Video: Testimony on Gulf Stream hotel re-zoning at quasi-judicial hearing (and a unanimous HRPB vote was "astonishing"? "Surprising"? "Disturbing"?)

[The blog post below from 12/13 is one of the most viewed last year vis-à-vis our historic Gulf Stream hotel and its future. This concerns the re-zoning of the Gulf Stream hotel project at the quasi-judicial hearing on 12/8 at the Lake Worth City Commission. The second reading of this re-zoning request will be on January 5th [TONIGHT, Item 10B on the agenda] and you can read about that using this link. I think what is "astonishing", "surprising", and "disturbing" is pulling into question the character and motivations of Lake Worth Historic Resource Preservation Board (HRPB) members just because the boards' (unanimous) position on an issue is in opposition to someone else's personal wants or desires. The members of the HRPB care very much about the future of Lake Worth. They demonstrate that by sacrificing time and effort as volunteers. Hopefully, going forward, the focus will be on the Gulf Stream hotel and making that structure a contributing asset to our community. The original post from 12/13 follows:] 

Before proceeding you can see how small the property being considered for re-zoning actually is:

The white arrow points to a tiny white dot. That is the subject property for the re-zoning request.

One City resident in the video (below, at the end of this post) from the quasi-judicial hearing at the City Commission in support of the re-zoning says this request for the Gulf Stream hotel project will have some residents in opposition "come out of the woodwork" with all sorts of silly claims and wild accusations. Two of those deserve special attention in the video:

At the 4:05 mark in the video to the 4:45 mark: A City resident in opposition to the re-zoning in public testimony says the unanimous vote by the Historic Resource Preservation Board (HRPB) in support of the re-zoning was "astonishing", "surprising", and "disturbing". At the HRPB meeting were presentations by City staff, a well-respected land use attorney, and others. This resident suggests the board and its members' unanimous vote was suspicious. Note that the HRPB members heard all the evidence in a public meeting and the resident DID NOT. By her own admission she "did not attend" the HRPB meeting. Going forward in Lake Worth will all unanimous votes be suspicious?

At the 8:05 mark to 8:50: Another City resident in opposition who also chairs a City board testifies that the re-zoning will be "bad for the environment", affect "water percolation", and "adversely affect water quality in the Intracoastal". An argument for no future development on this downtown parcel and/or anywhere else in the City for that matter. 

At the 11:20 mark to 12:25: More testimony in support and the resident says the City's "not in 1923 any more" and mentions the parking element of the re-zoning that's essential for the success of the Gulf Stream hotel.

At 12:50 mark to 14:50: Another resident in support who was a former "bus boy" at the Gulf Stream hotel many of you will recognize as a well-known business owner in Lake Worth.

And, lastly, from 15:30 to 16:50: A new resident in Lake Worth in support with her interesting comments.

I would encourage you to watch the entire video below and pay special attention to the sections of video mentioned above, especially the first one (4:05–4:45):