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Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Weighty real estate development issues/projects in Hollywood are coming up for discussion Thursday that could substantially alter or redefine the look and feel of Downtown #HollywoodFL and #HollywoodBeach. But will it be for the better or the worse?


Weighty real estate development issues/projects in Hollywood coming up for discussion Thursday that could substantially alter or redefine the look and feel of Downtown Hollywood and Hollywood Beach. 
But will it be for the better or the worse?

This coming Thursday afternoon and evening's virtual Hollywood Planning and Development Board and Hollywood Historic Preservation Board meetings, and their joint meeting, are likely to be among the weightier and most important dates on the 2020 Hollywood civic calendar, and the reason is perfectly clear.

 After many months of behind-the-scenes moves and negotiations at Hollywood City Hall between real estate developers and their reps and city staff, and with precious little public information emerging that can be discussed intelligently, these meetings will offer citizens, Small Business owners, and stakeholders in Hollywood the first time they can see the parameters of proposals at critical sites around the city, esp. downtown and on the beach.
That these projects specifically touch on important public policy and development issues that the city has not always handled so well in the past only adds to the interest, because the public is expecting much more of the city's staff and the developers themselves.

 Some of these projects, in whole or in part, also have aspects to them that many of the city's most well-informed civic activists regard as potential "third wires" for the City Commission in an election year. 
To name but two obvious examples of this, we have both the proposed Soleste Hollywood project planned for the present SunTrust Building in Downtown Hollywood, a building that dates from 1924 -a project that the developers pulled last year from a required meeting- and the proposed elimination of the multipurpose Hollywood Beach Culture and Community Center on N. Ocean Drive and its four acres of premium real estate for... something.

 We don't have any clear idea of what is being proposed there because the city's deadline for submissions on that property still has another month to go, until late August.
But as you'll see below, I am among several people in Hollywood, including my friend and fellow civic activist Catherine "Cat" Uden, who have very strong ideas of what we DON'T want to see located there.

They (and I) will be watching closely Thursday and in the coming months to make sure that the city does NOT bend or break its own rules about how things are supposed to be done in Hollywood.

 Even if it's uncomfortable for the developers, and some City Hall staffers, in my opinion, that may well include the possibility of the public directly voting on the future of that city-owned parcel that some at Hollywood City Hall would find easier to dispose of via a convenient 99-year lease.
Like Margaritaville.

To me, that is a No-Go.
Period.
And I am far from alone on that score.

The early and interim negotiations and the final frustrating consequences of the City of Hollywood's deal with Margaritaville, chronicled here dozens of times in the past, has created a very strong desire among the public NOT to see a repeat of that kind of behavior, and have Hollywood taxpayers be made fools of.
Trusts me, the people who are opposed to seeing a repeat of history will have no qualms about pushing back hard against any attempt by City Hall to have anything but what the city's own rules demand: some say-so.


As he usually does for most real estate, development, and redevelopment projects proposed in or around Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, and environs, last week South Florida's number-one real estate reporter, Brian Bandell of the South Florida Business Journal tagged me on his Wednesday tweet about The Related Group's latest idea in Hollywood.

   


https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2020/07/15/related-group-seeks-to-rezone-hollywood-property.html


The agenda for Thursday's 3:00 p.m. Historic Preservation Board Meeting is here:
https://hollywoodfl.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=797011&GUID=62E1CAF6-3A25-45AD-9C90-26FCACCAADDE&Options=info|&Search=


The 5:00 p.m. Joint Board Meeting's agenda is here:
https://hollywoodfl.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=797010&GUID=4674794C-7E78-41B6-B00B-82D8533254E8&Options=info|&Search=

Here are some more details on the other agenda items for Thursday's 6:00 p.m. meeting.
https://hollywoodfl.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=797012&GUID=7262D9F5-481A-451A-92E5-17DC62F5DBF1&Options=info|&Search=

So you can participate fully in what's happening Thursday from the comfort of your home, I include the following from the city's website so that you can't say you didn't know the new ground rules in the era of coronavirus:
To ensure continued public participation, a new Public Comment Form has been created for all Planning meetings, including TAC. 
The form must be completed for EACH item you wish to provide comment on.  
As this is a new process, please read the form and supplemental information in its entirety to ensure that you are aware of all relevant information, including deadlines. 

