Presented with a book that was inspired by the FMPA law suit settlement, with a smile Scott said, "You should have given this to me last week."
Negotiating is an art. Negotiating is not a part of the Vice Mayor's DNA when it comes to law suits...settlement is...let's make them all go away, far away. Since he now has the power and is a part of the new "visionary," the slogan really is "It's my way or the highway; let's take what we can get."
After last night' workshop on land development regulations, it is easy to see where this trio is taking the city...from a quaint low rise town with its own identity to more 65 foot Lucernes and scratching the back of developer friends.
Lynn, I was there last night and I disagree with you. Your remark that this new commission plans on allowing many more Lucernes is a political attack on a commission that is trying to save this city from a financial disaster.Our current zoning laws and comp plan are so screwed up that we are on the brink of bankruptcy. I expect that the minority will now go out and try to distort the truth to win in Novemeber by telling everyone that we can expect Lucerne buildings all over this city. That's not the truth but it sure makes a good political post card. "The Lucernes are coming, the Lucernes are coming..."
ReplyDeleteJohn--I like ya! BUT--if you are allowing 65 feet downtown, that is exactly the height of The Lucerne.
ReplyDeleteThat is why we have Republicans and Democrats, and those in between. We all see things differently...some through rose colored glasses and some actually have on blinders.
The Truth is not being distorted here and it never is by those who are in this "game" for the greater good.
I was there too, I do feel we need more development west of city hall on Lake and Lucerne, some of these Lucerne type buildings would be nice to have to get rid of all the blight we have here in the western downtown areas still, the 1200, 1300,and 1400 blocks of Lake and Lucerne need major attention. One perfect example is that of the building with the roof caving in at 1306 Lucerne, this property has been an eyesore for years and often very uncared for, always overgrown, boarded up, dumping, holes in glass, roof with huge hole in it, trespassed constantly, it adds so much blight to our city they really need to tear it down and put a Lucerne type building or something here. The Urban Artist Lofts will help on the 1200 block of Lucerne. The property owner at 1306 has been very irresponsible over the years keeping this property to codes, having many violations over the years, even now, it still looks bad, they mow it once in a while, but that roof is just caving in. The city and codes needs to do something about this place and address this blight Lynn, whether it is two story lofts or 65 feet, this block needs major revitalization and attention, it is a shame that this property is allowed to be this way, if it was in College Park, Lake Osborne, Parrot Cove, Vernon Heights or South Palmway, the homeowners would not allow such blight and deplorable conditions in their area. The city and property owner need to do something about 1306 Lucerne.
ReplyDeleteAll for Code doing the right thing anywhere and everywhere. I am just dead set against 65 foot buildings in our downtown.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I don't believe that we will build another Lucerne in our downtown. The Lucerne is simply an example of the height that this commission approves.
I looked up on PAPA about that property, the owner has an address listed in WPB, 6388 Belvedere Road, that really is a sin, that some owner who does not even live in the city can keep a place in such poor condition for the poor people who live here and have to live next to this blight and deplorable building/property conditions. This is a danger for kids and homeless, wouldn't be surprised if either try to get in through the roof. It only has a value of about $72K and they pay taxes of $2545, I guess they are waiting until they can get a few million for their property, it just seems like a sin that someone is allowed to keep their property looking like this. College Park or Bryant Park owners would pitch a fit with the city if they had a building like this in their neighborhood, it would not be allowed. It is very deplorable, blighted and uncared for, I can see the huge hole in the roof from the corner of Lake and D St., maybe it will cave in some day and the city will make the owner finally remove it. We need strong unbiased codes and code officers that have the same high standards for ALL parts of the city. A property like this brings down the value of people who live in this area, imagine someone who bought one of the newer houses near there for $200K paying more taxes, etc, and they have to have this eyesore a few blocks away, it brings the rest of the values down. Bottom line, this property owner doesn't care and is not assuming responsibility for their property, how can you respect this? It adds to the blight and overall look of our city, the owner, codes, city and CRA need to address this type of slumlord/property owner property conditions for ALL of us and a better city.
ReplyDeleteWe are not on the rink of bankruptcy. To even imply that it is because our Comp Plan is so screwed up is ludicrous to magnificent proportions. We have worked on this for years. To even insinuate it is because we are a low rise city is just plain ignorance. Start driving down Dixie to all points south and you will see empty buildings all over the place. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteI listened to the meeting online. There was quite a lot of William and the mayor twisting themselves into pretzels to justify the 65' heights downtown and to try to mislead McVoy and Mulvehill. They didn't fall for it.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason to max heights in the comp plan at 65' unless you intend to allow developers to build that high. William's sashaying around the truth was comical. Reminded me of Rachel Bach, only not as smooth.
