Saturday, August 8, 2015

[In case you missed this. . .] The Lake Worth Herald: "What Is Wrong With Lake Worth?"

Below are two excerpts from The Lake Worth Herald that sum up most peoples frustrations with city government and 2 commissioners in particular: commissioners Chris McVoy and Ryan Maier. The tactic of late is monkeywrenching the development process at the end, bringing up 'community' concerns that should and could have been dealt with at the staff level and the Planning & Zoning Board and/or the Historic Resource Preservation Board.

The latest issue about 'gates' is a perfect example you can read about here. This is an issue that could have been addressed months ago but suddenly the theory of 'Defensible Spaces' rears its head out of nowhere as a newly discovered 'community' concern. Thankfully the developer, in this case Troy White, did his homework and schooled McVoy on theory developed by Oscar Newman.

Here are two excerpts from the Herald:

     The new Land Development Regulations have been put in place and it is said it has never been better in the permitting department.
     In the past, developers and contractors wouldn’t even knock on the city’s door because it was impossible to deal with the red tape and jump through all of the hoops. This has apparently been addressed and now there are developers and contractors, at least, exploring opportunities.
     These developers do everything the city asks to gain approval only to have a couple city commissioners attempt to run their business for them. [emphasis added]
      If a developer meets all of the regulations set forth in ordinances, they should not have to listen to a city commissioner give them a dissertation on how and what to build. If a commissioner has issues with the regulations, they should address the regulations and not try to be something they are not.
     It is embarrassing to the City of Lake Worth when a commissioner wants a developer to build something other than what they plan. These plans have been approved by the planning and zoning board and any other board required to review them.

[and. . .]

     Developers build the tax base and are required to build by the rules, the rules put in place by, hopefully, intelligent, sensible elected officials who have concern for the entire community and not just a select group.