Lake Worth Beach City Limits: Pics from Jonathan and Ruben's Get Together and a Possible re-do of 431 N. L Street

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Pics from Jonathan and Ruben's Get Together and a Possible re-do of 431 N. L Street - WOW

Thanks to Jonathan and Ruben for opening their home for a campaign gathering. They have done a great job with their house on N. Palmway, with a fantastic backyard and pool area. It was a blustery day, but the winds calmed as the day drew to a close.

I gave an update on the status of the campaign to the group. We just got through a week of screenings by various groups that will be endorsing candidates in the municipal elections. The big push now is getting volunteer group together and oriented toward our mission. Things are looking good in that regard. Mayoral candidate Jeff Clemens came by for a visit too.

Afterwards, we adjourned to the Mad Hatter and bumped into Paul Landrigan, who is currently playing a major role in the Lake Worth Playhouse production of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge". As I was chatting with Jonathan and Ruben, they mentioned their desire to find a property near the downtown, preferably north. They have a significant amount of experience in rehabilitation of historic properties in Miami Beach and want to turn their efforts towards a Lake Worth property.

Immediately I thought of 431 N. L. Street. This is a property that the Planning, Zoning and Historic Resource Preservation Board saw last September. It is a City-owned property that was shut down through the nuisance abatement process (the members PZHRPB serve on the Nuisance Abatement Board as well) - a former Joe Dimauro property that plagued the neighborhood for years. The City wanted to demolish the entire structure and therefore applied for permission to demolish the building.

Through some excellent work performed by Darrin Engel, the City's Historic Preservation planner (see below), he put together the following staff report/recommendation and the Board ended up denying the request. The board did express concern regarding the future of the property and the chances of whether or not it was realistic to think that the existing ten units in the building could be converted back to the original four units as the building was originally designed.

As you can see from the staff report, the building was designed by G. Sherman Childs - who was the architect of the Municipal Auditorium (current City Hall), the City Hall annex, etc.

So, this is one important structure in our City's history that deserves to be saved and it is good to know that there ARE people interested in returning it to a positive, contributing factor in the neighborhood Of course, any exchange of this property from City to private hands would be through the RFP - Request for Proposal process and might trigger a referendum and it might have to be affordable housing, base upon the recent State law. I am looking into the process now and will get with some answers.