Friday, April 1, 2011

L Street Parking Lot - Lake Worth

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People, thus far, have rejected this paid parking lot
during the day

At a recent city commission meeting someone happily mentioned that the L Street parking lot was full over the previous weekend. It was also said that the city had not been fining people who did not pay or who had overstayed their parking time. The City said it was going to start writing tickets. The Sheriff does not write parking tickets, so then, who does or who will? Will that someone be checking on the hour? Who is going to follow-up on tickets and try and collect when people fail to pay or will this be on the Honor System? I did not notice any signage informing people that this was a paid parking lot although you can't miss the pay-station in the middle of the lot.

Facts on the L Street Parking Lot
1. The City sold it to Les Evans, their favorite developer, in March 2005 for 575,000 and he quit claimed it to one of his companies, 601 Lucerne Inc. in August 2005.
2. LUCERNE Holdings LLC bought the property for 375,000 in December 2010. Why didn't we buy it back?
3. Market value is $77,405 FOR 1 PARCEL, the same for another and $154,883 for the third parcel.

The above photo depicts the typical look of this parking lot--EMPTY--during the week, morning or afternoon, other than the pick-up and trailer parked in the middle. Also, the very fact that the Finance Advisory Board as well as the City Commission voted down paid parking stations in our downtown, this one exists because of Staff.

The City entered into a Contract on February 1, 2011 to September 30, 2011 for the sum of $10,000 which comes to $1,250 a month which seems like a reasonable rate. It was signed by the Parties (Mayor Rene Varela signing for the City) on February 10, 2011. We will pay the owners, Lucerne Holdings LLC, rent and charge parking fees to those using the parking lot thus helping to off-set the cost to the taxpayers of Lake Worth and hopefully paying for the Lease.

I don't recall this ever coming before the City Commission. This is the main reason why I have always been against a strong mayor type of government. The Commission is supposed to be on top of these transactions. They are the boss, right?
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 1, 2011 at 11:10 AM

    Was Ramiccio behind this deal too?

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  2. Lynn AndersonApril 1, 2011 at 11:26 AM

    No. Tom was not in office on that Les Evans deal but he was in office during the First Union Bank Building deal.

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  3. Wes BlackmanApril 1, 2011 at 12:15 PM

    I was just there this morning picking up some sound equipment from Paradiso. It looks like this picture is from earlier today as the same truck was in the parking lot when I was there. I made it a point to look at the few other cars parked there at the time and no one had a ticket on their dashboard.

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  4. Lynn AndersonApril 1, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    Thanks, Wes. Actually the pic was from yesterday.

    Also, I corrected the error and changed it to Lucerne Holdings LLC as the owner. Thanks to Paul K for catching that. I just have Sunset on my mind.

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  5. AnonymousApril 1, 2011 at 5:39 PM

    It's true. I never see anyone parking here when I drive by. I bet it is packed tonight and no one pays. Lets all go park there and try it out.

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  6. AnonymousApril 1, 2011 at 6:17 PM

    It was supposed to be developed but naysayers stopped it

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  7. kkss21April 2, 2011 at 9:07 AM

    Staff,not the Commission ,run this city. It was SUPPOSED to be a perking garage for the downtown.who will be giving out tickets? Volunteers?

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