Name | Meeting Date | Choose Which Item Your Comment Corresponds With | Comments to be read into record |
---|---|---|---|
Wes Blackman | 02/09/2023 | Item A | Honorable Mayor and Commissioners, Wes Blackman, 241 Columbia Drive. Although I know you, like me, enjoy the beauties of the Commission Chambers room as much as I do, I chose to not attend the meeting tonight as I have attended meetings in the same room two nights in a row. I hope that comments offered here are heard with the same degree of interest as if I were there in person. I also hope that they fall within the list of ten that are read during the meeting. We must recognize short term rentals are a critical issue for residents, property owners and visitors to the City of Lake Worth Beach alike. Many have invested in their residential properties. We must also acknowledge that there are significant costs such as property/casualty insurance, utilities, property taxes and increasing interest rates that challenge even the most thrifty of property owners. These all affect affordability and the ability of working families to remain in their homes. We should be finding ways to allow property owners with homestead exemptions to periodically rent out their homes, whether it be a room, an accessory building or while they are in another location. I urge you not to adopt some of the more extreme proposals of Option 2 offered by staff that require licensing through the DBPR, meeting of fire and accessibility codes reserved for hotels and motels. We do not need to further burden our residents with these requirements and having to pay a staff to operate this regulatory structure. Deal with the bad actors, yes, but allow for people to entertain guests to our City who otherwise would be housed in other communities. No quality alternatives exist at this time. Thank you. |
Kathleen Sommers Naiditch | 02/09/2023 | Item A | Good Evening Mayor and Commisioners Many people who live in coastal towns rent their properties during the season moving to meet rising costs. Others have purchased homes and rent until they move in full time. Some purchased property near their own homes investing their money in Lake Worth Beach. I rented my property before we could move in permanently with all licenses and permits and an inspection, paying the required fees and taxes as well as not homesteading at that time. Myself and another person were available 24/7 for issues and questions of any kind. Guests were screened carefully and instead of being disturbed by their comings and goings my neighbors told me they enjoyed meeting them. Option 2 will formally put regulations in place for the bad actors so our neighborhoods won’t be disturbed and not put a complete ban on what serves as a solution to the lack of hotel accommodations, providing income for the owners, the people they employ for upkeep and the places the guests patronize. |
Nicholas Parks | 02/09/2023 | Item A | My name is Nicholas Parks and I am a homeowner in College Park. I reside at 322 Cornell Drive in Lake Worth Beach. I support the ability of homeowners to offer our homes as short-term rentals on sites like Airbnb. I recommend that the City place no limitations or restrictions on short-term rentals. I believe that short-term rental availability within Lake Worth Beach will encourage increased tourism, visitor spending and generate positive economic activity throughout the city. We should embrace tourism as a driver of economic growth. Short-term rentals are the best way we can attract valuable tourism dollars and visitors to our beautiful city! |
Melissa Naman | 02/09/2023 | Item A | I am a resident and owner/operator of a short term rental in Lake Worth Worth. I am in favor of short term rentals and feel that they are crucial to the growth of the economy in Lake Worth Beach. These types of rentals bring much needed tourism and should not be overlooked. Here are just a few things that short term rentals bring in a positive manner: Please do not take our town backwards by attempting to eliminate all of the positive things that short term rentals and the tourism brings to our local businesses that we all love (and want to keep around!) |
Nick Paliughi | 02/09/2023 | Item A | At a time when rents are almost double what they were two years ago, it's inconceivable that Lake Worth would allow 800+ AirBnB's to operate illegally in the city. That's 800 houses that are taken off of the market and causing all kinds of problems for neighborhoods. There has been no problem in the past utilizing code enforcement aggressively against residents for having unmowed grass or a flat tire, why do "investors" who run illegal hotels in residential neighborhoods get a free pass? Can I just open a car repair garage out of a house on Palm Way? I would think this city would be using every tool at it's disposal to soften the blow of the latest real estate greed-convulsion on residents who actually have to work for a living to pay their rent and mortgages. If the commission does not enforce our own codes against airbnb then they are a party to the brutal displacement happening in Lake Worth that has caused much pain for many residents here. |
Rachel Andes | 02/09/2023 | Item A | My husband and I have concerns over the new Airbnb neighboring our house. We were excited to hear that someone was going to be moving in. The house had been vacated for a long time as the previous owners were getting it ready to sell. We enjoy our neighborhood as well as the people who live on our street. We have a five year old who is incredibly outgoing so it is important to us that we know our neighbors. Our biggest issue with an air bnb next door is the rapid turnover and not knowing who is going to show up next. It does not give us a chance to get a sense of who they are. They also allow smoking on their patio which is very close to where we spend time with our five year old when we’re outside which makes us very uncomfortable. We would support long term rentals. Even 60 day rentals. It’s even made us consider moving. We care about having a family friendly neighborhood and we also feel that air bnb’s are taking away opportunities from the families who would want to live in our neighborhood. Please consider our concerns as a family living in lake worth beach. |
