The
Village of Wellington
The Village of Wellington,
in Palm Beach County, Florida, one of the nicest cities in South Florida,
was incorporated as a municipality in 1996. It now has a year-round
population of about 45,000 which grows to about 60,000 in the winter
season. Median family income is about $80,000. Wellington is a very unique
planned unit development.
The village is home to the International Polo
Club. Palm Beach Polo Equestrian
Club, home to the Winter Equestrian Festival and many of the world's best
riders and horses from February through April, is also in Wellington. The
community's huge facilities, polo fields, barns, training facilities, polo
stadiums and private horse farms, have made it the polo and equestrian
capital of the world. Thousands of polo players, including the top players
in the world, come to Wellington each winter to compete in nationally
sponsored matches which are well attended by Wellingtonians, other South
Florida residents and thousands of visitors from all over the world.
During the same winter
months, the equestrian club is host to the Winter Equestrian Festival,
where hunter-jumper and dressage riders - including many Olympians - and
up to 6,000 of the most expensive horses in the world compete for millions
of dollars in prize money.
During the equestrian
events, local residents enjoy meeting some of the most famous people in
the worlds of entertainment, politics and international sports, and are
often graced with the presence of royal personalities such as Prince
Charles of England and the Sultan of Brunei, and actors Tommy Lee Jones
and Stefanie Powers, who play polo when they can. Celebrities such as rock
legend Bruce Springsteen and actress Glenn Close can be seen at horse
shows with their competing daughters.
Wellington is not only an
exciting place to live but is also a lovely, relatively new community of
homes, townhomes, villas, farms and estates priced from the low 200's to the millions.
Wellington schools are as
new as the community and it students have graduated earning acceptance at
the most famous colleges and universities in the country. Most Wellington
schools are rated as "A" schools at this writing.
There are a number of
shopping centers in the village including the Mall at Wellington Green,
Wellington Marketplace, Wellington Town Square and Wellington Courtyard.
The Wellington Green mall opened at the
intersection of Forest Hill Blvd. and State Road 7. Other new centers
sprouted nearby on SR 7. Wellington Green is one of the largest fully
enclosed malls in Florida. With at least five major department store
anchors, hundreds of shops, restaurants, office buildings and a hotel.
Most Wellington homes are on
quarter-acre lots but many neighborhoods have homes on half-acre or larger
lots including 5-acre and larger estates. Single family homes in the
village start at around $225,000.
There are almost no lots
left in Wellington selling for under $200,000 and only a handful of those
are listed each month. Only a handful of acre-size lots remain and they
are priced at more than $250,000.
The village contracts for
police service from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and fire
protection is provided by Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue.
The village has strict deed
enforcement regulations and a number of homeowner associations with
different regulations and bylaws that are strictly enforced.
Horse trails and bike-jogging trails are all over the community.
Wellington recently dedicated a new $8 million park and recreation
facility (currently undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion) with
baseball, football, flag football, roller hockey, soccer and other fields
for the children and adults, including a new gym.
The village also has a
high-end (former country club) Community Center for residents, where
families enjoy an Olympic-size swimming and diving pool, tennis and other
recreational facilities. Summer family memberships are currently priced at
around $300.
Several country clubs in the
village are available to residents and there are a number of excellent
golf courses, some open to the general public. If you are looking for a
gracious, prestigious community to call home, Wellington is the place for
you!
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