GL Homes’ plan advances: Nearly 500 homes could rise in West Boynton

A plan to add nearly 500 new homes in West Boynton was backed Thursday by a zoning panel — a sign of another possible new residential community coming to Palm Beach County.

Developer GL Homes’ latest plan proposes 481 homes on a plot of land known as Whitworth South, named after the vegetable-growing Whitworth family. The land sits west of Lyons Road and more than two miles south of Boynton Beach Boulevard.

Whitworth South is also below a plot of land called Whitworth North, where GL Homes’ 659-unit Valencia Grand community is currently rising.

The area is surrounded by a cluster of other neighborhoods, including Canyon Lakes, Canyon Springs and several other GL Homes Valencia-branded communities, including Valencia Reserve, Valencia Cove and Valencia Lakes.

If approved by the county commissioners at the end of the month, the new 481-unit Whitworth South project, which does not yet have an official name, would break ground on “land development and infrastructure” — meaning water, sewer, paving and drainage — in 2025, with the first homes likely closing in 2026.

In July, GL Homes president Misha Ezratti said Valencia Grand was 95% sold.

While the 481-unit community also will be another Valencia project, it is still separate from Valencia Grand, according to GL Homes’ vice president Kevin Ratterree.

“It will have its own recreation amenities, its own buffers, its own space,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel after the zoning meeting Thursday. “They are functioning as two separate communities.”

The proposal was approved without any discussion at Thursday’s meeting, which Ratterree said is because it follows all the county’s zoning rules, including the 60/40 Agricultural Reserve condition. This allows development if at least 60% of the project’s total land is dedicated to preservation, leaving up to 40% of the land to build on.

On GL Homes’ 1,140 acres of land in both Whitworth North and South, the Valencia Grand homes and the future 481 homes will be built on 455 acres of land.

The remaining 682 acres of land will constitute preserve parcels, which GL is allotting into 37 different areas of land in the county, some with as much as 148 acres and some with fewer than 3 acres.

“This has been done multiple times in the Agriculture Reserve,” Ratterree said.

Critics of the plan, including County Mayor Maria Sachs, have said adding the 481 homes will place a burden on county’s infrastructure , which is already suffering under the weight of explosive growth.

“I am not against development, I am for smart development,” Sachs said. “Let’s give it a pause, let’s catch up so that the people who do buy those beautiful homes don’t come before the board and complain about traffic.”

The county commissioners will decide on the proposal on Oct. 24.