Video of last night’s Lake Worth City Commission meeting is below.

A view of the chambers and dais early on. . .

Stay tuned for more slides from the PBSO Update:

The crime “heat map” from last night.

A good place to start before we get to the not-so-good stuff would be the PBSO update by Cpt. Todd Baer and that begins at the 6:00 minute mark in the video below. The wheels didn’t begin to fall off the bus until later on at the Commission meeting.

To sum it up and put it mildly, it was not a good night for our City Commission vis-à-vis First Reading of the Land Development Regulations (LDRs):

Item 10C. Ordinance No. 2018-10 - First Reading - Amending Chapter 23 “Land Development Regulations” including amendments to Section 23.3-6 Use Table and setting the Second Reading and Public Hearing for July 17, 2018.


What I can say after attending last night’s City Commission reading is that the changes contemplated for the LDRs were passed on First Reading last night with some sections removed. However, it was not without very raucous deliberation and confusion related to a motion and calling the question.

The City was quick to put up the video; it was available to the public at 6:00 this morning. If you have time, I encourage you to watch the entire discussion which lasts about 1½ hours (beginning at the 2 hour and 11 minute mark to 3:42).

The action, the really contentious part, is from 3:18–3:24.

At second reading, which is scheduled for July 17th, we should get a review of where things stood after the action taken last night. The good news is that certain critical items that were project-specific (e.g., people waiting for changes allowing projects to move forward) ending up passing. In retrospect, the confusing items should have been uncoupled from the larger package of changes and dealt with on an individual basis in order to expedite the process.

The other ‘housekeeping items’ confused the City Commission and the public and that’s why the discussion got derailed last night. In conclusion, expect a lot more Workshops in the future to avoid more situations such as this in the near future.