The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) held a workshop
in March 2014 to discuss issues and policies affecting the Agricultural Reserve
Area. The workshop was held in response to requests by farmers and property
owners seeking to expand the development options currently available in the
Agricultural Reserve. Following that workshop, the BCC directed staff to meet
with various interest groups, to prepare a "roundtable" discussion of
representatives of each interest group, and to bring the results of the
Roundtable to the BCC for discussion and direction at a future
workshop.
As an initial step in preparation for the interest group
meetings, the Planning Division posted a survey regarding the Agricultural
Reserve in June 2014. Respondents were asked to provide comments regarding the
most important issues or problems to be addressed in the Agricultural Reserve,
as well as potential opportunities or solutions, and to identify a primary area
of interest.
Using the information provided on the surveys, meetings of
nine interest groups were scheduled in August and September 2014.
In each
meeting, participants were asked to provide comments on:
| Topic 1 | Desired vision of the Agricultural Reserve in the
long-term future |
| Topis 2-7 | Concepts proposed at the March 2014 workshop by
representatives of farmers and other property-owners (as requested by the
BCC) |
| Topic 8 | Any other issues, concepts, or ideas not previously
addressed |