How Wellington is growing: Village OKs 27 luxury homes on site within Palm Beach Polo
WELLINGTON — A Long Island luxury developer will build 27 multimillion-dollar homes inside Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club in Wellington.
The village council approved Farrell Building Co.'s plan to erect a high-end community on the site of a former golf course at the southwest corner of Forest Hill Boulevard and Polo Club Road.
The residential project first met with stark opposition from neighbors who said it would worsen traffic, bring unnecessary density and set a precedent for the development of other green areas inside the community.
Councilman Michael Drahos told the developers July 11 that they had made a considerable effort to work with Palm Beach Polo residents to tweak the project.
“It appears to me like you all made a very genuine effort to try and please everybody here," Drahos said. "You've built up a little bit of goodwill here."
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Not all Palm Beach Polo residents pleased with project
The council unanimously voted to change the zoning designation of 22 acres to residential from open space-recreational and to amend the village’s master plan to establish the Farrell West neighborhood.
Michael Sanchez, Farrell's Florida representative, told council members he had met with area residents to update landscaping plans for Farrell West.
He said changes to the original plans include removing a fence and a sidewalk facing the Golf Cottages apartments, reducing the lot sizes for 12 homes and expanding natural buffers.
"You can see a drastic change from the first version to this one," Sanchez said.
For some Palm Beach Polo residents, however, those landscaping upgrades did little to alleviate concerns about the loss of green space and the impact of density on already congested roads.
"There's no other green space on Forest Hill Boulevard, except the golf course on the other side of the road," said Victor Kiarsis, a Golf Cottages resident. "Now that this one was developed, I don't see why the land on the other side can't be developed."
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Luxury home site once hosted soccer games without permit
Farrell, based in Bridgehampton, New York, filed plans with the village last year to build two high-end neighborhoods inside Palm Beach Polo.
Its representatives said on April 19 the company withdrew the application for Farrell East after facing backlash from the community but that it would proceed with its plans for Farrell West.
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The project consists of 27 customizable homes with modern designs on what has long been an unkept lot facing the community's club and next to the Golf Cottages.
The land once was part of a golf course that closed in 2021. In the past, the site hosted illegal soccer games and has been subject to multiple code violations due to a lack of maintenance, according to village documents.
The land in question is also part of the foreclosure lawsuit that the village has against all the properties owned by Palm Beach Polo Inc., which is owned by Glenn Straub. The matter remains before the courts.
Farrell says landscape changes add to buffer, exceed village code
Village council members asked Sanchez to work with the residents of the Golf Cottages to redesign the property's northern and southern buffers.
Sanchez told the council that Farrell added over 50 new trees and shrubs to its designs, removed sidewalks, fences and walls to create natural hedges and reduced the size of 12 lots to give more space for buffers. He added that Farell West's homeowner's association would be responsible for maintaining all of the landscaping.
On the north side of Farrell West, seen by vehicles driving along South Shore Boulevard, the builder will:
Set back a wall 3 feet to create a cross-section of trees, hedges and shrubs.
Plant a line of "high-end" palm trees along the road as a "wow factor."
Add 43 trees and 486 shrubs that are 18 inches tall and over 2,700 low shrubs for a buffer that is 23 feet wider than what the village code requires.
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On the south side near the Golf Cottages and the area's business center, Farrell will:
Remove a proposed fence and sidewalk facing Golf Cottage apartments.
Reduce the depths of 12 lots by increasing the buffer to 23 feet from 15.
Relocate existing vegetation and add 22 trees and over 1,100 shrubs to a landscaped berm and buffer that is 8 feet wider than the village code requires.
Replace street lights with pedestrian-level lighting.
“We thought, 'Let's do a very natural, dense landscape buffer,' ” Sanchez said. “We presented this to the Golf Cottages residents, they reviewed it and they came back and said it wasn't enough.”
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Andrew Carduner, the president of Palm Beach Polo's homeowners association, said Sanchez has been open and responsive to residents and that a judge-appointed board voted in favor of the project.
"They've bent over backward," Craduner said. "They've demonstrated to our board's satisfaction that they're the right group to remove this property from private hands and return it to the jurisdiction of the POA, where it belongs."
Juliet Hubbard, who is the treasurer of the Golf Cottages board, said the residents didn't want the green space to be developed but had negotiated with Sanchez to reduce the impact of the project on the surrounding properties.
“We all vote no to the proposed change from open recreation to residential,” said Hubbard, who has lived in the condos for the last 13 years. “We like to think of this as our polo field out back and that's our view.”
For Kiarsis, the development of Farrell West is a loss to residents who loved having the open space in the community that every year offers them fewer amenities.
"There used to be polo fields. There used to be world-class golf courses. There used to be 24 tennis courts," said Kiarsis. "Over time, Straubb has just stripped that down to nothing."
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Wellington OKs 27 luxury homes within Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club
