Development proposals divide Madeira Beach

MADEIRA BEACH — Strong opposition is brewing to two proposed hotel-condominium-marina developments that could reshape the city’s downtown. Despite the objections of many in an overflow crowd at last week’s marathon five-hour meeting, the City Commission, with little discussion, approved rezoning the first of the two projects in a 4-1 vote. A final vote for…

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Blight takes over High Springs

HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. — After years of what seemed to be a code-less city, members of the High Springs code enforcement board met this month for the first time in four years. Their next move? Clean up blight that spans blocks of the city’s neighborhoods. “It’s a hazard,” resident Bill Richards says referring to the abandoned…

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Lawyer for Naples who argued against three-story building with underground garage now defends it

Naples City Attorney Bob Pritt, who previously agreed that a three-story building with an underground garage violates the city’s charter, now has changed that opinion, arguing that a similar downtown development proposal is consistent with the charter. In the city’s first filing responding to a lawsuit by two downtown property owners in Collier County’s Circuit…

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Former CRA directors talk Delray Beach, WPB development

Branding a blighted downtown as an arts and entertainment district, making streets more pedestrian-friendly and luring new restaurants helped redevelop the urban cores of Delray Beach and West Palm Beach, according to two former community redevelopment leaders who have turned their experience into a book. Christopher Brown, former Community Redevelopment Agency director in Delray Beach,…

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