Latest news with #PaulOkean
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
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A plan for warehouses, fitness center and more advances in Palm Beach County's Agricultural Reserve
Paul Okean is facing a turning point. The plant nursery business owner has owned land in the Palm Beach County Agricultural Reserve for more than 40 years. At one point, Morningstar Nursery, Okean's business, went on to become a major supplier for large retail stores including Kmart, Kroger and Albertsons. 'My nursery days are behind me for a variety of fateful reasons. However, I am grateful for every moment they held,' Okean said during a recent County Commission meeting. 'But I also look ahead with anticipation because I now have the opportunity to begin a new chapter alongside my children.' Okean has been trying to redevelop his more than 50 acres of land in West Delray for years, but proposals to do so have been met with concerns about disrupting the area with traffic, chipping away at the county's Ag Reserve or possibly harming the equine industry. The most recent plan is technically two proposals: Park West North and Park West South. The north project could be on a 50-acre plot wedged at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Florida's Turnpike, east of Starkey Road. Park West South is a 10-acre plot east of Persimmon Avenue and directly south of Atlantic Avenue. The larger Park West North pitches self-service storage, a fitness center, a manufacturing and processing space with a taproom and a warehouse with accessory office, while Park West South proposes a warehouse with accessory office. Both Park West North and South were approved to move forward by the county commissioners but not without mixed reactions. Some people want the entire plan scrapped while others believe Okean and other farmers in the Ag Reserve should have the opportunity to redevelop the land they own into something unrelated to agriculture. And while the commissioners voted to approve Park West for transmittal — which means the project goes to the state for review before going back to the Palm Beach County Commission — they said they hope the developers behind it make some revisions before it comes back before them sometime in the fall. 'There needs to be more conversation. There is some considerations to be made that can be done between now and when this comes back to us,' Commissioner Marci Woodward said during the meeting where the project was discussed. The Park West project wasn't always called Park West. Originally, the plan for the about 60 acres of land was called Tenderly Reserve. When presented to the county commissioners in the spring of last year, the project proposed more than 700 multifamily units, a 150-room hotel, hundreds of thousands of square feet of storage, commercial retail and office space, an 'indoor adventure rec and workspace,' a neighborhood grocery, workforce housing, a main street, town center and a public preserve. At the time, members of the public and county officials mainly took issue with the development's requests for county policy exemptions. These included a request to increase density from one residential unit per 5 acres to 12 residential units per acre, a request to be exempt from a county traffic policy and a request to allot only 20% of the total project to preserve land, a little more than 16 of the 60 acres, and allow water management to count as part of that preservation. In response to the opposition, the Park West developers scaled back, taking away the residential and hotel components and replacing it with more light industrial-type uses, such as the warehouses. Jennifer Morton, the president of JMorton Planning and Landscape Architecture, which is representing Park West, said this request is the only request out of the four that have been made to have support from the county planning staff and the only one that does not require any zoning changes. 'We meet the specific (Agricultural Reserve) policies such as low-impact development with uses that serve the residents of the Ag Reserve,' Morton said during the meeting. Since the proposal was known as Tenderly Reserve, Palm Beach County residents have expressed opinions about the project, varying from complete opposition to advocating for Ag Reserve landowner rights. Some people used to be in Okean's position and urged county commissioners to approve the project. Suzanne and Joe Mulvehill, who are siblings, owned (and, in Joe Mulvehill's case, still own) land in the Ag Reserve for years as legacy farmers but ultimately had to bow out when the industry began to decline. 'This is about doing the right thing,' Suzanne Mulvehill said to the commissioners. 'This is about property rights.' But others, such as Wellington resident David Larson, told commissioners he believes the Park West North project is 'ill-conceived and inconsistent' with the spirit of the Ag Reserve master plan. Barbara O'Donnell, who owns horse farm Irish Acres with her husband, Joseph O'Donnell, which is just north of where Park West could be, said the development could disrupt Irish Acres' efforts. 'Our shared vision was to create a sanctuary for horses, unlike anything else in South Florida. We have 60 acres of beauty and tranquility to offer horses and their owners a chance to enjoy nature, which is slipping away to development,' O'Donnell said. 'We are recognized every year as one of the very best boarding farms in South Florida. … This requires peaceful surroundings. If this development is approved, it will destroy us.' The county commissioners have found themselves attempting to strike a delicate balance between competing interests with the Park West project, and the most recent decision was no different. Besides Commissioner Maria Sachs, who did not want the project to move forward at all, the commissioners agreed the project should have the opportunity to go to a transmittal but should undergo modifications before it is presented to the commission again in a few months. 'I do want to see something a little less dense on the property,' County Mayor Maria Marino said. 'The community (came) out on both sides, those in support and those not in support. That's what community does. That's what commissioners do. That's what brothers and sisters do. 'Let's get it right.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Warehouse project near Delray horse farms moves forward, but commissioners want changes
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." More: County planning commission says no to development west of Delray, but developers optimistic 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. More: Sensing defeat, developer of huge Park West project west of Delray gets postponement 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 mdiamond@ 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
