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DEVELOPMENT
OF REGIONAL IMPACT SUMMARY (PDF)
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When
state and county officials set aside more than $500 million to
bring Scripps to Palm Beach County, they reached out and seized
what County Commissioner Mary McCarty called "a
once-in-a-lifetime chance." That chance is to create a
new world-class biotechnology cluster like the one Scripps built
in La Jolla, Calif., where dozens of biomedical companies are
now concentrated.
Tech Village Partners intends to develop Exploration
Pointe on the 4,763-acre Vavrus Ranch as a live-work-learn-play
community that will provide ample space for spin-off biotechnology
companies alongside housing, recreation, shopping and office
space for the new workers who will move here to take advantage
of this opportunity.
In planning Exploration Pointe, we enlisted
the help of the public, whose participation has been vital
to our plan. We conducted 42 separate visioning workshops and
hosted a two-day, charette-style community design forum. More
than 1,000  people participated over the Web or met with us in
person, shaping the vision that is the foundation for Exploration
Pointe.
By a margin of three-to-one, survey respondents
said they consider living and working in the same community to
be very important, and they want to live in a community with
services nearby. In response to this public demand, TVP designed
Exploration Pointe to be a mixed-use community where employment,
housing, schools, shopping and recreation are all within close
proximity.
The foremost benefit of this design is that
it will cut down the time families spend in their cars each day.
To further prevent clogging county roadways, TVP also will invest
millions of dollars in private money for needed road improvements,
including money to widen and extend PGA Boulevard Ð saving
taxpayers the cost.
 There was also great public demand for a community
that protects and is connected to nature. Listening to the
land, we first identified land to be preserved and only then
decided what land was eligible for development. As a result,
the Exploration Pointe plan restores 2,078 acres of distressed
former agriculture land to natural wildlife corridors and water
flow-ways — and
this land that will be preserved forever! These corridors,
nearly half the property, connect neighborhoods to nature for
residents and neighbors to enjoy.
With home prices skyrocketing
in Palm Beach County, TVP also set out to increase the supply
of attainable workforce housing. Exploration Pointe will make
available a variety of housing options that will allow young
professionals to "grow in place" without
leaving the community — moving from townhouses, downtown
lofts, or rental apartments to single-family homes, condominiums
and villas as families and careers grow and thrive.
 Arguably
the most important part of making Exploration Pointe attractive
to science workers and young professionals is locating good
schools nearby. That's why we will donate choice
parcels of land needed for two new elementary schools and a
middle school within our planned neighborhoods. To support Exploration
Pointe's educational infrastructure, we are also donating
land for a Discovery Center, a medical research facility and
a new university research complex. Space will also be available
to host a magnet science high school open to all students in
Palm Beach County.
Development at Exploration Pointe includes
three distinct areas: the Town Center, North Village and
the South Village, each of which will have its own overall look
and feel. The Town Center, located on a four-block-long Main
Street, will be a home for retail stores, restaurants, businesses
and professional offices — all
in a downtown-like atmosphere. In-town housing such as loft
apartments and townhouses will give residents the unique
opportunity to walk to work.
 The North Village rests on the
shores of a scenic 134-acre lake, offering lakeside housing,
water views and a long lakeshore park. On the southern
edge sits North Lake Landing, a neighborhood center of shops,
services and lakeside dining.
The South Village is embraced
by an extensive system of conservation corridors, giving this
neighborhood a rural feel and strengthening residents' connection
to nature. Its neighborhood center expresses the relaxed character
of a Southern crossroads village, mirroring the nearby Acreage
community to the south and west.
In sum, TVP has designed Exploration
Pointe from the beginning with the end in mind. Managed by
Centex, one of the most trusted names among community developers
and homebuilders in the nation, TVP has planned this community
to leave an enduring legacy for our residents, neighbors and
their children all to enjoy.
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