And height restrictions are not the reason why this city is broke. That's the fault of unions and a tragic lack of financial management through projection. Something that Stanton remedied, and fast. Blaming it on heights is just lazy thinking. Why aren't all low-rise cities going broke? Is Martin County broke??
Yes, more Lucernes are coming.
As you drive south on Dixie starting in West Palm all the way down to, God forbid Boca- Lake Worth has the highest percentage of vacant stores by a lot. With affordable rents/ownership a diverse population, proximity to the beach and 95 and being centrally located in the middle of PB County, what's your explanation for the pitiful conditions? Show all the ignorant residents how smart you are. What's the reason and the solution?
ReplyDeleteAND . . . refusing to adopt a ZIP and losing $100 million in private investment isn't such a keen financial decision MADE BY THE SITTING MAJORITY. Apparently the investors were not as concerned about the comp plan as Opie from Lantany is. Hmmmm. Could it be that . . . . he doesn't have a clue what he's doing? Or he's just not being truthful?
ReplyDeleteSo thanks to the VISIONARIES and their new CM lap dog for scaring off $100 million in re-development. Is that what you call Open for Business? Only McVoy and Mulvehill were interested in saving those projects. But hey, who needs $100 million if we have sidewalk sales and a 5 story parking garage? It's all about selling incense, my friend. The rest of the city can go to hell. Or vote them out.
Overall, we need smart development and blight addressed once and for all. Can and will the visionaries do this? I wonder now about the blighted property at 1306 Lucerne, PAPA shows the owner's principal address is Belvedere Rd. in WPB, I don't know the name or this person, but I would love to know if he gave any money over the years to any political campaign or person here in our City of Lake Worth? Lynn you always have a way to find out the names of people who donated money to campaigns, not sure where you look for this, but would love to know if this property owner who's principal address is in WPB has given money to our elected leaders in LW over the years? Is this why this deplorable building and property are always so overlooked and is allowed to add to the blight in our community? Would love to know this. In Bryant Park we were able to rather quickly, to clean up properties at the corner of Lake and Palmway and 1st South and Federal, leveled them and clean them up and keep and make sure they stay mowed and clean, why can't this place also be handled this way? There is still too much blight in this city, too many slumlords and slum property owners. The mayor and commissioner need to address all of this. This is probably why so many people want more development and building to address ALL this blight.
ReplyDeleteWhen Commissioner Mulvehill complained about the loss of new development without ZIP approval, William Waters was asked to explain the $100mil---actually it was close to $100mil, like 85.
ReplyDeleteActually the low income housing project was subject to a PBC Grant which wasn't awarded to the project.
With respect to the Gulf Stream, the purchase offer to the owner wasn't accepted.
I guess $100mil isn't what it used to be.
Well, ask Greg Rice.
ReplyDeleteThe person who keeps posting messages here and on the other blog about the property on Lucerne is obviously a psycho. If you have an issue with the property, file a code compliant. Pursue a case with Nuisance Abatement. Do something besides complaining on a message board. Frankly, it is annoying and a little frightening your obsession with this.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I listened to the meeting. And Waters agreed with Mulvehill that we lost CLOSE TO ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS in re-development because the visionaries would not approve the ZIP. I heard no mention of the Gulfstream in his explanation.
ReplyDeleteBut I did clearly hear that the grant did not go through because he suspected that the project team pulled their app due to AMOROSO, MAXWELL, TRIOLO refusing to pass temporary zoning that would have given the county assurance that the project could happen as planned.
Call it what you want. I call it FAILURE TO LEAD.
I live in LW. I have lived in LW for over 10 years. I own a house in LW that is "historic" (code for small,cramped, and outdated). I have kids who are being raised in LW. I am NOT a developer. Call me crazy, but I think 65 feet in the commercial areas of town is just fine with me. To say 5 stories is "high rise" development is just not true. Just wanted to you all to see that a normal, non-developer, long-term resident of LW doesn't think 65 feet is going to ruin LW or hand it over to developers. I think it will all ow our City to grow moderately, improve, and succeed in the future. Just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteThis is a poor working class city with the average income around $34 thous. If you look at cities that have developed higher, they are not fairing well. Take WPB as a prime example of that. 2 to 3 stories is what we have said that we want. This is a low-rise city. You knew that when you moved here. So, tell me how you think that our city will grow and succeed in the future by building high. You start building expensive houses on a street, property taxes will reflect that expensive house and possibly affect all surrounding houses. Our downtown is just fine other than that tall condo building.
