SAVE OUR VIEW!!!!!! NO DUNE GRASS ON DEERFIELD BEACH!!!

 

I heard a disturbing thing at the commission meeting last week.  It seems the city is trying to win a grant of $30,000 to which they will have to add their own matching amount to total $60,000. 

What’s so disturbing about that you might wonder.  That’s better than Publix’s ketchup 2 for 1 sale. 

Well, it’s what Assistant City Manager Keven Klopp said he wanted to do with the money that is disturbing.  He wants to put plantings on our main beach grassy area.  In patches he said.  Not everywhere.

This was tried before, and the public uproar put an end to it. 

This would be a disaster for our lovely beach view.

If you doubt that go to the south end of the beach and look at the dunes there.  The sea oats and other plantings are growing, spreading, vigorously and TALL.  Sit on a bench there or walk on the sidewalk and you see grass, not ocean.

If patches were placed on our main beach it would eliminate places to sit, but worse, the patches will spread to the rest of the beach.  After all sea oats and other plantings of the kind are basically hardy weeds.  We know how well plants grow in our climate.  I stuck a pencil in the ground and it grew.  And, according to regulations, once you put plants on the beach, you will not be allowed to remove them.

Our main beach is what Deerfield Beach is all about.  It is our bragging right, our main attraction, the reason we say proudly, “I live in Deerfield Beach, yes, the one with the beautiful beach.”  “Right, Deerfield Beach, the place where you can sit in the shade of a Palm tree, on a grassy hill and not get all sandy.”

These plantings, as anyone with half a brain would see will not help with the erosion of the beach, the beach is not eroding up along the grass line, it is eroding at the water line.

These plantings will not prevent the sand, on stormy or hurricane days, from blowing across the  grass and road.  The wind is much higher and stronger than the grass so these plantings will not eliminate the need to string the black fabric sand fences.

AND, the damage to the view of our beach would be so devastating to the enjoyment of our beach and our view that it wouldn’t, under any circumstances, be worth the loss.  The cleanup costs are just the price we pay for the beautiful view.

Use the money to put the required plantings around the new pier restoration, we have to put plants in along there, add some plants to the south beach dunes, they are an eyesore anyway, add plantings along the back of JBs and Ocean’s 234.

BUT KEEP THE NASTY DUNE VEGETATION OFF OF OUR MAIN BEACH.

SAVE OUR VIEW.

Residents Win One!

Thanks to Commissioner Bill Ganz initiating the process, the industrial zone off of Powerline which used to be in unincorporated Broward County but which was annexed onto Deerfield Beach over 10 years ago was finally rezoned and brought into compliance with the city’s building process.
 

WHAT AN ORDEAL.  The owners of the industrial property wanted no changes, the residents wanted safeguards and neither wanted a middle ground.  (See post below).

At last night’s (Tuesday, 2/7) meeting City Attorney Andy Maurodis spelled out the changes the city staff recommended after many meetings with the industrial land owners and input from the residential residents.  These talks went on and on and on and, well you get the idea. The city held a public workshop, and this was the second public hearing.

This presentation restored having crematoriums and medical waste sterilization facilities which the previous proposal had deleted due to resident concern.

My guess is that the city was intimidated into replacing them by threats of being sued by Mancini and other land owners.  Florida has something called the Bert Harris Act, http://archive.flsenate.gov/statutes/index.cfm?m&App_Mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0070/Sec001.htm&StatuteYear=2004 part of which reads:

“When a specific action of a governmental entity has inordinately burdened an existing use of real property or a vested right to a specific use of real property, the property owner of that real property is entitled to relief, which may include compensation for the actual loss to the fair market value of the real property caused by the action of government, as provided in this section.”

Whether the few changes (see post below) to the zoning constitute being “inordinately burdened” would be for the courts to decide, however my guess is that the court would lean toward the government in this case and given the minor changes to the zoning, and the vast number of allowed industrial uses kept in the code would decide in favor of the residents and the city.  I don’t think Mancini et. al. will bother to take it to court, but the possibility is there and that was enough for the city to recommend bowing to the wishes of the land owners.

What happened last night?  The residents of Waterways and Independence Bay again pleaded for the city to at least ban the medical waste facility, and Bill Ganz gave a reasoned and passionate rational for doing just that.  Many residents also were concerned about crematoria.

Commissioner Marty Popelsky, was amazing, he said we shouldn’t have either facility and if needs be, it may be time to take on Bert Harris and find out.  The applause from the residents was deafening.  That proposal,  zoning changes WITHOUT medical waste and crematoria, was made and seconded and squeaked through by a vote of 3 to 2;   Commissioners Miller and Preston voted no, presumably because of the fear of a law suit and the possible financial hit to the city coffers.

Again loud applause and cheering. 

This was a good thing for the residents who very likely will show their approval at the ballot box.   

As Bill Ganz said, there are no bad guys here.  Both the residents and the land owners worked hard for a compromise and are to be praised.  Through no fault of either party a bad situation arose and a good solution came about.   High five to both sides.

