re Red-Light Cameras: Greedy FL cities, Tallahassee-based lobbyists, FL League of Cities and Lake Worth Sen. Jeff Clemens lead effort to gut proper yellow-light timing, gut Motorist's Rights, and gut effort to lower Red-Light Camera fines; Naturally, Sen. Gwen Margolis is not part of the reform and increased safety effort but rather the team intent on keeping dollars flowing into cities at all costs

WJHG-TV/Panama City, FL video: Red Light Camera Changes Shot Down
Posted: Thu 5:24 PM, Mar 21, 2013A A  
Updated: Thu 9:26 PM, Mar 21, 2013Back to News
http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/Red-Light-Camera-Changes-Shot-Down-199438831.html

The following blog post combines certain portions of an email I sent out early Friday morning after spotting various versions of stories on my blog's Google Reader about how Florida state Sen. Joe Abruzzo's SB 1342 proposal fared in the Senate Transportation Committee Thursday morning in Tallahassee.

It also incorporates information from earlier news stories I'd kept under wraps on attempts in various states to set minimum lengths of time for yellow traffic lights to display before a red light appears, per the continuing controversy in Chicago previously mentioned here on the blog on November 24, 2012, one of my most-popular posts:

More Red-Light Camera shenanigans: National Journal's Mike Magner has warning for U.S. drivers about unscrupulous cities' amber-colored money trap: Yellow means Green & $$$ - "Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations" -on purpose. And Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is the most brazen of all

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/more-red-light-camera-shenanigans.html

Just to reiterate, the FHWA's "Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices," i.e. Federal regs require that a yellow light be at least 3-6 seconds in length. 
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/

Despite lots of lip service, Florida cities, especially those located in South Florida, like Hallandale Beach where I live, do NOT want longer yellow/amber times on their traffic signals because this would necessarily result in giving motorists more time to continue thru the intersection or to come to a complete stop, which would mean less speeding and red-light running ticket fees for their hurting bottom line. 
Plain and simple, the cities have become addicts for those fines and will do anything to keep getting their fix, and that's nowhere more true than in Hallandale Beach. Especially cities that take their marching orders from the taxpayer-subsidized Florida League of Cities, which Mayor Cooper was recently the head of. 

---

Tampa Bay Times Buzz politics blog 
Red light camera fines survive in Senate
By  Michael Van Sickler, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
March 21, 2013 1:05pm

 Red light runners would have paid less for getting violations and had more time to pay them under SB 1342 by Sen. Joe Abruzzo, D-Wellington, but the lobbying muscle of the agencies and governments that produce revenue from the fines overturned it.

If approved, the bill would have reduced fines from $158 to $100 and given violators 90 days to respond rather than the current 30 days.

Read the rest of the post at: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/red-light-camera-fines-survive-in-senate/2110424

Given her past track record and ardently pro-government/anti-citizen sensibility, it's no surprise that Northeast Miami-Dade's very own Sen. Gwen Margolis supported the unhelpful Clemens amendment to keep cities rolling in the dough and not create a longer yellow light to actually do something about safety.

As has been mentioned here on the blog more than a few times, Margolis once famously suggested that it might be necessary to make the William Lehman Causeway/Bridge in Aventura -a bridge connecting the beach area of Sunny Isles to the mainland (and hospitals) that was needed decades before it was finally built- a pay/toll bridge.

For many years, Margolis has been doing the bidding of the City of Aventura -the city just south of Hallandale Beach- on behalf of their red-light camera operation, which unlike Hallandale Beach's money-grab, at least has the benefit of having large signs that mention that it's the handiwork of Aventura, so there's no confusion on who'd doing it.