 The deadline to submit comments for the board meetings to be held on Thursday, July 23, 2020, is Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 6 PM. 
Any comments submitted after Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 6 PM will not be read into the record during the meeting. 

 The Public Comment Form may be found here:
https://www.hollywoodfl.org/1248/Public-Comment-For-Planning-Hearings


It is very important to note that any comments left on voice mail machines, emailed, posted to the City's social media accounts or submitted after the deadline will not be included in the record. Comments must be entered using the Public Comment Form above.

Those without internet access or who may require additional assistance, may call the Planning and Urban Design Division at 954-921-3471 option 3, during normal business hours.

Meetings will resume as previously scheduled. However, due to the cancellation of past meetings, additional meetings dates may be added in August. Please continue to monitor the City's Calendar and sign-up for NotifyMe to stay up to date with added meeting dates and agendas.

Should you have any questions or require assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our office at 954-921-3471 option 3. Please continue to monitor the City's Website and the Planning web page for changes and updates.


So, if you read the agenda, you'll see that among the topics scheduled to be discussed Thursday is the  controversial Soleste Hollywood project at the current SunTrust Building, on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd. and N. 20th Avenue, officially 2001 Hollywood Blvd. 
I've written, emailed, and blogged about that subject several times over the past year, most notably, this blog post from last September. 
I've gone ahead and reprinted some of those points below to better refresh your memory on why it's so important to some people in Hollywood, yet gets a shrugged shoulders, so-what response from other residents and civic activists.

September 19, 2019 - Can development and historic Downtown #HollywoodFL co-exist? Current public pushback against possible demolition of a historic Hollywood Bank Bldg. to make way for the Soleste Hollywood project, makes one wonder whether it can or not
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/09/can-development-and-historic-downtown_19.html

Above, a postcard depicting the Hollywood State Bank and Post Office in 1955. 

The SunTrust Office Building site is very important to many longtime, historically-oriented Hollywood residents because it was once the site of the Hollywood State Bank, founded by Hollywood's founder and first mayor, Joseph W. Young, and was the first bank in the city, opening on February 4, 1924.

But that site is also home to what some developers envision as the future home of their redevelopment project called Soleste Hollywood. That project was pitched last year as a mixed-use development that got everyone talking because it offers the possibility of bringing more Upper Middle Class professionals to the Downtown area. 

 And while everyone predictably says publicly that they're all for seeing many more educated, affluent faces, bodies and wallets in the downtown area, depending upon whom and when you talk to people, they line up firmly on different sides of the argument, and can't believe anyone could disagree with their point-of-view.

 One of the hallmarks of life in South Florida and in its City Halls is the need to be publicly perceived as understanding of both sides of the argument when it involves real estate and development, esp. in a downtown area that is definitely suffering, as is the case with Hollywood. 
In my opinion, the Soleste Hollywood project seems likely to interrupt that kind of thinking because people on the two warring sides, while wanting to publicly be seen as being on the side of the angels, really want to win and embarrass the other side.

Over the past year, in personal conversations on the phone and in-person at Hollywood City Hall, at myriad Civic Association meetings throughout the city, and over bagels and coffee at Panera Bread or Einstein Bros., this project has generated so much anger/passion/confusion/consternation, it sometimes has seemed to me that people simply enjoy arguing about it more than what the two alternatives really are.

 For the historical preservation folks, that site being an attractive, magnetic reality in the future that brings in the kind of people the city desperately needs, can never outweigh their regard for what they believe is hiden in plain sight.
And the pro-development people say that if they lose out and Soleste Hollywood is never built, who in the world is going to show up on the scene with deep-enough wallets to make that valuable property into something that can generate considerable revenue and jobs without the building itself being demolished?

In that sense, it's sort of like the proposed baseball trades of my youth that never happened but which devout fans of a team brought up every year in the winter on sports talk radio -and would today on sports blogs, websites as well-  regarding some relief picher or switch-hitting outfielder to the team who was not being properly used on his current team, because the fan felt they had a sense of a player's future possibilities that their own favorite team's management were simply blind to.

It has often seemed to me that many people in town, sensing that their own known reputation as a person very concerned with historical preservation and related interests made them a decided minority in town, thus, necessarily, gave it a sense of importance that was out of proportion.
At least in 2020.

