Besides all the wonderful accomplishment over the past few years in Lake Worth, Thursday night there was a Tri-Meeting at our Golf Course consisting of the City Commission, Planning & Zoning Board and our Historical Preservation Board to come to a consensus on what our city should look like in the future and revise some of the parameters. The purpose was to discuss Land Development Regulations including city policies, height, density, intensity, design parameters, permitted uses, current and future land uses and the Comprehensive Plan. There was good attendance and those with a particular and specific interest attended as well.
The addition of three (3) new districts was introduced and the discussion of collapsing several districts into one district. The new districts are:
- the Artisanal Industrial
- the Industrial Park of Commerce
- the Mixed Use West.
There also is a split Mixed Use district that was proposed for Dixie Highway. The former Industrial District, Commercial District, Professional Office Districts (four) all have been eliminated.
There are no changes proposed for the Mobile Home Residential, Public, Public Recreation and Open Space, Conservation, and Beach and Casino Districts. When the process began again in March, there were twenty six (26) zoning districts. Now there are eighteen (18) districts in the revised proposals.
The meeting began at 5:30. It was lengthy and public participation was not allowed until the end even though we requested to speak after the break around 9:00 pm. When I left after the break, there was only a handful of the public left.
William Waters, Sustainability Director, is essentially the architect of our city right now and has a lot of respect from the Boards and the citizenry. Most of his vision was adopted with some exceptions:
1. Dixie East-- Staff Wanted 35 feet and 3 stories and under the "assumption" that the bottom floor would be used as parking. P&Z and Consensus of the boards was to keep it at 2 Stories and 30ft.
2. Dixie West-- the consensus was to take P&Z recommendation of 45 feet if the property faces Dixie. If it faces the railroad tracks, 35 feet.
3. Federal Highway-- Staff recommended 3 stories at 45 feet and P&Z recommended 2 Stories at 30 feet. Consensus was to allow 2 Stories at 35 feet with public benefits.
4. Park Of Commerce--The P&Z wanted 6 Stories at 65 Feet and Staff Recommended that is be 4 stories and 45 feet. Staff had determined that the Infrastructure Study indicated that it would not support P&Z Recommendation. The consensus was that we need to tweak the infrastructure plan to allow the higher as suggested by P&Z.
5. Transit Oriented Development--The biggest conversation was the TOD's where staff was recommending on the east rail 5 Stories, 55 feet at three locations, 10th, Lake Worth Road and Somewhere around the 10th or 12th ave south area. That was debated for a while and the Cara Jennings' suggestion was the best for the higher station that it be at the city center and the other two be zoned as just pick up and drop offs with parking.
The TOD on the West Rail Staff--Staff recommended 65ft and 6 stories and P&Z recommended 4 Stories and 45ft. Consensus was for P&Z. Please note on all the TOD's that everyone expressed that there be very CLEAR language that if the TOD's do not happen that the zones must revert to its surrounding properties to ensure conformity with adjacent properties/Zoning.
As one member of the Planning & Zoning Board said, "It was democracy in action." I left the meeting extremely encouraged about heights and keeping our small town feel that will ensure Lake Worth standing out from all of the rest. We now know that with this consensus of our three boards, that will happen, at least for now. Highly qualified in so many areas including planning and architecture, William Waters had a lot to do with that. Thanks to the P&Z, Historical Preservation Board and Mr. Waters for an extreme amount of work and dedication that has been going on in some cases for years.
You seem to have left out our Commission in this report and speak about the boards. Is there a reason that you do not report on what the commissioners said or did?
ReplyDeleteIt was the Boards that did ALL OF THE WORK that lead up to this meeting. I did not comment on what anyone had to say although I do appreciate the comments from Wes Blackman of the Historical Preservation Board and Lynda Mahoney, Gael Silverblatt, Laurence McNamara, Robert Waples of P&Z to name a few.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't forget, Cara Jennings.
ReplyDeleteThe opinions of the commissioners are the most important here as many of these board members could be gone soon. Seems as if you are bias here towards the commission by not reporting what our elected officials had to say. Thank God we have Cara Jennings protecting our city.
ReplyDeleteWell, why don't you show up for meetings and write the story the way you want to write it?
ReplyDeleteAll the recommendations will be in front of the commission in March. You will get to hear what they have to say and their votes to accept. None ont eh Boards will be gone at that time. They didn't have anything much to say last night other than the Mayor saying, "We came here tonight to get a consensus."
P.S. Scott Maxwell never said a word the entire time I was there. Does that help?
See what happens when you don't hang around. Scott contributed quite a bit of positive after you left.
ReplyDeleteWe are right back where we started. Get into specifics anonymous. List all of his contributions to this meeting. I heard otherwise. Write your story here and what you want to spin. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteScott with positives? Now that would be a first.
ReplyDeleteThe P and Z Board(s) worked hundreds of hours over the last several years to get to the point of having recomendations for the Commission to consider.
ReplyDeleteThe HRPB contributed, but as a relatively new entity, in most cases, showed deference and respect for the opinions and recommendations of the P and Z.
Mayor Pam Triolo ran a wonderfully efficient meeting in consideration of all the ground we had to cover, and the Commissioners participated when they had questions or suggestions.
And as always Mr. William Waters was eloquent, brilliant, and gentlemanly.
The real takeaway from the meeting was that it was collegial, cordial, and efficient, and that the vision of the citizens (whose million plus dollars paid for the process to get here) as expressed in the SAC meetings, was recommended for Commission approval and Mayor Triolo sought consensus on each district as soon as it was appropriate, to achieve our goal.
Lynn does a great service by attending meetings and digging to get info about occurrences after she leaves so that she can report a wealth of knowledge to the citizens who are not in attendance.
She deserves thanks and praise rather than petty castigation.
Actually, Commissioner Scott Maxwell said very little during the meeting.
This meeting showed Lake Worth at its best, honoring the democratic process to insure a future mirroring its citizens desires.
Just for the record even with reasonable debate all three boards come to consensus and the meeting was a complete success regardless of how non-attending opinion would state it. If you want to speculate your just simply not in the game and if you want to know fact then you need to get into the game. The consensus was positive and bounding for a greater Lake Worth. If you disagree then you simply did not attend, listen or even participate. Thanks goes out to all the people who worked hard to make this triboard meeting happen.
ReplyDeleteYou have 3 new commissioners that might just reverse all this hard work and planning.
ReplyDeleteThat very well could be however, it is now on record that the Commission gave consensus to the outcomes reported as well as to the rest that was discussed that night.
ReplyDeleteThe Commission was present. The staff was present. The boards were present. Everyone of them were very involved in planning the furure of our city. The missing ingredient- the citizens. The citizens who were generously allowed to watch all of this marvelous,thoughtful wizardry going on,but who were NOT allowed to comment.Not until after 11:00 at night. When a two minute time limit was used to try to shut up the one citizen left to comment. What A FUC$ING BOTHER YOU DAMN PEONS ARE !!! Why do you idiots even bother to show up at meetings anymore?The most useless thing in this entire city is public comment.
ReplyDelete