Tomorrow night, the Planning & Zoning Board will be discussing dividing itself into two distinct Boards: P&Z and Historical Preservation.
A few weeks ago, Rick Gonzalez spoke in front of the Planning & Zoning Board regarding this subject. He gave all the reasons why he thought that this was a good idea with the main reason having to do with Grants. This is what he said:
It has been my experience that with an independent historical resources review board, applications for grants (when there is money available) are looked at as positive and in better position to getting funded than cities that simply have Historical Preservations as a part of Planning and Zoning.Mr. Gonzalez is a member of the American Institute of Architects and was appointed to the Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design by Governor Bush for the term 2000-2003 and reappointed (Chairman 2005 & 2006) for 2004-2007. Mr. Gonzalez is an award winning architect, whose design standards have been used as examples for Palm Beach County’s Architectural Guidelines, Florida CNU Guidebook and ULI Land Development Handbook.
His firm is one of the firms that was chosen for the last go-round of presentations on our Lake Worth Casino. It was originally announced that his firm came in first. The blogs reported on it. The local newspaper picked it up. Then a few days later it was announced that the City made a mistake in the count--his firm came in second. Look to see him back at City Hall on April 10th.
Saying that "Lake Worth is 'board' to death," Ron Exline, former Planning & Zoning member told me yesterday that he always thought it was a bad and dumb idea to split the two boards and that it was "needless duplication as the workload does not justify the expense."
I will be looking forward to the discussion as I really don't know if it is a better idea. I dislike the idea of more bureaucracy in a process that is already cumbersome at times. And I certainly dislike any idea of spending any more money no matter the cost. If we are serious about streamlining processes, reducing waste and cutting costs, then we should take a long hard look at this. However, two separate Boards would guarantee another layer of protection and honesty when making decisions that affect our historical properties.
2 comments:
Rick Gonzalez, although I have much respect for him and his experience, is wrong on this one. We were awarded a matching grant recently with our existing board structure - and then proceeded to turn it down. What is important as far as what RG is saying is that you need to have people on the board responsible for historic preservation that represent an array of professions required through our state's Certified Local Government program. Splitting the boards puts an extra burden on our already over-burdened staff. Finally, since most of what we do here in Lake Worth is "re" development, it's best to have a seamless review of a project by the same board for the benefit of property owners in historic districts.
By the way, I worked with Rick after we hired him for an assortment of projects when I worked for Mr. Trump @ Mar-a-Lago and Trump International Golf Clubs.
The Planning and zoning board ,which SHOULD have been called the Developers for Developers board, under Wes Blackman had a definite "knock it down " mentality. Demolition by neglect was the preferred operating mode. Historic? We don't have no stinking historic structures was the mantra of Wes's board.Vinny Divitto ,who unapologetically and deliberately knocked down historic Lake Worth structures, was welcomed to this board with open arms.Lisa Maxwell ,now running for Commissioner, was unendingly rude to anyone not trying to rape and make a profit off of Lake Worth. If she had this "spit on the peons " mentality on a board ,what kind of out of control monster will she be if elected? Helen Green, the only person who was concerned about historic preservation, was kicked off of the board by a previously corrupt Commission. The same one that put developer whores like Blackman and Maxwell on the board. What a surprise.
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