Tequesta Notes
a citizens' initiative
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Saturday, August 7, 2021
updated with reader suggestions
Sunday, August 8, 2021
The Mayor's Plan for
Tequesta Park is a
Terrible Deal for Residents
The Council will vote Thursday on a resolution to move forward with Mr D'Ambra's plan for Tequesta Park. If you don't want the Council to saddle Tequesta taxpayers with $20,000,000 (twenty million dollars!) in unnecessary costs over the term of the lease for a project that will cause environmental damage and will add pollution to surface and underground water which supplies municipal drinking water, please email the Council to oppose this resolution. (Council emails listed below.) Also please consider coming to the Council meeting Thursday evening.
An Enormous Financial Cost for Tequesta Taxpayers
The mayor's proposed concept for Tequesta Park would cost the residents of Tequesta tens of millions of dollars over the term of the lease even if we assume the low estimates in the mayor's own presentation materials. These documents indicate annual maintenance costs in the range of $545,000 to $650,000 per year. (Mayor's presentation) These numbers do not include insurance costs and other costs also (missing costs) and therefore in all likelihood are underestimates. Nevertheless, if we rely on the mayor's numbers the cost to Tequesta residents tallies up to about $20,000,000 over three decades even under the implausible assumption of no increase in costs.
$545,000 × 33 (years) = $17,985,000
$650,000 × 33 (years) = $21,450,000
Most likely, the costs would end up substantially higher. (See prior articles for more on costs.) Given the total lack of consultation with residents and the extremely deficient background due diligence of the proponents' proposal, this reason alone—based on the mayor's own numbers!—should compel the Council to oppose the resolution and to dispose of the terrible concept once and for all.
There is no need to incur these costs. We could easily improve the existing resources in the park at far less expense to village taxpayers than under the plan that the mayor is seeking to rush through the Council on Thursday.
There are other administrative costs connected with the mayor's plan which have not been disclosed in either of the two hastily scheduled workshops on this plan. For example, in the application to the state, the mayor indicates that a lobbyist would be retained. That was not discussed in the workshops and residents of Tequesta have not been advised on what that would cost Tequesta taxpayers. We would like to know.
It would be foolish to lure the village into seeking a hand-out from the state to build an athletic complex that would harm the village and which would result in massive costs for village residents for many years that the mayor has entirely neglected to address. The proposal makes no sense and must be opposed. We could do much better at a small fraction of the construction and maintenance costs thereby saving money for residents of Tequesta and also for the state of Florida!
One reader adds: even if sports tourism was deemed somehow to be embraced by a majority of residents (and there is no evidence at all to support this), the proponents of the plan have done no return on investment (ROI) analysis on the cost of $20M to Tequesta taxpayers to see if there is any ROI at all for a $20M investment commitment over the life of the lease or life of the improvements.
Another reader points out: an important reason to oppose the resolution is that the substantial on-going maintenance costs that would result from this terrible proposal would be a great burden to future Councils and thus increase the risk of those future Councils having to acquiesce in terrible development projects. This is an excellent point. Often we see the Council greenlighting terrible development projects under the rationale that they will generate revenue for the municipality. One way to ward off that vicious cycle is not to create stupendous financial liabilities that are totally unnecessary.
A Terrible, Destructive Concept
The essence of the mayor's proposal is to construct a tournament standard athletic field complex in order to establish a sports tourism destination at Tequesta Park. (See Mayor's proposal presentation (the priority of the concept is sports tourism for visitors).) In the process, the mayor's concept results in the destruction of scarce natural habitat in a park with a specific conservation requirement under the law. The mayor's concept would also require intensive maintenance practices involving chemicals and fertilizers that are harmful to waterways and to any water, including underground water.
The additional road and parking pavement and fields required under the mayor's concept also would result in increased stress to storm drainage because these impervious and less pervious surfaces will retain less water in intense rainfall than the natural habitat. This means more poison runoff into the river, more water rushing into an already-stressed drainage system, and less replenishment of the aquifer underneath the park from which Tequesta draws its drinking water.
Also, there is no evidence indicating any kind of consensus that Tequesta residents want a sports tourism destination in their village. To the contrary, there is a lot of evidence (voting patterns for candidates opposed to aggressive development, expressions of concern about aggressive development, increasing concerns to restore natural Florida, concerns to improve the quality of water, explicit opposition to the mayor's proposal) indicating that Tequesta voters most likely would not appreciate a sports tourism destination here. And for good reason. The residents of Tequesta would be paying tens of millions of dollars for a very destructive construction project.
Moreover, this park is governed by a lease that explicitly requires conserving natural habitat and also it references Florida statutes intended to secure this conservation interest. (See the lease agreement (requiring the conservation of the natural habitat in the park).) Tequesta should not be submitting a plan to the state that requires destroying this scarce habitat in favor of roadway pavement and parking lots. Everyone should be able to agree that this proposal is egregious in this respect.
