Warehouses will rise around Bedner’s Market in Palm Beach County’s Ag Reserve

In the clash between development interests and preserving some of South Florida’s last remaining undeveloped land, Palm Beach County officials recently approved bringing warehouses and office space to part of the Agricultural Reserve.

The request for the warehouses was made by Bedner Bros Farms Inc., which is behind Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market in West Boynton, a longstanding staple that provides local produce near the intersection of Lee Road and State Road 7.

The planned warehouses with office space, encompassing about 180,000 square feet, would rise on two separate plots of land directly to the north and south of Bedner’s Market.

The plan became contentious when some groups of people, those intent on keeping the Ag Reserve free of development, realized the request would grant an exception.

The Bedners declined to comment to the South Florida Sun Sentinel about the recent plan, but Jennifer Morton, a landscape architect, represented the Bedner family at a county meeting on Aug. 22 where the warehouse approval was granted.

Though she did not specify what the warehouses would be used for, she emphasized the importance of supporting those in the agriculture industry.

Florida statutes say “it is the intent of the Legislature to promote agritourism as a way to support bona fide agriculture production by providing a stream of revenue and by educating the general public about agriculture and the industry,” she said during the meeting, adding: “If anyone’s been to Bedner’s Market, they know that Bedner’s Market is the epitome of supporting agriculture. It’s another revenue stream for one of our largest farmers in Palm Beach County.”

The plan

The current land use in that area is called “Agricultural Reserve,” or AGR, which is intended for agricultural and preservation purposes. This does include industrial uses, such as warehouses.

So part of the Bedner’s application proposed changing the land use from AGR to commerce, which was a land-use designation adopted in 2022.

The new commerce land use is meant to support “light industrial uses,” such as food production, as opposed to a heavy industrial use such as a chemical plant. It was created to “support sustainable economic development,” according to county documents.

Opponents of the idea say the problem with the Bedner’s plan is that a current conservation easement, which is essentially a way land can be used, would be moved to where Bedner’s Market is now, meaning an agricultural marketplace will technically be considered preserve land, which has never been done before.

A new use

Bryce Van Horn, who works with the county’s planning division, said the proposal would create an “isolated pocket” of industrial uses among active agriculture, environmentally sensitive and preserve lands.

“The intensity that’s proposed far exceeds that of surrounding area,” he said during the August meeting. “Overall, the proposal is not consistent with the overriding Ag Reserve Tier objective, which is to preserve and enhance agricultural activity, environmental and water resources and open space.”

County documents about the proposed change state: “The proposed change results in no-net-gain of preserve land.”

County commissioners still voted 5-1 to approve the change, citing the need to support farmers’ interests, in this case, the Bedners’.

“When a farmer who is actually in the Ag Reserve is helping to preserve the Ag Reserve with all of the acres attached to something is saying, ‘I need this for my business to survive,’  I have a hard time saying no,” Commissioner Sara Baxter said during the August meeting.

Meanwhile, organizations such as the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations, or COBWRA, opposed the exception, worrying it will lead to similar exceptions.

“The concern that COBWRA has is the movement of this conservation easement, the lifting of it, picking it up and putting it on top of an existing marketplace,” said COBWRA president Barbara Roth.

Opponents to the Bedner’s Market approval cited a broader concern about the future of the Agriculture Reserve: They fear that preserved land will be chipped away so much it will become irreversibly unrecognizable, no longer the untouched swath of farmland and nature.

A similar debate about the Agricultural Reserve’s future came up during the since-abandoned GL Homes land-swap proposal last year, which pitched swapping land from inside the reserve for land outside of it, and it was ultimately rejected.

Concerns have existed since the county’s 1999 referendum made about 10% of the Ag Reserve publicly owned for $150 million. But what often isn’t noted is that some farmers who live and work in the Ag Reserve could be struggling to get by — and have for some time.

“It’s not our business to know their numbers or their books. All we know is they’ve come to us, they own something, they ask for something that is allowable, and I think we should do it,” Baxter said.