Warehouse project near Delray horse farms moves forward, but commissioners want changes

Yahoo

21-05-2025

A 50-acre complex of warehouses, a self-storage facility and a fitness center proposed for suburban Delray Beach is moving forward. Still, Palm Beach County commissioners say significant changes are needed for the project to be approved.
The issues are the property rights of a legacy farmer who wants to develop land off West Atlantic Avenue near Florida's Turnpike that he has owned for decades and the impact the project will have on nearby agricultural businesses.
The applicant, Paul Okean, is looking to build warehouses with loading docks for more than 100 trucks. With so many loading trucks, critics argue that the facility is a distribution center, which is barred by current zoning.
Tractor-trailer trucks will use Starkey Road, a two-mile north-south road that empties onto Atlantic Avenue, to access the warehouses, disturbing the horses boarded at nearby Irish Acres, according to the owners of the facility. Starkey Road is at the western boundary of the Okean parcel.
"This will destroy us," said Barbara O'Donnell, who owns Irish Acres with her husband, Joe. "Tractor-trailer trucks are incompatible with horses. Please don't take this away from us."
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The commission voted 5-1 to transmit the plans for state review. Commissioners, who voted to transmit, cautioned Okean's agent, Jennifer Morton, that much work must be done before the 750,000-square-foot project returns to the commission for final approval.
The transmittal vote occurred on May 13 after several hours of testimony. The session would have been much longer if it had not been for Mayor Maria Marino's decision to restrict comments to two minutes. Commissioner Maria Sachs strongly objected to the restriction.
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Commissioners, for the most part, sympathized with the O'Donnells and were concerned over the impact the warehouse project would have on Irish Acres, where thoroughbred horses from Gulfstream Park are often taken to rehabilitate after surgery. Joe O'Donnell said he has invested $10 million into his business.
"This is not a problem for Irish Acres," Joe O'Donnell said in an interview. "There are other horse farms and nurseries all along Starkey Road. They will all be impacted as well."
Sachs acknowledged that Okean has property rights but added: 'Those rights only go as far your neighbor. Folks who live on Starkey Road deserve better." She cast the lone vote against transmitting the project for state review.
Okean has tried unsuccessfully to obtain county approval to build on the site three other times. He worked with Kushner Cos., affiliated with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, to build a 1 million square-foot, Amazon-type facility, but plans were withdrawn in the face of opposition.
He then proposed building 734 apartments, a 150-room hotel, and 200,000 square feet of commercial retail and office space. County planners also opposed that project, arguing it would set a dangerous precedent for building in the Ag Reserve. That plan, too, was abandoned.
The county staff noted the adjustments Okean made in his current application and recommended that these plans be approved. Okean's lawyer, Brian Seymour, pledged to address concerns by the time the project returns to the commission for further review.
"We are giving you an opportunity to get it right," Marino said. "Let's get it right."
Okean's application sought approval as a 'commerce' project, a relatively new Ag Reserve designation allowing commercial and industrial development along Boynton Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue. Morton said the site is ideal for a commerce project and is exactly what was envisioned when the designation was created.
"The county has said no over and over," Commissioner Joel Flores said. 'West respect his property rights. At the same time, we have to find a way to make this work. I have been to Irish Acres, and it is like heaven on earth. I won't support this unless there is a way to minimize the impacts.'
Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and transportation. You can reach him at [e-mail]. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: County wants changes to 50-acre warehouse project west of Delray Beach