A little video from their visit...

Bike-riding Carollers dropped by tonight...Happy Holidays!!

Follow-up to interview with urban planner Joseph Minicozzi...

I hope that you were able to catch yesterday's (12/20) High Noon in Lake Worth episode. After the show, Joe and I had an e-mail exchange which dealt with the efficiency of redevelopment in urban areas, compared to large lot suburban development. During the show, we talked about this concept and he referred to these two images he provided that demonstrate this effect. Joe works for a for-profit development company in Asheville, North Carolina called Public Interest Projects, Inc.

This compares the tax contribution per acre of an Asheville, large lot, big box development outside of the downtown area to the redevelopment of a six story building in downtown Ashville. Yes, six stories, can you imagine? In fact, Joe says during the show that there really is not a significant difference between 45 feet and 65 feet. The most important aspect of a project is the design and that responsibility lies with architects. Of all the aspects of a project, the most important part of the design is how the building interacts with the street. Height should not be the paramount concern.

Back to the graphic above. The six story building, a former J.C. Penney's, has retail on the first floor, office space on the second floor and residential on the upper four stories. It sits on 2/10 of an acre, whereas the Walmart sits on 34 acres. Looking at the chart, you can see how efficient the primarily residential mixed-use development is in the amount of tax revenue created on a per acre basis. Minicozzi says add the fact that a Walmart is built to last 15 years and you have to ask yourself what is going to happen to that property in year 16. Will it become a big "dark box" that seem to be popping up all over the nation? What re-use is possible with this sort of land use? 

Compare that with the six story building downtown which clearly has a longer life than the Walmart. Not only does it generate more tax dollars per acre, it's economic return to the community can continue farther into the future. At 90 residents per acre, probably 45 units an acre of allowable density, it represents a housing type where there is a walkable environment that residents can satisfy their basic retail and entertainment in the downtown area. This can be done without getting in their car. Not so with the big lot, single use Walmart. Given the mixed use nature of the older building, it is generating more jobs per acre than the significantly larger "box" housing Walmart.

Now, let's break from our regularly scheduled programming, and recall Annabeth Karson's farewell to Commissioner Mulvehill. It's important because at the 40 second mark, she begins to state based upon some strange fallacy that residential development, of any kind, takes more in services than it provides in revenue. She congratulates the former Commissioner Mulvehill for her realization of this "fact" during her term as Commissioner.

I have debunked this theory before. It is pretty much a half-truth, and if it does apply, it applies more to new single-family residential development on previously vacant land than it does to new, denser residential development in urban areas. Urban areas already have the infrastructure in place and do not require the public subsidy that goes with new "greenfield" development. That is the ke difference.

Look at the following image which shows the tax revenue contribution of 357 residential units. One is in a downtown location and one is in an automobile-dominated suburban area. Again, we see the efficiency of the urban location in producing property tax revenue.

At a typical suburban density, this example from Sarasota comes in at just a little over 11 units to an acre over 30 some acres. Infrastructure costs to service that type of suburban multi-family residential development are $10 million and the total county tax yield per year is around $238,529, resulting in a 42 YEAR payback period.

The same 357 multi-family residential residential units in downtown Sarasota would consume only 3.4 acres, have almost 50% less costs in providing infrastructure. But in that downtown location, the project would pump out $1,990,900 per year in tax yield to the County. That equates to a payback period of 3 years. The rest contributes to the general fund of the community for as long as the buildings exist. The difference between the county's return on investment is the difference between 2% for the suburban location and 17.6% for the downtown location. And this is for RESIDENTIAL development.

The moral of the story here is do not believe everything you hear when people sashay up to the podium to make a point based on irrelevant facts.

Getting away from the residential example, Joe sent me this quick-and-dirty analysis of two commercial properties with which we are all familiar. One is the Green Orchid building in downtown Lake Worth, home of the Bamboo Room. The other is the Home Depot on Lake Worth Road. This information comes from the Palm Beach County Tax Appraiser's office.

"Just for the heck of it, I ran the value of the Bamboo Room against the value of the Home Depot out on Lake Worth Ave., west of 95.  Here's how they stack up:
Bamboo Room:
Taxable Value - $619,075
Acres - 0.3007
Value Per Acre - $2,058,780
Home Depot:
Taxable Value - $5,517,856
Acres - 12
Value Per Acre - $459,821
So, the Bamboo Room Building is about 4.5x the potency of the Home Depot from a property tax standpoint.  Or another way of looking at it is that if you had 1.4 acres of Bamboo Room Buildings, it would equal the entire property tax production of the 12 acre Home Depot."

Keep this in mind the next time that you think that height, density and intensity should be kept unrealistically low in downtown Lake Worth. We must make efforts to increase and diversify our tax base. We lost 2/3 of its value during the Great Recession.

