PO Box 4252 • Fort Lauderdale, FL 33338 • 954-614-9942 • coleman@colemanprewitt.com
Political advertisement paid for and approved by Coleman Prewitt for

Fort Lauderdale City Commission, District 4, Nonpartisan.

 

 

Florida Statutes require candidates to stop accepting campaign contributions 5 days prior to the election.

While we cannot accept funds for the campaign at this time, Coleman still needs your help!

Please send him an email or call him directly to say you can help with:

*Signs

*Calling or emailing voters in

  District 4

*Volunteering on election day.

 

We need your help to win!

coleman@colemanprewitt.com

954-614-9942

The Power of the People

 

As a candidate for the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, I often hear the concerns of our Citizens regarding many different issues.  One of the most common, and a long time issue in all of South Florida, is development.  Recently, in a sign of the changing environment across the City, a group of citizens, including myself, organized through the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations, met to address these issues and to propose changes to the City’s development code, the ULDR.

 

This group included concerned residents and business people, architects and lawyers—people from many different backgrounds and concerns—but a group whose primary goals was simple: to create the best Fort Lauderdale possible.

 

This group, often known as the Ad Hoc Committee, made many recommendations to the City for changes to the ULDR.  The first group of changes were those that could be easily and quickly made through the efforts of City staff.  These changes included screening for trash receptacles and rooftop equipment, additional landscaping requirements and limited changes to certain setback and FAR (floor area ratio) requirements.  These changes were generally approved by the City Planning and Zoning Board and will be headed to the City Commission for approval on November 18, 2008.

 

The next group of proposed changes were more comprehensive and required the efforts of outside consultants for more significant changes to the ULDR.  These proposals include changes to the ULDR regarding transitional uses, historic properties and more comprehensive changes to setbacks and FAR requirements.  The City issued a request for proposals, an RFP, to get public input and prepare proposed changes to the ULDR and received several bids.  Ultimately the City chose Winter & Company and a contract with Winter was recently signed.  Now the real code reform process will begin, taking place in a series of public meetings over the next two years.  The process of getting City approval was not easy and often delayed, and would certainly not have happened but for the determined efforts of the Ad Hoc Committee.

 

But as far reaching as the proposals may be, they are not enough.  We must take this opportunity to not just update the ULDR but to encourage the right kind of development in the future.  In particular, we should expand this process to incorporate green design principals into our code—to encourage not only future green building but to also encourage and incentivize the incorporation of environmentally sensitive technology, alternative energies and recycling into our existing infrastructure of homes and buildings.  The focus should be not just on how we can make future buildings more green but how we can make our existing homes better as well.  This is the opportunity for Fort Lauderdale to be a leader, to show that we are community that is concerned about the future and we are working hard to improve our City.  The world and our environment are changing quickly and we must act thoughtfully but decisively to address these important issues.

 

I am very proud to be a member of the Ad Hoc Committee and I applaud the many hours of hard work by committee members in putting together such a comprehensive proposal and for pushing so hard to the keep the process going.  But this process represents more than just important changes to our development code, it represents a new model--a new paradigm--in the leadership of our City.  In this new world, our Citizens are taking a more active and constructive role in bringing about change.  It is clear that the City itself did not have the political will or motivation to improve our development code on its own.  In the absence of City leadership, our citizens took up the challenge and by working together in a partnership among neighborhoods, businesses, professionals and developers, were able to bring about these changes that will improve the quality of life for all of our citizens and visitors.

 

Today we start building the New Fort Lauderdale:  a City working in partnership with its residents and businesses to build stronger neighborhoods and create more jobs.  A City working in partnership with its employees to build a more efficient City government and improve public safety.  A city working in partnership with the County and our neighboring cities to address regional issues like homelessness and congestion.  We have a long way to go in building the New Fort Lauderdale but we can all thank the small but tenacious Ad Hoc Committee for showing us how to build a better Fort Lauderdale and for showing us the way to the future.

I encourage all of our citizens and residents to participate in the upcoming code reform process.  But more importantly, I encourage everyone to become more involved in our community--by joining your neighborhood association, by volunteering, by participating in crime watches, crime walks and other crime prevention programs, and by recycling.  If we all work together in building the New Fort Lauderdale, there is nothing we can’t do!

 

Please contact me at coleman@colemanprewitt.com or 954-614-9942 to share your ideas.