PB: The NPO Must Go
by SDM
Back in April and in several follow-up posts, this blog has raised a series of objections to Councilwoman Joan Lindsay’s Neighborhood Preservation and Compatibility proposal, also known as the “Neighborhood Protection” Ordinance (“NPO”). The following is a look at the issue at 40,000 feet:
Palmetto Bay Should Not Be Anti-Church and Anti-Private-School
The Village of Palmetto Bay is a community that was known long before incorporation as a family oriented place. In addition to some of the best public schools in the county, Palmetto Bay enjoyed then – and still enjoys today – some of the county’s best private schools.
Palmetto Bay is also home to many, many churches and other houses of worship that cater to the soul and heart of the community’s diverse residents.
The NPO is overkill and is totally unnecessary at best. At worst, it is an attempt to target one property: Christ Fellowship Church. The deniers will say that Christ Fellowship is not the target, but when one looks at the open land available in Palmetto Bay, Christ Fellowship is – in a practical sense – the only property that will suffer under it.
Palmetto Bay was not founded on a platform of being anti-church or anti-school. SDM remembers the debate and the topic of reining in schools and churches never came up. If it had, this village would remain unincorporated.
The NPO is a Time Bomb
As SDM pointed out in an earlier post, this conceptual ordinance is like a time bomb in the code waiting to explode if certain triggers are set off.
SDM and the village attorney agree that if a property is damaged in a hurricane or fire such that a new site plan must be submitted, then the property will have to meet the NPO’s ridiculously stringent requirements. SDM understands also that the South Florida Building Code might force a property into this morass under certain circumstances.
Should they need to, St. Richard’s Catholic Church or Old Cutler Presbyterian – to cite just a couple of examples – could not rebuild on their sites if the NPO passes. Put simply, such a result would not be fair, equitable or good public policy.
Neither is it fair, equitable or good public policy to maintain two sets of zoning codes in perpetuity, which staff says may be required if the council attempts to “grandfather” existing non-residential uses. The more complexity the council imports into the code, the weaker it becomes. Weak codes cause bad feelings and worse: unnecessary litigation.
At the very least, the council owes it to the community to fully investigate the ramifications of abandoning the near-universal principle that nonconforming uses must meet the new code.
Stop Letting the Tail Wag the Dog
SDM understands that some residents near Palmer have been whipped into a lather by some self-serving politicians. (Think: The Three Amigos.) They’ve been told that Palmer is going to disrupt their enjoyment of their property.
The fact is that the right to enjoy one’s property is not exclusive to residential homeowners. When you buy property, you buy into the neighborhood. SDM looked at many of the homes near Palmer and Westminster and found that most if not all of the owners moved in after those schools were already well-established.
Does that mean that Palmer and Westminster can do whatever they please on their property? No, because prior councils enacted strict noise and pollution standards that limit those schools today. The NPO takes this mostly-wise regulatory framework and converts it into a regime that is literally impossible to enforce.
The Palmer case is a sensitive subject for both sides, admittedly. Some like to claim that Palmer stated at a long-ago public hearing that it had no intent to grow. However, as the Palmer zoning resolution states, Palmer’s self-imposed limitation was only in regard to the campus it had at the time:
And we are not attempting to achieve any more development than the 600 students, at the maximum that we have now, on this campus. That is our mission. We have spent two years developing that mission. We have no intention of altering that mission. (Emphasis added by SDM.)
Palmer said it would not expand on its existing campus, but never said it would never expand to a new campus.
Palmer may or may not have known that it would acquire an additional 35 acres of adjacent land. But residents nearby had no reasonable expectation that the only development of that property would be single-family residences because the code permitted much more. If Palmer had not sought to build a school there, someone else would have every right to request a much larger one – up to 2000 students in fact.
The rest of Palmetto Bay’s residents must not be dragged into adopting an onerous, over-burdensome and perhaps illegal regulatory scheme because a couple dozen property owners were misled about Palmer by the “Save Our Palmetto Bay” (SOPs) organization and its ringleader Joan Lindsay.
Candidates: Time to Stand Up and Be Counted
According to the village clerk, six people signed up to run in the November 6th election for Palmetto Bay’s village council:
Vice Mayor:
Karyn Cunningham
John Edward DuBois
Brian W. Pariser
Council – Seat 2:
Jim Araiza
Tim Schaffer
Howard J. Tendrich
SDM understands that the incumbents are split on the NPO: Pariser for and Tendrich against.
