My name is David Kelso, and I live at 255 Monterey Road.
I urge you to reject the “Paramount Project and tell the developer to go back to the drawing board.
This project:
ZON-23-020 (COA-23-003) 139 N COUNTY RD—THE PARAMOUNT THEATER (COMBO)
… is deeply flawed and violates the TOPB Comprehensive Plan. It is wrong for our town. Just say “No.”
I have two central objections.
The traffic problems that have engulfed Palm Beach will be made incalculably worse if this project is allowed to go forward. I do not doubt that other residents who object to this plan will offer detailed critiques of the developer’s traffic study. I will simply add to this note, a copy of the comments I made at Town Council yesterday: “Blocked Arteries”.
2. The developer’s negotiating ploys are obvious and disingenuous…. Like the panhandler on the corner who asks you for $100 for a cup of coffee, so he can negotiate down to make his final $5 request look reasonable. This developer came forward with a “Christmas Tree” project plan of enormous scope, hung with dozens of added elements, ornaments & variances. He then carefully begins negotiating down, dropping an ornament here, some square footage, and a variance there. “Look how reasonable I am being. Let’s compromise.”
Don’t do it.
His tactic is called “High Anchoring”. It is designed to create an arbitrary starting point (“High Anchor”) for negotiations, to the advantage of the developer.
Throw out the anchor!
From the get-go, this project was inappropriate over-development for the Paramount site and inconsistent with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan.
Deny this project and tell the Developer that should he return, his new plan (a “new anchor”) must comply with Code requirements and be consistent with the TOPB Comprehensive Plan.
"Blocked Arteries" 3:12:2024.pdf
Tuesday
March 12, 2024
To: Town Council Members
Re: 4/12/2024 meeting
Old Business
B.
5. Agenda Title
Discussion Regarding Traffic Issues and
Presentation of Mitigation Plans
My name is David Kelso and I live at 255 Monterey
Road.
I am writing to deliver a medical report to you, our Town
Doctors, about the serious medical condition of the
patient, the Town of Palm Beach.
The title of my report is “Blocked Arteries”
When I first purchased my home on the North End,
over 12 years ago, I quickly became familiar with the
cadence of seasonal traffic….the increases in the fall
marked by the return, like swallows, of the car
transporters, and the declines after Easter.
But beginning about three years ago things began to
change. Traffic to/from the North End increased
dramatically. It is now overwhelming our neighborhood
and our Town.
I know it. You know it. Everyone in Town can see it. No
less than the Chief of Police is quoted in today’s PBDN,
using the word “chaos” to describe current traffic
conditions here.
What factors have changed to cause this?
First, the explosive increase in real estate values
triggered during the Covid pandemic, and that
continues today. This sharp, sudden increase has
created huge financial incentives for real estate
developers to cash in and try to monetize the “Palm
Beach” lifestyle. The resulting wave of development
construction has flooded the North End.
As we sit here today, from Royal Poinciana north to the
Inlet, there are over 50 construction projects totaling
over $400 million underway, with many more in the
pipeline.
All the related construction traffic is routed in/out over
North Ocean Way. And this is not just a 7-9am…
3:30-5pm problem. It is a steady stream of heavy truck
traffic, all day every weekday, funneled into a
constricted set of intersections that have become
recurring choke points for residents. Blocked arteries!
Completing just the current construction and the
approved pipeline will mean this level of traffic will
persist through these intersections and into the North
End for the next 2-3 years.
But that’s not all.
The same economic incentives for developers have
spurred a rapid intensification of development in West
Palm Beach. That has led to a substantial increase in
trips across the bridges into the Town of Palm Beach.
And that increase is about to become a flood.
As we sit here today, roughly 3000 condo units are
scheduled for completion in West Palm Beach, over the
next 18 months. Under code, each building will also
have, on average, 2 parking places for tenant owners
and their guests. At 90% occupancy, that’s 6,000 new
cars, just over the bridges, in WPB. Assuming these
new owners will make only 2 trips/week over the
bridges to come here, in season, that translates into an
additional 2-3,000 cars added into the Town’s already
“chaotic" traffic flows (Not my word…the Police Chief's)
….every day!.
What is to be done?
When you are offered a traffic study ask yourself the
question: Is this report written for answers or
ammunition? If it’s a report created a developer for
“ammunition” to push a project, judge it accordingly. If
the report is for “answers” be sure that you understand
all its underlying assumptions, parameters, and factor
analysis. Data dumps are not answers.
These intolerable traffic conditions are blocking the
“arteries” of the North End and the Town.
Good Doctors know the first rule of medicine is: Do No
Harm!”
Or to say it more bluntly: Always remember “The First
Rule of Holes”… When you’re in one…stop digging!
No new major projects should receive Town
Council approval unless and until you have put
forth a definitive traffic plan, consistent with the
overall TOPB Comprehensive Plan.
I urge you to be the leaders that our Town needs and
put the traffic issue front & center. Be the leaders of
The Town that can say “No.”
