West Boynton Ranches, the development group seeking to build an apartment complex in the Ag Reserve, said it has no intention of selling its property to another builder should Palm Beach County approve its plans.
Darrin Montgomery, one of the principals of West Boynton Ranches, took issue with claims made at a recent meeting of Valencia Reserve in which Murray Gendzel, an HOA board member for the 55-plus community, said the developers had neither interest in nor experience with building workforce housing.
“Their interest is in making as much profit as they can off this plan,” Gendzel said at a town hall meeting, suggesting West Boynton Ranches would sell its stake in the project once it receives county approval.
Montgomery, however, said he has been involved in the construction of several apartment complexes. He insisted he and his partners would build the community near the corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and Lyons Road. There would be 234 apartments and 25 townhomes.
“The claim that we will be flipping this is false,” he told The Palm Beach Post. “We have had offers from scores of developers. We have told them all that we have no interest in selling.”
Montgomery said he was surprised to learn of the opposition expressed at the Valencia Reserve town hall.
“We thought we had (Valencia Reserve) their support,” he added, noting that several changes have been made based on the community’s comments.
The latest development plan shows that the initially projected four-story buildings have been lowered to three stories. Montgomery noted the new plans have added buffer space of more than 40 feet.
He also said an access road has been moved to the east. But the buildings continue to offer 259 apartmens, which breaks out to eight per acre.
“Every time we give them information, they spin it and turn it around on us. We are committed to working with them if they keep an open mind,” Montgomery said.
Gendzel acknowledged his assertion about West Boynton Ranches selling the parcel to another builder was incorrect. However, he expressed continued reservations about whether the group will avoid transferring ownership to another builder.
As for Valencia Reserve supporting the project, Gendzel said there is support for essential housing, which recognizes the need for workers to have places to live in the county. The issue, Genzel said, has always been with the project’s density.
Valencia Reserve and the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations, or COBWRA, have argued the community should have no more than six residences per acre. Montgomery said such a reduction could render the project economically unfeasible.
“We don’t understand where this pushback is coming from,” he said. “The new rule says up to eight units.”
West Boynton Ranches is scheduled to appear before county commissioners on April 29 to ask that the plans be submitted for state review, the first step in a lengthy process before the county can approve the project. The transmittal must occur for the project to move forward.
The commission, however, is expected to postpone the hearing until August at the request of Commissioner Maria Sachs, who will be unable to attend and whose district contains the project site. Montgomery said he and his partners would be disappointed if the hearing were postponed.
“This is a big ask to have us wait for another three months,” he said, noting there already have been two postponements.
“All this (transmittal) does is let us start the process,” Montgomery said, adding that community feedback may lead to changes before the final public hearing.
The project was first proposed nearly two years ago.
With opposition to its essential housing plan, the development group instead offered a new project this year that called for 1,000-plus apartments and a big-box store at State Road 7 and Boynton Beach Boulevard.
For that to happen, the county needed to create a new mixed-use category for the Agricultural Reserve, but commissioners made it clear they had no intention of doing so. That’s when West Boynton Ranches pivoted back to its original plan.
The Ag Reserve is an area west of Florida’s Turnpike with special zoning designed to limit growth and protect farming. In recent years, several changes have been made in the 22,000-acre zone to allow for more development.
West Boynton Ranches noted that its proposal will help fill a need in the Ag Reserve to create affordable housing for workers. The Ag Reserve master plan anticipated more than 6,000 apartments and townhomes. To date, none have been built, although about 800 units have recently been approved.
Nearly all of the residences in the Ag Reserve have been built by GL Homes that feature housing at prices that most workers cannot afford.
Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Developer won’t flip Ag Reserve, Palm Beach County affordable housing
Reporting by Mike Diamond, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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