Petition drive seeks to halt Hallandale Beachwalk project
By Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel
8:19 p.m. EDT, August 13, 2012
HALLANDALE BEACH—
A mayoral write-in candidate is behind a newly launched petition to halt a 31-story hotel/condo overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway that could result in a $65,000 special election.
Beachwalk, a $90 million project with 84 residential units, 216 hotel suites, a small restaurant and a five-story parking garage on Hallandale Beach Boulevard at the southwestern base of the Intracoastal drawbridge, was approved by the city commission in June.
"It's going to be a nightmare on this postage-stamp-sized lot," said Jay Schorr, the write-in candidate who lives on nearby Golden Isles Drive. "Citizens need to know, to be educated, that they have a say in what's being done by their elected officials ... they don't need to sit back and take it."
Video: Watch Broward court TV on live stream video
Schorr, his wife, their 21-year-old son, an 87-year-old aunt and a friend complete the team of five registered Hallandale Beach voters required to set in motion a petition to put a referendum on the ballot. They submitted paperwork to the City Clerk on Thursday to repeal the commission's approval.
They now have until Aug. 21 to gather 2,072 signatures. If successful, it could require a special election that would cost Hallandale taxpayers about $65,000, city spokesman Peter Dobens said.
Although the site isn't zoned for it, commissioners gave special approval for 84 residential units and agreed to let the project move forward with 167 fewer parking spaces than city code requires.
At a June 6 public hearing, residents rooting for the jobs and infusion of money the project would bring outnumbered those bemoaning the anticipated parking woes and congestion.
"I don't have any objections to people exercising the democratic processes afforded to them at all," Mayor Joy Cooper said Monday. "But we've had numerous, numerous public hearings on this item and he's never come forward. I didn't even know he had an issue with it."
Cooper and Commissioner Keith London are vying in November for the center seat on the dais. Schorr, as a write-in candidate, will not appear on the ballot.
Schorr denied that the referendum petition is a political ploy.
"It's only a platform to further my campaign in that I have the interest of Hallandale voters, because I am one, to prevent a project that's going to cause a horrible inconvenience to the city," said Schorr, 54, owner of a communications company.
The "long-run deleterious effects" of the project would be more costly than a special election, Schorr said.
If Schorr gathers the required number of signatures, those names would have to be certified by the Broward County Supervisor of Elections. The City Commission then would have 30 days to repeal their approval for Beachwalk or hold an election, Dobens said.
Because June 8 was the deadline to get anything on the November ballot, it would have to go to a special election, Dobens said.
Reprinted from Sun-Sentinel
No comments:
Post a Comment