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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Ag Reserve's 22,000 acres: A look at Palm Beach County's growth and preservation today
As Palm Beach County's population swells, the desire to develop has followed suit. But amid the rise of new residents and construction, county officials also have worked to create a harmonious relationship between the need for new development and the preservation of some of South Florida's last relatively untouched land. Recently, an overview of the county's Agricultural Reserve — which is about 22,000 acres of mostly farmland and limited development in the northwestern part of the county — was provided to county commissioners, detailing current projects, preservation, the land's history and where it's at today. And as a frequent source of great controversy among residents, developers, and farmers alike, county officials are attempting to forge ahead in a way that addresses the often competing interests as effectively as possible. 'The established goals were to preserve and enhance ag and environmental and water resources,' county planner Stephanie Gregory said during a recent public meeting when an Ag Reserve overview was presented to commissioners. When the Ag Reserve master plan was created, the objectives, according to Gregory, 'included a heavy emphasis on preservation, including enhancing agriculture, environmental resources, water management capability and open space while also creating a sustainable form of development and minimizing the costs or impact to taxpayers. 'While the focus was preservation, there was also an understanding that there would be some form of development included,' Gregory told commissioners. As it stands, a 2025 Ag Reserve 'snapshot' breaks down how the land is divided: — 6,530 acres, or 30% of the reserve, is made up of residential development. — 881 acres, or 4% of the reserve, is made up of non-residential development. — 13,374 acres, or 61% of the reserve, has been set aside for preservation, primarily through either agriculture or natural, conservation land. — 489 acres, or 3% of the reserve, is undeveloped 'remaining lands.' — 670 acres, or 3% of the reserve, is considered 'other uses' such as canals. But it took a lot of planning, policy changes and time for that snapshot to be the reality, and county officials are still working on how to keep development regulated while preserving Ag Reserve landowner rights. Reserve boundaries were first created in 1980 when 'the emphasis was the preservation of agriculture and very low densities,' according to county documents. A prominent rule for development in existence time was the '80/20 rule,' which allowed 20% of a plot of land in the Ag Reserve to be developed on while the other 80% of that same plot would be dedicated to preservation. This eventually led to the creation of the 60/40 rule, which is the same principle but with 60% preserve and 40% development. In 1989, the boundaries of the reserve were revised, cutting out about 5,000 acres and leaving about 22,000 acres that make up the Ag Reserve of today. Shortly after, the county had an economic impact and land-use suitability analyses conducted, a goal of which was to determine how best to protect and intentionally build on the land. 'Through extensive public engagement by the consultants, the goals of the master plan were defined,' Gregory said. Then, in 1999, county voters approved a referendum that authorized a $150 million bond to purchase agricultural and environmental lands. More than 2,000 acres have been purchased since. That same year, the county adopted a 'managed growth tier system' to identify 'different tiers in order to acknowledge and protect the differing lifestyles of the community,' such as Urban and Suburban, Exurban and Rural. In the more than two decades since the bond was purchased, the Ag Reserve has gone through many developmental and policy changes, such as the addition of different land-use designations. Most recently, two different land-use designations were adopted by the county commissioners: Essential Housing and Commerce. The Essential Housing land-use designation was approved to foster the creation of higher-density multifamily residential development so people who work in and right around the reserve have places to live. The Commerce land-use designation was approved to support 'light industrial uses.' For example, food production could be considered a light industrial use while a chemical plant could be considered a heavy industrial use. 'There are various changes that have occurred on what is allowed and what is not allowed in the preserve area through the years,' said Thuy Shutt, the county's planning director, during the recent public meeting. And various changes are likely to keep occurring as more people move into Palm Beach County and as developers crane to find land ripe for building. For now, several projects are either under construction or awaiting potential approval. Those include: — Park West North and Park West South, which proposes warehouses, a fitness center, manufacturing and processing space, and self-service storage in West Delray. These two projects were recently approved for transmittal, which means it goes before the state for review before coming back to the county commissioners. — West Boynton Ranches is a proposal for 259 homes, 65 of which could be workforce housing. This plan is attempting to rely on the Essential Housing land-use designation, though planning commissioners recently voted to recommend denial for the project. A recommendation by planning commissioners does not determine how county commissioners vote, however. — GL Homes received final approval for a plan to bring 481 homes on a plot of land called Whitworth South in West Boynton, adding to a cluster of other suburbs, including others by GL Homes, such as Valencia Sound, Valencia Cove and Valencia Reserve. — Bedner Bros Farms Inc., representing Bedner's Farm Fresh Market in West Boynton, received approval to bring warehouses and office space, applying under the commerce land-use designation. These types of proposals often face opposition at some point during the approval or denial process, and the concerns tend to be the same: increasing traffic, inadequate county infrastructure and taking away too much of the Ag Reserve's preserve land. Sometimes, these concerns prevail, and a proposal is rejected. Take GL Homes' land swap, for example. This proposal had aimed to take land inside the Ag Reserve and exchange it for land outside of it to build more than 1,000 homes, a synagogue, school, a park and more. Approving the plan would have set a new precedent for other developers to swap land outside the Ag Reserve for land inside of it, which county commissioners ultimately decided against. The commissioners often find themselves as the mediators among developers, residents and environmentalists, and not everyone leaves satisfied after decisions are made. 