Mid-October 2021 Update on some important #HollywoodFL stories about real estate development proposals, including The Related Group's incompatible 1301 S. Ocean Drive proposal on public land.
That would dramatically alter -for the worse- the quiet, peaceful ambiance there forever.
And likely result in many current members of the Hollywood City Commission becoming ex-members.
David asks: If fixing the Hollywood Beach Community Center was really so important to the Hollywood City Commission, then why wasn't it listed on the city's 2019 GO Bond project list?
Good question, David!
Ask the 7 elected members of the Hollywood City Commission for the answer to that question, and let me know what they say.
* I'll be updating this post in the coming days, after having some super-frustrating technical issues with both the blog and my laptop.
Updates on some important #HollywoodFL stories about real estate development proposals, projects that are either going to appear to you to be:
a.) Common Knowledge to you,
b.) Something percolating below the surface that you've been hearing faint outlines of for a while, or,
c.) Comes as a complete surprise to you if you aren't already following me on my popular Twitter platform and my new-ish Facebook page, with link at bottom.
I've been working on these for a bit and even felt the need to share some of them as emails rather than posting them here first and then sending out an email with a link. I may likely have even more news about some of these stories early next week if some people I've been talking to decide to finally share what they've hinted at to me via phone calls and emails.
Real facts, real news, NOT unsubstantiated rumors or hearsay.
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So, via my email of Wednesday September 15th, 2021
Sad reality of what Hollywood residents are up against as The Related Group gets help from
City Commissioners, yet refuses to have even one public, in-person mtg. abt a 3-story luxury
condo on public land. AT the beach!
a.) Since there are so many comments being made about this Related Group project, a project that's incompatible to its location in ways both large and small, physical and symbolic, and which to me represents a very conscious public thumb to the eye of every reasonable Hollywood resident and stakeholder by Hollywood''s elected officials and top-tier bureaucracy, and since everyone is NOT able to see, know about, or even necessarily keep track of who said what, I've made these 3 screengrabs below, based on what's been said/written the past 24 or so hours, as of about 1:15 pm today.
My purpose in doing so is to make it easy for you to find or highlight a comment quickly that you
agree or disagree with, and not have to keep scrolling through everything to find it.
b.) Over the past week, former Sun-Sentinel reporter Ihosvani "George" Rodriguez, now working
for Memorial Regional Hospital, has dropped lots of interesting facts re Hollywood Commissioner Kevin Biederman's rather strange and peevish behavior, and in particular, Biederman's unconscionable
and reprehensible lies about Cat Uden actually being a secret, paid lobbyist against the project.
Having worked at a relatively high level on several winning national political campaigns in lots of different places with very different political cultures, doing policy and coordinating advance work and logistics, plus having worked for 15 years in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill and K Street for some of the largest law firms and corporations in the country in a variety of policy roles,
I have a very well-developed Sixth Sense about local elected officials and govt. functionaries.
Especially pols who liked to pat themselves on the back perhaps a little too often, in order to try to endear themselves to the press, candidate, me, or our staff, I'll leave to another time my thoughts regarding how often elected officials who are at pains to always describe themselves as self styled "truth-tellers," eventually fall from grace when they do say what they REALLY think.
Suffice to say that I believe Kevin Biederman shows all the hallmarks of having fallen into this rather sad and dubious category.
ICYMI: Another unsolicited bid is generating anger in a city NOT named Hollywood.
But plenty of similarities with us here about the public being intentionally kept in the dark when a government wants to do something that they know is very unpopular with the public.
ICYMI, my latest blog post is:
What is the empirical data from Memorial Regional Hospital that the City of Hollywood is relying upon to re-open, and no longer be the only city of 58 in South Florida whose City Hall is closed to the public?
I encourage you to read that when you can, because right now, there is no objective criteria publicly delineated by Hollywood City Manager Ishmael on what parameters must be met for Hollywood City Hall to be reopened to the public again.
And yes, you read that right - Hollywood is the only city in South Florida whose City Hall is closed as of today. Why?
We are either not getting the truth or we are being taken advantage of by the City Manager's office and the folks at Memorial Regional Hospital Hollywood.
I'll have some more news to share about this story next week, via some public records requests I've made to find out who said what and when to whom -and why.
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September 15th, 2021
flipflops365Demonstration to oppose a 30 story condominium tower on our public land at #HollywoodBeach. This public land has deed restrictions for "open space, park, recreation, and public purpose." The land was given to the city to decrease density. This condo (99 year lease) would be 347 feet tall and 188 units. @joshlevymayorofhollywoodfl says that they can ignore height/density restrictions because it's public land.
The city has not even given the public one in-person meeting about the condo. They won’t even tell the public that they have the ability to oppose. All of the emails have been misleading, as if it’s a done deal. Commissioner Shuham CShuham@hollywoodfl.org asked that the city manager look into other ways to fund a remodel of the community center. Has he? (You can email the city manager Wazir Ishmael about this). Wishmael@hollywoodfl.org
.
