Kicking the Can down the Road No. 1
No.1. Consider a community appearance criteria for the Academy for Positive Learning, a charter school located at 1200 North Dixie. The school requested to convert portable temporary classrooms to permanent structures. Why? Because they wanted to and they didn't have any financing resources to build permanent buildings. Of the ten (10) portable temporary classrooms currently on-site, six (6) will be retained and converted into five (5) permanent structures and four (4) will be removed.
To simplify things--The school knew the rules but they wanted their way and tried to pull at the heart strings of this commission by telling them that the business owners in that area approved and they were teaching kids--what would these kids ever do if they were no longer there if they couldn't get their way by pulling a fast one on Lake Worth? And besides, no one from the street would even see these wonderful structures. No more families would move into our city if we didn't allow them to get their way... yada, yada, yada.
The School wants to turn 6 portable buildings into permanent structures. How do they do that? By installing helical piers and attaching them to the portable temporary classrooms I beam foundation. The applicant then proposes to provide skirting around the perimeter of the structure. The applicant has not provided a skirting detail but has stated that it will be either “vinyl trellis, solid siding matching the existing or nichiha.”
Apparently the school had trouble with financing. The owner of the property is willing to give them $150,000 but that is it. It wasn't mentioned how much he makes off this deal. The school is a not-for-profit and the owner of the school does not know how much she makes per year by saying "I'm an educator, not an accountant."...around $300 to $400,000 so it was stated by someone else. She makes around $300 for each student from state and government grants. At this time there are 123 students and by making these portable buildings permanent, she will grow her "business" to around 180 students. And like the AT&T commercial, "they want more...more is better."
This sham was all peachy keen with our "professional" Planning & Zoning Board who fell for the "bill of goods." In fact, the commission was reminded that they were not allowed to have an opinion on it--they were there ONLY to decide on the community appearance--should they allow "trailers" on Dixie Highway. Commissioner Maxwell said "A deal is a deal" and the deal was to allow them temporary structures for a designated amount of time and then they would build permanent building(s). Commissioner McVoy said "I like it." The public said "No way." The rest of the commission was in a quandary.
It will come back on May 21.
this commission says it is cleaning up stuff.,,,it seems like they are creating more problems.,,,those trailers are ridiculous.,,, As we want to clean up the city, why would they even entertain an idea to approve of this?
ReplyDeleteIt was especially interesting when Amoroso said that he was educated in portable units like that made it okay.
ReplyDeleteJust say NO and if this charter school still wants to threaten moving somewhere else, we should do everything possible to allow that to happen. How dare some property that doesn't even pay taxes threaten LW and play on emotions. Thanks Vice Mayor Maxwell for standing up to the truth.
ReplyDeleteGreat article Lynn, and thanks also to Commissioner Maxwell for the reminder the city should be run like a business.
ReplyDeleteAs for operating like a business- Not every Amenity we have has to make money but we need to watch expenses and we need to adhere to our codes. The problem is we continue to grant exceptions and allow people to get off the hook and our city suffers..
ReplyDeletePortables are not permanent bldgs. Period.If this is the standard that is voted in ,you can bet that the next set of "permanent " trailers on Dixie Hwy. won't be behind a six foot wall.Good job commissioner Maxwell for keeping your bull$hit goggles firmly in place during this ridiculous presentation last night.
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