The Fort Lauderdale Commission approved various items during a recent meeting.
The City Commission approved their priorities for 2022 that were developed at the Commission Prioritization Workshop held on January 27, 2022. The list includes the following top priorities: Homelessness and Housing Opportunities, Infrastructure and Resilience, Parks and Public Places, and Transportation and Traffic. Progress on these priorities will be shared monthly in the form of LauderTrac newsletters. The City Commission also identified six additional priorities: Community Response and Safety, Economic Diversification, Historic Preservation, Smart Growth, Waterway Quality, and Workforce Training and Education.
The City Commission deferred a vote on a resolution to enter into an agreement with Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) for the installation of new light-emitting diode (LED) streetlighting in the Melrose Park neighborhood. The City Commission discussed the public outreach that was performed to determine the community’s interest in the project following comments by the neighborhood president. As part of the proposed project, the installation of the 720 new streetlights would be done by FPL at a cost of $626,839 and would result in increased visibility for drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and law enforcement navigating the neighborhood. The City Commission will resume discussions on the project at the next regular City Commission meeting on March 1 after reviewing information about the inception of the project, records from public meetings, and FLPD statistics for the area.
The City Commission approved an increase to the annual continuing contracts for bridge repair, maintenance, and painting with Engineer Control Systems Corporation (ECS) as primary and Lambert Bros., Inc. as the alternate by $340,350 from $1,500,000 to $1,840,350. Originally approved in August 2018, the two-year agreements are for citywide bridge maintenance services with two one-year renewal options that are expiring in August 2022. The additional funds will be used for bridge repairs on Henricks Isle and Bayview Drive.
Following a public hearing, the City Commission passed an ordinance on first reading amending the City of Fort Lauderdale Unified Land Development Regulations relating to Central Beach Districts to revise the process and procedures for uses in the Central Beach zoning districts. The proposed code revisions include design standards that will help to address building scale and mass and support an active pedestrian environment. Additionally, design standards will also focus on open space provisions, more defined building form criteria, setback requirements and streetscape design elements, including promoting active uses along building frontages.
