After more than 15 hours of hearings over three evenings, Wellington, Florida’s Planning, Zoning and Adjustment board after midnight Thursday recommended that the Village Council either deny a plan to remove 96 acres from the Equestrian Preserve or table the matter until a detailed application for an expanded showgrounds on another parcel is submitted and works its way through the process.
The 5-2 decision was made “without prejudice,” which means the matter can be brought before the board again.
The showgrounds plan is in the “pre-application” process, but several Zoning board members wanted more definite information about what the property will offer before taking land from the Equestrian Preserve. The majority of the board, however, is in favor of taking land out of the Preserve if everything on a site plan for the showgrounds as displayed at the meeting is realized. The panel also made a key decision by changing the zoning from Residential to Equestrian Commercial Recreation on 114.65 acres, in the area where the showgrounds would be expanded by 90 acres.
A view of the location of the expanded showgrounds.
John Bowers, the board’s vice chair, said he would agree to remove the land from the Preserve, if in return “we are going to get an expanded, larger showgrounds and more productive space.”
The showgrounds is at the heart of the Village’s equestrian community. While it once was the ultimate venue in the “Winter Equestrian Capital of the World,” competition from the World Equestrian Center in Ocala–which was just awarded a qualifier in the FEI League of Nations–and the even newer Terra Nova outside Sarasota has raised the stakes.
“Getting out of the EPA is a very material vote I would not want to take without making sure that all i’s are dotted, all t’s are crossed. I want the maximum benefit of being able to evaluate the application before I make a decision like this,” said Bowers, who spoke more than any other board member during the Wednesday night meeting that drifted into Thursday.
The board had two long meetings last month without reaching a decision.
Citing his lack of equestrian expertise, Bowers added he would want the Equestrian Preserve Committee to offer an opinion on the showgrounds application. The EPC in June unanimously rejected having the land removed from the preserve, and approximately 6,000 Wellington residents have signed a petition against it. The argument is that high-density housing will increase traffic congestion and lead to other landowners demanding zoning changes that could hurt the horse community’s quality of life.
But the Zoning panel is only an advisory body, and it is the Council, which meets next month, that makes the final decision. To remove land from the Equestrian Preserve, four of the five Council members must vote in favor of doing so.
Why did it take three separate sessions for the seven-member Zoning board to come to its conclusion? This is a very complicated situation, involving two geographically separated parcels of land whose fate is connected.
Here’s the short version, if you haven’t been following the hearings that began in June:
For a project called Wellington North, developers who spent $35 million on a golf course applied to build housing nearby on the 96 acres that is part of the Preserve and now the home of Equestrian Village, where the Adequan Global Dressage Festival is staged.
That property also hosts some show jumping classes that are part of the Winter Equestrian Festival, which has its main facility about a mile down Pierson Road.
The developers include Mark Bellisimo of Wellington Equestrian Partners, branded as Wellington Lifestyle Partners, working in conjunction with the Tavistock Group’s Nexus Luxury Collection. Bellisimo made his name in the horse world as the point man for Wellington Equestrian Partners in the 2007 purchase of the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center showgrounds, now Wellington International. He is involved with several groups that own large tracts in Wellington.
“Interested parties” were allowed to appear before the Zoning board Wednesday to make their cases against the project, and several warned of litigation involving both parcels if development is allowed. However, Village Counsel Laurie Cohen told board members that shouldn’t influence their vote.
Attorney Jamie Gavigan, representing the Jacobs family that owns Deeridge Farm on Pierson Road near Equestrian Village, said his client is opposed to taking any land out of the EPA. He pointed out that in 2016, Wellington residents by a two-thirds majority, voted to amend the Village charter to say “it shall be a Village priority to preserve and protect the equestrian community.”
Gavigan asked how a driving range and pickleball courts in the proposed North development “preserve and protect an equestrian lifestyle.”
He noted 244 additional residential units the applicant seeks on the property would not be transferred from any other Planned Unit Development in Wellington, and that is not consistent with the Village charter.
Wellington’s equestrian sustainability mantra.
The developers also applied for housing on the second parcel, Wellington South, which is contiguous to the home of WEF at the Wellington International showgrounds. The board approved plans for Wellington South, provided there is an increase in the number of larger lots offered and a decrease in density.
The land to be used in expansion of the showgrounds won’t be offered for purchase to Wellington International or rather, its parent company, Global Equestrian Group, unless the North development project on the Preserve is approved.
As Jane Cleveland, chair of the Village’s Equestrian Preserve Committee put it, the land sale for the showgrounds’ addition is being held “hostage” as the developer’s ace to make sure it gets the approval needed for its project.
Gavigan asked, “How can the Village tie a condition from one owner on one property to a project of another owner on another property? You can consider the South (project) without considering the North.”
Attorney Len Feiwus, representing Equestrian Club Estates, called it a “quid pro quo,” which he said is “not appropriate.”
The Equestrian Preserve Committee in June unanimously voted against removing the 96 acres from the preserve. But the Zoning panel sees a benefit to having an expanded, contiguous showgrounds for dressage, hunters and jumpers, at 180 acres double the size of its current venue.
Michael Stone, president of Wellington International, has testified that the expanded showgrounds would be able to host far more horses than in the current space, and offer an air conditioned hospitality area that would attract more sponsors. The facility would have a stadium and nine additional rings with warm-up areas. Jumpers would show there, while hunters and dressage would share the current showgrounds that would be adjacent.
The new showgrounds would have a real stadium, seating 7,000, as its centerpiece rather than an ordinary arena like the current international ring. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Dressage already has a lease with Equestrian Village for 2024, and seems likely to remain there for 2025. There has been an agreement that no building would happen at Equestrian Village, if development is approved, until dressage has a home at the expanded showgrounds. That facility, if all goes well, could open in 2026. Equestrian Village is no longer up to the standard for a top dressage facility, and there are no plans to improve it.
If the zoning change for Equestrian Village and other preserve property isn’t granted and the 96 acres remains in the preserve, the owner is under no obligation to continue offering a venue for dressage after the lease or leases expire. With the current zoning unchanged, some houses could be built there, and other permitted uses include everything from offices to a veterinary practice, a restaurant and a riding school.
Site plan approval and some other things would be required, but most are administrative procedures that need no public input or council approval.
Kelly Ferraiolo, senior planner for the Village of Wellington, noted the owner of Equestrian Village does not have an obligation to keep a showgrounds at that property. She said people wouldn’t be allowed to ride their horses across the land just because it’s part of the Equestrian Preserve. She explained it is private property and would require permission from the owner before people could ride there.