Delray commissioners reject Chatelaine taxing plan

chatelaine sign at entrance to the neighborhoodDELRAY BEACH — There will be no special taxing district for the Chatelaine neighborhood.

By a 4-1 vote, Delray Beach city commissioner shot down the proposal to establish the district in order to cover the cost of maintaining improvements, including landscaping, signs and lights, in common areas within Chatelaine. The city paid about $500,000 to install round abouts, and other "traffic calming" features, landscaped them and installed new neighborhood signs and lights at the entrace to the development.

While the city will continue to maintain the so-called hard scape it installed, the cost of maintaining the landscaping, sprinklers and signs falls to the neighborhood itself. Those costs normally are covered by a neighborhood association, which in turn, assesses homeowners and ensures that the work gets done.

In the case of Chatelaine, a predominantly Haitian and African-American neighborhood hit hard by foreclosures, the association is voluntary and homeowners aren’t required to pay the fee. Only about 25 of the 201 owners in Chatelaine have paid the fee, which runs about $50 for the year.

If commissioners had created the taxing district, Chatelaine residents would have paid about a half mil more on the property taxes, the equivalent of about 50 cents for each $1,000 of assessed valued.

Many residents opposed the move. Commissioners saw the matter as a neighborhood problem and feared creating the district would set a precedent for other neighborhoods within the city.

Commissioner Angeleta Gray was the lone commissioner voting for creating the district. Chatelaine sits on the south side of Lake Ida Road just east of Barwick Road.

Also Tuesday:

  — Ordered city staff to work out certain contract language with American Traffic Solutions in a deal to install red light cameras in the city. American Traffic has a contract in hand to install the lights

— Commissioners appointed Walter Earley, Matthew Halley and Joseph Ingram to the Police Advisory Board. Commissioners deferred filling two other openings until January.

 

   — Commissioners  appointed Laura Reines to the Neighborhood Advisory Board.

 

 

 

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