Public Water Supplies Headed to The Acreage Residents

By Mark Hollis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Mar. 11–Palm Beach County commissioners on Tuesday approved a utility agreement with the Indian Trail Improvement District to bring public water supplies to The Acreage, a community in central-western Palm Beach County.

Bevin Beaudet, the county’s top utilities manager, and Mike Erickson, Indian Trail’s board president, told county commissioners Tuesday that the agreement names the county as the utility provider but doesn’t force the improvement district and its residents to hook up to the water system.

The settlement ends three years of legal fighting. Under a prior board of supervisors, Indian Trail in 2005 attempted to stop the county from laying lines that led to Mecca Farms, where the Scripps Research Institute was intended to be located before plans changed. The effort failed.

Instead, the county spent more than $50 million laying dozens of miles of water piping throughout its central-western region, which ranges from Beeline Highway to Southern Boulevard.

Some residents of the area have opposed the water-utility agreement. They have expressed concerns that they will have to pay for water services they don’t desire, or that the utility lines will bring uninvited growth to nearby farmland.

Mark Hollis can be reached at mhollis@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5512.

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