The Well Botanical Garden History

 

 

The "Big Deal" About a Botanical Garden

According to the American Public Gardens Association, public gardens across the country receive about 70 million visits a year.  Based on our own research, we would estimate a smaller botanical garden of the size we have proposed (18 acres) to draw approximately 125,000 people per year.  This is based on comparing local gardens Mounts at 75,000 annual visitors and Morikami at somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 annual visitors.

 

Demographic studies of visitors to botanical gardens have shown that they tend to be better educated, wealthier, and middle-aged (40-49 years of age) or younger. Approximately 70% visit on weekends versus during weekdays.

 

According to the studies, recent trends driving an increase in garden attendance include concern for the environment, interest in locally grown food, efforts to reduce childhood obesity, demand for family activities, and mania for interactive entertainment - all great reasons to have such a public amenity.

 

What the studies have summarized regarding the value associated with these types of public gardens are:

 

Natural Value - These parks encompass some of the most scenic and biologically diverse lands in their local region.

 

Cultural Value - Parks conserve and provide public access to a wide diversity of experiences. Parks also protect landscapes and places of great importance to local communities.

 

Economic Value - Parks are being increasingly recognized for their potential to encourage economic activity in rural and regional areas. Expenditures by people visiting parks encourage economic activity and generate employment. 

 

Social Value - Parks provide a range of social benefits including recreation, tourism, education, and social interaction between groups, families, and others. They also support community well-being and provide opportunities for improving general community health through outdoor recreation. Parks also provide examples to the community of natural landscapes and ecological systems.

 

Here were the top 7 reasons people gave for visiting botanical gardens:

• ·        To have an enjoyable time with family.
• ·        To appreciate cultural resources.
• ·        To enjoy natural resources.
• ·        To enhance health.
• ·        To take a rest.
• ·        To get away from everyday life.
• ·        To avoid hot weather.

 

More and moreover the past several years, botanical gardens have gotten away from the "flower show" mentality to activities that are family-oriented and highly interactive.  People have shown that they want restaurants, convenient parking, safe play areas for children, convenient restroom facilities, and human activities in the parks. Most parks have responded with food festivals, edible plants cooking expositions, various shows and music, and other cultural events.

 

Wellington Gardens is specifically designed to deliver as this rare and special place that provides the community with a range of benefits and activities that most communities could only wish they had.

 

The Public Space Bill of Rights below comes from long-standing and influential planning and advocacy group called the Project for Public Spaces. You can find them at https://topgardenguide.blogspot.com/.

 

Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit planning, design, and educational organization founded in 1975 and dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build and foster stronger communities. They are pioneering The "Placemaking" approach was designed to help citizens transform their public spaces into vital places that highlight local community assets and serve community needs.  In short, they believe in developing multi-use public spaces that create a strong sense of place for communities.

 

In response to the PPS's Bill of Rights we asked ourselves two questions:

Was there any part of the Public Space Bill of Rights that people would not universally regard as a "good thing"?

 

Do we presently have such public space in our own hometown of Wellington?

Our answers to both of the above questions led us to what we propose for Wellington today - our Wellington Gardens project. We are passionate about Wellington Gardens and what it can do for Wellington because we believe strongly that it can fulfill for our community each of the points made in the Public Space Bill of Rights immediately below.

 

And, if each of those points are considered to be a good thing and we can accomplish them at Wellington Gardens, then Wellington Gardens must be a good thing for Wellington too.

 

If you see the future in South Florida as we do, as a competition among municipalities to attract and retain both quality residents and jobs, it's worth making an honest assessment of how Wellington currently stacks up against other communities on important quality of life issues.

 

As Hall of Fame football coach, Chuck Noll, said: "Success is a journey, not a destination."  When you think you've arrived, that's when you're on the path to losing.  In other words, we should never be too satisfied with where we are present. We can always find ways to do better.

