A decision affecting plans for a much-needed expansion of Wellington, Florida’s, world famous showgrounds has been postponed until at least next month by the Village Council.
The land and funding for the expansion are tied to Wellington Lifestyle Partners’ Wellington North development project. It would involve removing 90-plus acres from the municipality’s Equestrian Preserve, a designation many consider sacrosanct, so a private golf community can be built there.
The showgrounds that is home to the Winter Equestrian Festival is a short distance away, where WLP’s Wellington South project on 290 acres will offer not only more room for the cramped equestrian venue, but also 107 homes. If Wellington North can go ahead, WLP will waive development rights on the acreage needed to extend the showgrounds.
Wellington North is the home of the Global Dressage Festival at Equestrian Village, which would stay at its present site until the new showgrounds is ready.
There are still many questions about the details of the arrangement, as well as exactly what features the showgrounds will include when it has a larger footprint, what that will cost and who will pay for it. There is also great concern that once development is permitted in the Equestrian Preserve, other developers will try to build in it elsewhere in the Village.
Meanwhile, the threat of a well-funded lawsuit and the prospect that some entity might buy the showgrounds (now owned by financially troubled Global Equestrian Group) could add additional wrinkles to the already complicated mix that has included a recall petition against four council members and a petition with more than 8,000 names opposing taking land out of the Equestrian Preserve.
The Council worked past 11 p.m. Thursday, the third day of hearings this week, but could not come up with a date until Feb. 7 for members to move once more toward a final vote on the projects because of their other commitments. (Click here and on this link to read the previous stories about Tuesday and Wednesday’s hearings.)
It takes a vote of four of the five council members to remove land from the Preserve so the development can be built. Meanwhile, two new council members will be elected in March to replace two who are term-limited, so that raises the possibility a final decision could stretch out even longer.
The projects are under the auspices of Wellington Lifestyle Partners, which includes developer NEXUS, former eBay president Jeff Skoll and Wellington Partners Holdings, associated with Mark Bellissimo, who manages Wellington Equestrian Partners.
WEP accumulated the land involved in both projects since Bellissimo took over the Winter Equestrian Festival in 2007. Some have expressed suspicion of Bellissimo, citing promises he has made over the years that weren’t fulfilled on various projects.
{For your convenience in reading this story, here is an acronym glossary: WEP (Wellington Equestrian Partners); GEG (Global Equestrian Group); WEF (Winter Equestrian Festival); WLP (Wellington Lifestyle Partners}
During Thursday’s meeting, which added more than five hours to the 50 hours of hearings and discussion that have been spent on the matter since June, critics and proponents of the plans had what is likely their final say.
“The show is very tired,” Olympic, world championships and World Cup show jumping medalist Rodrigo Pessoa told the council.
Rodrigo Pessoa competing at the Winter Equestrian Festival before the showgrounds became Wellington International. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
“Hopefully, the new group that will come in will do the necessary work to put it back to where it should be. I’m not interested in Mr. Bellissimo’s management or anything else. I have nothing against him if he’s an investor, but the management is really not his forte. Wellington and Tryon (N.C.) have been examples of that.
“Wellington is now on the map for equestrian sports. But we need to keep it improving and up to date, because only three hours north of here, they have done something quite spectacular,” he noted, referring to the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, where estimates are that close to $1 billion has been spent on a vast showgrounds, two hotels and restaurants, with more improvements to come.
“We don’t want to move to Ocala,” Pessoa continued.
“We want to continue and support Wellington. We love coming here, but we want to come to a better facility.”
On the other side, the Wellington Chamber of Commerce sent a note asking the Council to deny the application, saying, “While we continue to support the horse show, taking land from the Equestrian Preserve sets a dangerous precedent, opening the floodgates for anyone with land in the Preserve who may want to increase density in the future.”
Rep. Katherine Waldron, the state representative for District 93, which includes Wellington, sent a letter saying she has heard from many constituents about the issue that has caused “a lot of frustration, anger and angst.”
She added, “I do not think it is in the best interests of our community to push a vote forward at this time and suggest a final vote be delayed to insure our community can come together and have full knowledge of the project and how it will impact our very important internationally renowned equestrian community.”
Part of the delay in reaching a final vote seems to be the Council’s lack of familiarity with equestrian matters.
Jane Cleveland, chair of the Village’s Equestrian Preserve Committee, proposed adding two seats to the Village Council for equestrian representatives. She suggested two district Council seats from the Equestrian Preserve that stretches across 9,000 acres, representing 41 percent of the Village’s developed land and 25 percent of its tax base.
Wellington’s Equestrian Preserve. (The initials SFWMD at the bottom of the diagram stand for South Florida Water Management District.)
Do council members even follow the sport that is Wellington’s claim to fame as the “Winter Equestrian Capital of the World?” It was interesting to hear when they read comment cards submitted by the public to express opposition or support for the project that some prominent names with equestrian connections obviously were not familiar to them.
Interestingly, among those who submitted comment cards supporting the project were Katherine Kaneb, Bellissimo’s ex-wife; their son, Michael; their daughter, Nicole Jayne and Tristan Nunez, the husband of another Bellissimo daughter, Paige, who is executive vice president of WLP. .