Thursday starts what could be the final countdown to what remains of Palm Beach County’s Agricultural Reserve Area.

The zoning commission, an advisory board, will hear presentations on the proposal from GL Homes to trade land near West Palm Beach for permission to build 1,000 homes near Clint Moore Road and State Road 7. Critics argue that if the county commission approves the deal on Oct. 24, the coastal farm belt that voters taxed themselves to protect will be doomed.

“It’s starting to look that way,” said Karen Marcus. Now chairman of Sustainable Palm Beach County, Marcus was on the county commission in 1999 when voters approved $100 million in bonds to buy land within the reserve—22,000 acres west of Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach. With that preserved land came rules to minimize residential and commercial development that could drive out agriculture.

Over the last quarter-century, however, developers have pushed back and persuaded commissioners to soften those rules. No developer has pushed back more—and more relentlessly—than GL Homes, the largest builder in and around the reserve.

This swap, however, is GL’s most audacious and potentially consequential effort.

Under current rules, developers only can swap land within the reserve for permission to build there. Allowing GL to use land outside the reserve to build homes where rules don’t allow them would invite more such swaps and bust all development limits. A unique part of Palm Beach County would become more overcrowded South Florida suburbia.

The Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations (COBWRA) understands that the effects could reach far beyond the 600 acres northwest of Boca Raton, known as Hyder West, where those luxury homes—along with 277 workforce housing units—would go.

COBWRA is the quasi-governmental agency for the unincorporated area west of Boynton Beach. Its 106 communities are home to about 140,000 people. The group has started an online petition to oppose the swap. On Friday, COBWRA will hold a news conference with comments from growth-management experts who oppose GL’s plan.

But political sentiment is running the other way, because of GL’s campaign on its behalf.

In return for building those homes, GL would trade 1,600 acres of that northern land and build a project that the company says would deliver water to an environmentally sensitive area. GL also has promised to build a synagogue as part of the Hyder West project and contribute money to a Jewish school. Those are just a few of the sweeteners, none of which would benefit the reserve.

A year ago, the commission was one vote from killing the deal. Because rejection seemed likely, GL sought and received a delay. By last May, the company had added enough favors and recast its pitch that the commission voted 5-2 to transmit the proposal to the state for review. Predictably, the state raised no objections, so that final vote looms in three weeks.

That water project and the elimination of 1,300 homes would help commissioners Maria Marino and Sara Baxter, who represent north and western Palm Beach County. They voted yes in May. Baxter at one point tried to have GL Homes build a motorsports facility as part of the deal.

GL also has a record of supporting politicians who vote their way. Commissioner Mack Bernard, who is term-limited next year, reportedly is seeking higher office. He was a yes vote.

Commissioner Gregg Weiss also voted yes. He previously had voted to approve another land swap within the reserve that benefited GL and some large landowners who also donated to his campaign. The staff opposed the swap. Weiss is term-limited in 2026 and is reportedly looking to run for mayor of West Palm Beach in 2027. Commissioner Michael Barnett, another yes vote, is on the ballot next year.

The only votes against the deal were Marci Woodward, who represents Boca Raton and Delray Beach, and Maria Sachs, whose district includes the agricultural reserve area. Woodward opposed it when she ran in 2022.

In practical terms, though overdevelopment of the reserve mostly would affect only Sachs’ constituents. No other commissioner has to fear retribution for breaking the promise made to voters in 1999.

“That’s what single-member districts and term limits do,” Marcus said. There is no institutional memory on the commission to remind anyone of that committment.

Despite those supposed public benefits, the big winner would be GL Homes. As I have written, those 1,000 homes near Boca Raton would bring the company at least $500 million more  than lower-priced homes on that northern land. Marcus points out, the county already owns two large northern parcels for water projects.

Finally, GL Homes only can make the trade sound credible only because a previous commission gave the company development rights on that northern land after GL lobbied to get them.

I’ll have more after Thursday’s hearing.

Pickleball coming to former Ocean Breeze course?

The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District chose a local group with which to negotiate a contract for a racket sport facility on part of the former Ocean Breeze golf course.

Led by Malcolm Butters, CEO of his eponymous Broward County construction company, Boca Paddle proposes a 58,000-square foot complex with 14 indoor pickleball courts and two courts for padel, a game of Mexican origin. Where pickleball is played with a hard, plastic ball, padel uses a soft tennis ball.

In addition, Boca Paddle would build eight outdoor pickleball courts and two for padel. Boca Paddle would build and maintain the $14.5 million project under a 49-year concession agreement. The group proposes sharing three percent of gross receipts over the first 10 years with the district, four percent over the second 10 years and five percent after that.

All principals in Boca Paddle are local, which district board members found appealing. Two of the other four bidders, Chicken N Pickle and Camp Pickle, are chains that make pickleball and padel part of larger entertainment venues. Boca Paddle also would have food and beverage service. Another proposal came from the YMCA of South Palm Beach County.

Board members will start talks with Boca Paddle at their Oct. 16 meeting. If the two sides reach agreement quickly, the facility could open in 2025. The Boca Raton City Council must approve the site plan.

Pearl City historic designation update

Historic designation for Boca Raton’s Pearl City neighhorbood is progressing, but it still doesn’t have the city council’s support.

A speaker at a recent meeting asked council members to renew that support. The council had passed a resolution backing the designation before withdrawing it amid concerns that historic status could slow construction of a replacement for Dixie Manor, the subsidized rental complex within Pearl City.

The new complex will be called Martin Manor, in honor of the late community activist Lois D. Martin. Last month, the city named a portion of Glades Road in Pearl City after her. The designation is a priority of the group Developing Interracial Social Change (DISCC). With the state having approved it, the application has gone to the federal government.

Delray wrongful eviction suit continues

Delray Beach remains in court with members of the city’s Black American Legion post who claim that the city wrongly evicted them.

The original Sherman Williams Post 188, which members organized in 1946, included S.D. Spady, perhaps Delray Beach’s best-known Black pioneer. Until 2019, the post used city property at 196 Northwest Eighth Avenue for its meetings.

That year, though, the city reclaimed the site, saying that it had given proper notice. But the history of the site’s lease seems fuzzy. According to court records, city commission minutes show that commissioners voted in 1947 to approve a 99-year lease. But in 1982, the city told the post that neither side could produce a copy of that original lease.

What the court file calls “a purported” 64-year lease signed in 1982—for the balance of those 99 years—allowed either side to cancel the least with notice. In 2018, the city informed the post that it intended to end the lease.

A state court judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the case. An appeals court panel, though, overturned that decision. Last week, the case went to mediation. The result was impasse.