As predicted, the other shoe has dropped in the battle over the Diplomat LAC before the Broward Planning Council on Thursday

Well, as was quite predictable, the other shoe has
finally dropped in the battle over whether or not
and the high-powered and well-connected
attorney/lobbyist team for the Westin Diplomat
Resort & Spa and their owners, the Plumbers
& Pipe Fitters Union, will be able to cram
a large development project into a family
neighborhood in Hallandale Beach -that borders
and directly affects residents of Hollywood-
where their absurd and grandiose plans for multiple
27-story condo towers on secondary streets
are completely incompatible with the character
and nature of not only the neighborhood in question,
but directly contrary to the City of Hallandale
Beach's own adopted Master Plan of last year.

To wit, a completely calculated partial-retreat
in order to appear reasonable in their requests.

Below is the letter from Greenberg Traurig
attorney Debbie Orshefsky that was transmitted
to the Broward Planning Council yesterday
in advance of their Thursday morning meeting
to decide the Diplomat's application.
I believe you already know who most of the
names are.

Neighbors and residents of HB and Hollywood
have no problem with them ACTUALLY doing
what they are legally entitled to do NOW,
since nobody wants them to close the Diplomat
Country Club, but the Diplomat management
-Starwood- and owners has only to look in the
mirror to see who's actually responsible for them
being in the economic bind they are currently in:
they have a particular product few people
want.

Their property is not just poorly-marketed, but,
for the current market, charging far-too-much
for such an undemanding and uninteresting
golf course.
It's that simple.

Consumers with plenty of choices vote with their
feet and with their wallets everyday and this is
no different.
Currently, consumers are making themselves
heard, but the Diplomat and Company
is NOT listening to that evidence and customer
feedback.

That's their problem to resolve, and not one
to be borne by neighbors and residents of HB
and Hollywood, who, after all, DON'T owe the
union a profit, no matter how much their
well-financed PR team has tried over the past
few months to paint a sky-is-falling scenario
if they don't get their way on this application.

This issue is truly an example of where the
more you know the true facts at hand,
as well as the historical context for those
particular facts, the more you realize how
truly flimsy the Diplomat's arguments are.

Meeting starts Thursday promptly at 10 a.m.



Below, some recent past paid ads opposed to
the Diplomat LAC.



-----


-----