SDM Wonders: Where do the others stand on the most contentious issue facing the village?
SDM Says: Come to the meeting tonight and tell the people where you stand. If you don’t care enough to tell us where you stand when the fire is raging, then don’t expect us to listen to you when the village is a pile of smoldering embers.
Sorry to repeat any earlier comment but…….
If I were a betting man which I’m not, I would predict the NPO never passes in it’s present form and the moratorium is extended for 6 months to a year. If the NPO passes in its current state all the churches and schools in the Village lose 50%-75% of their market value and the Village council have started a litigation war.
Does anyone know what happens to a note or loan when you lose 50%-75% of your appraised value or banks collateral?
The NPO is exteremly punitive and dangerous to existing Palmetto Bay entities. I’m not sure to many in the community can wrap their heads around that thought.
It’s a great article for the Herald to pick up on.
By the way, you’re starting to sound more and more like me every day. It must be contagious.
No one who is in their right mind should be voting for NPO in it’s current state and I hope it’s remembered at the polls this November.
Unfortunately I cannot be there, however, I have emailed all of our leaders about my opposition to the NPO. I will encourage my friends and family to join me. Now is not the time to hide in anonymity.
The NPO workshop was an exercise in the arcane and a prelude to micro regulation that would control every aspect of land use imaginable. On a broad scale it’s an unecessary attempt to rewrite the charter and a game of chicken between Lindsay’s brainchild and lawyers just licking their chops to litigate the unconstitutional provisions the rewrite contains. Lindsay, Stanczyk and Pariser are simply three needy officials who are incapable of learning from their experience.
Interesting to see who the real power was tonight and it wasn’t the Mayor, not much changed except to see how they control Brian, shame none of the candidates showed up except for Karen Cunningham and none spoke…… Sad day for this Village, what transpired today will lead to future litigation, one question how do you ensure a wall will endure for ten years?
I just saw the full page ad in Palmetto Bay News from the fine folks at Recall. Forgive me for saying, but I really thought it a bad choice of words to use “Concerned citizens of Palmetto Bay.” I have to say, just reading the words “Concerend citizens” gave me the willies before I could even get to “Palmetto Bay.” I think Mr. Singer may want to take a look at revising that wording in future advertisements before they begin to be known as CCOPB. Just my 2 cents…
Anonymous,
Agreed, we will be changing the ad for the future. God knows I don’t want to be associated with the CCOCI. I would rather stick a fireplace poker in my eye.
I couldn’t attend the meeting last night due to other obligations but I heard it was a real sleep fest. There needs to be great opposition to the NPO at first reading, with threats of litigation by those who are affected.
It needs to be on record that there will be continued and lengthy lawsuits if this nonsense passes. It’s time for the Churches and their congregations to stand up to the Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilwoman. No more sheep to the slaughter. No more turning the other cheek.
Most importantly vote Brian (the brain) Pariser out of office and sign the petition to remove Shelley and Joan from office.
“God helps those who help themselves”
David Singer
Issues from last nights meeting: 1) the ordinance has now been expanded yet again to include areas zoned for public assemblage but next to residential 2) parking garages have been prohibited in these areas (shame on you Howard for caving in on this, 3) walls are now required on all properties abutting residential areas 4) pool areas must be screened and noise abatement certified by an acoustical engineer
why are these issues? On the first one it means that if you own property and assumed it was safe from this nonsense it now isn’t, inclusive of the FTI zoning district. On number 2, well so much for the principals of greening, and coming from a Councilmember who espouses landscaping it’s a rather strange position to take on his part. what’s better a parking garage with a smaller footprint, less overall lighting, allowing for more flexibility on the site, more green areas, less heat island effect and for a quieter neighbor or a surface lot which provides dust, noise, more lighting, less landscaping and more paving on the site. The real reason to exclude parking garages is simple, the more space taken by parking the harder it is to use the remaining land for any kind of building, yet Howard you allowed yourself to be manipulated by Joan once again. On another note, since this has been expanded, guess it means you cannot build parking garages in the FTI district either, isn’t this a taking of rights? Isn’t this the destruction of that ordinance which was fully vetted and discussed in this Village before?