Sports tourism, by virtue of its transience, is also a terrible purpose to serve here. It would be destructive to community coherence and also not beneficial to the local economy in a meaningful way. Although the transience of the sports tourism model might benefit franchise outlets and national chains, it will not help the locally owned and unique private businesses that we ought to be prioritizing in planning a strong, local, sustainable, and diversified economy. Sports tourism is absolutely not how to build the kind of economy that we want.
If you read the proponents' own presentation (proposal presentation, p. 7) you can see that, in their own words, their concept does not prioritize the residents of Tequesta. It prioritizes visitors. So under the mayor's plan Tequesta residents will be paying tens of millions of dollars over the next three decades for a sports tourism concept under which they are an after-thought.
Grievously Deficient Process
Within the space of a few weeks, the mayor has suddenly rushed forward and pressed ahead with his plan for Tequesta Park based on a concept that was developed with no input from residents. And all this on short notice, during the summer vacation when many people are not paying attention to the Council. For a substantial municipal resource like Tequesta Park, this lack of consultation with residents and lack of notice and deliberation is totally inappropriate.
There have only been two Council workshop meetings where the mayor's plan was discussed and it has emerged clearly that there is no consensus even on the Council for the mayor's plan. Mr Stone, Ms Brandon, and Ms Young have expressed skepticism about the plan. They have noted the lack of data and background research, the rush and the lack of resident input.
The proponents of the plan have done no analysis of what Tequesta demand for the proposed elements in the park plan would be based on accepted recreational standards for the numbers and types of facilities planned. In other words, they are driving blindly into the future with taxpayer money and without knowing if they have over or under planned for the proposed elements in the park.
Notice, by the way, that the municipality did not disclose the on-going annual maintenance costs in its Facebook post a few weeks ago—the first announcement of the mayor's plan which also erroneously indicated that the members of the Council had a common view on the proposal. And the mayor has provided no plan to cover the costs.
The absence of a clear and good understanding of the issues raised by this concept: whether it is desired by residents, what the environmental implications would be, the fact that it contravenes the lease and the law by violating the conservation purpose of the park, the lack of understanding and deliberation concerning the substantial financial costs—all of this should compel the Council to oppose this plan, dispose of the concept, and then plan Tequesta Park under a process prioritizing Tequesta residents. For example, Mr Stone suggested including Tequesta Park in a visioning process that the Council is otherwise considering for the village and that is a good idea.
No Authorization by Vote of Council or by Popular Mandate
Even though the Council has not voted on the mayor's plan, at the last workshop the mayor declared his intention to speak with state representatives as early as yesterday (Friday, 6 August 2021). In other words, without the authority of a Council vote and without any semblance of popular mandate, the mayor is pushing ahead with his plan.
This disregard for representative democracy and legitimacy is actually even worse when you consider that the two proponents for this plan, Mr D'Ambra and Mr Prince, did not even win elections to get a seat on the Council. They both defaulted onto the Council for lack of a challenger. Under a deficient municipal electoral process, residents of Tequesta did not know before it was too late that only one candidate was seeking each Council seat.
It is actually even worse because the last time the Mayor was in an election, he was trounced. In March 2018, Mr D'Ambra lost his seat on the Council with 42% of the vote to his opponent's 58%. The kinds of procedural tactics that we have seen the last several months make that result now easy to understand.
Election results from March 2018.
Undesirable Governance Tactics
The procedural tactics of the Council leadership these last several months are unfortunate and they do not inspire confidence that the Council is sincerely seeking to defend the interests that residents prioritize and to advance projects that residents would like. To the contrary, popular projects are often stalled for long periods of time and unpopular and expensive projects are rushed without proper due diligence.
In recent elections, Tequesta voters have clearly rejected these kinds of governance practices. In accordance with this voter sentiment, we hope that this Council will oppose the mayor's resolution for his Tequesta Park plan and dispose of that concept and then subsequently plan for Tequesta Park beginning with the residents of Tequesta and prioritizing the residents of Tequesta and the long term interests of the village.
Email the Council!
Don't just stand by and watch the destruction of your village and its character. Speak up now and tell the Council to oppose the mayor's resolution for Tequesta Park. It does not serve the long term interests of residents or of the village. You can email the Council at these addresses below. Please tell them that you oppose the proposed design and you oppose the rushed process.
→ Email Council Member Kyle Stone. Ask him to oppose the rushed proposal. kstone@tequesta.org.
→ Please also email Council Members Laurie Brandon lbrandon@tequesta.org and Molly Young myoung@tequesta.org.
→ Email Mayor Frank D’Ambra fdambra@tequesta.org and Council Member Bruce Prince bprince@tequesta.org and express your opposition to the rushed plan.
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