 NOW, that is, as opposed to what it was in the distant past or might've been or could've been a few years ago if some financially independent person, party, or group had intervened and done some things to actually keep, preserve, and maintain those historical elements so beloved by the historical preservationists, instead of covering them up or demolishing them.





Originally, according to docs filed with the city, the developer of Soleste Hollywood was projecting it to be finished in April of 2022.

Last year I received the email below that was written by Hollywood Historical Society Vice President Clive Taylor, and sent to me from a friend and fellow Hollywood civic activist who is part of the group in town behind many worthwhile efforts, Friends of Hollywood Florida Inc.
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofHollywoodFlorida/

I've deleted most of the dozens of people who were recipients of it prior to my receiving it from a friend. It appears exactly as written, with no changes or corrections made to it.

The architect for Seleste Hollywood, Modis Architects, LLC of South Miami, has renderings at its website: http://www.modisarchitects.com/portfolio/soleste-at-hollywood-blvd/


----- Forwarded Message -----




From: Clive Taylor <clive_taylor@bellsouth.net>
To: Josh Levy <jlevy@hollywoodfl.org>; Caryl Shuham <cshuham@hollywoodfl.org>; Peter Hernandez <phernandez@hollywoodfl.org>; Dick Blatner <rblattner@hollywoodfl.org>; Tracy Callari <tcallari@hollywoodfl.org>; Kevin Biederman <kbiederman@hollywoodfl.org>; Linda Sherwood <lsherwood@hollywoodfl.org>; Wazir Ishmael <wishmael@hollywoodfl.org>

Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019, 12:10:34 PM EDT
Subject: Possible Demolition Historic Hollywood Bank Building

Good Morning Mayor, Commissioners, and City Manager,

It's ironic the National Trust is celebrating Historic Downtowns as we contemplate losing yet another important component of our own Historic Downtown.
We are the only city in Florida listed on the national register as having an intact historic downtown and our downtown is designated a historic district.

Despite this important fact we have allowed developers to slowly chip away at our history in the very heart of our city, our Historic downtown.
I used to be very proud of the fact that we had this designation and the fact that so many of our early structures are still standing.

But I am now getting despondent at our future.

We are losing most of the Great southern and just recently the city approved the demo of a very important Bayard Lukens structure on Hollywood Blvd in downtown.
The city's own guidelines state that in the historic district demolition is only to be considered as a last resort if no other options are available to save the structure.
The building now being considered for demo  was the financial heart of early  Hollywood. 
Opening in 1924 it provided much needed capital to new investors and residents moving to the new city.
It was until very recently the oldest continually operating bank site in the county.
This bank never closed during the depression.

It was designed by Rubbish & Hunter the same firm that designed many of Hollywood early structures including the Young Mansion. 
Many buildings have been lost over the years and many visitors and residents respect and want to celebrate our unique historical heritage.

When you travel or visit a new city ask yourself would you like to see the new section or would you like to visit the historic district?
One day our city will not have a historic district to visit and that's a very sad thought for the residents of Hollywood and to the memory of our Founder Joseph Wesley Young.

Think about that when you consider what's happening to our history while you are  in office.

Remember that fact when you visit the historic south beach district or  the biltmore hotel or the breakers  or any other area that had to fight hard to keep these treasures standing.

I am not anti growth I welcome the new development coming to our city bringing new residents for business to enjoy but not at the expense of our history.

Joe Young laid out his  dream city "Hollywood by The Sea"  almost 100 years ago. These are his buildings, his legacy, our legacy, please don't allow this to happen while you've  been elected to represent the residents the city.

The Hollywood Historical Society  erected a bust of our  founder on Young Circle which states" his vision and courage  created this city" it's ironic he's looking right down Historic Hollywood  Blvd business district  and in the distance  is city hall where the politicians developers and employees will decide  yet again if another one of his buildings gets torn down.

Clive Taylor
VP Hollywood Historical Society


 The project was originally on the agenda for a Techanical Advisory Comm. meeting last Fall but the developer requested that the item be pulled from the meeting. So in many respects, this is their chance to re-introduce themselves. 
civic activists
On saturday I received even more info about the Soleste Hollywood project from other 

Here are some other very interesting recent #HollywoodFL and #HallandaleBeach real estate development and redevelopment news you may've missed hearing about since the era of #COVID19 and #Coronavirus became part of our daily life.