 

Let's first establish that in making any comparisons with other communities we're not suggesting that Wellington should be more like any of the comparable communities. In fact, just the opposite. Wellington should be especially thoughtful about realizing and building upon its own unique existing character.  That's what we intend to do.

 

The Demographics - Before we bother to make comparisons it's important to note, and possibly a surprise, that Wellington's demographics are arguably superior to similar Palm Beach County communities (see the ones noted just below). Wellington has a higher median household income; more population than all but Boca Raton; a younger median age; and much stronger future growth prospects than any of the communities noted.  We just have some catching up to do on the amenities scale.  

The Natural Amenities - Wellington obviously doesn't have the beach element that many competing communities have - Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, for example. However, Wellington possesses something pleasing that most of them don't possess - and that's an abundance of open green space.

 

It is this characteristic of Wellington - open vistas and green space - that we can build upon and enhance to serve as our community's attractive natural amenity.  We incorporate this element into our Wellington Gardens plans for K Park by setting aside extremely generous acreage (approximately 20 acres in all) to create quality open green space (parks and gardens). Wellington Gardens will emphasize this important characteristic of our community. 

 

Restaurants - Aside from our abundance of chain restaurant concepts that are scattered around town as free-standing buildings on outparcels surrounded by asphalt, Wellington offers a relatively small selection of better quality and/or independent restaurants compared to any of the communities named above. Yes, we have Coach House, The Grille, Oli's, Agilolio, Franco's, Devine Bistro, Stonewood, Kontiki, Tub Tim, and Jordan's.

 

Heck, we'll even throw in Bonefish Grille, as among our better restaurant offerings. But, let's be honest, this offering is meager by comparison to what any of the other above communities offer for better dining. And, it's not just the paltry number of our better dining options where we fall far short, but it's also the setting/atmosphere that is sorely lacking at each place.

 

Just think about the outdoor dining options we have in Wellington and try to come up with the lone restaurant whose outdoor dining consists of something more than tables on a sidewalk overlooking a parking lot.  If you came up with Coach House, you got it.  Our Wellington Gardens plan will bring at least 4-5 quality, restaurant offerings.

 

And, each will provide generous outdoor patio dining that is beautifully landscaped and overlooking nothing but a green, expansive central park and promenade walkways. Oh, and one more thing, with perhaps 1 or 2 exceptions, the restaurant concepts will be unique independents, not more chain concepts. We already have commitments from 3 quality independent restaurant operators.

 

Entertainment - Okay, you know our entertainment options in Wellington and you know that they are scarce. That's why you often drive somewhere else for this purpose. And, it's why you worry now or will worry in the future about your teenage sons or daughters having to drive more than 30 minutes at night to find a place to go out for an exciting date.

 

With the Urban Land Institute and nearly every other planning body identifying entertainment as a key component for successful communities, we think it's critical that Wellington delivers on this element. Every one of the communities noted above has its own modern movie theater or theaters, bowling, live music, and more.

 

We plan for all of these in state-of-the-art fashion for our proposed Wellington Gardens project. A nice dinner and a movie right here in our own backyard? It's convenient. It will save Wellington residents many needless hours of drive time each year. And, it will enhance our local quality of life.

 

Strolling, Walkability, Parks and Nature - Here's one category where Wellington can really take the lead in providing to our residents a superior community amenity. Most suburban communities have not planned well enough for this highly-prized feature, but Wellington is extremely well-positioned to deliver in what can be an exceptional way for our community.

 

In Wellington Gardens we will provide our own walking/biking paths through the parking area and botanical gardens, but what we propose on a larger, community-scale is that these walking/biking paths be extended along with Stribling from K Park to Forest Hill, east to 441, then south all the way to Versailles.

 

With landscaping, shaded areas, lighting, and signage, this would serve as an incredibly good and useful walkable loop around Wellington's commercial core. It could help significantly to alleviate some of the traffic concerns in this commercial corridor. And, at least one excellent destination/stopping point on the loop would be the parks, cafes, and gardens that Wellington Gardens would provide. See the blog post, "A Walkability Plan for Wellington" below.