Richard Stowe | 02/07/2023 | Item A | I want to thank you for your reaffirming your support for preserving and restoring 24 S L and 26 S L and preserving 17 S M in situ at the January 24th Special Meeting. I applaud Mayor Resch's call to save the Art Deco contributing historic resource, which Betty endearingly refers to as the dentist office (501 Lake Avenue.) I ask that each and every one of you line up to support Mayor Betty's call to preserve the charming Art Deco structure. I write to ask each of you to rescind the City Commisiom's unanimous January 24, 2023 motion made on In my opinion your vote was reckless and imprudent. The City, unless it wisely changes course, sets a terrible precedent for the private sector. Your actions indicate that you reward the CRA for pursuing Demolition by Neglect and Speculative Demolition. Your unanimous vote reinforces to the public that these are acceptable actions with no consequences. The orderly process of our excellent historic preservation ordinance, which states that contributing historic structures shall not be demolished unless a concurrent plan has been upended. I appreciated Commissioner Melaga's back of the hand calculation reasoning to save 24 and 26 S L, but her call for demolition is flawed. One reason is that an estimate for the contributing resources at 509 Lake Avenue was never sought. Two, neither Community Sustainability or CRA staff properly informed the City Commission of critical historic preservation grant opportunities, such as the $500,000 x 2 matching grant (CRA and City both eligible to apply concurrently that is open April 1st to June 1st, DOE energy efficiency and conservation block grants opportunities and other energy efficiency grants, nor the ability of the Commission to utilize the one-cent infrastructure revenue for "energy efficiency improvements." This omission is especially frustrating since the Director of Sustainability, William Waters earned a masters degree in Historic Preservation at the University of VIrginia and once worked for REG architects a noted historic preservation firm . Rick Gonzalez, Mr. Waters former boss, recently called the sad state of affairs in Old Town "Demolition by Neglect." Its time to reverse course from the ill-suited advice and actions you have have received from City and CRA staff and set a goal to carry out restoration of more structures and thoroughly examine all grant opportunities. Its time to scrap the Treasure Coast plan. I would instead ask that you employ Ramon Trias, a former Treasure Coast employee, to carry out an intensive grant search and open up communications with Anne Fairfax and Richard Sammons to prepare a new unsolicited plan. |
Anthony Gallegos | 02/09/2023 | Item A | I believe the city ought to enforce the existing ordinance prohibiting short term vacation rentals under sixty days, though exemptions should be considered for properties designated as homesteads. |
Cathy Casella | 02/07/2023 | Item A | Now playing in Lake Worth Beach - The Redistricting We are tired of watching this play over and over again. Listen to the experts and your constituents and move forward with Option 5, and let's live happily ever after. The End. |
Andrew Gottlieb | 02/07/2023 | Item C | Hi, my name is Andy Gottlieb. I live and work in Lake Worth and have been a resident for the last 15 years. I would like to make a general comment about the loss of historic structures, the loss of affordable housing (often in the guise of workforce housing), and the generous use of resident tax dollars to developers. I am concerned that CRA and City Staff believe development for development sake alone benefits our community. Quality of life for (all) existing residents needs to be part of the decision making process. Not all of us have time to participate in every meeting. Some folks have financial interest and often have what appears to be an outsized voice. Many of us moved to Lake Worth because it was a smaller beach town. We set roots and invested our time and resources to make the City a healthy, enjoyable place to live. I am commenting under this agenda item because after reviewing the RPC recommendation package I see yet again we are aiming to give large sums of money to developers and at the same time thinking about placing a large 5 story building on Lake Ave. I hope the commission will consider this is not a good idea. We need to maintain some of the open feel in our community and destroying an existing city building and creating a canyon along Lake Ave will degrade the feel of our downtown. Currently you can feel the ocean breeze and see the blue sky. The open space makes events like the street painting festival special, and uniquely Lake Worth. Please be cautious in how you aim to develop downtown. We can wisely integrate green space, existing historic buildings, and add housing. Also please note that the Planning Council mock up had inconsistent drawings and hence one really could not fully review the recommendations. Again, I hope we can find an answer that is not another 5 story building and cookie cutter development. Let's keep Lake Worth special and take advantage of our unique character. Thanks for taking the time and thanks for all of the hard work. Regards, |
Amy Kabcenell | 02/07/2023 | Item A | Population changes make redistricting in Lake Worth Beach necessary. This is unprecedented and should be done with the utmost care to ensure that voters’ rights are retained. Therefore, Option 5 should be approved. At the beginning of the redistricting process, the Commission’s goals were to keep neighborhoods intact and keep each Commissioner in their district. Input at Public Meetings supported these goals. I am curious – what has changed? And why are some Commissioners once again ignoring the advice of the “Experts” and the will of the Public. Voter representation is at stake, this behavior is appalling, dangerous and anti-democratic (small d). Stop playing political games and approve Option 5. |
