Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Another leap forward for our little City of Lake Worth: A split screen!


Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the City of Lake Worth’s Commission Work Session, “Presentation of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment” last night, sat down, looked up and saw the split screen on the monitors in the chambers!

Now viewers at home can actually see and hear the mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager and staff discuss the topics at hand and see the agenda item images at the same time. Some regular attendees at Commission meetings may conclude there’s less interest these days because of lower attendance at City meetings. They would be wrong. More people — including the press and media — are staying home to watch meetings on YouTube now.

The view from my seat last night:
This was a Work Session. The next regular meeting of the City Commission is next Tuesday, Oct. 17th, beginning at 6:00.

Prior to showing up last night I attended the Lake Worth CRA meeting at HATCH (1121 Lucerne Ave.), but more about that at a later time. Suffice to say for now, one of the agenda items at the CRA will appear on next months Planning & Zoning Board (Nov. 1st) and at the Historic Resource Preservation Board as well (Nov. 8th).

What will the future City of
Lake Worth look like?

Use this link to find out, the video of
last night’s meeting.

The “Presentation of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment” last night is painting the picture. However, this is just another step in a very long process. I wasn’t planning on going to this meeting until I heard the Commission, all the electeds on the dais, were very involved and asking some very tough questions so I wanted to see this for myself.

It wasn’t testy or combative at all. The electeds had some very serious questions and concerns.

So. Are you concerned the City is putting too much attention on “affordable housing” since we already have so much affordable housing available? Concerned we have some volunteer boards that have lost their vision and purpose? Did you know the current Comp Plan has no section on “Ecomomic Development”! It’s true. That shows you how far off track the City was 7 years ago when the last Comp Plan was addressed — or rather not addressed — in a competent, realistic, and sustainable manner.

Transportation. Energy. Parking. Regional cooperation. City parks and open space. Festivals and community pride. Neighborhoods. Our schools. Zoning. Do we need more soccer fields? A vision. A plan.

The Comprehensive Plan is not a trivial matter.

It’s very, very important. I encourage you to click on the link, highlighted in yellow above, watch all or parts of this meeting and get involved in the Comp Plan process.