Here are the two scenarios that the folks at American Traffic Solutions, the Arizona-based vendor who's been fervently pushing them across South Florida, and even tried to co-opt Broward County into sharing their physical resources so they could piggyback at still more locations, along with their army of lobbyists and cronies at the Florida League of Cities are most afraid of:

a,) passage of the bill for complete repeal, CS/HB 4087
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/4087/Analyses/ma8BkhAmaAbhZG7qzRPSDC6p4Z8=%7C7/Public/Bills/4000-4099/4087/Analysis/h4087a.EAC.PDF
or, b.) the Florida Supreme Court ruling them illegal:
Sunshine State News
Florida Supreme Court to Hear Red Light Camera Cases, Could Refund Millions of Dollars
By Eric Giunta, November 14, 2012 3:55 AM
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/florida-supreme-court-hear-red-light-camera-cases-could-refund-millions-dollars

Miami NewTimes
Freedom fighter Richard Masone takes on red-light cameras in South Florida 
By Gus Garcia-Roberts, June 24 2010
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-06-24/news/red-light-cameras-are-now-legal-in-south-florida/

After watching the videos and the articles above, some of you might want to consider contacting the city attorney and police chief in your own city and ask what the minimum yellow light-change interval time is and when it was last verified.
And while you are at it, ask what the city's official standard is for legal right turns on red.

Red light camera in Hallandale Beach has some seeing red

Uploaded July 8, 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wl8xGKzfTU

That goes double for taxpayers and residents here in Hallandale Beach, with two red-light cameras, at Hallandale Beach Blvd. & U.S.-1 and the one near Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W. 9th Court, and whether they have been adjusted properly since initial installation to meet the standard cited in this bill.

Given that the city and HBPD would NOT publicly release their own statistics about tickets for speeding and red-light running in this city at the locations where the devices were eventually placed -which should have been where the highest incidents were, right?- prior to the adoption of tehm, you have very good reason to cast more than a little doubt on what you'd hear.
But contact them anyway and see what they say and let me know at hallandalebeachblog-at-gmail-dot-com

I ask this because everyone who has been paying attention here knows that it took FDOT well over a year AFTER a HB-controlled red-light camera was installed on west-bound Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W. 9th Court, near the IHOP, to actually place legible warning signs where they could be seen by drivers, instead of being hidden behind trees -on a block lacking any street lights- per my many complaints.

Here's the bill that was proposed but then gutted by Sen. Jeff Clemens
http://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/Committees/2012-2014/TR/MeetingRecords/MeetingPacket_2152_2.pdf

The action described in the articles/posts above can be seen at the hearing's video  
http://www.flsenate.gov/media/videoplayer.cfm?EventID=2443575804_2013031257
starting at the 85:47 mark thru 109:49

Thinking about this causes me to wonder why HBPD STILL insists on placing police officers conducting old-fashioned speed-traps on relatively little-traveled W. Dixie Highway and First Avenue and NOT where the speeding cars in this town actually are -on Federal Highway?

IF public safety is really the number-one concern, why does it seem that most of the actual speeders ever caught, usually in front of Gulfstream ParkRace Track & Casino's S.E. 3rd Street entrance, are caught almost always by Aventura Police, not HBPD?
Hmm-m...

In a related news, DO try this at home: 
Go to http://www.crimemapping.com/map/fl/hollywood

Then place your cursor on the + part of the zoom-in/zoom-out function on the right until its as close as possible.
Now place the cursor on the - sign and click it five times.
Focus the map so that Aventura is not shown.
And there in front of you will be the evidence of what constitutes the most-common link of most crime in HB and Hollywood: Federal Highway/U.S.-1.
Okay, so book 'em and read 'em their Miranda Rights...

By the way, not that this will surprise you, but almost five months later, nobody from either upper management or on the Editorial Board of at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel ever responded to my direct questions last year about why they asked HB Mayor Joy Cooper, the former head of the Florida League of Cities, to write an essay re Red-Light Cameras for their Op-Ed section, given her 2012 campaign contributions from American Traffic Solutions.

That email was posted here as

When are Broward County residents FINALLY going to get the "whole truth" from the Tribune Company's South Florida Sun-Sentinel and some public explanation for their continued reluctance to report it and useful context in Broward County news? Their problems with facts & bias are getting worse by the month; Joy Cooper's red-light camera friends and supporters; Sun-Sentinel's pro-Debbie Wasserman-Schultz bias is a continuing insult to readers; @MayorCooper

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/when-are-broward-county-residents.html

My own guess is that a large part of the Sun-Sentinel's refusal to respond to me and address those reasonable concerns stems from the fact that they were embarrassed to have me publicly point out that they were NOT smart enough to ask Mayor Cooper  BEFORE they agreed to publish her red-light propaganda, whether or not she'd already received or anticipated receiving any campaign contributions from ATS, or whether the Florida League of Cities has received any money from them.

