Letter: Double Standards At The County

It seems that a virus is hitting Palm Beach County private golf communities where it is becoming an acceptable practice for developers to purchase private golf courses, destroy them and then apply for rezoning, which destroys the lifestyles of the existing communities. Palm Beach County commissioners do not show concern for the welfare of the public unless it is their district. Words such as “perpetuity” written in deed restrictions mean nothing to the commissioners except for government properties.

It is incredible that the main requirement for commissioners to rezone any land is a “proper application.”

With the exception of Commissioner Jess Santamaria, the board has established a precedent of following their special interests, and double standards is becoming an acceptable practice.

It puzzles me the duality of Commissioner [Paulette] Burdick, who so fervently supported Century Village residents, who are her constituents, in opposing the application for development of a closed golf course. However, she approved the application submitted by the developer for Mizner Trail, where the residents are not part of her district. The same situation happened with Commissioner [Steve] Abrams, who voted in favor of the developers to rezone Century Village but opposed rezoning for Mizner Trail, which is his district.

Why is there a double standard with these commissioners?

Aren’t they supposed to represent the majority of the people? Why are they representing the developers?

And worse… why is no one accountable for changing residents’ quality of life?

This is a wake-up call! We, the people, must recognize that unless we replace them, we will continue to pay the price.

Shelly Kalef, West Palm Beach

2 COMMENTS

  1. campaign dollars is pay back time.Wellington is looking to buy 38 ac for 1.2 million,when they only paid 5.5 million for the entire course to put a park in a quit area.There is K park with 68 ac which they are looking to flip for 20 million and is worth 30 million.What happen to open land to persevere our water shed.

  2. Ms Kaleff has hit upon one of the problems with ‘district'(geographically drawn) county commissioners. They do not care about the rest of the county’s residents, they only care about those who live in ‘their voting district’ and who will vote for them.

    Wellington residents need to watch out for the Charter Review Task Force Committee which is reviewing the Wellington Charter.

    The Charter Review Taskforce is already talking about the possibility of geographical Wellington Council members instead of Wellington wide council members.

    Wellington does not need ‘district’ council people. All of Wellington needs to be able to vote for every candidate, not just the candidate in their geographical boundary.

    Be alert to what is happening in Wellington. Appointed people, not those elected by the people of Wellington, are tinkering with the Wellington Charter. Wellington is successful because of the Charter. Now, certain council people are trying to change the charter to fit their political agenda.

    Don’t let these divisive people change what made Wellington, Wellington.

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