Of particular interest to me are the following four items - Comprehensive Sustainability Plan, REG presentation on Casino Building, the beach redevelopment project by Kimley Horn and the discussion of city leases.
Sustainability Plan - an excerpt from the back-up material:
This is costing the city almost $200,000. This is in addition to the over a million dollars spent over the past six years on a master plan, comprehensive plan revision and land development regulations that still have yet to bear fruit. What fruit that did come forth had a bitter taste since the City Commission chose not to follow the recommendations of the Planning and Zoning Board and adopted a draconian three story height limitation in the city, and still does not have an officially approved Comprehensive Plan and is using a zoning code that doesn't fit the adopted, but not official, Comprehensive Plan. Judging by the list of seven topics this effort will focus on, the recommendations would only be worthy if they include an economic component of the sustainability equation. HELLO EVERYONE - Where we are going is NOT ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE! We cannot continue to maintain a basic level of city services given the minimal level of private investment the city has had and will continue to have without a change in direction by the City Commission. If something can't make its way economically, it is by definition UNSUSTAINABLE. And, if the consultants are worth their salt, they will point out the need to support the region's efforts in the expansion of mass transit alternatives - which will require a different land use pattern than the one offered by the lady that runs an unlicensed boarding house in a single family zoning district and her many followers.
This is also going to grade city facilities in terms of energy efficiency. The city is the WORST offender of its own water restrictions - let's start there. Then, in a flashback to about four years ago, we are again going to adopt a Climate Action Plan. How is this going to be different than the previous product issued by the "Mayor's Climate Control Task Force?" Are we following those recommendations and will we follow these recommendations, or is this just the city greenwashing for political purposes?
Oops! Someone left out the Community Development Corporation being in a city-owned building. How could that have happened?
Have we conveniently forgot that this is a city-owned facility this private group is operating in or have the lines blurred to such an extent due to a Commissioner, the high Vice Mayor Golden, happens to the the project manager for the group and uses that as her office? I guess she can be a touchy about things like this. Anyway, for sake of completeness, it should be included and the CDC should be required to provide every bit of information every other similar group must to maintain its lease. The big shock here is that the City Manager is about to kick out the Mentoring Center - and the Museum and the Art league - from their current locations. She identifies a number of reasons why the Mentoring Center was a bad idea in the Shuffleboard Building. Is she being racist? Or is it that now Commissioner Jennings is officially in her lame duck period and the City Manager has been itching to do this for a while now? Loved the story, especially in light of the "sustainability" item above, about how staff at the Mentoring Center props the doors open while having the thermostat set at 72 degrees. They don't pay for their utilities, by the way.
If it all weren't true, I wouldn't believe it either.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