The news paper didn't mention those obvious questions or ethical concerns in or near what she wrote, even though they are the very sort of obvious questions that should've been asked, with answers shared with readers.
Bit they didn't do that.

For more on the topic of Red-Light Cameras in Hallandale Beach, and photo examples of where the warning signs were placed -out-of-sight- see:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/American%20Traffic%20Solutions

Red Light Ticket Capital YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrBFagel

Section 316 of the Florida Statutes, the State Uniform Traffic Control Law:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0300-0399/0316/0316ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2012&Title=-%3E2012-%3EChapter%20316

As imperfect as they are, the NFL "replacement" officials are still performing their job much-better than the following people or groups in Florida are performing their's...

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As imperfect as they are, the NFL "replacement" officials are still performing their job much-better than the following people or groups in Florida are performing their's...

Broward County Legislative Delegation 

Time to end 'free ride' for the Broward Legislative Delegation on Broward taxpayers' back; they should pay ALL costs of an office few citizens know of

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/time-to-end-free-ride-for-broward.html

Broward County School Board, esp. ethically-challenged Chair Ann Murray, who legally represents Hallandale Beach on the Board, and yet has continually demonstrated that she's afraid of meeting with well-informed Hallandale Beach parents and taxpayers in public and the city. Murray also refuses to answer longstanding questions in public about her very questionable judgment and decisions.

Ann Murray -she's a phony, a bigot and a no-show. Consistently. That's what voters have seen of her tenure on Broward School Board so far -she needs to go!; update on projects at Hallandale High School

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-1-of-2-ann-murray-shes-phony-bigot.html

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-2-of-2-ann-murray-shes-phony-bigot.html

Video of Bob Norman's news report at Channel 10: Montessori school called 'Jen's baby', Report blames former school board member Jen Gottlieb for $25M pushing project through
http://www.local10.com/news/FDLE-report-details-how-Beachside-Montessori-Village-was-built/-/1717324/16694318/-/pfxegl/-/index.html

Broward School's Transportation Dept. and director Chester Tindall 

Video of Bob Norman's news report at Channel 10: School board: Bus drivers wanted
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bobnorman/School-board-Bus-drivers-wanted/-/3223354/16502446/-/6i1o4q/-/index.html

Broward schools paid $800,000 for GPS, but rarely used it

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-09-19/news/fl-broward-bus-gps-update-20120919_1_gps-project-nora-rupert-school-board

Substitute teachers in Miami-Dade and Broward County -As true today as it was over thirty years ago... 

Florida Dept. of Transportation, District 4 
Inattention to detail costs lives, risks lives, and costs money, yet they are chronically tone-deaf to criticism that is not only self-evident to folks paying attention to longstanding problems. 

When was the last time that District 4 Secretary James A. Wolfe subjected himself to intense questioning and follow-up about the dept.'s efforts and policies from the public -in public- instead of merely to industry professionals at closed and often paid events? Or even to reporters who cover transportation? 
Whose name, phone number and email address doesn't appear on District 4's webpage?
http://www.d4fdot.com/index.asp
Why it's the very person in charge -James A. Wolfe. 
It's also not searchable!

Office of Broward State's Attorney Michael Satz

Not enough space on page to delineate the full scope of the problems, suffice to say that 36 years for one person to be in charge of such a responsible position is too much, esp. for someone who has produced such paltry results in the State of Florida's most corrupt county -the worst of 67!

Broward County Democratic Executive Committee and disconnected Chair Mitch Caeser. Lots of people are quoted as having said variations of that as long as nobody cares who gets the credit, a lot of positive things can be accomplished. The problem in Broward County is that Caesar and his cronies DO care who's in charge and who gets the credit. Desperately, desperately care! But what do they have to show for it? He and his pals are the head party boss and cabal of a one-party county that long been the most-corrupt in the state. Which means that he apparently writes a lot of letters requesting clemency for his friends, many of whom he also lobbied while they were elected municipal officials before they were arrested and frog-marched out in handcuffs. 