In another follow-up communication from Joe Minicozzi, he writes this about over-limiting height and the implications of that over the long term:

"Also, thank you for doing the show.  That is an invaluable asset to the community.  Dialog, dialog, dialog.  And an informed one, even better.  I'm a big fan of this Abraham Lincoln quote:"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
Also, with regard to building height and density, once a community gets locked into that, it sort of limits its future supply of revenue.  Once capped, it begets (or should beget) costs.  Even if the City were to never hire another staffer, costs will still rise.  One would assume that you'd want your folks with seniority to get a raise every once in a while, no?  So where does that new demand in $$ come from?  You can raise taxes, or you can do a new development that increases the tax base.  Anyway, you know the drill there, but it helps when the community talks it through, and so long as they are conscious of the limitations, they need to understand what happens with a decision.  There are plenty of tall buildings in a lot of cities (some that are even 100 years old) and no city was harmed by them.... because they are beautiful.  What I find in community after community, is that no one can have an articulate conversation regarding aesthetics, and that's a real problem.  Perhaps your community has that potential, or perhaps that should be the challenge to the artists, but they need to be engaged in an honest way."

Make sure and listen to the show. Click link above.

Florida makes a run for Santa's workshop...

This is put together by Republican party folks and includes Governor Scott towards the end of the video. It comes off as corny, at best.

Direct mail round-up: Santa Claus attacks Alex Sink - SaintPetersBlog

Peter Schorsch runs a well-known political blog out of St. Petersburg, Florida. Something to check out from time to time. Here he exposes a political attack of Alex Sink by the Republican Party of Florida. I did not know Santa was a Republican. Click title for link.

House Plaques Home Cottage Bungalow Numbers Retro House Plaque Number La Ti Da Retro Designs Old Florida

Cool local source for retro house numbers, in a Florida theme. You've seen them before I am sure. This company also does screen door inserts that emulate some of the ones you see on mid-century homes in Lake Worth. Click title for link to check out the selection.

Palm Beach County Coastal Hazard Statement

Statement as of 8:19 AM EST on December 20, 2013

... Rip current risk in effect through Saturday morning... 

The National Weather Service in Miami has issued a rip current
risk... which is in effect through Saturday morning. 

* Timing... now through Saturday morning.

* Impacts... rip currents are expected along the Atlantic beaches making
for dangerous swimming conditions.

Precautionary/preparedness actions... 

There is a high risk of rip currents.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water flowing quickly away
from shore... which occur most often at low spots or breaks in The
Sandbar and in the vicinity of structures such as jetties and
piers. Heed the advice of lifeguards and the beach patrol. Pay
attention to flags and posted signs.

If you become caught in a rip current... do not panic. Remain
calm and begin to swim parallel to shore. Once you are away from
the force of the rip current... begin to swim back to the beach.
Do not attempt to swim directly against a rip current. Even a
strong swimmer can become exhausted quickly.

Editorial: Check all angles of Rybovich-Related project | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

Randy Schultz makes some key observations in this editorial. He talks about both the Chapel-by-the-Lake property and the Rybovich project. There might be a chicken-or-the-egg situation with the Rybovich project, however. From the article, click title for link:

 "But the selling point for the Rybovich-Related project is that it could transform the north end of West Palm Beach, especially west of Broadway. Bring enough new people, and redevelopment will spread. On that point, however, Rybovich Vice President Carlos Vidueira said Wednesday that even if the commission approves the project, nothing will get built until there is action on the crime-ridden areas west of Broadway.
“We must pre-sell 50 to 60 percent of the units,” Mr. Vidueira said. That cannot happen with “no grocery store, no national retailer, nothing in a 3-mile radius” of the project. The city planning staff’s recommendation for approval comes with conditions related to traffic, but nothing related to improvement of Broadway. Couple this with Rybovich’s suggestion that the Community Redevelopment Agency boundaries could be expanded several blocks north to include the project, which Mr. Vidueira said could create opportunities for “more creative financing.”

‘Daily News’ public records request in judge’s hands | www.palmbeachdailynews.com

Did you know that releasing a "trade secret" is a third degree felony according to Florida law? Seems that it is. The court case continues with the latest hearing taking place yesterday between the Town of Palm Beach and the Palm Beach Daily News. This is part of the article from the Shiny Sheet, click title for link.

"The town’s dilemma was that the newspaper was asking for records that Sterling said the town couldn’t release because of “trade secrets.”
Elwell testified that the town filed the lawsuit to have the judge decide if Rosow’s documents were public records because this was not a clear-cut issue, from the town’s perspective of whether these are documents that fall under the public records law.
“Being in this unique situation, where there’s a third party that they had rights that may cause the town great exposure for liability. we weren’t going to refuse the public records,” Elwell said. “That was not our fight. But, at the same time, if we provided the public records and they were found to have been provided inappropriately and violated private rights that Sterling had, we would have had a serious problem for the town.”

