Lake Worth Commission Meeting on ADU's

The discussion on the Accessory Dwelling Units began at 1:03 into the meeting and ended at 2:36..

The chamber was packed last night--standing room only with those in red shirts (those AGAINST) dotting the room.

Patty Schultz and her husband Joe who live in College park spoke against ADU's. They are the ones who started the petition Against which received 80% more than Omari Hardy's petition For. And that was essentially the outcome of last night's meeting, with those who spoke--Only around 26% were For.

• Herman Robinson: For ADU's. Wants another workshop. Said the meeting is only "discussion" therefore NO vote can take place tonight. Suggested that some of the comments from those Against were based on "misinformation"...still insisted on another workshop.

• Andy Amoroso: AGAINST ADU'S. Parking was his biggest concern along with Sober Homes, AirBNB's--wants to respect single family neighborhoods. City allows ADU's all over the city. Has a big problem with subsidizing developers. We are one of the poorest cities with sub-standard housing. Let's fix what we have and all the other issues we have.

• Pam Triolo: AGAINST ADU'S. "I bought into a single family neighborhood to live in a single family neighborhood." Quoted Anthony Marotta..."a solution in search of a problem." Mentioned that a lot of the arrests in the past came from those living in ADU's, MS13 gang members, etc. Does not want to change the flavor of our city, at all. Reminded the dais, in response to Commissioner Robinson, that when she was absent from the workshop that a vote was called for in favor of ADU's. (They didn't have a quorum so the vote could not go forward).

• Omari Hardy: FOR ADU'S. Brought up our city's founding fathers from over 107 years ago who allowed accessory dwelling units. In 1912, we had 138 people living here and at the end of that year there were 308 residents, 125 houses, 10 wagons, seven automobiles and 36 bicycles. Quoting the founding fathers is great for the Constitution of the United States but not a good comparison to what our city was then to now. Wants additional density. Suggested that his feelings on this should be no surprise as this is what he said during his campaign.

• Scott Maxwell: AGAINST ADU'S. Said we would need "thousands and thousands and thousands of ADU'S  to make a difference" and (that's what we would eventually get). We have more affordable housing than we can "shake a stick at." We need to incentivize more middle class to buy here...wants more density. ADU's would exacerbate the parking problem.

Commissioner Maxwell then made a motion to direct staff to stand down on the issue of ADU's at this time. Andy Amoroso seconded the motion. It passed on a 3/2 vote.

Basically I had two concerns last night:  1) all those who insisted (about 25%) that the city change it's zoning to allow these units in single family residential neighborhoods. Why would they do that when they can go through the proper channels and 2) two commissioners believing that we need MORE density. Some demographic sites have our population now at around 38,000 in a land area of 5.88 sq. miles.  And the population density in Lake Worth is 2047% higher than Florida per Google. What we need is more revenue, not more people living on top of people. Better housing stock would help, better Code Enforcement giving fines to owners to clean up the slum and blight thus preserving our single family neighborhoods which would result in the rise of property values.

Area [2]
• City	6.67 sq mi (17.27 km2)
• Land	5.88 sq mi (15.22 km2)
• Water	0.79 sq mi (2.05 km2)  12.69%