Florida Democratic Party Alex Sink, Nan Rich and Charlie Crist? The Three Stooges.

Miami Herald's management and editorial staff, esp. those responsible for local news and schools coverage. 

Fact checking the Miami Herald's dubious claims on Education: Over the weekend, I unexpectedly found myself forced to 'school' the Herald's Executive Editor after she bragged about the Herald's coverage of Education. I had to bring up some inconvenient facts rebutting that claim
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/fact-checking-miami-heralds-dubious.html

So when are the Miami Herald and the South Sun-Sentinel going to note the elephant in the room in Hallandale Beach? The ethics of and the complete lack of candor from Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders & his wife Jessica; Mayor Cooper and Comm. Sanders screw with public's access to HB budget meetings; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/so-when-are-miami-herald-and-south-sun.html

Is there anyone in South Florida media with lower visibility than Miami Herald publisher David Landsberg? What are his specific plans for transforming the newspaper so it doesn't remain
irrelevant to what goes on in South Florida, seemingly always the last to know something or report something?

What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/whats-going-on-at-miami-herald-more.html

For another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County, more lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza -Part 1
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-another-consistently-lousy-year-of.html

South Florida Sun-Sentinel's management and editorial staff, particularly those directly responsible for unsatisfactory local news and school coverage, esp. the editors, reporters and columnists who have shown over the years that they are nothing more than lapdogs for Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

OMG! Really, another interview with predictable Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on Channel 10's TWISF tomorrow? Why? Will there be any mention of the Sun-Sentinel STILL ignoring the Glenn Thrush book's depiction of DWS's unpopularity at Obama HQ in Chicago?; Sun-Sentinel has completely morphed into the Snooze-Sentinel! It's now more of an idea of a newspaper, and a bad one at that, rather than a newspaper you actually look forward to reading

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/omg-really-another-interview-with.html

And did I mention that their Broward Politics blog hasn't added anything to their YouTube Channel in over 16 months? http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPolitics/
Way to stay current!

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, President Mike Dee and General Manager Jeff Ireland 
In other parts of the country, though not here, it's not unusual to hear people say "To whom much is given, much is expected."
With respect to the Dolphins, not so much. #EpicFail

Above,  501 N.W. 1st Avenue, which in Hallandale Beach polite society and public policy circles is considered THE most egregious example of dozens of exasperating and highly-questionable examples of dubious government spending and crony capitalism that've taken place on Mayor Joy Cooper's watch, and one of the most dubious of any in Broward County, which is REALLY saying something. It's the infamous former property owned by HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders that has seen so many tens of thousands of Hallandale Beach taxpayer dollars and CRA dollars poured into it. For what, THIS? photo by South Beach Hoosier © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Myopic and inattentive City of Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper and the three members of her Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew on the City Commission, who thru their continued negligence and actual unwillingness to perform basic oversight functions and be strictly accountable to, and honest with, taxpayers, have made what should be one of the nicest parts of Broward County into something that is NOT.

See numerous stories proving this at  http://www.browardbulldog.org/?s=hallandale

The city's budget has nearly doubled the past 6 years and what is there to show for it? What is the tangible thing that taxpayers can look at or feel? And the same is true with the money that the city has wasted from the CRA thru grants and loans to their pals thru crony capitalism.
Karma has big plans for them!

Myopic City of Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Fluornoy and his top-heavy dept. with enough psychological and relationship problems to keep Freud and Jung busy for a year. That they also are guilty of speeding in inappropriate places around town and are routinely inattentive to basic self-evident safety problems all around the city, esp. on the city's main three roads, makes it all the worse. 
Some Cops Given A Pass If Caught By Red Light Cameras
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/04/22/some-cops-given-a-pass-if-caught-by-red-light-cameras/

Their complete abdication to Mayor Cooper on the red-light camera issue was proof positive to many people who formerly gave them the benefit of the doubt that the Police Dept. is now hopelessly and morally compromised. The next police chief needs to come from outside of the Dept., preferably, from far away! 
There are still far too too many mediocre cops in this city with chippy attitudes.

