French wine and French pastries was the menu right along with good old American Lake Worth politics and interesting people: from grandmothers to a veteran and presently a Guardian Angel with a black belt, everyone was interested in hearing what Laurence had to say. Martin the Mailman was there and it was great to see that he was doing so much better.
Several things were discussed last night, some of which were:
Laurence McNamara was the one who stopped the developer from building The Lucerne Condo to 75 feet, 10 feet above what the Charter allows East of Dixie. Both the Commission and the P&Z exceeded their authority and violated the Charter's 65 foot height restriction by approving a 75 foot building. Laurence brought an official grievance to the P&Z on November 18, 2003 to that effect which essentially says: No building or any part thereof east of Dixie Highway may exceed 65 feet. The developer was persuaded to build per the Charter otherwise it would have forced a Referendum. At that time, Wes Blackman was head of the P&Z and Loretta Sharpe was highly aligned with him, both very much in favor of the higher height.
Laurence is also the one who helped save Old Bridge from a highrise condo. The County requires that parking remain on the land for all to use because like the Mafia, they made the City of Lake Worth an offer they couldn't refuse. You know about those kinds of offers from PB County. We all do. They said, we will resurface the lot and stripe it for you at our cost but you must use it for public access and keep the parking. This agreement is for 99 years. There was nothing Laurence could do regarding that bad decision on a 99 year agreement but he did save the property from unneeded and unwanted development on our valuable waterfront.
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