Lake Worth's beach casino consultant to seek public input this week

Click title for link to article in PB Post that appeared on Tuesday, after the Commission meeting, regarding the Casino building rehabilitation project and charette.  The headline is as it appears in the virtual paper. It mentions that the city will have a survey on their website "this week" to gather input on direction of the design for the rehabilitation.  Today is Thursday. This is a snippet from the article:

I was just there and there is a link to a reservation form for the charette that will take place on August 21.  This is what that form looks like:

Keep checking back to the city website's home page for a link or for some sign of a 30 question survey.  I heard  that certain members of the City Commission said that they will reserve the right to make their own decision regardless.  Did that even need to be said?

In brief, and to summarize what has been said before on this blog, the building that is there now, designed the way it is, would be eligible for placement on the National Register for Historic Places.  It is thought by some that this designation would unleash "pots o'money" from historic preservation grant programs.  Well there are few programs like that available now.  It is also widely acknowledged that most do not like the current design of the building and, for many, that has been true since the building was last re-done in 1949.

With any other design, you are taking your chances with historic designation - even if it "goes back" to the 1922 original design.  If done well, using the inspiration of the original design would be a good way to go.

However, I am not opposed to a more modern, 21st Century design that takes its cues from contemporary life and design influences.  Whatever is done needs to be done well, with quality at every corner.  It also has to be worthy of being called an ICON, now and for future generations.  If not, then it is worth asking the question if the project is worth doing at all.  The $6 to $6.5 million figure, reached through the city's own financial analysis, seems low in order to meet these goals.  

Any design should use state-of-the-art green building techniques, to the extent the budget allows, with an eye toward reducing maintenance and energy costs over the long term.

My worst fear is that we under-estimate the cost of the building rehabilitation, over-estimate the revenues coming from the parking lot to support a revenue bond issue, get half-way through the project and realize just that.  Don't think this scenario isn't possible.  According to a resident who attended the Finance Advisory Board meeting last night, Finance Director Steve Carr said that the current meters at the beach had to be replaced.  These might be two years old and, in my experience, worked sporadically at best.  I would hope that the manufacturer or suppler of these machines would not be our preferred supplier for the new machines.  The new machines should be designed to work in a salt-laden atmosphere and be able to be essentially maintenance-free, except for emptying the till by authorized personnel.  If this standard proves impossible, then the city should institute attended parking, with a gate, to ensure proper collection of parking fees at the beach.

Another concern is that the current proposal, in this year's budget, to begin "pay parking" in the downtown area is the camel's-nose-under-the-tent for "credit enhancement" to be used to support a revenue bond to re-do the Casino building, based on either over-projection of, or faulty collection of, income from the beach parking area.

As I said before here, our downtown is at such a fragile state economically now that the imposition of parking meters is too risky for the amount of "reward" the city would get in additional revenue.If we were to do it, and I don't think we should, we would need to have attended lots by real people that would be able to interact with people who are paying.  We could then have a "parking validation" system where the merchants would pay for parking if you bought something in their store, or ate something at a restaurant.

But, I feel like everyone in the chain of command has their finger on the "doomsday" button for the downtown and we are going to see this instituted this year, whether we like it or not.

It is just not worth the risk!