Pampered City of Hallandale Beach Fire Dept. Daniel Sullivan and the dept. that regularly uses a fire truck to buy groceries at Publix and seems a little too chippy. 
Oh, and they also don't cite businesses for violations of fire safety regs that are pro-City Hall or give money to PAL.

City of Hallandale Beach DPW Director Hector Castro and his lazy and unprofessional staff, who for years have made this city a mess for the eye to behold and given new meaning to the word underwhelming, especially with their horrific care of the city's public beaches.
That's why, if you didn't already know, why embarrassed HB residents refuse to take visiting family and friends to HB's beach on holidays and go instead up to nearby Hollywood Beach,  which is why that beach is SO crowded then.

Hundreds and hundreds of embarrassed Hallandale Beach residents and their guests, spending money there instead of their own city.
Another Joy Cooper success story.

Gridlocked traffic? Bad drivers? Bad roads? Hallandale Beach has got that covered -and preserved on Google Maps! And next-door Aventura remains gridlock city, too!

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U.S.-1/S. Federal Highway & S.E. 5th Street, Hallandale Beach, FL as seen by Google Street View, April 2011. Looking west from Village at Gulfstream Park. For those of you who live far from me, there's no traffic light there, rather it's just traffic going in four different directions all at the same time! SNAFU!

The image above is of the intersection directly in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall, to the upper right, and the Main Post Office to the left,

(Correct, the Post Office whose parking lot was pitch-black at night for over an entire year,)

How perfect is this image for describing what things are really like here in chaotic S.E. Broward County, where someplace four miles away can take 20 minutes to get to?

From my perspective, the only thing that's really missing above are the cars making the illegal left-hand turns south onto U.S.-1 from The Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex -near Crate & Barrel, Container Store, Pottery Barn and West Elm- which I observe a few times a day, but which the HB Police, located across the street next to City Hall, never EVER notice.

Even though the vast majority of the thousands of seasonal French-Canadian residents this area gets every Fall and Winter have long since started making their trek back to Québec and Ontario, in the late afternoon here, there is still often gridlocked traffic on U.S.-1/Federal Highway/Biscayne Blvd. from Hallandale Beach Blvd. all the way south to the Ives Dairy/N.E. 203rd Street exits in Aventura, a few blocks south of Aventura Hospital, a place that as many of you know, I have become all-too-familiar with over the past two years.

That's a distance of just barely below three miles, one I frequently walk when the weather is nice and I'm going to catch a movie or do something at the nearby Aventura Mall, but it's often at least a 15 minute drive, since there is no other way available to get to that part of HB because of the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and Gulfstream Park.

(Most smart people in Aventura needing to get to I-95 North know that to beat the impossible traffic on Ives Dairy, it's much quicker and less-stressful to simply make a left on N.E. 208th Str. and catch E. Dixie Highway north -parallel to the FEC Railroad tracks- which becomes S.E.1st Ave. in HB, then hang a left across the RR tracks at County Line Road (N.E. 215th Street/S.W. 11th Street) and then take it to S.W. 8th Ave., turn right and go north, coming come out on Hallandale Beach Blvd., with 1-95 a half-mile to your left.)

These physical and geographical hindrances to easier and more common sense driving in this crowded area are made worse by the inadequate and myopic planning by the City of Hallandale Beach the past 45 years, as I'll be discussing in much more detail soon, since there has not been a single new road going north-south or east-west in that area to relieve the stress on U.S.-1 in the past forty-five years.

This is made all the worse by the deal struck years ago by the officials of Gulfstream Park with the City of Aventura -and the silence of FDOT- to NOT create a road extending N.E. 213th Street west from U.S.-1 to E. Dixie Highway, despite plenty of space to do so, to get traffic onto secondary roads with no residents.

Gulfstream's deal with the City of Aventura forces all north-bound cars to pass Gulfstream Park.

It's no mystery why there's gridlock around here, since there's plenty of blame to go around.

