Delray commissioners OK fire service fee resolution

By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — Delray moved a step closer to adopting a fire service fee Tuesday when city commissioners approved a resolution that would allow them to put the fee in place next year if needed to balance the budget.

The fee essentially would be a property tax but would be levied according to the type of property — residential versus commercial, for example — rather than it’s value.

“It’s not binding to do this,” City Manager David Harden told commissioners. “It just gives you the option.” Harden recommended that commissioner OK the resolution.

“I’m not a big advocate of doing this, but I think we need to take this step,” Commissioner Fred Fetzer said. Fetzer has been on a hawk on holding down property tax rates the last two years. Fetzer said the city needs to begin planning next year’s budget early considering the likelihood that revenue will be down again next year.

Mayor Woodie McDuffie, an employee in the county property appraiser’s office, said preliminary projections show property values likely falling 12 percent next year. He said  commissioners will hold a work shop meeting next month with the city’s new budget committee, the permanent board that grew out of the budget task force created two years ago.

Also Tuesday, commissioners put on hold a vote that would create a taxing district within the Chatelaine subdivison south of Lake Ida Road. If approved, homeowners would be taxed to cover the cost of maintaining landscaping, lights, and signs in common areas throughout the neighborhood.

In most parts of the city, homeowner associations cover the cost through mandatory dues or fees, but the association in Chatelaine is voluntary and only about 25 of the 201 homeowners in subdivision have paid.

Residents of the community are split on the issue, but a majority who spoke out during Tuesday’s meeting came down firmly against the measure.  Opponents argued that the association board essentially is acting against the wishes of the majority, while proponents said the move is necessary to maintain the neighborhood and property values given the unwillingness of homeowners to pay dues.

The tax would amount to about 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value. Commissioners will take up the matter when it meets Dec. 8.

Commissioners OK’ed a valet parking queue for the new Seagate Hotel but shot down a similar request for Tramonti Restaurant. Both businesses are situated on Atlantic Avenue; however the Seagate is east of the Intracoastal, where the roadway is four lanes, and Tramonti is west of the Intracoastal, where there are only two lanes.

Commissioners cited the effect a queue at Tramonti would have on traffic because the narrowness of the road and the three other valet queues already established in the area. A representative of Tramonti argued that the three queues are on the south side of Atlantic and are difficult for west-bound motorists to access.

Commissioners Angeleta Gray and Adam Frankel opposed granting the Seagate queue, preferring to see the results of a parking study the city is undertaking with the Community Redevelopment Agency.

 

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