They came and protested. There were two town hall meetings. There were months on months of contention and the people spoke. The West Palm Beach City Commission never listened. They never had any intention of listening--just fooling the people by telling them, "Look what we've done--we've negotiated the project down from 25 floors to 22." You see, they had the power to make the decision to allow a highrise to be built on the Chapel By the Sea land, land that was filled in by the State with the caveat that it never be sold or developed. The West Palm Beach commission didn't care about that nor did the developer who hired Kilday & Associates to talk down to the public by telling them that nearly every city around has given waivers to developers.
Commissions NEVER listen to the people. They listen to the developers. They continually make decisions and waive rules for unwanted development or projects that they want. They rule. They are allowed to do that if they believe that the development project is justified even if it is three times what the Comp Plan calls for or in the case of Lake Worth, not even honor an election. With the chapel project, they had GOD on their side. All they could see is tax base. Screw the waterfront. Screw the people they serve. Screw Florida.
NOTHING WAS ethically JUSTIFIED about it.
Now the citizens have filed two lawsuits.
GO CITIZENS. GO PACS. HEROES!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is very sad that we cannot trust our elected officials to enforce well thought out comprehensive plan, zoning laws and ordinances, etc. when it comes to these big projects. Of course, an individual resident would never get waivers like this, only the big developer.
ReplyDeleteThe chapel by the sea project is horrible for so many reasons and sets a precedent that every other developer will point too. This tower will in fact tower over the intracoastal the college, there were no traffic studies and the city permitted the developer to use underwater land that it didn't own as set back. Even so it still doesn't satisfy setbacks, it is too tall, it is too many units for this tiny sliver of fill land (which was required to remain open forever when the land was created).
Politicians all wonder why we hate their guts.
ReplyDeleteThank God these brave individuals will attempt to get the Court to enforce deed restrictions and the Comprehensive that the people paid for, and were asked to create, with their inputs.
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath. Judges around here are more paid off than the Commissioners!!!
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