On walls, well it sounds nice, just as the article Joan displayed on noise abatement from the Herald, however that article points out that although it reduces noise directly behind the wall it does little for the overall noise reduction that she is promising, besides a heavy buffer of trees and shrubs have proven much better at this, the maintenance of which can be enforced through the code compliance department, walls on the other hand now become a shared responsibility of the institution and the abutting homeowner for maintenance, painting and repairs, is this what the CCOCI group really was envisioning?
One last note, did Joan really protect you last night by expanding zoning rights to allow offsite parking? With this action she has now opened Pandora’s box to off site parking for numerous other institutions in the village, they can just buy a parcel next door and allow parking there or work out arrangements with neighboring facilities to allow for an expansion of use without having to meet requirements, how does this allowed expansion protect the neighborhood? This is an exercise in futility by inexperienced people who simply have a vendetta against a few and no one seems to be able to see this. True neighborhood protection can be had with a more thoughtful approach, charterers, inclusion of all and after numerous meetings come up with a concise plan that all can be happy with and providing the quality of life we all want, not the dictates of a few, promises given to CCOCI constituents on buffers and the stated hatred of the bedrock of any community.
What is even sadder is that the real majority the Non-CCOCI group and the recall group people not withstanding don’t even have a place at the table
The saddest part is that council spouses still control the meeting. First we have bouncer Mr. Mayor. No, I am not referring there to Mr. Templer, who is Joan Lindsay’s spouse. Although even greater clarity was acheived last night that Joan Lindsay is the actual mayor and that Council woman Stanczyk speaks only when allowed. That is actually not bad in the sense that Mayor Lindsay is the only one with any brains and political acumen up there. Unfortunately her intellect is being used for evil. She better watch out as her CCOCI chums are already getting wise to the fact that she has over promised and is set to under deliver big time on the NPO. One such CCOCI zombie stood up and demanded her “protection,” crying for the lost 100 foot set backs? (soon to shrink to 50 feet, but quiet on that for now).
And when will Madam mayor-wannabe Stanczyk find her gavel and stop being so powerless against the CCOCI zombies. Jerry Templer (the real Mr. Mayor) got up and blasted Council member Tendrich as did the queen of mean Beatriz Hermann (why has she never been shown the door for her outrageous antics). How about enforcing your decorum ordinance evenly, not merely against Mr. Harris you bum for a mayor? Thankfully Tendrich put Mr. Templer in his place, scored as a non-assisted sack. Beatriz? Well, I’m not sure that even she knows what she means to say, she is just mean.
Can this mayor wannabe even pretend to try to control a meeting? What a laughing stock this entire council has become. There is no decorum, no intellect, no intellectual honesty about what they really want to accomplish.
Nice meeting, now Palmetto Bay can become known as the “Village of Walls” or the “Concrete Village”. No use of non-residential facilites for anyone other than the owner. Mayor Lindsay and gang need to get a grip and get ready to build the sports facilities for the residents that they are going to cut village residents off from at the local Churches and Private Schools.
Everyone should also take note that the two-faced council is having lunch at this very moment at Christ Fellowship at the PBBA. Isn’t this a prime example of “do as I say, not as I do?” Isn’t this a co-use, a use by another organization of a non-residential facility located deep in the heart of residential? Have you no shame Mayor Stanczyk? Have you no shame Vice Mayor for the present time Pariser? Have you no shame Mayor in Fact Lindsay? Why not set an example and boycott this blatant misuse by a third party of a non-residential area of public assemblage and stay away. You are only proving yourselves to be hypocrites by attending and glad handing. You are not fooling anyone but yourselves.
In short, this is what happens when the mayor has no vision and is far too weak to push forward anything postive. Mayor Stanczyk bragged about the parking garage at Village Hall and the project is now DOA. Nice job madam mayor. What happened to your other intiatives like Thalatta, or as it almost became known, “Old Cutler’s greatest traffic nightmare.”
Walls, walls and more walls….I can see it now, lots of artwork on them…this is what it will become, a canvas for people to do their best with paint….ugly just like the people who are presenting them….what a mess we are in and they have caused it all by themselves….not one council member can stand up to the mayor or one another and stop this train….good luck in the election, I hope the good residents are learning from this weak council….