Let's start making some Sense

Gov. Crist said, "stick it in your ear" to the taxpayers when he signed SB 360. Right now, the Bill is being scrutinized by the eight counties and the 240 cities that will be affected by this Bill and how roads will be paid, by whom and who exactly has oversight for development projects.


A project in southern Palm Beach County. Will the developer pay for these roads? This Bill favors the very people who created the problems in the State.

The Sierra Club says:

West Palm Beach is the fourth most "sprawl-threatened" medium-sized city in the nation. According to the Surface Transportation Policy Project, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton is the seventh most dangerous large metropolitan area in the country for pedestrians, due in large part to its sprawling development patterns.

The American Farmland Trust says:

It identified the Florida Everglades and associated area as the sixth most threatened prime farmland in the nation, due to the impacts of sprawling urban development.

Read what 1000 Friends of Florida say about smart growth.

I can agree with former P&Z Chair and current CRA member when he says to channel new growth to developed areas on the coast and revive our older communities. Building up is fine too as long as we do not get Miami Beach or Fort Lauderdale in Lake Worth and we can support the increased population and the stress on our resources--more people, more consumption and we are running out of water. This is the challenge.

We just don't trust developers and why should we? We don't trust politicians when they go around our own Comp Plan. We don't trust them when they give grants to developers for failed projects. We certainly don't trust them when they are allowed to build a building like The Lucerne. And we don't trust them when they say build 100 feet or higher just so that they (the developer) can make more money.

We wanted to live here, a smaller city, but compromise is in order. What worries many of us is the "growth at any cost attitude" that we feel developers and certain city officials have had for way too long. It is time, once again, for communication here in our City. The City of Lake Worth's Comprehensive Plan is now in its final stages and the desires of all our citizens are important. Let's get it right and let's get going. Maybe we can do a better job for our own city than Gov. Crist did for the State with his passing of SB 360.

Let's put land use changes in the hands of the voters. We really do need Florida Hometown Democracy.