'It's enlightening to see what's happened, but I think the issue here was also that we didn't properly plan from the get-go, and I'm glad that this board has been able to shift and adjust to the times,' Commissioner Joel Flores said during the meeting where the Ag Reserve overview was presented. 'Our population has grown tremendously, and we've been able to to adjust to that.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Crawford County seeks community input for new growth plan
CRAWFORD CO., Mo. — Crawford County officials are asking for the community's help to create a new growth plan for the next 20 years. County commissioners and the county counselor held a public comprehensive plan and zoning meeting, Thursday evening. Nearly three dozen attended in-person and even more by livestream, to learn more about the process needed to create a new comprehensive plan. The county hasn't had a new plan since 2002, so they're asking for the community's help guiding commissioners and agencies for the next two decades. Those in attendance filled out a 12-page public input survey, focusing on land use, zoning, and wind and solar issues. There's also a survey to gather even more input. 'It's a good opportunity for them to learn about the process, encouraging people to get that survey taken, to get the results back into the commissioners, have the input they need to start the comprehensive plan process. This is our first step as the survey to gauge public opinion,' said Jim Emerson, Crawford County Counselor. Crawford County seeks community input for new growth plan New data center coming to southeast Kansas PSU's Center for Reading hosting educational summer camp for kids KDOT hosting Hwy 69 improvement meetings this week for Crawford County resident input Southeast Kansas sheriff quips, 'We saved the 4th of July' Jim Emerson says they have more than 1,000 completed surveys but are aiming for 4,000 in total. They hope to wrap up the survey process by July 1. You can find a link to that survey, here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
York County to take over food pantry operations, but shelter's future uncertain
May 7—The York County Commissioners voted unanimously to take over operations of the food pantry currently run by the York County Shelter Programs, a nonprofit in Alfred, just ahead of the emergency shelter and food pantry's anticipated closure on Friday. At their meeting Wednesday night, the commissioners discussed how the county might be able to step in and help as the shelter and food pantry face closure. The food pantry serves about 6,000 people each month, while the shelter has about 65 people staying there. The shelter laid off 20 of its 70 employees last week and announced that it would close its doors this Friday because it can no longer cover the cost of running its programs. The decision to suspend operations comes as shelter providers across the state push for additional state funding to cover the cost of operating homeless shelters. Emergency shelters in Maine receive $7 per night per bed in state funding, although a recent study by MaineHousing found the actual cost per bed is $102 per night. The commissioners determined Wednesday that keeping the shelter open would be beyond the county's capacity, but they agreed to move forward with taking over food pantry operations. Commissioner Justin Chenette put forth a motion after brief discussions to pull $25,ooo from a county contingency fund to continue operations of the food pantry through the end of the fiscal year and to set aside $100,000 in the coming fiscal year to fully take over operations of the pantry and hire staff. The commission unanimously supported the motion. 'IF WE DONT DO IT, IT WILL CLOSE' During discussions on Wednesday, County Manager Gregory Zinzer said that the county's ability to help is limited, but he encouraged the commissioners to do all they could. He said it would not be financially or operationally feasible to take over shelter operations, but that it may be possible to keep the food pantry going, particularly because the county already owns the building that the pantry operates out of and pays its utilities. He said that operating the food pantry would likely cost about $100,000 per year. "If we don't do it, it will close," he said. Commissioner Richard Clark said that while he'd like to see the emergency shelter stay open too, he doesn't think York County government is equipped to take it over "It is simply beyond us," said Clark. "To ask our employees, our manager, our assistant manager, to take on another project at this point, there just aren't enough hours in the day." Commissioner Robert Andrews mentioned the idea of creating an exploratory committee to examine how the county may be able to help reopen the shelter down the line, but everyone agreed saving the shelter before Friday wasn't possible. "It would be a very big lift for the county take on a multimillion dollar commitment to run a program in such a short amount of time," Chenette said in a phone interview after the meeting. "The sudden nature of this announcement makes it difficult to respond to it so quickly." Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