If you live, work, vacation in, or visit Hollywood: Sign the petition at Change.org/WeLoveHollywoodBeach 
You’ll receive an alert about the next event.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CT2Ia0krycq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link ---
I received this email on Saturday September 25th, 2021
Subject: A Message From The President of The Hollywood Council of Civic Associations
Mayor and Commissioners,
The Hollywood Council of Civic Associations (HCCA) agrees with District 1 Commissioner Shuham and opposes this P3 project at 1301 S. Ocean Drive. We join all the other organizations such as the Hollywood Beach Civic Assn, the Hollywood Lakes Civic Assn, the Hollywood Hills Civic Assn. the Summit Towers Condo Assn, The North Hollywood Beach Civic Assn, the Hollywood Historical Society, the Friends of Hollywood, North Central Civic Assn, the Sierra Club and scores of individual residents and taxpayers who also agree with Commissioner Shuham. The reasons for this opposition have been well stated. To burden the taxpayers with a 99 lease with a private condo association that clearly violates the intent of a 45 year old deed restriction especially when there are potentially other funding sources for the community center replacement does not make good sense to anybody but the developer.
We feel that it is your duty as elected officials to adhere to the wishes and desires of the residents that elected you to office and move on from this bad project.
TERRY CANTRELL
President - HCCA
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I received this email today
Dear Mayor & Commissioners,
The Hollywood Beach Coalition and its members have been following as
many presentations and meetings as possible on this project.
We have been listening to all the voices, the developer, city staff,
comments from the commission, comments from the residents of Hollywood
and the community at large.
We are of the opinion and have concluded that this project is not in the
best interest of Hollywood or its residents and we are opposed to it.
We share many of the same concerns and join all the other organizations
and scores of other individual residents and taxpayers that you already
have heard from, in opposing this project, as presented.
Below are some of the points that have been brought to the Hollywood
Beach Coalitions attention and why we are against this P3 project:
We do not believe that the height of this project conforms to the
surrounding area and certainly is against the “bookend” plan that city
staff has previous put forth for beach building heights in the CRA
district. This project will dwarf surrounding buildings.
We believe the city did not do their due diligence when they did not get
an appraisal for the property particularly in light of the fact that
other assemblages of property on the barrier island are for much greater
prices than what is being offered by this project, in our opinion.
There is concern about a 99 year lease and the possible renewal of
another 99 year lease term at its end. Clearly, this would be a sale and
not a lease.
Who would evict the condo owners if the lease was not paid? Who would
pay to demolish the building and return the property to as is condition,
at the end of the lease?
Would the city really evict 190 condo owners for nonpayment of the lease
payments?
Parking for the beach community center would be problematic for the many
older or disabled residents that continually use this facility and they
would have to compete to get a parking space with the proposed condo
residents, beach users and those that would use the proposed restaurant
and community center.
Look at what happened at Margaritaville where the hotel has taken over
the public parking spaces.
The issue of how the developer would transfer title to the condo
association is still unresolved as the P3 state statute does not appear
to address or allow this type of transfer or assignment.
A comprehensive agreement would not be able to supersede the state statute.
This question remains unanswered.
We believe the original deed transfer is quite clear to its purpose and
we do not see how a condo project built on this land qualifies as a
public purpose, as it will be closed to the public and we do not see how
it comports to the P3 statute with an ensuing transfer of ownership from
the developer to a condo association.
We also heard that there were known defects of the beach community
center since 2018 which were not divulged to the public and monies were
not put on the GO Bond to maintain and update this beach community center.
These defects are now being used as an excuse and driving force about
getting a new beach community center.
This is very problematic to the community at large.
Either pass a new GO Bond, take savings from the GO Bond, have the Beach
CRA pay to renovate, remodel or build a new community center or look for
other financing methods.
There were no Beach CRA projects on the GO Bond list and this is
certainly something that should have qualified.
This is some of the last beachfront property that the city owns.
This is prime beachfront property that Hollywood should keep and utilize
for the enjoyment and use of future generations of Hollywood residents
and taxpayers.
Once gone, it cannot be replaced.
We hope that you will move on from this project as presented, as it
seems most of your electorate is in agreement that this is not a project
for Hollywood.
If you doubt this statement, please put it out for vote to the community
at large.
Thank you,
Bob Glickman
On Behalf of the Hollywood Beach Coalition
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It's not your imagination. In a 60 Minutes version of this story, so far, there are a lot of once-respected people in Hollywood currently walking around town, still with some degree of power and influence, whose reputations would effectively be close to ruined once the program aired.
For good cause.
They are exactly what they look like.
Folks, believe me when I tell you this, the gloves are coming off all over town.
Not just with me, but with lots of people who thought they really KNEW the folks at Hollywood City Hall.
Their eyes are wide-open now!
