Business support stirs outrage Bahia Mar spreads its wings

Mid-rises and open space get mixed reviews

has been to Roy A. Maynard.

City commissioners gave the Hollywood businessman $150,000 in 2014 to make improvements to his shopping center on Miramar Parkway. Last month, they threw $350,000 his good way.

The commission’s generosity has angered many residents, who think the city will now be bombarded with requests for cash from small-business owners for projects like sprucing up their landscaping or buying new roofs or repaving their parking lot.

“It’s beyond my compreMiramar hension that this money was granted without the city doing its due diligence,” said Debra Scialabba, addressing commissioners during Wednesday’s city commission meeting.

“This is misuse of public money, and as a taxpayer I feel you have defrauded me and many others,” she said.

There was no application process, Maynard simply appeared at public budget hearings and requested money for improvements to his business, the B& M Bakery and West Indian Grocery, according to City Manager Kathleen Woods-Richardson. His building, at 6959 Miramar Parkway,

FORT LAUDERDALE — A beach development wrapped in controversy for more than two years is finally nearing the finish line in Fort Lauderdale.

The new plan for the city-owned Bahia Mar marina-hotel features shorter buildings, more open space, clear views of the water, a boutique grocery store and a public promenade around the picturesque site.

Rather than two 39-story towers, as originally proposed, or two 29-story towers, as later revised, the development spreads out into eight major mid-rises and some shorter buildings. The proposal includes 651 rental apartments, 173,280 square feet of office/retail/restaurant space and 256 hotel rooms, in addition to the marina and dock space. The existing DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, just renovated, will be demolished and replaced.

But reaction to the project is still mixed. The Bahia Mar plans have served as a flashpoint for concerns about the city’s heavy growth, with residents fearful they’ll lose what attracts them to Fort Lauderdale.

Roads will be clogged with traffic, and evacuation and emergency response times could be slower, some said at a four-hour city planning and zoning board hearing Wednesday where the project was approved.

“You people really are rotten, what you’ve done to our city,” longtime beach activist Art Seitz told the planning and zoning board before being ordered to leave. “Damn you.”

“Fort Lauderdale is full!” one resident wrote about the project on Facebook.

Kobi Karp, the architect, said he designed the development to allow clear views to the water. Three of the buildings are elevated over