 

Wellington can compare favorably and compete with other Palm Beach County communities on its own terms by creating and emphasizing its own unique set of amenities and characteristics. We have the opportunity at K Park to begin this process and serve as a model for what a great family community can be.

Generation Y also referred to as Millenials or Echo Boomers is the generation born roughly in the 1980s to early 1990s. What makes them such an important and interesting group is that they are the largest generational class since the Baby Boomers.  In most cases, they are the sons and daughters of the Baby Boomers, explaining how they earned the name, Echo Boomers.

 

According to broad demographic studies, what are the characteristics that define this group? Most importantly, they represent the new, dynamic worker class. They are our youthful entrepreneurs and, to a great extent, the group that will determine the desirability and future success of our communities based on their social preferences.

 

While the Baby Boomers drove the development of the suburbs, the Echo Boomers are echoing back with a more urban vibe.  They show a preference for higher density living patterns where walking and biking play a bigger role in everyday life. Walkability and convenient access to amenities are high on their list of characteristics that make for desirable living places.

 

Why is this important to recognize? Because the communities, in particular suburbs, that play to the desires of Generation Y are the communities that will flourish and remain vibrant. They will be the places that attract the energy, ideas, young families, and new generation of wealth creation that will follow from Generation Y.

 

Those communities that fail to respond will grow older, more sleepy, and less dynamic.  In fact, demographic trends already bear out the fact that, on a national level, our suburbs have begun to grow older while our urban areas are attracting a younger generation.

 

As a relatively young and still-growing suburban community, Wellington has the chance to better define itself and to make improvements that will help to ensure its growth as a community in what nearly all would consider positive ways.

 

Better amenities, better walkability, more green space, reduced automobile congestion, and protected home values are all things that will serve to make Wellington a better community in the future.  And, the great thing is that the future can start now by selecting the right development catalyst at strategically important K Park. By considering K Park in the larger context of our entire community, Wellington has the opportunity to kick start the community on the path toward a better future - one that will be attractive to the next generation of Wellingtonians. And, Y not?    

If you had to name a single buzzword to characterize suburban planning and suburban planning needs now and for the future the word would be "walkability." The interesting thing about walkability is that it's not likely to be just some passing fad, but rather a highly desirable feature of communities now and for the long term.

 

There are websites devoted to nothing but this topic - walkscore.com; walkability.org; walklive.org, etc.  Think it's not important? Nearly every residential real estate website incorporates some measure of walkability for people to evaluate the overall desirability of a prospective new home.

 

The communities that plan for walkability and plan well will benefit in terms of higher home values, job creation, less traffic congestion, and a happier, healthier resident base.  Those that fail to plan will likely find themselves not just falling behind, but also with a likely more difficult task to create these features in the future.

 

To emphasize the importance of walkability in suburban planning we have no less a planning authority than the Urban Land Institute strongly advocating specifically for more compactly developed, walkable suburbs.  See the ULI's study and recommendations on the reinvention of our suburbs.

 

What is clear is that the spread-out, automobile-oriented suburbs of the past will either make the transition to become more compact, walkable, and green or they will lose out in the competition of desirable places to live.

 

To our way of thinking walkability works best when people are given a reason to walk - a place to go, a destination. We have proposed Wellington Gardens (at K Park) as that place. Wellington Gardens will have its own highly desirable walking paths, but an even better, more comprehensive plan for Wellington would be to develop a central, walkable core that, at the least, begins with the area defined by Forest Hill to the north, 441 to the east, and Stribling Way to the west and south.  See map below - walkable pathways are shown in blue.

 

The area defined by the blue square is roughly one mile by one mile.  It encompasses an easily walkable distance. Not only that but it provides easy walking/biking access for much of the substantial nearby population by extending east to Village Walk/Olympia and the new Tennis Center, south to Versailles, west to Castellina and Oakmont, and north to Wellington's Edge and Eastwood. 