Safety Advocates Object to Higher Highway Speeds |

Push back on State Senator Jeff Clemens to raise highway speeds appears. Click title for link to article:

"Clemens added that data he’s seen disputes assertions that increasing speeds will increase traffic fatalities.
“I understand that speeding tickets provide an important source of revenue for public safety, but supposed safety experts made the same claims when we repealed the national speed limit,” Clemens said in the release. “The data proves that raising the speed limit has not resulted in more fatalities.”

The bill will be considered in the 2014 session and there is no companion bill in the House.

Satanic Temple considers legal firefight over Florida Capitol display | The News-Press | news-press.com

This, as predicted, had turned into a slippery slope for the state of Florida. Click title for link to article. Here you see the problem:

The Satanic Temple proposed a display that bannered the phrase "Happy holidays from the Satanic Temple" atop a diorama of an angel falling into hell. A sign on one side of the display referenced Luke 10:18 including the line, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."
The ACLU of Florida issued a statement on Thursday saying it expected such a scenario would occur in which the state would find itself having violated a group's freedom of speech.
"The only way the state could allow the placement of the original religious display, that some officials wanted to promote, was to create a space where any group could put up whatever message they choose," the ACLU of Florida said in a news release. "If state officials are surprised by how this has turned out, then they don’t understand how free speech works."

Holiday Hours for the Lake Worth Public Library

The library will be closed on December 22nd thru the 25th in observance for the Christmas holiday. The library will reopen at 10:00am on December 26th. Happy Holidays!!!

Joseph Minicozzi, AICP - Urban Planner/Designer 12/20 by High Noon in Lake Worth | Politics Podcasts

Joseph Minicozzi, AICP is the principal of Urban3, LLC (U3), a consulting company created by the downtown Asheville real estate developer Public Interest Projects. Prior to U3, he served as the Executive Director for the Asheville Downtown Association.  Before moving to Asheville, he was the primary administrator of the Form Based Code for downtown West Palm Beach, FL.  Joe’s cross-training in city planning in the public and private sectors, as well as private sector real estate finance has allowed him to develop award-winning analytic tools that have garnered national attention in Planetizen, The Wall Street Journal, Planning Magazine, The New Urban News, National Association of Realtors, Atlantic Cities, and the Center for Clean Air Policy’s Growing Wealthier report.  Joe is a sought after lecturer on city planning issues.  His work has been featured at the Congress for New Urbanism, the American Planning Association, the International Association of Assessing Officers, and New Partners for SmartGrowth conferences as a paradigm shift for thinking about development patterns.

Joe is a founding member of the Asheville Design Center, a non-profit community design center dedicated to creating livable communities across all of Western North Carolina.  He received his Bachelor of Architecture from University of Miami and Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University.

Click title for link between 12 and 1 p.m. for the live show or after the show airs for the archived version. Leave questions as comments below.

Here are some images Joe sent along that he'll be referring to in the show. They help to explain the hidden and not-so-hidden cost of urban sprawl.

Florida leads nation in home insurance costs | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

Lynne McChristian is quoted in an article which explains why Florida property insurance rates remaining among the highest in the nation. You might recall that Ms. McChristian was a recent High Noon in Lake Worth guest. Click title for link to the article. Here is where she is quoted.

“Simply, Florida is No. 1 for the cost of homeowners insurance because the state is No. 1 for claims payouts for hurricane losses,” said Lynne McChristian, Florida representative for the Insurance Information Institute. “This remains true despite eight years without a storm.”
Over a 20-year period, Florida accounted for more than 15 percent of claims paid out for natural disasters, with estimated property losses of $65.6 billion., McChristian said. Texas is second at almost 11 percent and Louisiana is third at more than 9 percent. Combined, these three states account for more than a third of all estimated property losses over the past 20 years, and that’s why the rates are highest in those states, she said."

Clemens to continue fight for beach and lagoon projects | www.palmbeachdailynews.com

State Senator Jeff Clemens in Palm Beach talking about the economic importance of beach renourishment. Click title for link to article.

"Association Chairman Lew Crampton introduced Clemens as “a friend, not only to our organization, but to the entire town. It was Jeff’s intercession, at some of the highest levels of state policy at the DEP [Department of Environmental Protection], that led to the work that resulted in the beach management agreement which has made it a lot easier for this town to get certain beach projects permitted. And it’s saving us a lot of money and making things a lot better for us.”
The beach management agreement, signed in September, is a first-of-its-kind approach to regional beach management and is expected to significantly reduce costs, time and uncertainty in the permitting process for beach and inlet projects. The project covers a 15-mile stretch of beach from the Lake Worth Inlet to the Boynton Inlet."