Wednesday's N.E. Quadrant meeting in HB: a perfect opportunity to capture the angry mood of a city re over-development

Those of you who have called or written me in
the recent past and said that you'd have loved
to have covered this particular story earlier...
well, now you'll have your chance on Wednesday
night.
Mieux vaut tard que jamais.

Reminder: Next Wednesday, April 7th, is the
day that the Johnson Street RFP goes before
the Hollywood City Commission and the
commissioners finally get to pose questions to
the presenting teams, and vote for one team,
vote for both teams to proceed, or vote to start
over.

According to the City Manager's office, whom I
spoke to earlier today, their tentative schedule
is to have the regular City Commission meeting
at 1 p.m., the CRA meeting at 4 p.m. and their
combined CRA/City Commission meeting at 5 p.m.,
which is when the Johnson Street proposals
will come up.

I expect to have pared my video of the past
Johnson Street meetings down to the best
parts I recorded since last year and up on
the blog and YouTube page by this weekend,
so you might want to swing by and see what's there.

By the way, for those of you who don't know,
the DUO, pictured below, is located south of the
Diplomat Golf Course in HB and next to the
already commercially-zoned parcel the
Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Union already
owns that neighborhood residents can live with,
just as they are also okay with a new upscale
500-room hotel to replace the existing 60-room
building and a new adjoining small retail complex
to it, located in the center of the golf course.

We all genuinely wish they'd manage and market
the golf course better than they currently do,
so that more people would use it, but we don't
have any control over that.

It doesn't help, however, that they seem
completely disinclined to actually listen to
the honest criticism of the course by avid
golfers in the area, real consumers, as if the
self-evident problems will somehow resolve
themselves.

What the community and nearby Hollywood
residents oppose is the Diplomat's owner
proposal to build 4-5 more of these incompatible
out-of-scale condo towers in a single-family
residential neighborhood, on secondary roads,
and threatening the future of the golf course
if they do not get their way with the condos.

We will not let their threats and bluffs
go unanswered.


Below, DUO

Below, depiction of a Diplomat condo tower on Atlantic Shores Blvd.,

looking SE towards the Intracoastal and the Atlantic Ocean.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Csaba Kulin
Date: Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 12:56 PM
Subject: N.E. Quadrant Meeting

Hello Friends;

Tomorrow night, the City of Hallandale Beach will hold a "quadrant" meeting to INFORM US what is going on and ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS we may have.

This is OUR TIME to ask about the DIPLOMAT LAC. NO 3 MINUTE CLOCK. It is OPEN to ANYONE. Even if you do not live in the N.E. area. Even if you do not live in Hallandale.

It does not get any EASIER to let the Mayor and Commissioners know how you feel about MORE TRAFFIC, MORE DEVELOPMENT, MORE HIGH RISES etc.

How would you like to see 6 or 7 high rises the size of the DUO on Diplomat Parkway? 900 residential units plus the 500 room hotel on Diplomat Parkway?

With 3000 residential units approved, do you think we need another 950 units to be approved? We have a ton of vacant, unsold and foreclosed units.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:30 P.M. Towers of Ocean View South, 600 Parkview Drive, HB.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT, TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO COME.

WEAR A RED SHIRT OR BLOUSE SEE YOU THERE WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Csaba Kulin

President, Fairways North, Inc.

VP United Condominium Association of Hallandale Beac

----------------------

from Csaba Kulin
to Commissioner Anthony Sanders
date Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 2:57 PM
subject Broward County Commission Second Meeting on the Diplomat LAC

Honorable Commissioner Sanders;

We, the presidents, directors and residents of Fairways North, Inc., Fairways Inc., Fairways South, Inc. and Seventeenth Green Condominiums joined together in a coalition to be able to better represent out interests, wishes and desires. The 450 residential units of our 4 associations stand shoulder to shoulder with each other to protect our quality of life. I am sure that our collective voice will be more difficult to dismiss than each of us individually, now and in the future.

As you know, we have achieved something very seldom happens. The residents of HB with the help many others, were able stop BIG MONEY even if its is not the final vote. The most important thing that it "DID NOT PASS". As I understand the Diplomat can come back for an "other bite of the apple" in April.

I am sorry that you found it in your heart to speak up against us, but what BC Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin said was that really bothered me. She said "my 1360 registered voters in the N.W. section of Hallandale Beach, which I represent, want me to vote in favor of approving the Diplomat LAC". That was our 5th vote we needed to stop the LAC.

The 1360 registered voters of N.W. represent 6.5% of the 20,200 registered voters of HB. They are welcome to do whatever is in their best interest.

On the other hand, Commissioner, you were also elected by the other 93.5% registered voters of HB, and that 93.5 does not want the Diplomat LAC.

You are all about jobs, jobs and jobs. I agree with you, but you know that jobs are in hotels and commercial buildings. Residential units DO NOT create jobs. The Diplomat is already zoned for a hotel and a large commercial building with stores and offices. Please do not listen to the fear tactics of the Diplomat.

On behalf of the "Fairways Coalition" I ask you to meet with me/us to discuss what you are able and willing to do to help us secure that most important FIFTH vote on BC Commission on April 27, 2010.

To the Diplomat it is money, to some others it is politics but for us it is our quality of life is at stake. Tell me how any elected official can be for either of the first two?

The following Associations and Individuals stood shoulder to shoulder with us in this epic struggle. Not everyone was able to be at the Commission Meeting in person for various reasons but I can assure you, they were there with us in spirit. I hope the announcement after our victory will include the name HB Commissioner Anthony Sanders.

• Broward Coalition - President Charlotte Greenbarg
• Fairways Coalition Members
• Fairways South, Inc. President Michel LaPalme and Residents
• Fairways Inc. President Colin Edwards and Residents
• Fairways North, Inc. Board of Directors and Residents
• Seventeenth Green, Hon. Don Boudria, P.C.
• The Hemispheres President Julian Axelrod
• United Condominium Association of Hallandale Beach President Louis Parades
• Hollywood Lakes Section Civic Association President Terry Cantrell
• Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Bill Julian
• Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London
• Dave Smith
• Catherine Kim Owens
• Former Hallandale Beach Mayor Sonny Rosenberg
• Drs. Bob and Judy Selz
• Golden Condo Association President Beverly Carawan
• Venetian Park Condo Association David Chizen
• And many, many others with their e-mail, phone calls and going the meetings.

Thank You,

Csaba Kulin

President, Fairways North, Inc

VP United Condominium Association of Hallandale Beach