On Friday, April 17, a state administrative law judge ruled that the pending Minto West development was not “urban sprawl” under state law, and rejected a legal challenge by citizens to block changes to Palm Beach County’s comprehensive land use plan. Changes to Future Land Use Elements (FLUE) in that plan that were approved by county commissioners last October to help the Minto West application move forward.

Minto West development would put nearly 5,000 homes, a hotel, a college campus, 2 schools, 2 million square feet of commercial space and a town center in the heart of the county’s western rural areas, including The Acreage and Loxahatchee Groves.

Alerts of PBC, a not-for-profit group, and three property owners, argued that the Palm Beach County Commission violated state rules against “urban sprawl” when it approved changes in the county’s comprehensive land plan last October for Minto West.

That public hearing on October 29, 2014,  was packed with residents protesting the development, with so many speakers that the commission meeting lasted nearly 10 hours. At that hearing, Palm Beach County adopted Ordinance No. 14-030, which amended the Future Land Use Element (“FLUE”), text, and Map Series of the Comprehensive Land Plan for the large tract of land in the western part of the County. That land used to be an orange grove.

Florida Administrative Law Judge Bram Canter in his ruling cited the definition of urban sprawl in the state statutes section 163.3164(51):

“… a development pattern characterized by low density, automobile-dependent development with either a single use or multiple uses that are not functionally related, requiring the extension of public facilities and services in an inefficient manner, and failing to provide a clear separation between urban and rural uses.”

The challenge based on density, intensity, and urban sprawl is one of two legal actions by Alerts of PBC trying to preserve their communities’ rural character and way of life.

Alerts of PBC still has a legal challenge pending in the 15th Judicial Circuit Court against zoning changes approved by the county for Minto West at the October 29 meeting.

No-to-Minto-Save-the-Acreage-Loxahatchee-Loxahatchee-Groves

The final decision on the county’s compliance with the state regarding its changes to its Future Land Use Element is now in the hands of Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity.

The judge’s ruling will be forwarded as a recommendation that the state issue a final order declaring the county’s comprehensive plan changes are in compliance. Alerts of PBC has the option of filing an “exception” to the judge’s ruling, based on material presented in the case  record.

Sources for this news include the Palm Beach Post article Sunday, April 19, 2015 and the judge’s administrative ruling: Read the Minto ruling