Butters' Deerfield Beach Industrial Park Plan Meets Opposition

Seventy-four acres of green space that might be transformed into an industrial park are causing debate.
Residents who live near the Deerfield Beach Country Club, which Butters Development and Construction wants to make an industrial area, mostly support the change due to to vermin, overgrowth and other problems that they say come with living near a carelessly maintained golf course.
Other residents, though, don’t want one of the city’s larger green spaces to be paved over.
Once it’s become an industrial park, which will would require a zoning change, it will be hard to get that green back, said Thomas Koenig, an attorney with offices on Hillsboro Boulevard.
“The entire Deerfield Beach County Club golf course cannot be turned into an industrial park,” said resident Bett Willett, who runs a blog about Deerfield’s city government. “This is an evil genie that cannot be stuffed back in the bottle.”
Butters Development hopes to get Deerfield and Broward County to change the land use designation of the 74 acres just east of Interstate 95 and near Hillsboro Boulevard from recreational open space to an area where offices, industrial buildings and stores are allowed.
The company would keep 47 acres as green space and a lake, building on just the other 27 acres, said Dennis Mele, attorney for Butters.
Part of the 47 acres would be designated as a municipal park, but would be owned and maintained by the managers of the new industrial park, he said. This is in part a response to residents who are concerned about the loss of open space, Mele said.
“There are currently 732 trees on the golf course,” Mele said. “We’ll have over 1,600 when we’re done.”
The city commission voted 4-1 to support the land-use change opening the way for Butters to build, and will take a second and final vote later this summer.
 
Source:  Sun-Sentinel