 Exploration
Pointe is the result of 42 separate visioning workshops, a two-day,
charrette-style community design forum and an online survey conducted
by Tech Village Partners and its consultants. More than 1,000
people met with us in person or participated over the Web, taking
the time to help shape the vision that is the foundation for
Exploration Pointe — A
Gardens Science & Technology Community.
 Those who participated
in the process talked of finding lifesaving cures. They expressed
a desire for educational innovation, economic opportunities,
solutions for traffic and an increase in the amount of attainable
housing. Many said they hope their children and grandchildren
will find meaningful education and employment opportunities
and remain in Palm Beach County.
They had a strong preference
for higher wage employment and attainable housing located closer
to the workplace — an arrangement
they say frees them from more limited housing choices and can
also enable them to avoid costly, longer commutes between home
and work.
 By a margin of three-to-one, survey respondents
said they consider living and working in the same community to
be very or extremely important, and they want to live in a community
with commercial services or a town center, versus having
to drive outside their community for services.
The vast majority
of participants expressed a desire for a community that is
walkable. Seventy percent want services within walking distance
of their homes and 33 percent want services within walking distance
of their workplaces. Notably, only about half of the respondents
said they have this arrangement, indicating an unmet need for
a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use community.
Below are the key
recommendations of these community participants and our plans
to apply those suggestions at Exploration Pointe
 |
| Create a place that
repairs and restores the natural environment |
| • |
Repair and restore distressed agricultural
land. |
| • |
Eliminate exotic and invasive vegetation presently
found on the site |
| • |
Identify conservation corridors where water flow, native
plants and wildlife habitat will be enhanced or created |
|
| Create a place connected to nature |
| • |
Dedicate more than 50 percent of the site
for conservation and open space |
| • |
Create a unique "greenbelt" setting with
preservation lands and conservation corridors enabling
most neighborhoods to have easy accessibility to natural
areas |
| • |
Develop trail and open spaces from the community through
conservation corridors to connect people to the natural
environment |
|
| Create a place where everyone can afford to
live |
| • |
Establish trend-setting goals for attainable
housing in Palm Beach County |
| • |
Promote energy-efficient and location-efficient mortgages
to allow residents greater housing affordability |
| • |
Design guidelines to allow mixing homes of different
prices in the same neighborhood in ways that are aesthetically
compatible while still promoting affordability |
| • |
Use mixed-use designs to allow people to live and work
in the same community with reduced travel costs for commuting |
|
| Create a self-sustainable place for people
to live, learn, work and play |
| • |
Allow people to achieve the ideal lifestyle
of living and working in the same community |
| • |
Develop in the form of a traditional town enabling
people to live, work, learn and play, completely and
compactly in the same community |
| • |
Reduce commuter traffic by balancing a diverse employment
base with a wide range of housing choices within the
same community |
| • |
Provide a wide-ranging mix of uses that conveniently
locates everything to meet daily needs close to homes,
workplaces and schools |
| • |
Incorporate pedestrian and transit-friendly designs
that encourage walking and the use of alternative transportation |
|
| Create a place for educational enrichment |
| • |
Plan and invest in a multi-layered educational
infrastructure unparalleled in Florida |
| • |
Foster innovations at all levels from early childhood
education to life-long learning |
| • |
Locate schools near neighborhoods to promote community-based
schooling |
| • |
Encourage one-of-a-kind institutions such as a science
magnet school and bioscience Discovery Center |
|
| Create a place of healthy living and green
technology |
| • |
Promote active lifestyles for better personal
health and reduced pollution |
| • |
Incorporate energy-efficient and green technologies |
| • |
Promote organic gardening within the community and
explore sustainable agriculture |
| • |
Explore alternative energy sources and other technologies
that help reinforce the sustainability of this community |
|
| Create a place of state, regional and global
significance |
| • |
Focus critical mass of the bioscience cluster
on a community that can capture face-to-face synergy,
establish an identity and become a globally recognized
place |
| • |
Create a community with a quality of life that will
help recruit some of the world's best and brightest
bioscientists |
|
| Create a place with enduring legacy |
| • |
Become the innovative community model for
Florida's future through our efforts promoting economic
development, medical research, educational innovation,
workforce housing and quality of life |
| • |
Pass to future generations the educational and economic
enrichment created by this community |
| • |
Design this community to be another jewel in the crown
of Palm Beach County and enhance the "gardens" theme
of Palm Beach Gardens |
|
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