Be advised that you WON'T find any news, discussion, or analysis of mine today about the very controversial and not-always-so-well-documented four-acre, city-owned tract now known as the University Station development, located on N. 21st Avenue adjacent to the FEC railroad tracks, three blocks north of Downtown Hollywood.

 The reason for that is because that project is so complicated and has so many false-starts that it will require its own forthcoming blog post, full of the usual nuance, context, and curious facts I can impart to you about what was really going on behind-the-scenes that you will not otherwise find in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald, to say nothing of the late Hollywood Gazette that never had anything in it about this project that wasn't a city handout.
All of this despite the fact that to me and many other concerned residents and civic activists, it's easily the most important and consequential project in the city for a whiole host of reasons.























































Here's the tweet I just created for this blog post if you would like to share it.



Dave 
David B. Smith 

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Sunday, July 12, 2020

#VoteByMail - A word or two or three about the reliability of absentee ballots, via Wisconsin's recent very negative experience; Friends don't let friends vote for #JenniferGottlieb



Over the weekend I shared this interesting news about voting by mail with about 175 or so politics-centric friends and collegues in South Florida and Tallahassee via email, and a different version of that to the folks on the local #HollywoodFL #NextDoor website, which I'm now contributing a considered thought or two more often than I have in the past.

-----

 This Reality Check re the reliability of absentee ballots comes via a tweet last week by veteran U.S. politics and elections expert Amy Walter, the National Editor of The Cook Political Report and a weekly guest on The PBS NewsHour, who also hosts one of the best political podcasts around.
It's called, logically enough, "Politics with Amy Walter" https://www.npr.org/podcasts/675388201/politics-with-amy-walter
Twitter: @amyewalter https://twitter.com/amyewalter/with_replies
Read her columns at: https://cookpolitical.com/about/staff/amy-walter/analysis

 This bit of news also serves as a real counter-intuitive slap in the face to most of the U.S. TV network correspondents reporting recently on the Wisconsin primary, who focused mostly on the effect of #COVID19 on election turnout and public engagement, NOT on the very bad blood between the Republican-majority Wisconsin state legislature and the Democratic governor, Tony Evers

The Wisconsin elections had also figured in a recent decision where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision to grant six extra days for absentee ballots to be received in Wisconsin's statewide balloting.

https://twitter.com/amyewalter/status/1281930223819333638
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “The U.S. Postal Service has identified hundreds of absentee ballots for the April election that never made it to voters or couldn't be counted because of postmark problems, a new report says.“ https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/10/wisconsin-absentee-ballots-didnt-get-counted-because-late-delivery-misdelivery-and-bad-postmarks-pos/5417084002/
I incorporated Amy's catch of this Journal Sentinel article last week after seeing an interesting tweet by Anthony Man of the Sun Sentinel about the number of election ballots being requested by Broward voters for the upcoming August 18th election, some of which will soon be making their way to friends who are smart enough to be up north in places not nearly as hot, humid, and muggy as Hollywood and Hallandale Beach in the summer.

That election includes lots of races for offices in Broward that in my opinion ought to be appearing on the November ballot, like the Broward School Board races.
More on that last point soon!

Speaking of elections and how they are run and who runs them, re #JenniferGottlieb.
Friends don't let friends vote for #JenniferGottlieb.



-----


For the most recent info re #VoteBymail: https://twitter.com/hashtag/votebymail?f=live
Dave 
David B. Smith 


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Monday, June 29, 2020

Hollywood residents deserve better than this completely inadequate effort at public engagement on big spending issues, via Hollywood General Obligation Bond Advisory Committee

Below is the letter I sent earlier this afternoon to Armando Linares, the staff liaison to the 15-member City of Hollywood General Obligation Bond Advisory Committee, which includes more than a few friends and acquaintances of mine, and whose first few meetings I attended in-person at Hollywood City Hall, as I've written previously in this space.

 The other important agenda item that I reference below on Wednesday's Hollywood City Commission meeting is the Time Certain item at 1:30 p.m. affecting recreational activities on Hollywood beach which my friend Catherine Uden has been spearheading. https://www.instagram.com/p/CBjlsLgHTv9/

 More about that tomorrow, Tuesday.

-----------------------
June 29th, 2020
2:00 p.m.

 Dear Mr. Linares:

 I'm writing to you today in your capacity as the staff liaison to the Hollywood GO Bond Advisory Committee, which meets tonight at 6 p.m.

