New Laws in Lake Worth

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According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, some 40,000 laws were passed by legislatures who met in all 50 States during 2011.

I have no idea how many Ordinances were created in Lake Worth last year but tonight there are six Ordinance (laws) on the agenda that affect all of us.

We have created new distance waivers for bars that alter the required separation or distance from protected land uses from 500 feet to 400 feet for liquor sales and from 900 feet to 400 feet for beer and wine sales. In addition, full service restaurants in the Downtown Core will not have a proximity distance separation requirement. Soon, our entire city will be nothing but bars.

Now we will be creating an exemption for existing buildings in the City's core giving them a favorable exemption on the $7,500 parking fee. They say: When the use of an existing building changes, the new use often requires additional parking spaces or an in-lieu payment of $7,500 for each additional space that is needed. Further they argue that these additional parking spaces place an impediment on those wanting to invest in existing buildings or those wanting to bring new businesses to Lake Worth.

The City is bending over backwards to make things very easy for businesses to locate to Lake Worth and to lose revenue doing it. They still, however, have the option of charging you a fire assessment as well as a street light assessment next year. They made sure of that when they all voted (McVoy was absent) on December 20, 2011 to continue using the uniform method of collecting non-advalorem assessments specifically for fire and street lights.