ReplyDeletePoor working class cities with a good tax base can provide all the needed services at a low cost to its citizens. When you take away the tax base than the tax rate goes up to one of the higest in the county and that helps no one. So if your poor and working class you should support business coming into town and paying the majority ofthe taxes needed to pay for police, fire, etc. 65 foot buildings in our downtown are not skyscrappers like they have in West Palm. For God's sake can you can walk up to the highest floor without an elevator if you needed to.
ReplyDeleteBill, you must be right, very weird and such a psycho. That owner should be able to keep that property anyway he wants and codes should stay away and not do anything about those blighted areas in Little Guatemala or this property, they are not College Park or Parrot Cove and do not deserve the same decent look, those people are all illegal immigrants anyway who cannot vote, they do not matter that much to the city, let that place and so many others just stay the way they are, absolutely. No double standards. Some people just seem to think it is OK to allow some areas to remain blighted and crime infested, uncared for and with roofs caving in, perfectly fine, what is your address? Do you have any of these beautiful eyesores next to your house? I have to look at that dump every day outside the front of my window, I guess that is the obsession. So sorry amigo. Codes has fined and giving multiple violations on this for many years, it always goes back to the same way, overgrown, graffitied, and attracting vagrants, oh, but this is OK, here in Little Guatemala, verdad? We Hispanics are not worth having a decent looking place to live in, I understand. It is OK. As long as we can write and speak freely, we all should be able to do it, it may be annoying to you, it is reality everyday for me. Poco a poco si se puede! Que el Dios te bendiga.
ReplyDelete"The person who keeps posting messages here and on the other blog about the property on Lucerne is obviously a psycho. If you have an issue with the property, file a code compliant. Pursue a case with Nuisance Abatement. Do something besides complaining on a message board. Frankly, it is annoying and a little frightening your obsession with this."
As you always say Lynn let's address the action or issue, not individual people calling them names. I agree with you. There are a lot of people, leaders, tv stars, immigrants, and just regular citizens that live in this city, we all need to learn to live with each other, and we all need to assume responsibility for our actions or lack of them. It affects all of us! I hope the decisions and choices that our leaders make can really help all of us to stay a nice quaint city where ALL property owners assume responsibility for their property and keep it up! We need land development regulations, but we really need consistent and fair code enforcement in ALL parts of the city to clean up this blight, the mentality is that oh, just let these developers develop all and we will address the blight issue, NO, our codes office needs to do that and start being fair and covering all areas of the city fairly.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Dale. Sometimes it seems that they code for little things and just overlooking the really terrible blight and slum in certain parts of our city. Coding for a palm frond out before pick-up as an example. We have a new Code guy who spoke at ROLOH months ago. He seems to know his stuff. I would have to do a search on this blog to find his name. :)
ReplyDeleteWe get it. The pyscho has a personal issue with Greg Rice. They can still keep calling code enforcement.
ReplyDeleteJuan how many other dumps do you have to look out outside of your windows? How long have they looked this way? Is it the landlord's fault, the city's fault, your Guat peeps fault for choosing to live that way? Is the building you and the pyscho are singling out the worst offender? I have a feeling there are others that are lived in that are in worse condition.
So now we're supposed to believe that after fighting any and all development for the past 4 1/2 years commissioners Mulvehill and McVoygoldenjennigs suddenly were all for $100 million in development?
ReplyDeletePlease.
You have been stupidly brainwashed and THAT IS scary.
ReplyDeleteThe economy is turning. It has taken some time and developers are ready again to invest. Not sure about the banks giving them money though. They are not quite as ready.
Blaming the slowdown of development on Mulvehill and McVoy is like blaming the multi-trillion spending of Obama on Bush. Doesn't cut the mustard.
Let's get some sense here, not political BS.
Well, yes, if Rice is the owner of 1306 Lucerne, then he should address the caving in roof and fix this place up, it is a deplorable mess, too blighted and Juan and Psycho should not have to live by or see it, nor anyone else in this city for that matter. Greg, clean it up por favor!
ReplyDelete