Ted Brownstein | 02/07/2023 | Item A | |
Craig Frost | 02/07/2023 | Item A | There really shouldn't be anymore discussions about this, If you are paying attention and actually listening to the engaged public, Then pass map 5 and move on. |
Marilu machin | 02/07/2023 | Item A | I'm urging you to vote for Option 5 in the redistricting meeting. Option 5 is the only option that keeps neighborhoods intact and retains each commissioner in their district, which was the goal. Please follow the recommendations from Florida Atlantic University consultants and the wishes of the majority of your citizens, vote Option 5. Thank you very much. |
Tom Johnson | 02/07/2023 | Item A | I support redistricting alternative option five. We need to keep the historic Osbourne community intact as well as keeping our city's finest commissioner Sarah Parr Malega in her seat. |
Matthew brisson | 02/09/2023 | Item A | I trust the commission to make the best decision for our city, short term rentals have changed the community most of the houses around me are now short term rentals. If they are illegal it needs to be enforced its not right people are getting fined for artificial turf or xeriscape when others are free to brake the city's law. |
Erin Allen | 02/07/2023 | Item A | This commission is the epitome of the phraseology “paralysis by analysis”. You want to study things to death and use taxpayers’ dollars to fund study after study, and then when you don’t like the results you want to toss it to the curb. I, for one, am tired of your abuse of taxpayers’ monies to fund your personal agendas. This commission hired Florida Atlantic University Geoscience Department and its experts to guide you in the process of redistricting our city. This is a process that is critical to ensuring a fair and balanced representation of all residents of the city. Lake Worth Beach has never engaged in the redistricting process, and I commend you for having the foresight to hire the experts to keep you on the straight and narrow and protect you from a discrimination suit. As part of the process you wanted the public to weigh in, and weigh in they did. And those that spoke the loudest some of you now want to silence and marginalize – the Lake Osborne community, a district steeped in rich history in our City. The Option 5 map that has overwhelming support of the Lake Osborne neighborhood achieves what you wanted as you embarked on this process, and that was to retain each commissioner in their district and keep the neighborhoods intact, while complying with the population criteria for redistricting. Some of you don’t want Option 5 for reasons only you know. One can’t help but wonder if the fact that the alternate option displaces one commissioner, Commissioner Malega, from her district, that some of you would be pleased with that for political reasons. Let’s listen to the experts you hired who sanctioned Option 5 as a map that would comply with the even distribution of the population required for a lawful redistricting and keeps the neighborhoods wholly intact and each commissioner in their respective district. No more studies, no more public meetings, no more kicking the can down the road. Listen to the loud and clear voices of your constituents tonight and vote for Option 5. |
Zade Shamsi-Basha | 02/09/2023 | Item A | I support the city tightly regulating or banning commercial air bnbs, but also allowing for an exemption for homesteaded air bnb owners. |
yvon brisson | 02/09/2023 | Item A | I wish for the city to enforce their code on airbnbs and not pick and choose what ordinance they wish to fine a home owner. Its not right, all ordinances should be enforced or none at all Thank you. |
Robert D'Arinzo | 02/07/2023 | Item A | Dear mayor and commissioners please approve Option 5 proposed redistricting map |
Thomas Cavallo | 02/07/2023 | Item A | Redistricting is a very serious issue and one that the City has never had a chance to consider. That’s why we have to get it right. Option 5 keeps the neighborhoods intact and retains each Commissioner in their district, which was the goal of this Commission when they began the redistricting process. Listen to the third-party experts you hired from Florida Atlantic University and vote for Option 5. |
Lili Hughes | 02/07/2023 | Item A | Support Option 5 |
Bo Allen | 02/07/2023 | Item A | Please support the Option 5 redistricting map that keeps the Lake Osborne Community intact and retains each Commissioner in their district. The alternate map if chosen will disenfranchise voters. The Commission's stated goals at the beginning of this process were to preserve the neighborhoods as they currently are and retain each Commissioner in their district. Option 5 does both. Option 3 will displace Commissioner Malega, which some of the Commissioners want for what can be seen as only political reasons. Those same Commissioners want to throw out the public input garnered at the public meetings because they don't like the resulting map which best represents the neighborhoods, that map is Option 5. This past election the residents voted to change the City Charter to allow single member voting districts, which was done to ensure representation from all four corners of the City. Option 5 is the best choice to accomplish that goal and does not divide the Lake Osborne community, a historic neighborhood with deep roots in the City. I urge you to support and vote for Option 5 tonight. |
Adriane Coplan | 02/07/2023 | Item A | |
Barry Katz | 02/09/2023 | Item A | We moved here permanantly in Sept 2019 after buying our condo in 2015. We are here because we love this town, our neighborhood and community. We were saddened to see what was happening during the height of the pandemaic and are very happy to see Lake Worth Beach being re vitalized. |
Name | Meeting Date | Choose Which Item Your Comment Corresponds With | Comments to be read into record |