Newest RiverWalk Connection Wrinkle

We told you last week that it looked like the City finally had a solution to complete the missing link of the Riverwalk, …. but then maybe not, …. but then maybe so!

Well this week it looks like  ……. maybe not again!

 

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For a quick history of the long painful snafu, a big development company called the Related Group bought a little grocery store on Las Olas in 1998, (called the Hyde Park Market), and planned a big condo project there.   The $250 million project was to look like this ……

 

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That is the condo project that was proposed in 1998 on the left ….. the 1901 Stranahan House is the little house in the middle, and the Riverside Hotel is on the right.

Fast Forward to 2011 ….  The City and the Stranahan  sued the developer for a decade to stop the big condo, and take the property for a park by eminent domain.

The City and the Stranahan House finally lost, so the builder was free to go ahead, and the long effort to finish the Riverwalk behind the new project seemed about to happen –  or maybe not again!

The Marine Industry cried foul!  They were miffed they weren’t consulted on the whole deal, said the plan was dangerous to boat traffic, and gummed up the deal. But after a meeting with the DDA last week,  it looked like everyone worked out a compromise that would make the Riverwalk completion a reality –

      But wait! – here is the new/latest wrinkle.  The Related group now says they want the building permit for that big condo, and they will sign off on the Riverwalk connection on their property.  But they say that they  only want to have to live up to the building code of 2004, when they should have been granted the permit –  but the City is saying that they will have to live up to the current 2014 code –

The Director of the Downtown Development Authority, Chris Wren, who is leading the effort to get the Riverwalk connection is thinking positively – ” we’ll just have to  go through the community process, one way or another, we will get the connection”…

….. Oh for God Sakes !!!

 

 

 

 

 

3 Replies to “Newest RiverWalk Connection Wrinkle”

  1. Tim let’s not forget the millions that the litigation cost the citizens.
    With no government official ever explaining to us the citizens, why?
    The city is now ligating with the W. If it was legal, I would give odds that the W will win, .
    So once again why? Spend our taxes on loosing litigation issues.

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