Deerfield Beach Industrial Zoning Changes

  At Tuesday January 24’s Commission meeting there will be a public hearing on the rezoning of the industrial area designated Broward County M3 and M2 to City zoning I2. The city has already had a public workshop at which residents voiced their concerns. The residents were a powerful force and gave their testimony passionately but with class and decorum. Commissioner Bill Ganz gave clear and reasoned reasons for allowing the rezoning.

The only area in Deerfield Beach with M3 and M2 zoning is the industrial area west of Powerline by Independence Bay and Waterford.  The County did away with that zoning category some time ago.

The Independence Bay and Waterford housing developments never should have been allowed to be built.  The whole area was zoned industrial and should have stayed that way.  But years ago it was changed for developers to build the developments.

The residents now live between Mt. Trashmore and industrial businesses. It is a ridiculous place for a housing development, even if it is on a scenic lake.  But some developer saw $$$$$$$ and now we have a predictable outcome; residents against industrial zoned land owners and businesses.

The businesses, even if they are in compliance with all codes, EPA regulations and city ordinances, (and some are not) cause some dirt.  Residents complain of a constant film of soot on their patio tables and cars, eye irritation, respiratory distress and, of course, the smell. 

After the area was annexed from the county into the city in 1990, the city had to wait 10 years to rezone anything.  All the property owners and businesses were notified that rezoning could take place at any time after that.  Well, it took a little longer, the city dragged its feet and the rezoning didn’t make it to the top of the to-do list until now. And now comes the conflict:  the business and land owners want things to stay the same; the residents see some small relief in their quality of life if the changes are enacted. 

What is the city hoping to accomplish with the redoing of the zoning? It will put the area under city regulations, where permits and building will have to be approved by the city Planning and Zoning Board, and the Commission.  Currently the area is still under the more lax regulation of the obsolete County policies. 

But most important to the residential residents are the changes of allowed uses.  The I2 zoning, according to Jerry Ferguson, Director of Planning and Growth Management, has some 200 or more various categories, and the vast majority of them will stay, but some currently allowed will not.  Some of them are:

• Penal institutions,
• Medical waste facilities
• Propane storage facilities
• Salvage or wrecking yards, or Junkyards
• Cemetery Crematories,
• Fertilizer, compost and mulch facilities.

This list was compiled with input from residents, the city has been meeting with the industrial land owners who are not happy with losing some possible uses on their land.  BUT, many of the owners bought the land knowing rezoning was in the offing, and the others have known it for the last 10 years.  The city has the right to rezone this area, now they are doing it.

The changes are very few and quite modest, completely legal and in no way would rise to the level of a Burt Harris type taking as some owners have threatened.  But, the changes are important, as they will help add value to the surrounding industrial area, and the commercial parcels across the street and peace of mind to the nearby residents.

Comparison Chart
M-3 & M-4 Industrial and Most Common Heavy Commercial Uses Presently Allowed per the Annexation Bill & Proposed I-2 Uses
     

Use	M-3	M-4	I-2
Assembly	P	P	P
Asphalt Manufacturing	P	P	P*
Autmobile, truck & equipment auctions	P	P	P
Automobile repair	P	P	P
Autmobile storage or transport facility	P	P	P*
Automobile , truck & recreational vehicle salvage or wrecking yards	P	P	NP
Boarding Kennel	P	P	P
Building & construction materials manufacturing & storage	P	P	P
Concrete batching and/or mixing	P	P	P*
Crematory	P	P	NP
Equipment rental and leasing	P	P	P
Essential servies (utilities)	P	P	P
Fertilizer, compost and mulch compounding, storage & distribution (outside activities)	P	P	NP
Food processing, packaging & distribution including meat packing (no slaughtering)	P	P	P
General Commercial & Retail	P	P	P*
Indoor Commercial Recreation	P	P	P*
Industrial Sales	P	P	P
Junkyards	NP	P	NP
Laboratory (medical, dental, research & development)	P	P	P
Manufacturing	P	P	P
Medical waste transfer station	P	P	NP
Medical waste incineration or sterilization	P	P	NP
Metal manufacturing (from raw materials)	P	P	P
Motor freight terminal or moving & storage company	P	P	P
Offices	P	P	P
Penal institutions	P	P	NP
Pest control services	P	P	P
Petroleum products & bottled gas bulk storage	P	P	NP*
Processing & packaging	P	P	P
Recording & broadcasting studio	P	P	P
Recycling facility	P	P	P*
Repair Shop	P	P	P
School, trade or vocational	P	P	P
Showrooms	P	P	P
Storage yards (operable vehicles, usuable equipment or other items)	P	P	P*
Trade shops	P	P	P
Trash transfer station	P	P	P*
Vehicle sales, rental or leasing	P	P	P
Warehouse, self-storage	P	P	P
Warehouse, distribution	P	P	P
Wholesale	P	P	P
Wireless communication facilities	P	P	P