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City Commission Out of Order
• Luxury RV Park project muddy
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Sunday,
July 19, 2009
South Florida is no stranger to poorly planned land deals and developments gone awry. It’s been the nature of our beast for years. Somebody always makes out like a bandit, but it’s never a city or its residents – if it were, we wouldn’t be buried in budget shortfalls, joblessness, crime and a governor who says we can’t effectively fund education without casino gambling.
Up for grabs now is Broward’s largest piece of contiguous undeveloped land in the county – Margate’s former AZTEC mobile home park which, if Margate elected officials allow, is going to be converted to a Luxury RV Park.
AZTEC on State Road 7 is where hundreds of families were asked to vacate two years ago to make room for a 700-plus housing development that never came to be. Developers blamed the economy for backing out of the deal – little consolation to residents displaced from thier homes.
“It’s going to be a very nice development,” said former Margate City Commissioner now lobbyist for the city, Jack Tobin, as quoted by the Sun-sentinel at the time. Meanwhile, Margate resident’s forced from the land scrambled to find housing at a time when the economy continued to worsen.
Tobin at the time represented Uniprop Manufactured Housing, the company which owns the 106-acre AZTEC site. He lobbied city officials to make necessary zoning changes for the project, emphasizing a “myriad of price ranges from affordable housing to maybe $300,000 to $350,000 townhomes and single-family homes,” he told city officials a year after the housing market was already in substantial decline.
Two years later, after Tobin’s failed project resulted in the displacement of hundreds of Margate residents, the former politico-turned-lobbyist represents a group of 10 French-Canadian investors called Aztec RV Resort Inc., an investment firm looking to purchase the Aztec property and have it rezoned again, this time for Luxury RVs.
Tobin, himself, a Class-A Luxury RV owner, has come before the city commission claiming that, because of a down economy, the proposed $30 million Luxury RV Park although “not the best use of the land,” he says, would be a good deal for the city in terms of increasing the city’s tax base.
If it does turn out to be a good deal, says Margate City Manager Frank Procella, it won't be for some time down the road.
The city’s review process is muddied
The Aztec Resort RV Inc. deal was never reviewed by the City’s Planning & Zoning Board (P&Z) prior to the Margate City Commission’s approving city staff to advertise a zoning change for the property, which is not how things usually work in the city, according to Margate planning officials.
When P&Z reviewed the project for the first time on July 14, the city commission, a week earlier, had already approved advertising the ordinance change for AZTEC on July 8, ultimately putting the cart before horse in terms of how zoning changes are approached in the city.
Initially scheduled to meet on the issue on July 7, P&Z might have had a problem establishing a quorum for that date. Another reason given by planning officials for meeting postponement was that P&Z Board members needed more time to review project details.
To rezone the proposed AZTEC project by the book, the Margate City Commission would have had to postpone voting on advertising the ordinance for a zoning change (which occurred on July 8, 2009) until the P&Z board had an opportunity to review the project first (which didn’t happen until July 14).
Exacerbating the city's muddied review process is the fact that Aztec RV Resort Inc. doesn't own the 106-acre AZTEC property, subsequently, according to Margate code, they have no standing to petition city officials for rezoning.
Tobin, once indicted on several counts of bribery and unlawful compensation for accepting bribes for his vote as a Margate city commissioner from 1979 to 1981 then acquitted, told the P&Z board on July 14 that city commissioners had already approved advertising the zoning change for the Luxury RV Park in a 4-1 vote on July 8 (Commissioner Pam Donovan in descent), which may have unfairly influenced P&Z to move the project forward, as the commission already endorsed the project in their actions to approve the advertising of the zoning change a week earlier.
Had City Commissioners followed proper procedure, Tobin would have never been afforded the opportunity to inform the P&Z that city commissioners were in favor of the project; hence P&Z may have decided to more closely examine zoning changes for AZTEC before approving the rezoning change unanimously 5-0: a zoning change unsupported by Margate city staff.
In a 4-1 vote in favor of approving a second reading for the Aztec RV Inc. proposal are Margate Mayor, Arthur Bross, Vice Mayor, Joe Varsallone and Margate Commissioners Frank Talerico and David McLean.
Commissioner, Pam Donovan voted no to moving the project through City Hall on first reading.
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Copyright Cassius Group 2009
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