Last Chance For Fairness
What will likely be the final Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner’s hearing on the controversial Weston Jewelers proposed building on Las Olas Blvd. is scheduled for this week. Let us hope that it is fairer than the first hearing a few weeks ago. The latter was so one-sided that it appeared the result was preplanned. All five commissioners approved the design despite widespread opposition from neighbors.
For starters, the attorney for the developer was given the better part of an hour to celebrate the beauty of the building. She showed photos of the five planned floors and praised her client for its outstanding reputation. In contrast, speakers for the neighborhood were confined to two minutes each, hardly enough time to persuasively explain their multiple objections to the plan.
In addition, most of the speakers, particularly at the beginning of the public input, were not from the neighborhood and favored the development. Most were from Weston or had connections to the developers. They repeatedly praised the developers as nice people who would fill a crying need on Las Olas — as if the high-end Carroll’s Jewelers has not prospered just two blocks away on the boulevard since the 1960s.
The developer sought to minimize the height of their building by contrasting it with several buildings nearby. They did not mention that those buildings, which are appreciably smaller, are on much wider lots and in different commercial zoning areas. Although presented as a five-floor structure, Weston’s proposal is 88 feet tall, because of the high ceilings on the first three floors, devoted to Rolex products. It is actually more than seven normal floors — on a narrow 50-foot frontage.
The Developer’s rendering belies the narrow 50 ft. wide lot
Several pro-developer speakers said that the tall building would set a desirable example for expanding the commercial district to the east toward the ocean. That is exactly the precedent that Colee Hammock residents fear. Several speakers made the absurd argument for the need for Fort Lauderdale to keep up with Miami and Palm Beach, as if there were some sort of competition.
The only competition those opposing the building recognize is a race to overbuild its business core at the expense of neighborhoods such as Colee Hammock, whose residents moved there for its peaceful, tree-lined ambience. These nice developers seem to have little of their celebrated affection for them.
There were a lot of promises made to address the critics’ concerns, especially the lack of parking. The developer said it is contracting for nearby parking, but as long-time land-use attorney Jim Brady pointed out, it would be difficult to enforce any of those promises once this massively out-of-proportion building is up.
One would hope that at the very least the city commission would acknowledge this reality and at least postpone its final verdict until some of the community objections have been satisfactorily addressed.
The author is a 55-year Colee Hammock homeowner.
