Advertisement Language for the Beach Charter Amendments

ORDINANCE NO. 2009-18 OF THE CITY OF LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA, CALLING FOR A REFERENDUM OF THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF LAKE WORTH TO BE HELD ON NOVEMBER 3, 2009, AS TO WHETHER TO SECURE PUBLIC RECREATION AS THE PRIMARY USE OF THE LAKE WORTH PUBLIC BEACH; PROVIDING REQUISITE BALLOT LANGUAGE FOR SUBMISSION TO THE VOTERS; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; PROVIDING THAT CONFLICTING ORDINANCES ARE REPEALED; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

The above is part of the advertisement that went into today's Palm Beach Post for first reading at the City Commission meeting of August 4, 2009. This is not the actual ballot language, that apparently is being crafted now by outside council at the request of Commissioner Jennings. That is next Tuesday's regular Commission meeting.

One question: Look at the aerial photo - courtesy of Google Earth - of the beach property. What is the primary use of the Lake Worth Public Beach?

Is it recreation, is it building or is it parking? My vote is that the primary use of the beach property is parking - around 500 spaces worth of it. Even with a total building square footage of +64,000 square feet, that is a small part of the total 19 acre site. If the entire building area were on one floor, the total building coverage of the 19 acres would be 7.7 percent. If part of it is a second story, the ground coverage created by building would be even less. So, if you want to get technical, it is not the "primary" use of the beach property. Is recreation the primary use, really?

This ballot initiative is an apparent backlash to the Beach and Casino zoning district which calls the casino building and activities therein a principle use on the beach property. This does not set well with Commissioner Jennings and Vice Mayor Golden's ardent supporters. The wording of the ballot measure will have to be very exact or we could end up with a beach that doesn't provide parking spaces. Which, in my mind, wouldn't be that bad as it would set us firmly in place as a community that is not going to encourage travel to our most desirable public space by private automobile. Think of a large, centralized parking facility in the downtown that would house the steel carriages for beach visitors while they come and go - walking in front and into our downtown shops.

However, I don't think many agree with me on this issue. I also don't think the proponents of this approach and ballot measure realize that the principle use of the beach is a parking lot.

Below is the associated language related to blocking access to dredging and the actual act of dredging to and from our beach:

ORDINANCE NO. 2009-19 OF THE CITY OF LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA, CALLING FOR A REFERENDUM OF THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF LAKE WORTH TO BE HELD ON NOVEMBER 3, 2009, AS TO WHETHER TO PROHIBIT DREDGE AND FILL BEACH RENOURISHMENT PROJECTS WITHIN THE MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES OF THE LAKE WORTH BEACH AND TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF THE LAKE WORTH BEACH AS A MEANS OF INGRESS OR EGRESS FOR ANY BEACH RENOURISHMENT PROJECT ON OR FOR BEACHES ADJACENT TO THE LAKE WORTH BEACH; PROVIDING REQUISITE BALLOT LANGUAGE FOR SUBMISSION TO THE VOTERS; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; PROVIDING THAT CONFLICTING ORDINANCES ARE REPEALED; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.