Hartsell Ozery, P.A. is pleased to announce a victory in a recent Palm Beach County Zoning Commission hearing regarding the Calvary Chapel Christian School. The proposed plan of a private Christian K-12 school proposed on Jupiter Farm’s rural lands was denied. This decision upholds the protections established under the Jupiter Farms Neighborhood Plan. The Plan preserves the community’s rural atmosphere and enforces limits on intrusive nonresidential intensity.
The project proposed by Calvary Chapel Christian School failed to demonstrate why a K-12 school with 980 students is necessary in this rural setting. The project was simply too intense of a use in the community and would draw students regionally through an already stressed rural roadway network.
The adverse impacts of this development not only affected the Jupiter Farm’s Residents, but also the local businesses of Jupiter Farms as well. Surrounding uses such as the Palm Beach Motorcoach Resort, the Garden Depot Nursey, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, and Bridle Court homes do not approach the daily operational intensity of a full private K-12 school and would suffer the adverse impacts of a development of this magnitude. These impacts include but are not limited to high levels of traffic congestion amongst different periods of the day due to staff activity, after school extra curriculars, and multiple different grade levels scheduled to leave at different times.
The denial of Calvary Chapel Christian School’s proposed plan reinforces the importances of the public’s concerns regarding traffic, neighborhood safety, protecting the groundwater, and noise. Such impacts are a key to the compatibility and public-interest review under the Class A Conditional Use process. This decision helps ensure that Jupiter Farms will continue to maintain its rural character, respect the natural environment, and preserve the values reflected in the Jupiter Farms Neighborhood Plan. According to the Jupiter Farm’s Resident’s Director, Matthew Gitkin, “This Zoning Commission denial proves that when Jupiter Farms residents stand together, we can protect our rural
community’s quality of life and development that doesn’t fit.”
Despite this victory at the Planning Commission, there is still more to do. The development application is set to be heard by the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners on July 14, 2026.
