Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Palm Beach County: More like Broward or neighbors to the north?

Click title for link to a Sun-Sentinel article on the topic. The debate about the "Broward-fication" of Palm Beach County has been going on for years. Back in the 1970s, when Palm Beach County joined the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, it was part of the mantra that said we don't want to be another Broward County. I remember when I first moved here in 1989, there was a serious political debate about limiting Palm Beach County's population to under a million people. If we were to surpass that, we would surely be an urban county. We are now at around 1.4 million people and we do have a lot more in common with our neighboring counties to the south. Ignoring that would be at our peril. The negative reaction of the counties north of Palm Beach County to All Aboard Florida draws attention to this issue now.
A Palm Beach County identity crisis has local officials debating just how “South Florida” they want to be.
Is the county that stretches all the way from Jupiter to Boca Raton more like Stuart and the small-to-medium-town neighbors to the north? Or is Palm Beach County’s future more in line with Fort Lauderdale, Miami and the hustle and bustle to the south?
The debate stems from the Palm Beach County Commission proposing to withdraw from the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and instead join the South Florida Regional Planning Council.
That would mean instead of collaborating with Martin County, St. Lucie County and Indian River County to plan for development’s regional growing pains, Palm Beach County would join forces with Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.