Guest AuthorI may have missed an upgrade or 2, but I believe Avenir 3.0 was just released. This version appears to shed its former illusions of becoming an eco-tourism triumph (1.0), and a New Urbanist Utopia (2.0). Avenir 3.0 rebrands the Vavrus Ranch development as a simple and pragmatic solution to a host of problems the city of Palm Beach Gardens is not aware of.
One of the few things I remember from a business class in college is that the first rule of marketing is to “create a need people don’t know they have.” Marketing agencies are brilliant at this. Polar bears in Santa hats have richer family moments when they drink a certain brand of soda. Disconnected families suddenly gather around the dining room table when mom is smart enough to bring home a bucket of a certain brand of fried chicken. The holidays are especially memorable if your groceries come from a certain chain of stores.
Oh, if life’s complexities could be so easily simplified!
But wait, Avenir 3.0 is just that simple. Just sit back, download the app, and Palm Beach Gardens will be on easy street for the foreseeable future. As reported in the Palm Beach Post’s article, Developer: Avenir fits city needs, the developer and their team of experts want us to believe that all of those unwanted trips Avenir will add to Northlake Boulevard will become “the right trips.” Palm Beach Gardens’ foolishness in not permitting the maximum build-out on the MacArthur Foundation lands can be solved by allowing 4,800 homes in one project. An apparent dearth of “non-residential land uses” in Palm Beach Gardens (that “successful communities” have overcome), can be resolved by allowing it all to be created three-miles west of the urban service boundary in the middle of the Loxahatchee River watershed.
Now I understand why my computer always asks me if I am sure this download is from a trusted source.
Empirical arguments such as these are the Santa-capped polar bears of the land development universe. We are supposed to feel grateful to Avenir 3.0 for identifying Palm Beach Gardens’ precarious perch above a ruinous cavern, and then be awestruck by its wisdom to guide them away from a poorly planned future. Jobs, tax revenues, tourism and growth; trust us, we have run the numbers and we are here to raise you up from your mediocre success.
Let’s look at these common empirical arguments one-by-one.
Jobs: The booming sober house industry has been creating hundreds of jobs annually in Pam Beach County for years, but nobody is proud of that. Lots of things create jobs. To discuss job creation in purely empirical terms is marketing fluff. Don’t buy it.
Tax Revenues: Sprawling developments outside of existing urban service boundaries cost taxpayers as much as 30-times more than developments within urban areas. Stopping Avenir is critical to Northern Palm Beach County’s economic, environmental and qualitative future.
Tourism and growth: At what point does a community have the guts to say, “We are big enough?” New York City, for example, has had new and exciting developments while maintaining a stable population of 8-million people for as long as I can remember. Its developments refresh what it already has rather than grow its population.
Palm Beach County is still in the honeymoon period with growth. Cheap land and steady tourism have perpetuated this romance too long. Hopefully the relationship will mature soon enough to save us from becoming Dade and Broward look-alikes, but Minto West, and other recent windfalls for developers, make it seem as if the puppy-love will last forever.
Mature urban areas, like the New York City example, enjoy the benefits of an adult relationship between community and growth. Within this deeper, less ephemeral commitment to community, mature cities get to discuss how they can improve from within rather than how to accommodate a growing burden of external distractions. New York City has some of the world’s finest hotels, restaurants, museums and venues for the preforming arts, because it matured a long time ago and has continually improved the quality of its heart rather than the size of its being.
Palm Beach Gardens is just north of 50,000 residents, and I have no idea how big they want to get, but I feel certain they would be better served by a mature and sustainable approach to growth and future development. Refreshing its eastern neighborhoods; exploring options for creating walkable communities; and adding density and quality-of-life amenities to the existing urban core are among some of the trends that are energizing cities around that country that have far less heart than Palm Beach Gardens.
Or, they can download Avenir 3.0 and add 12,000 new residents to the Loxahatchee River watershed.
Let’s hope they read the warning before downloading.
Timothy Hullihan is an architect and freelance writer living in North Palm Beach. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
