Plan for 621 townhomes on old Century Village golf course wins county's OK without opposition
A decade ago, Century Village residents fought plans to build at the shuttered Turtle Bay Country Club. This plan passed without a word of debate.
Mike Diamond Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH — The fairways of the long-ago shuttered golf course at Century Village near West Palm Beach will soon be home to 621 townhomes.
Palm Beach County commissioners Thursday approved D.R. Horton’s plans to build the townhouses on 57.3 acres adjacent to the Southampton condominium buildings at Century Village. The approval happened with no debate among commissioners and no public testimony opposing the plan.
The project on the former site of the Turtle Bay Golf Club is expected to be completed within two years.
None of the current county commissioners were in office when a different owner sought approval 10 years ago for a more intense project that called for an assisted-living facility, a civic center, 84,500 square feet of shops and offices and nearly 700 residences. A deeply divided county commission voted 4-3 to approve the plans; residents, who packed the commission chambers objected to the plans and threatened a lawsuit.
Reflection Bay project smaller than version proposed decade ago
The parcel's owner at that time, Andrew Waldman, never moved forward with his plans. In July 2022, D.R. Horton and an affiliate of Kolter Group paid $36.9 million for the parcel, and then scaled back what would be built and worked closely with Century Village to obtain support.
They agreed to improve the drainage system in and around the proposed development, benefitting Century Village. The result was an endorsement from the United Civic Association, an umbrella organization for the numerous condominium associations within the 7,854-residence, senior-citizen complex.
The development, known as Reflection Bay, will not be age restricted. School officials estimate that it will generate about 151 public school students, 45 of them at Palm Beach Lakes High School. The additional students there are expected to put student enrollment over capacity.
Reflection Bay will be built on the southwest corner of Century Boulevard and Haverhill Road, about 630 feet north of Okeechobee Boulevard. It will have a 4-acre recreation area. Prices are expected to range between $166,000 and $308,000.
The Reflection Bay subdivision is vacant commercial land adjacent to Century Village west of Haverhill Road in unincorporated Palm Beach County, Fla. It was once home to Turtle Bay Golf Course. Since the course closure more than a decade ago, nature has reclaimed the land with vegetation growing wild on the property.
D.R. Horton must comply with the following conditions:
Construct a southbound left-turn lane on Haverhill Road
Separate its townhomes from the four-story condo buildings at Century Village by creating buffers
Provide 24 workforce housing residences
(for photos and map, either google Reflection Bay West Palm Beach or copy and paste URL below:
https://news.google.com/articles/CBMimgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5wYWxtYmVhY2hwb3N0LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9uZXdzL2xvY2FsL3dlc3RwYi8yMDIzLzA5LzMwL3Rvd25ob21lcy1va2QtZm9yLXNodXR0ZXJlZC1jZW50dXJ5LXZpbGxhZ2UtZ29sZi1jb3Vyc2UtbmVhci13ZXN0LXBhbG0tYmVhY2gvNzA5OTEwMjUwMDcv0gEA?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen
Click on this link for detailed :82 page Kolter Reflection Bay proposal:
https://discover.pbcgov.org/pzb/Zoning/Hearings-Meetings-BCC/02%20DOA-2022-0119%20Southampton.pdf
Richard Handelsman
