Commissioner Maria Sachs convened a crowded Palm Beach County meeting on the Ag Reserve, outlined priorities—traffic, infrastructure and Development Review Order (DRO) rules—and said she will propose changing a rule that lets some government and religious projects avoid a county commission hearing.

County staff will launch a community stakeholder process to develop a master plan for the Agricultural Reserve, but a proposed short moratorium on privately initiated amendments drew legal caution from the county attorney and divided commissioners and residents.

After a multi‑stakeholder outreach effort, staff recommended exploring a broader master‑planning effort for the Ag Reserve; commissioners largely supported a staff‑led master plan, asked for timelines and cost comparisons to hiring a consultant, and reaffirmed maintaining the current commercial cap while pursuing ways to incent already‑entitled commercial square footage.

After a multi‑hour staff presentation and wide public comment, the county commission directed staff to produce maps, vacancy/utilization data and to schedule community outreach and field visits before considering changes to the Ag Reserve commercial cap, preservation rule, location criteria, or Traffic Policy 3.5(d).

Commissioners heard hours of public comment and expert testimony on proposed changes to mixed‑use and commercial cap policies in the Ag Reserve, agreed to keep current rules for now and directed staff to return with maps, vacancy data, traffic analysis and community outreach, including site visits.

County reviews land use change request for Park West South in Ag Reserve area