Joel Engelhardt
It’s happening, County Commissioner Sara Baxter told 250 racing fans Wednesday night.
GL Homes is building a 200-acre off-highway vehicle park on its land west of The Acreage. And giving it to county residents free of charge, she said at a town hall meeting in Royal Palm Beach.
It “is already in the process of getting built,” Baxter said. “GL is constructing it at zero cost to taxpayers. So it will not cost us anything.”
Yes, but. The land giveaway is a sweetener GL promised Baxter in May, when it won initial County Commission approval of a controversial land swap. But it won’t get final approval of the land swap — which lets GL build more homes in west Boca Raton’s Ag Reserve — until Oct. 12.
- Right now, GL is clinging to a 5-2 commission majority.
If the 200-acre park is happening, it frees 128 acres of county-owned land at 20-Mile Bend and Southern Boulevard that had been set aside for an off-highway vehicle park. Baxter suggests the county work with a private developer to build a racetrack there to replace Palm Beach International Raceway, which closed in April 2022.
A little background: When the county sought proposals two years ago for a partner to build the off-highway park, it had an interested bidder. But Brian Penick, who developed Air Dania Motocross Park in 1994, died at age 60 before bidding took place.
No one placed a bid, the county said.
Uh-oh. Muck. One of the hurdles, particularly for dragsters, is the soil. It’s muck that could cost millions to remove.
- Baxter told the racing crowd the county might pony up some of the demucking money.
Of note: So many people showed up at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center that the meeting was delayed 20 minutes so partitions to an adjoining room could be opened. The second room overflowed as well. Watch the meeting here (starts at 26-minute mark).
Baxter wanted to know what the racers wanted. Aside from a drag strip, a multi-purpose race course got strong support.
How we got here: Opposition from racing fans delayed by more than a year plans to convert the shuttered-PBIR into warehouses. But that plan is moving forward after the landowners challenged the county’s initial rejection and won.
All you ever wanted to know about the GL Homes land swap
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