My name is David Kelso, and I live at 255 Monterey Road.
I urge you to reject the “Paramount Project and tell the developer to go back to the drawing board.
This project:
ZON-23-020 (COA-23-003) 139 N COUNTY RD—THE PARAMOUNT THEATER (COMBO)
… is deeply flawed and violates the TOPB Comprehensive Plan. It is wrong for our town. Just say “No.”
I have two central objections.
The traffic problems that have engulfed Palm Beach will be made incalculably worse if this project is allowed to go forward. I do not doubt that other residents who object to this plan will offer detailed critiques of the developer’s traffic study. I will simply add to this note, a copy of the comments I made at Town Council yesterday: “Blocked Arteries”.
2. The developer’s negotiating ploys are obvious and disingenuous…. Like the panhandler on the corner who asks you for $100 for a cup of coffee, so he can negotiate down to make his final $5 request look reasonable. This developer came forward with a “Christmas Tree” project plan of enormous scope, hung with dozens of added elements, ornaments & variances. He then carefully begins negotiating down, dropping an ornament here, some square footage, and a variance there. “Look how reasonable I am being. Let’s compromise.”
Don’t do it.
His tactic is called “High Anchoring”. It is designed to create an arbitrary starting point (“High Anchor”) for negotiations, to the advantage of the developer.
Throw out the anchor!
From the get-go, this project was inappropriate over-development for the Paramount site and inconsistent with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan.
Deny this project and tell the Developer that should he return, his new plan (a “new anchor”) must comply with Code requirements and be consistent with the TOPB Comprehensive Plan.
"Blocked Arteries" 3:12:2024.pdf
Tuesday
March 12, 2024
To: Town Council Members
Re: 4/12/2024 meeting
Old Business
B.
5. Agenda Title
Discussion Regarding Traffic Issues and
Presentation of Mitigation Plans
My name is David Kelso and I live at 255 Monterey
Road.
I am writing to deliver a medical report to you, our Town
Doctors, about the serious medical condition of the
patient, the Town of Palm Beach.
The title of my report is “Blocked Arteries”
When I first purchased my home on the North End,
over 12 years ago, I quickly became familiar with the
cadence of seasonal traffic….the increases in the fall
marked by the return, like swallows, of the car
transporters, and the declines after Easter.
But beginning about three years ago things began to
change. Traffic to/from the North End increased
dramatically. It is now overwhelming our neighborhood
and our Town.
I know it. You know it. Everyone in Town can see it. No
less than the Chief of Police is quoted in today’s PBDN,
using the word “chaos” to describe current traffic
conditions here.
What factors have changed to cause this?
First, the explosive increase in real estate values
triggered during the Covid pandemic, and that
continues today. This sharp, sudden increase has
created huge financial incentives for real estate
developers to cash in and try to monetize the “Palm
Beach” lifestyle. The resulting wave of development
construction has flooded the North End.
As we sit here today, from Royal Poinciana north to the
Inlet, there are over 50 construction projects totaling
over $400 million underway, with many more in the
pipeline.
All the related construction traffic is routed in/out over
North Ocean Way. And this is not just a 7-9am…
3:30-5pm problem. It is a steady stream of heavy truck
traffic, all day every weekday, funneled into a
constricted set of intersections that have become
recurring choke points for residents. Blocked arteries!
Completing just the current construction and the
approved pipeline will mean this level of traffic will
persist through these intersections and into the North
End for the next 2-3 years.
But that’s not all.
The same economic incentives for developers have
spurred a rapid intensification of development in West
Palm Beach. That has led to a substantial increase in
trips across the bridges into the Town of Palm Beach.
And that increase is about to become a flood.
As we sit here today, roughly 3000 condo units are
scheduled for completion in West Palm Beach, over the
next 18 months. Under code, each building will also
have, on average, 2 parking places for tenant owners
and their guests. At 90% occupancy, that’s 6,000 new
cars, just over the bridges, in WPB. Assuming these
new owners will make only 2 trips/week over the
bridges to come here, in season, that translates into an
additional 2-3,000 cars added into the Town’s already
“chaotic" traffic flows (Not my word…the Police Chief's)
….every day!.
What is to be done?
When you are offered a traffic study ask yourself the
question: Is this report written for answers or
ammunition? If it’s a report created a developer for
“ammunition” to push a project, judge it accordingly. If
the report is for “answers” be sure that you understand
all its underlying assumptions, parameters, and factor
analysis. Data dumps are not answers.
These intolerable traffic conditions are blocking the
“arteries” of the North End and the Town.
Good Doctors know the first rule of medicine is: Do No
Harm!”
Or to say it more bluntly: Always remember “The First
Rule of Holes”… When you’re in one…stop digging!
No new major projects should receive Town
Council approval unless and until you have put
forth a definitive traffic plan, consistent with the
overall TOPB Comprehensive Plan.
I urge you to be the leaders that our Town needs and
put the traffic issue front & center. Be the leaders of
The Town that can say “No.”