Most of these paths are already in place and a few enhancements (better landscaping, lighting, shade, and signage) could make for both an attractive and useful walking network. Perhaps even portions of the large FPL easement along with Stribling to the west could be used for small park space or all-purpose open fields - power lines notwithstanding. In their present condition, they don't even serve as attractive green spaces.

 

We would propose one further enhancement for both safety and convenience - a pedestrian walking bridge crossing 441 from Emerald Cove Middle School over to K Park.  This bridge would invite pedestrian access from Olympia, Village Walk, and the Tennis Center to the central walking core.

And, it would better ensure the safety of our young people who will likely want to be a part of the action across 441. As it now stands 441 is both a physical and mental barrier separating 2 large communities (Village Walk and Olympia) from what could become a central commercial and social core for Wellington.  

 

Wellington Gardens, with its central park, botanical gardens, entertainment, and dining would provide an excellent destination and/or resting place practically inviting the walk or biking excursion.  And, the walking/biking paths would not only provide exercise and health benefits to the community, but could act to greatly reduce automobile traffic in these corridors by making walking and biking an attractive transportation alternative. There could even be self-serve bike rentals provided at key points along the pathways to give people a readily available option of biking part way, walking partway.

 

The main point is that the right development for K Park shouldn't be determined in the vacuum of K Park itself. It should be relational to the entire community with clearly demonstrated benefits to the community. There is and should be a larger vision and plan for the future that will serve to make Wellington a more desirable and better place to live and work.  K Park is just one piece, albeit an important starting piece, of that puzzle.

 

When we talk about feasibility as it relates to real estate development most people immediately think "financial feasibility" in terms of will it work (make enough money to succeed) and can the developer pay for it/finance it.

 

But, the truth is that feasibility considerations go far beyond mere financial concerns.  It wasn't until the early 1970s that there was even a framework in place for what we consider modern-day real estate feasibility studies.  That all came about due to the work and thinking of Wisconsin professor James Graaskamp who is still regarded as the father of real estate feasibility studies.

 

Graaskamp's greatest contribution to the methodology used today was what he called the FOUR LEGS OF FEASIBILITY.  Of course, one was "financial", but the other 3 legs were equally as important even though they require different considerations.  They were likened to the 4 legs that support a table - the table isn't stable if it's missing even one of the legs.

 

The first LEG was "ethical" - referring to the developer's own soul-searching about whether his or her proposed development is the right thing for the community and the right thing in order to succeed. In other words, don't delude yourself about the rightness of your development for any consideration other than, is this the right thing for this particular location?

 

The second LEG was "regulatory" - referring to zoning, legal and other entitlements that must be attainable in order to permit the development of the planned project.  This LEG is typically greatly influenced by the next one.

 

Finally, the third LEG was "political" - referring not to municipal government, but rather to the people of the community who Graaskamp called the "stakeholders".  What this leg of feasibility asks is "who do we look to please?" Who is our customer?  Will the stakeholders support what we propose to do? 

 

In the case of Wellington, the clear stakeholders are the residents of Wellington who, as a community, are the owners of the K Park parcel.  The question is, what do the residents of Wellington want at the K Park site? What do they not want?  And, have we done our best to both inform them and listen to them?

 

Without gaining the political support of the people for a proposed project, it follows that the regulatory leg can be problematic because zoning and permit approvals are influenced directly by the political support or lack of support that a project has with the people.  It's really nothing more than a simple and compelling exercise in local democracy and community involvement. It represents the best of how local government works on behalf of the people.

 

This is a big reason why we took our Wellington Gardens development proposal directly to residents of Wellington - to gauge and hopefully enlist their support for what we proposed to do on the K Park property. See our survey results for what Wellington residents had to say.