 Due to COVID19, the last public meeting of this group was conducted using Webex, and the appropriate access information about that meeting was included on the city's website prior to the meeting so that any interested Hollywood citizen, including Hollywood civic activists like myself and many of my friends, could properly access the meeting, and see/hear for ourselves the interplay of the members about an important subject of community interest.

 But last week, and then again on Saturday afternoon, I specifically went to Hollywood City Hall to personally look at the temporary Sunshine Board at the south main public entrance. My purpose in doing so was to see if the official announcements about tonight's meeting had been changed so they would, in fact, provide the necessary public access information that was NOT included previously on the temporary Sunshine Board or at the city's website.

 Here's why, in my opinion, that failure to include that information is both ironic AND problematic.

 Tonight's meeting is supposed to include information about the proposed new Hollywood Police HQ, which, as it happens, will also be on the agenda at the City Commission's Thursday Workshop.
A Workshop that comes the day after the City Commission meeting contemplates not just an important POSITIVE change regarding recreational activities at the beach, but also an agenda item, #27, the Public Participation Ordinance that I strongly support. 
This item also has the support -see below- of my friend, Terry Cantrell, the elected head of the Hollywood Lakes Civic Association, the Hollywood Council of Civic Associations, AND, as you know well, the elected head of the GO Bonds Advisory Board itself.

 Mr. Linares, leaving aside the fact that I and many other concerned Hollywood citizens believe that not one foot of earth should be touched regarding the establishment of a new Hollywood Police Dept. HQ until AFTER the Hollywood Police Department is equipped with reliable body cameras, on every officer that is in the public realm, I think you can well appreciate how badly it looks if a public meeting of the GO Bonds Advisory Board is held tonight without the public being able to access the meeting, simply because the current pandemic prevents the Board as well as the general public from appearing in-person tonight at Hollywood City Hall.

 I think you can also appreciate why I believe that in view of the Public Participation Ordinance, in the future, the GO Bonds Advisory Board agenda needs to include a line marked "Public Comments," since I can tell you from attending most of the previous in-person meetings, the printed  agendas did NOT include that line.

 If you are now aware of information that will allow me and/or other members of the Hollywood public to access tonight's meeting -rapidly approaching- please respond as soon as you are able so that I can relay word of this to them so they can see what happens next.

2:55 p.m.
Mr.  Linares, I now see that three-and-a-half hours before tonight's 6 p. m. meeting, at 2:30 p.m., someone at Hollywood City Hall has FINALLY noticed the problem I've written about, and sent an email out about tonight's meeting with the appropriate access information. 

Information that should have been publicly posted... LAST WEEK. 
Wow! 

That 'whatever' attitude towards the public here is a very troubling sign and one that I suspect will not go down well at Wednesday's City Commission meeting.

 Sincerely,

 David B. Smith
Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog

-----

Those of you interested in catching the meeting tonight -expected to go up until 7:30 p.m. or so- can hear what's what via the following URL, event number and password: 

https://hollywoodfl-events.webex.com/hollywoodfl-events/onstage/g.php?MTID=e2c89553c387f5401479f600592a9aa5e 

Event # - 132 922 8842Password: DCM2207629

-------

 Mayor and Commission,

 On behalf of the Hollywood Council of Civic Assn and all concerned residents of the City, I would like to thank you in advance for approving Item #27, PO-2020-09, the Public Participation Ordinance. This much needed legislation will, once and for all, eliminate a major problem for residents and civic associations. That is, lack of knowledge or information about redevelopment projects in our neighborhoods. With the City embarking on major redevelopment, especially in the recently created Regional Activity Center (RAC,) the requirement for developers and applicants to reach out to the neighborhoods is desperately needed. This ordinance codifies this process.

 In the present environment of the virus crisis, this ordinance can still function despite our civic groups inability to hold public meetings at City facilities. The process of notification can be simply accomplished via email or Dropbox distributions from the applicant as well as phone and/or Zoom meetings. The applicant can confirm this outreach prior to the application processing in a way suitable to City Staff.

 Never again will a civic or neighbor group stand before you or your planning boards and say "We never knew about this project." Thank you!

 TERRY CANTRELL
President - Hollywood Council of Civic Assns.

 Dave 
David B. Smith 

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