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Elsewhere in the state, over four hours north of us, we have news about the the logical result of living in Florida for too long: Bad Florida drivers, Bad Florida gridlock and Bad Florida roads equals...VERY BAD Judgement

Cops: Girl's Kin Towed Her Toy Car Behind SUV. Drunken Florida grandparents busted for child cruelty

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/grandchild-towed-behind-suv-578912

Regulating signage & advertising during a bad economy? Oh, so that's the ticket to economic recovery in Hallandale Beach

Above and below, where we set our tale today: Hallandale Beach, FL, looking south-bound on U.S.-1 & Hallandale Beach Blvd., home of one of the city's two red-light cameras that made it infamous in South Florida.

Go ahead and ignore all the gang graffiti you see on all these signs and posts on the main roads in town - HB City Hall already does.

September 23, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier.

Somewhat out-of-the-blue Tuesday night, I found myself discovering that one of the other things that will be going down at Wednesday afternoon's HB Planning & Zoning Board meeting at 1:30 p.m., besides the previously-mentioned attempt by Mayor Cooper & Co. to thwart the will of the majority of the homeowners in Golden Isles, is, of all things, regulating signage and advertising.

Yes, signage, one of my longstanding bête noires in the poorly-managed Broward city on the ocean that is as dysfunctional as any city in South Florida.

The same city that on its own electronic message board, across the street from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, off U.S.-1 & SE 3rd Street, was running the wrong meeting time for its second City Commission get-together of the month for many months AFTER I'd already told the head of the city's IT Dept. about the problem, AFTER first mentioning it publicly minutes before during Public Comments of a City Commission meeting in which I focused on the city's inability to see extant problems right in front of their own face, but which everyone else can see.

The sign is less than a block from City Hall, but somehow, we're supposed to believe that over many months, nobody but me noticed?

Even I don't believe that.

It's hard not to get the impression right now that this effort on Wednesday is a solution in search of a problem, when there already are longstanding problems -including lack of appropriate and sufficient signage- the city is NOT handling competently, efficiently or with any degree of smarts.

Problems that have existed for many years...

The very city that, as mentioned here more than a few times in the past, DOESN'T have a single directional sign anywhere within its borders indicating exactly where City Hall is, or the Police Dept. HQ, or the Fire/Rescue HQ or... even a sign on busy U.S.-1 for the municipal swimming pool just three blocks away.

The city swimming pool that even many usually well-informed residents don't even know exists.

Yes, that city.

Across the street from the main U.S.-1 entrance to Gulfstream Park, one block north of HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept., gangs use Gulfstream Park signs as Post-Its to let everyone know who did it. There's no mystery folks. September 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

.

Meanwhile, HTC shows who's really boss across the street from The Village at Gulfstream Park, one block south of HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept. HQ., and in front of the U.S. Post Office.

September 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Per Analysis item #12 below, will that include Gulfstream Race Track & Casino, the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex and the Mardi Gras Casino, all of whom are currently using LED signs that appear to my eyes to currently be illegal based on what the city is now proposing, per "animated, flashing or moving lights are prohibited."

That's exactly what they do all right.

You know, the large monument signs on U.S.-1/Federal Highway and on Hallandale Beach Blvd. that not only weren't up in time before the racing season actually started two years ago -despite plenty of time to put them up- but which weren't even constructed in time for them to be used for Thanksgiving/Christmas promotional purposes by the few retail shops that were then up.

Above and below, the eastern monument sign for the Mardi Gras Casino on U.S.-1 & Atlantic Shores Blvd., and the not-so-grand eastern entrance to it. That's why they call it blight!

If you weren't paying attention before, you can see that this area is AQ!

September 23, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier.

Above and below, the signs on U.S.-1 and HBB. September 23, photos by South Beach Hoosier.

Yes, the same Gulfstream Park/Forest City geniuses who used their Aventura sign on U.S.-1 recently for weeks in a way that caused even me to think they had reached a new nadir.

The only words that appeared there? "It's all here."

Really.