 

In our Wellington Gardens proposal we look to fulfill all FOUR LEGS of feasibility as they have been clearly established over the past 45 years. By doing all that we can to best demonstrate Wellington Gardens "feasibility" for the K Park site our hope is that there is a greater appreciation among Wellington residents and with Village Council for our project, the homework that's been done, and the thoughtful consideration that has been given to the community. 

 

Even if there are those within the community who, in the end, don't agree with our outcome -our Wellington Gardens project proposal - at least they, perhaps, won't find too many faults in our process and our goal of working to fulfill the highest possible standards of feasibility.  

 

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If "market driven" is the term used to describe an important contributing factor by which a winning proposal may be chosen for K Park then it's important that we understand and address what it means relative to any proposed development for K Park.  In general, "market driven" is something we associate with a free and open economic system. The initial reaction is to say, "market-driven", hey, that sounds like a good thing - the American way.

 

The only problem applying market-driven to a discussion of K Park is the question of who is the market?

 

For us, the target "market" was clearly our Wellington residents.  Another way of looking at it is simply to ask, who is our customer?  Who are we aiming to please? The answer was simple and obvious. Not only will Wellington residents be greatly affected, likely for generations, by what is built at K Park, but they are also the owners of K Park.  The people of Wellington had to be the market that drove our Wellington Gardens plan. 

 

Whatever criteria our Village Council ultimately applies in making its decision regarding K Park's future development, we hope that this decision is driven at least as much by the marketplace of ideas as it is by money. And, despite the fact that our own Wellington Gardens proposal would benefit from such idea-based criteria, our position on this point isn't entirely one of self-interest.

 

Communities adopted zoning and planning for a reason.  That's to control what type of development occurs at specific sites and/or to encourage certain types of development in specific places within the community. If we choose to leave K Park to the monetary whims of the marketplace - and nothing but money - we'll forego the opportunity (some would even say, the obligation) to do what's best for our community and its future.

 

Not everyone has to agree on the benefits of a Town Center or a Main Street concept for Wellington as being the best thing for Wellington's future, but all of our nation's best community planning bodies have joined to develop what they call "Smart Growth Principles" for community planning and development.

 

These principles emphasize the importance of town centers, public spaces, and plazas, bike paths, and community gathering places as being highly important to the successful future of our suburbs and suburban development.  And, they encourage the input and participation of the people in the planning process.

 

We encourage Village Council to adopt criteria for K Park's development that strongly considers community needs, what uses can benefit our community, and how those uses fit into a good, future comprehensive plan for Wellington.

 

There is a literal multitude of good research, recommendations, and case studies relating to suburban development, the future of suburbs, and their relation to our future generations. There is much that we can learn and apply in order to plan for a better community and a better future. Wellington has an opportunity to lead on many of these important ideas and trends.  A lot is riding on the fact that the meaning of "market-driven" takes into consideration much more than just money.

 

The Village Council will soon make a determination regarding the commercial development of the K Park property for some particular use or uses.  To date, several different ideas have been floated, from tournament baseball fields, to a large apartment complex, to high tech and business innovation/incubation center, to the creation of a town center (our own preferred idea).

 

In an exercise of determining what K Park really means to Wellington's future, we considered all the likely potential uses to which the property could put.  We then considered whether each of the considered uses could just as easily or, perhaps, even more appropriately, be located on an alternate site within Wellington.

 

After going through this exercise (and we invite you to do the same), one reason why we settled on a Town Center or Main Street concept for K Park is our firm belief that there is only one use for K Park that would likely not find an alternate home in Wellington - and that's the Town Center concept.

 

There is simply no place in Wellington other than K Park that is central enough and with enough available land to pull off a successful Town Center for the community. If we don't provide for a Town Center at K Park, the opportunity will be foreclosed on us for the foreseeable future. There is no good alternate space.  Whether that's a bad or inconsequential thing is up to each of us as individuals to decide, but from this perspective, we see it as a huge lost opportunity for a better Wellington.

