It seems as if “Wellington Lifestyle Partners” (who are they?) wants to build housing developments that are more population “dense” than are now allowed, using equestrian preserve land.
What do people familiar with the area think about this?
Not in the area but I know a few people down there that are definitely not happy.
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So they want to remove 96 acres from the preserve to build houses but offer in return to add land to a horse show grounds?
Is that a fair “deal?”
In my experience developers don’t care about open land for horses, they want houses packed on top of each other.
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Welcome to Florida. The entire state has become a real 
show of intense development. In my experience…. There will be a bureaucratic fight. Homeowners and landowners vs them. But it’s really Just going through the motions…. And in the end the developers ALWAYS win. No matter how many council meetings, residents attend…. or how many lawyers they hire to discuss the impact. in the end, it always ends badly.
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Equestrian Lifestyle Partners is a development group of which Mark Bellissimo is the developer. They own PBIEC, Global, a good bit of the land around it and the Equestrian Preserve, bought under various LLCs.
They are basically attempting to hold Wellington hostage by saying if they can’t do what they want, they will build houses on the land adjacent to PBEIC, which will landlock it and prevent further expansion. They also will close Global and develop it. The land they are ‘donating’ to make a park has currently been undeveloped because it has no road access. If it is a public park, it must have road access. WLP is going to generously dig a big pond on the park land, and they’ll just happen to be able to use the dirt as fill for the construction project. There are a lot of shady deals involved with regards to how pieces of the land are currently zoned and some of the zoning changes requested.
Of course, once the Village lets that 100 acres slip out of the preserve, that’s it. It will be a tricky proposition to refuse every other attempt to develop in the Preserve. Bellissimo has owned a great deal of that property for years and continues to attempt to develop. I mean, why else would a developer buy land in a Preserve?
It should be noted that there are three members of the village council, including the mayor, who cannot run again and WLP, under various entities such as WLP, Gold Coast Feeds, etc. donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to those members. Pretty amazing for a town with about 30,000 registered voters. There are five members of the board. On the first pass, the board voted four to one to send the proposal to the state for its rubber stamp. Now there is a second go. Tonight was the third night of meetings with a huge turnout of villagers, most against letting the land out of the preserve.
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Interesting.
In the previous edition of this battle in 2012, when the town council election rolled around, Bellissimo’s preferred candidates seemed to have won a majority plus the mayor’s race. Then by some miracle the state of FL did a random audit of town elections. Out of the whole state the one race that got flagged for a “voter anomaly” was Wellington town council. I was like, “No way? Did he…”
The results were overturned and the rightful winners took their seats. As far as I know no one admitted fault for the “anomaly,” neither Dominion Voting or the Board of Elections.
I am sure THAT won’t happen again.
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It would seem if Mark Bellissimo had his way, he would develop every single inch of Wellington with luxary homes. I feel bad for the people who live there year round. He certainly has had a hand in ruining that town. He cares about horse sports, yeah right.
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Developers and fossil fuel company executives are some of the most selfish and greedy people on the planet. They do NOT care about anything other than their own pockets. 
Bellissimo is no exception
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This is Florida where Developers RULE.
Just follow the money.
Too many community leaders get bought off w/ $$$$.
I wasted many years fighting this to no avail. Finally had to accept
reality and throw in the towel.
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Not one unit of affordable housing.
Wouldn’t it be nice for the less fortunate to own a condo in Wellington.
Try Boston. They built apartments that you need at least 7million to walk in the door.
…and the developers won.
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Either the link doesn’t work or they’ve already poofed that article.
Does this work? https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/wellington-international-gets-green-light-to-expand-from-village-council/
Yes, thanks!
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Nancy Jaffer’s take on it.
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This analysis of risk factor from hurricane winds may make all these Wellington developments plans moot. It appears to be a nonprofit public service group of scientists. https://riskfactor.com/city/wellington-fl/1275812_fsid/wind
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