“We want to create a community in this area so that the people cannot have to drive so much,” she said.
Possible density changes
The land, which is west of Delray Beach, currently falls under the Agricultural Reserve Tier, which is part of a county framework called the Managed Growth Tier System, established to govern growth to protect quality of life in the county.
The Ag Reserve Tier is intended primarily for, unsurprisingly, agricultural use, “reflecting the unique farmlands and wetlands within it,” according to county documents.
If it can’t be preserved for whatever reason, then development is permissible, but only at a low residential density, which means only so many homes can be built per acre. Areas with high residential densities often have large populations in relatively small spaces, such as towering apartment buildings in West Palm Beach or Miami.
Right now, the current land use allows for one unit per 5 acres, which, on a bigger scale, could mean 10 units for every 50 acres. Tenderly Reserve, if approved, would bring that ratio up, but by exactly how much has not yet been determined.
Morton said she thinks the property could be considered for additional commercial uses because, according to the county’s comprehensive plan, new commercial and mixed-use future land-use designations in the Ag Reserve is limited to two areas: within a quarter mile of the intersection of Lyons Road and Boynton Beach Boulevard and the intersection of Lyons Road and Atlantic Avenue.
This was done to “facilitate community growth, reduce traffic and maintain open space,” the county wrote in the plan.
Justifications for the Tenderly Reserve project, according to the application, include providing surrounding residents with services, such as restaurants and retail, nearer to where they live, which would reduce time spent on the road, further echoing Sachs’ hopes for the project.
The application suggests that adding more housing options also would decrease travel distance and time, as well as provide people a chance to live closer to where they work.
Morton said discussions arose about bringing in a gourmet grocer as an anchor tenant for the area, but she also emphasized the project’s fluidity at this point, saying the specifics are still being hammered out.
The goal is to have a variety of offerings and address the needs of the community, she said, which includes the growing demand for not just workforce housing but housing in general in Palm Beach County.
Preliminary pushback
The Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations, or COBWRA, the same organization opposed to GL Homes’ land-swap plan involving the Ag Reserve, is opposed to the Tenderly Reserve project as it is proposed now.
Steve Wallace, COBWRA’s president, said the infrastructure cannot support the project as proposed.
Even outside of rush-hour traffic, Wallace called Atlantic Avenue prone to gridlock, and because it’s a state road, the county does not have control over it, meaning the state is responsible for making changes, such as adding more lanes.
“This is a major problem,” he said. “It’s not that we’re anti-development, we’re against development that’s not thought out.”
Wallace said COBWRA is also worried about the project because bringing in a hotel to the Ag Reserve could set a “very dangerous precedent,” as a commercial use of that kind is currently prohibited.
Joseph O’Donnell, who, along with his wife, owns Irish Acres, a horse farm on Starkey Road north of Tenderly Reserve, voiced similar concerns about the traffic and hotel.
“This will dramatically impact us negatively because of the traffic that will be created clogging the street,” he said.
Morton said JMorton Planning is focused on the roadway infrastructure and is working with the Florida Department of Transportation regarding Atlantic Avenue.
FDOT began a study in 2020 of the nearly 2-mile stretch of Atlantic Avenue from the turnpike to Jog Road to evaluate widening Atlantic Avenue to “meet existing and future travel demand.”
The proposal will first go before the county’s planning commission on Jan. 12. It will then head to the county commissioners for an initial vote on Jan. 31.