 

Why does this matter? It matters for many good reasons:

Wellington presently lacks what most superior communities have - an identifiable, central gathering a place for its citizens - a figurative Main Street, with all the traditionally good things that Main Streets do for a community.  They are a source of civic pride, a source of community identity, and create a sense of place. 

 

They provide a place for people to socialize in the presence of activities they enjoy. And, as the National Main Street Center (part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation) notes, Main Streets serve as critical factors in business retention and recruitment; they help to keep profits in town; they create stronger ties to the community; they enhance and protect property values in surrounding neighborhoods; and they offer an excellent civic forum for the people of the community to socialize and interact.

 

A Town Center or Main Street creates a visual identity for a community. It serves as a place that embodies what the community is about, what's important to it, and further serves as a constant reminder of what it wants to be in the future. Whether it's about quality green space, recreation, culture, or even architecture, the Town Center helps to further and strengthen a community's identity.

 

A Town Center or Main Street can help to create diversity and uniqueness for a community in contrast to a world where sameness, blandness, and suburban sprawl pervade. Special communities have one thing in common. 

 

They are unique and they foster uniqueness in their restaurants, specialty shops, parks and services.  They are the types of places, that when people visit, they gain an immediate appreciation for an environment that they don't encounter everywhere else.

 

We have before us NOW an opportunity to take important steps to make Wellington into that special place. Let's not later regret this opportunity as an opportunity lost. 

 

 

"Companies making decisions about where to locate today are focused on where talented young workers want to be instead of - as in the past - where CEO's want to live."

 

Wellington has many, many good things, but the one thing it doesn't have is the ability (the physical ability) to mount a large job creation effort by providing facilities to attract sizable new white-collar businesses to the community.  We simply don't have enough vacant commercial space left to build the complexes and office space that would be required to make any type of significant impact.

 

If You Build It They Will Come? Don't Count on It - Consider that just a 40-minute drive to our north, we have the Scripps Center in Jupiter which, after $ millions in government incentives and huge political promotion from the state level, still remains a largely unfulfilled dream with "unfilled space". This very a large investment has yet to pay off for Jupiter, in particular, or for the state in general.

 

If new white-collar jobs could be attracted to anywhere in our area it would be at Scripps, where available space and other synergistic businesses just sit there waiting for the right new businesses to come along.  The point is that if it isn't happening there, we certainly have a very small likelihood of making it happen here, from scratch, with limited available space to build upon whatever business catalyst we may be lucky enough to attract.

 

Entrepreneurs Seek Quality of Life - So what can Wellington do to attract better-paying jobs and kick-start job creation?  If you consider the obvious patterns of job creation anywhere across the U.S., the places where such job creation has occurred share some common characteristics.  Generally, these places have a good climate. 

 

They have fostered communities that are progressive, forward-thinking, and committed to creating a superior lifestyle for their residents. They provide excellent community amenities that include abundant green space, and such elements as bike paths, good cultural and entertainment options, good schools, and an environment that encourages plenty of other new business start-ups. 

 

Creative business people gravitate toward concentrations of other creative people; they gravitate toward the places that provide them with a good creative environment and creative energy.  And, what's even better - entrepreneurs don't limit job creation by sectors such as high tech only.  They create job diversity which makes for an even stronger economy.

 

Here's what nearly all the articles on the topic have to say in one way or another:

The Secret's Been Out for a Long Time - "More than three-quarters of all new jobs are created by small business, according to the Small Business Administration, so a region showing strong job growth is in all likelihood a hotbed of entrepreneurship. The impact on the business of a city's educational and training systems, housing and living costs, taxes, regulatory burdens, and quality of life--factors commonly measured by other "hotlists" to identify strong economies--are all ultimately reflected by job growth."

 

If, in Wellington, we focus on creating a better, amenity-rich community, with a superior quality of life, we stand the best chance of attracting and retaining the types of people that are the engines of job creation. Without laying this foundation first, it's highly unlikely that quality jobs will ever follow.