Above and below, heading north-bound on U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd. at NE 213th Street thru the last two blocks of Aventura and Miami-Dade County before hitting Hallandale Beach. Gulfstream Park sign on your right. September 23, photos by South Beach Hoosier.

THAT message in black letters on a purple background that's hard to read for drivers passing by on the road. Real genius!

Seriously, given the City's of Hallandale Beach self-evident terrible job of public safety as well as properly maintaining its own signage and lighting, and keeping them either un-obstructed or working or both, or even contacting FDOT, FP&L, or Broward County Traffic & Engineering to alert them to street lighting that is out for months or YEARS at a time, even including in front, near and adjacent to HB City Hall, the Police Dept. HQ, the Fire/Rescue HQ, and other city properties, the idea of the city deciding during a bad economy to create new rules for signage and advertising is rich.

But that's how it goes here.

Can you tell what color that traffic signal on the right is? No, not the one on the left that is red. Yes, the one obstructed by the tree branches on west-bound Atlantic Shores Blvd. & Diplomat Parkway.

You can tell what color it is once you almost pass the tree and are almost IN the middle of the intersection. There are dozens and dozens of similar situations like this all throughout HB and Hollywood, but nobody from either city ever notices. Nope. September 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

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PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD AGENDA

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2011 1:30 PM

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A. Approval of Draft Minutes from August 24, 2011 (Supporting Docs)

4. OLD BUSINESS

A. An Ordinance of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, amending Chapter 32, Article III of the City of Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, the "Zoning and Land Development Code", by amending Section 32-151, RS-5 Single-Family District and by creating Section 32-181, entitled Golden Isles Neighborhood Overlay District, providing supplemental standards relative to permitted uses, site development standards, signage and notice requirements. Providing for conflicts; providing for severability; providing for an effective date. (City of Hallandale Beach Application # 02-11-TC) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

5. NEW BUSINESS

A. Application # 04-10-P by Alan Waserstein Requesting Approval of the "Waserstein Gulfstream Plat" in Accordance with Article II, Division 2 of the Zoning and Land Development Code at the Property Located at 900 South Federal Highway. (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

B. An Ordinance of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida Amending Chapter 32, the Zoning and Land Development Code, Article IV Division 17, Signs, Relative to Prohibited Signs, Permitted Signs, and Nonconforming Signs, Providing for Conflict, Providing an Effective Date. (City of Hallandale Beach Application # 67-10-TC) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

6. SCHEDULING NEXT MEETING

A. November 23, 2011

7. OTHER

8. DIRECTOR'S REPORT

9. ADJOURNMENT

Interested parties may appear at the aforesaid time and place and be heard with respect to the above. The agenda and related cases may be inspected as of Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at the Development Services Department, 400 South Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, Florida during normal business hours, and Monday through Friday.

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/files/PLANNING%20AND%20ZONING%20BOARD%20AGENDAS/2011-10-26/Staff%20Reports/00008363.htm

DATE: October 17, 2011

TO: The Planning and Zoning Board

FROM: Christy Dominguez, Director of Planning and Zoning

THRU: Thomas J. Vageline, Director of Development Services

SUBJECT: Application #67-10-TC – Sign Code Amendment

CAD #022/03

PURPOSE:

To amend Chapter 32, Article IV Division 17 of the Zoning and Land Development Code regarding the City’s sign requirements.

BACKGROUND:

The City Commission requested staff review studies related to digital sign technology (LED) to determine its safety and whether the City should consider amending the sign code to permit such signage. Staff has also received many inquiries from business owners regarding the use of LED signs. Based on the increased demand for LED signs and research conducted on the topic, staff concluded the City should consider amending its sign code to permit the use of LED signs and provide regulations for size, light intensity and display duration for those signs.

In addition, the City has recently experienced an influx of human signs, particularly along Hallandale Beach Blvd. The term “human sign” is typically used to describe any type of signage that is held or worn by a person advertising a business or activity and usually involves someone standing in the right-of-way holding a large sign. Not only can this type of attention-seeking signage be unsightly, it can also be extremely dangerous as the intent is to distract a driver’s attention.

