Loxahatchee Groves Turns 20 on November 8, With the Founding Question Still on the Agenda
"The community motto for years was 'Love It and Leave It Alone,'" Mayor Lisa El-Ramey told the Town-Crier this month, ahead of the town's 20th anniversary. "That sentiment still captures much of what residents value about Loxahatchee Groves."
The motto has never said what "leave it alone" looks like on a specific road or a specific stretch of Southern Boulevard. Those details are where the town has spent 2026. On Sunday, Nov. 8, Loxahatchee Groves will celebrate the 2006 vote that created it. In the same year, the council has received a study saying development has diluted the town's identity, moved a long-delayed road project toward paving, and won a recommendation for state trail funding. None of the three is finished, and all three turn on the question residents voted on in 2006.
The Town's event listing is called "Celebrate Loxahatchee Groves' 20th & America's 250th Anniversaries." It combines the town's birthday with the national one and adds recognitions for veterans, three days before Veterans Day.
Southern Palm describes itself as a bed-and-breakfast and private event venue on 20 acres at 15130 Southern Palm Way, with eight guest suites.
The park itself is a 28.76-acre county community park, open sunrise to sunset. Palm Beach County's park listing includes an equestrian trail, a 10-station exercise course that runs 0.47 miles, two reservable pavilions, grills, a playground, restrooms and one softball field. It lists a single picnic table, so a folding chair is worth packing for a three-hour afternoon.
Loxahatchee Groves didn't begin with incorporation, and the anniversary only makes sense against the longer timeline.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1902 | Southern States Land and Timber Company buys the land |
| 1917 | The West Palm Beach Canal is completed, and pioneers and farmers begin to settle |
| 2006 | After a multi-year process, residents vote to incorporate |
| March 2026 | The State of the Town address lays out road, drainage and trail plans |
| June 2026 | The council receives a draft Southern Blvd. Corridor Study |
| Nov. 8, 2026 | 20th anniversary celebration at Loxahatchee Groves Park |
The Town-Crier's anniversary story says the land kept its rural character for decades. As the rest of the county developed quickly, that growth threatened the way of life people there knew, and residents incorporated "to protect their home and prevent the growing encroachment of urbanization around them." The result is a town of about 8,000 acres and more than 3,000 residents, often called "Florida's Last Frontier."
Twenty years on, El-Ramey describes the motive in nearly the same terms: "home rule and the ability to make the decisions that most directly affect our community at the local level." The March 2026 State of the Town address uses the same framing in its section on boundaries, saying the founders incorporated the town "to protect our boundaries from being swallowed by surrounding development."
Councilwoman Anita Kane put the present tense plainly in the Town-Crier: "We're still holding the line and trying to improve the town and keep pace with our needs as the community around us grows and develops." The rest of 2026 shows what holding the line involves in practice.
The park hosting the celebration sits on Southern Boulevard, and so does the town's busiest debate this year. On June 16, representatives of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council presented the council with a draft Southern Blvd. Corridor Study, paid for by a $75,000 Community Planning Technical Assistance Grant from FloridaCommerce, as the Town-Crier reported.
The study began with two public workshops in March and an online survey. Jessica Seymour, the planning council's principal program coordinator, summed up what residents said: development "has diluted the town with generic architecture and landscaping, that the infrastructure is aging and facing new challenges, and there's a general concern about the quality of life in Loxahatchee Groves." She also said there is strong support for limiting commercial development.
The study's top recommendations were these:
All of it is advisory. "Each piece of this is something that can be acted upon either slowly or not at all," Seymour said. Seymour also told the council that the study does not change anyone's zoning or land use. The council voted 4-1 to receive and file it, with Vice Mayor Manish Sood dissenting, and the study goes to the state to meet the grant's requirements.
The same corridor already includes Palm Beach State College's Dennis P. Gallon Campus at 15845 Southern Blvd. The college lists a Dental and Health Innovation Building there, with a dental clinic, a surgical technology suite and science labs. The study doesn't settle how the next projects along that frontage should look. It gives the council a set of tools it can use whenever it chooses.
Off Southern Boulevard, the town's version of protecting its character is mostly unglamorous work. The March 2026 State of the Town address called this year a "Capital Pause," because the capital improvement program took the biggest funding cut. It also said most of a $1.5 million state-funded culvert and catch basin replacement project was done, with the rest expected by April.
A Road. The address said the council was awarding the bid that night to complete what it called the long-awaited A Road project. The work came in order: easements, drainage, then canal bank and slope restoration, with paving last. At that point the Town said it expected the road to be finished before summer. A Road is also home to one of the town's newer small businesses. Vila's, a plant nursery at 2241 A Road, was among five new businesses listed in the town's planning and zoning report for April through June 2025.
North Road trail. The Town said it had applied for trails grants several times. In 2026, its application for state FRDAP funding to complete the North Road trail was recommended for funding, which the address said would bring "true connectivity to our trail system."
A linear park along the canals. The same address said the Town was working on a resolution to create a linear park along its canal system, linking trails "in a way that fits our rural character."
These projects connect directly to the corridor study, which pointed to roads, trails and the canal system as the places where the town's identity should show. On the town's roads and trails, "Love It and Leave It Alone" comes down to drainage, paving and grant applications.
The time capsule is the most direct link between the celebration and the decisions ahead. El-Ramey described her hope in the Town-Crier's anniversary piece: that longtime residents, "along with more of our newer arrivals, will continue to participate, ask questions, serve on committees, attend meetings and become involved in the decision-making process."
She went on: "More than 20 years ago, residents became involved because they believed this community was worth preserving. The best way to honor that effort is to make sure that residents continue to have a meaningful role in determining what Loxahatchee Groves will be in another 20 years."
Whoever opens the capsule will find out whether the corridor standards were adopted, whether the North Road trail connected and whether the canal-side linear park was built. A note written on Nov. 8 is a record of what Loxahatchee Groves looked like at 20, while those questions were still open. The Town's calendar listing names a Town Clerk Assistant as the contact for event questions.
If you're thinking about what the next 20 years in Loxahatchee Groves could look like for your own household, I'd be glad to walk through how the town's rural character, its roads and its trail plans fit what you're looking for. Lynda Molina is here when you're ready. Let's Connect.
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