Comment Up
Did
you know that the City Commission
just RAISED the BUILDING HEIGHT
in the DOWNTOWN to 65 FEET?
in the DOWNTOWN to 65 FEET?
Want
to see more buildings like the Lucerne
condo in your downtown?
YOU
HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE ON THIS ISSUE
Call CITY HALL TODAY and DEMAND that the
DOWNTOWN HEIGHT
LIMIT CHARTER AMENDMENT
be PLACED on the NOVEMBER 6TH BALLOT.
Mayor
Pam Triolo (561) 586-1735 ptriolo@lakeworth.org
Vice-Mayor
Scott Maxwell (561) 586-1731 smaxwell@lakeworth.org
Commissioner
Andy Amoroso (561) 568-1733 aamoroso@lakeworth.org
Your right to vote is supported by
Commissioners McVoy and Mulvehill.
Commissioners McVoy and Mulvehill.
DEADLINE
TO PLACE ON THE BALLOT IS
JULY 17, 2012.
JULY 17, 2012.
Lake Worth ballot items will appear at
the end of the November 6th ballot.
the end of the November 6th ballot.
Pd. Pol. Adv. Paid for by
Respectful Planning Lake Worth Political Committee
Respectful Planning Lake Worth Political Committee
519 North D Street, Lake Worth, FL
16 comments:
Lynn, aren't you a little late? Didn't the Commission vote on July 3rd to reconsider placing it on the Ballot? Wasn't the vote 4 to 0 with the Mayor out of town? Why are you trying to stir this up? "Let's try to get along"
No, not a little late.
Go back and listen to the audio, ANONYMOUS.
Maxwell should allow the people to vote. He's not a dictator, is he?
wasnt it maxwell that agreed to bring the item back?
How high were we allowed to build in the Downtown area before the vote?
It used to be ONLY someone on the prevailing side could bring it back. Now anyone can bring it back. I think commissioners forget this as I was at the meeting where they changed the rule. The four commissioners who were there voted to bring it back for discussion.
Here’s the catch: Maxwell doesn’t want to look bad, so he “changed his mind” on the record (“he wants to be fair”) --but not quite in time to make a difference. Just so he so he can say (later) that he “did the right thing”… even if it was meaningless.
June 19: Comm votes 3/2 to NOT put longtime height issue on ballot that allows public vote on Comp Plan change. (But votes 3/2 to put last minute idea on ballot to change name of city.)
Next day, PAC formed & Petition started. A few weeks to get 1500 signatures.
July 3: Triolo absent & Maxwell runs meeting. Comm votes 4-0 to “reconsider” putting height issue on the ballot. But Maxwell won’t vote with mayor absent, so to be continued & voted on next meeting.
Meanwhile… July 17 deadline approaches for signatures to Sup of Elections in time to put issue on Nov ballot. So petition drive continues, despite oppressive heat. WHY? Because the PAC & its supporters are not idiots!
July 17: What if Comm “re-considers” & decides to vote NO again (by 3/2). The 4/0 vote was to “re-consider” --absolutely no guarantee that ballot-issue votes will change!
Even if they do vote (5-0) to put it on the ballot, vote comes AFTER deadline to have signatures to Sup of Elec. --What’s the point? The point, of course, is to be politically correct, so the Big 3 can say, “we heard the people & we changed our vote. –-What a crock of political BS!
Get it? Maxwell wants his cake & wants to eat it too. And wants to brag that he baked the cake himself & fed it to the people by hand. “Let them eat cake” to the power of 3!
Fourth of July pirate joke? No, every day politics of Scott Maxwell.
I will always support American citizens right to vote on ANY issue,no matter what that issue is. One of our city officials asked me"where do we draw the line"? The answer is-WE DON'T!The idea that an American elected official thinks that there is too much of that darn voting stuff going on is really sad.And STUPID!!!!! And when ANY elected official EVER questions the intelligence of the elctorate(that's me and you,folks)to decide an issue,it's time to get a NEW ELECTED OFICIAL!!! Katie Mcgiveron
Did you know that the City Commission just voted to "lower" the maximum Height of buildings in downtown?
Shouldn't that be the headline? The old height limit was 65 feet, they lowered it to 45 feet.
This is why misleading hype leading up to a ballot initiative are so harmful.
Your headline is not true. If you had said that the Commission didn't follow the P&Z Board's recommendation to lower to 35 feet, that would be factual and would really give people the information to make an informed decision. Couple that with the graphic showing all the boxes and your credibility is shot.
I would even support your initiative for the vote as I did when we voted for the existing heights in 1996. But I cannot support this lie. They did not vote to raise the heights.