On May 12, 2011, staff reviewed the current sign code with the Code and Permitting Advisory Board and discussed possible amendments to the Code related to digital signage and human signs. The Board was in agreement with staff’s proposal and supported moving forward with the draft Ordinance.

On June 7, 2011, staff attended a webinar with the City Attorney on drafting regulations for signage which discussed regulations for both digital signage and human signs. Staff was able to incorporate similar regulations from other municipalities into the attached draft Ordinance.

DISCUSSION:

Staff conducted research on the use of digital sign technology (LED), particularly regarding the safety of such signs. In 2009, a report was issued for the National Cooperative Highway research program which evaluated the safety impacts of digital technology in outdoor signs. The report summarized multiple studies which analyzed various factors that distract a driver’s attention. Although the report concluded that there may be a correlation between digital sign technology and the occurrence of automobile accidents, there was no conclusive evidence that a digital sign is any more distracting to a driver than any other type of sign. As such, staff proposes to incorporate several new regulations for LED signs into the attached ordinance with the goal of achieving a balance between the safety and aesthetics of the community while maintaining a business-friendly attitude.

In addition, the increased number of attention-seeking or human signs has become a major concern for Hallandale Beach residents. Further, regulating human signs has become a challenge for staff to enforce. Although the current Code prohibits off-premise signs and movable or portable signs, it does not specifically address human signs. Staff has reviewed other municipalities’ codes and while some cities do permit human signs subject to strict regulations, most cities such as Dania Beach, Aventura, Coral Gables, and Boca Raton outright prohibit them. Staff also proposes to prohibit the use of human signs for both safety and aesthetic reasons.

Other revisions to the sign code are also proposed such as allowing accessory restaurants with more than 100 seats in multifamily zoned districts to have a wall sign, which was a recommendation of the Citywide Master Plan for the Oceanfront Neighborhood (S. Ocean Drive).

ANALYSIS:

Based upon the research conducted by staff, the following is a summary of the proposed amendments in the attached draft Ordinance:

1. Adds definitions for Changeable Message Signs, Human Signs and LED signs.
2. Expands the wall sign definition to include LED signs.
3. Adds human signs to the list of prohibited signs.
4. Expands language permitting signs at churches or synagogues to also include other houses of worship.
5. Adds the RM-HD-2 zoning district to the list of multi-family districts.
6. Allows restaurant uses in multi-family residential districts with more than 100 seats to have 1 wall sign, not exceeding 20 square feet. In addition, properties with an existing freestanding sign identifying a permitted residential use may be permitted an additional 8 square to identify the restaurant.
7. Clarifies that commercial properties are permitted 1 temporary real estate and 1 construction sign per street frontage, instead of per establishment
8. Reduces the permitted height of freestanding signs at service stations from 18 feet to 8 feet, which is consistent with maximum permitted height for other commercial freestanding signs.
9. Eliminates awning and window sign size restrictions for properties with nonconforming pole signs, as the majority of pole signs within the City have been removed.
10. Single-use properties with at least 200 linear feet of frontage may utilize LED technology for two LED wall signs, provided only one LED wall sign shall be permitted per wall face and be no greater than 25 square feet. This restriction provides a limited use of LED signs with the intent of preserving the character of Hallandale Beach.
11. Shopping centers on Hallandale Beach Blvd. or U.S. 1 having more than 3 acres and a main street frontage of 500 linear feet may utilize LED technology for one of the permitted monument signs on the property.
12. Staff has included several regulations regarding the use of LED signs in the City. In addition to strict distance requirements from residentially zoned property, there are maximum brightness levels, minimum display length requirements, a default mechanism to freeze the screen in the event of a malfunction, and animated, flashing or moving lights are prohibited. These safety measures are consistent with provisions in other municipalities’ sign codes.
13. Permits temporary banner signs no greater than 10 square feet for businesses adversely impacted by construction due to exterior renovations or improvements.

RECOMMENDATION:

The Planning and Zoning Board recommend approval of the attached ordinance. The Ordinance will subsequently be presented to the City Commission for First and Second Readings.

Prepared By: _________________

Sarah Suarez, AICP

Senior Planner