“Avenir” could be in Palm Beach’s future

A proposal for a residential community with enough space for 20,000 people on a former cattle ranch in northern Palm Beach County has drawn the ire of environmentalists, who say the seven-square-mile site is needed for flood protection, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The developers, Coral Gables-based Landstar Development Group and Waterstone Group, who told the Post they bought the property for $30 million last year, envision 7,600 homes in a pedestrian-centered neighborhood laced with football-field size canals. They have dubbed the project Avenir, French for future, according to the Post.

Plans submitted to local government last week call for a 4,000-student campus for Keiser University and a pediatrics center hosted by Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

About 1.5 million square feet of office and retail is also planned, along with a 300-room hotel.

“The killing blow to this project is the fact it crosses major protected wetlands,” Nat Reed, a former president of 1,000 Friends of Florida, told the newspaper. [Palm Beach Post] –Emily Schmall