I was just in Delray the other night for dinner and needed to park in the city's multi level parking garage. The cost was $5.00 and it was a half a block from the downtown. If your proposal goes through, we would not be able to construct such a garage on similarly situated property to help the downtown area.
Such un-intended consequences are brought on by knee-jerk reactions such as this vote.
We need the flexibility to allow good projects even if they exceed 35 feet.
While well intentioned, you may be helping Lake Worth shoot itself in the foot.
The 35 feet, three story buildings, are only proposed from F street up to A Street, 2nd Ave North and 1st Ave South. The downtown is 45 feet or 4 stories. William Waters has already addressed the parking garage inquiry and says, "no problem."
12:44 above--
The Comp plan was 40 feet. They RAISED IT in the Comp Plan to 65 feet east of Federal.
The CHARTER is 65 FEET - This charter amendment will AMEND THE CHARTER - then the commission will need to change the comp plan to be in line with the charter.
The Proposed Comp Plan was at 40 feet. The Commission lowered the existing Comp plan from 65 feet between Dixie and Federal,between 1st Ave South and 2nd. Ave North to
45 feet. They left from Federal to Golf view exactly as the charter says 65 feet. Voted on by the people in 1996.
The previous anon poster is a little confused, and who wouldn't be? This is a complicated topic. To clarify:
The CURRENT comp plan (enacted by the PREVIOUS commission and adopted in October 2009) set building heights in the three Downtown Districts at 30' (40' max with public benefit), not to exceed 3 stories.
The PROPOSED comp plan (approved June 19 on first reading by the CURRENT commission majority) INCREASED building heights to 65' east of Federal and 45' west of Federal to A Street. This is why the Respectful Planning PC flyer accurately states that building heights have been increased. Sorry if this doesn't jibe with your interpretation of what changes have been made, but is obviously not a false statement.
The CHARTER currently allows max heights of 65' east of Dixie, 100' west of Dixie. The comp plan is our strongest land use document. The charter is not a land use document, it is the city's "constitution". It is the only document that the people can vote on and many, many communities use it to set limits on the authority of their elected officials. It is the strongest in the document hierarchy and no politician in their right mind would refuse to align the subordinate land use documents with it, should the voters choose to approve the height amendment.
The fact that we have height limits already in the charter confirms that this is a concept Lake Worth voters are comfortable with. My experience talking to voters over the last two weeks affirms this as well.
Our elected officials assure us that just because they are increasing heights to 65'doesn't mean anyone will build ANOTHER 65' building. The average logical thinker would say (and is saying) then why do we need to increase heights to 65'? Shall we trust three elected officials who don't want our input on this issue? I've come across three people who say yes, trust them. The other 70 people I've talked to are either shocked, disgusted, or outraged that they have been denied an opportunity to vote.
Lots has changed since 1996, wouldn't you agree? I want voters with a 2012 sensibility to be able to vote on this issue. Most residents agree.
A lot has changed since 1996. But for those who lived here when the current height limits were set should be insulted by Ms. Decker’s insinuation that they were less sensible that those living in Lake Worth today. Back then, (1996), I’d bet we were in a better financial position than the city is today. I’m not implying that 65’ or 100’ buildings in our downtown commercial corridor, or the lack there of, are the reason we’re cutting services, cutting city staff, wanting to use library trust money to keep it open, and seeing our property values continually dropping because of those approved building limits. Heights are just another divider in our city that are used around election time to shift the attention away from the real problems we face now. There’s a whole lot more buildings that are over 45” in height east of Federal that were built before then, than has been build after the 1996 charter approval. The only new building that has been built in the downtown corridor since then is the Lucerne. Yes, I know there are some people who hate that building. Some people hate chocolate. Let’s face it, we all don’t like the same thing. In my talks with people who have been in town a while, what I have learned is a lot of people who don’t like it don’t like what it represents. Kilwin’s & Starbucks; some don’t like seeing national chains moving into our downtown. Believe it or not, Starbucks had their storefront graffiti’d and glue in their locks a few times when they moved in. Some were concerned that people paid up to $500,000 dollars for an apartment in downtown Lake Worth. Oh no, here comes gentrification. These were changes that bothered some. No one I’ve talked to has said it blocks the sun and breeze. Those that say that have not spent a lot of time around the building. But even with the real estate buying frenzy in south FL from 2003 till the crash in late 2006, early 2007 no other developer was able to build another new building downtown during the boom, or since. Let’s not try and flatter ourselves by thinking we’re smarter or more sensible than those that lived here 16 years ago. We’ve just learned a new way to keep us from pulling Lake Worth in the same direction.
Ok, you gave your sales pitch, greg. Now we have you on the plannimg board to look forward to.
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