Community group files lawsuit to stop WMODA
Lake Worth For All is accusing the city and CRA of misusing penny sales tax money
A local citizens group has filed a lawsuit to stop the downtown mixed-use project anchored by the Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts.
Lake Worth For All is accusing the city and the Lake Worth Beach Community Redevelopment Agency of misusing nearly $2 million in penny sales tax money for the WMODA project.
Revenue from the voter-approved tax can only be spent on education and public infrastructure like roads, buildings, and parking, the lawsuit says. After the city received its share, it transferred some of that money to the CRA under written agreements that strictly limited the use of those dollars to buying land for building public surface parking lots.
If the parking lots were not built, the CRA was required to return the lands to the city, the lawsuit says. But instead of building a surface lot or returning the property to Lake Worth Beach, the CRA sold that same land for $10 to developer Arthur Wiener who plans to build a museum and mostly market-rate apartments on the land.
While the CRA is permitted to sell lands it acquires, the city cannot do so without a referendum vote by Lake Worth Beach voters, the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, the city “used the CRA as a workaround to avoid a referendum and to transfer appreciated public land for private gain.”
“This is a blatant abuse of the penny sales tax funds that the voters approved for education and infrastructure only. The voters absolutely did not contemplate that their hard-earned tax dollars would be used to fund a development of market rate housing,’’ attorney Robert Hartsell, who is representing Lake Worth for All, said in a statement.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, Feb. 4, in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, accuses the city and CRA of violating state laws on the use of surtax monies and breaking the terms of agreements between the two agencies.
It asks the courts to invalidate a development agreement between the city and Weiner’s development company and stop construction on the project.
“The city and CRA sidestepped protections in our City Charter that require a public vote before parcels in this downtown public land can be sold,” Lake Worth for All president Kim Stokes said in a statement.
“The remedy is simple: put it on the ballot,” she said.
Last month, utility crews began moving power lines to make way for the WMODA project.
Stokes, a former Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner, said that a few historic buildings have already been demolished to make way for WMODA.
“We want to stop this bad development before further irreparable damage is done,’’ she said.
City commissioners were informed of the lawsuit late Tuesday night by City Attorney Elizabeth Lenihan, who said she would be sharing a copy with them Wednesday.
Interim City Manager Jamie Brown said he could not comment on the lawsuit because he had not seen it.
Mayor Betty Resch and CRA director Joan Oliva did not immediately return messages.
Members of Lake Worth All have criticized the WMODA project since its inception. Some of their accusations have been repeated at the dais by City Commissioner Chris McVoy, the lone WMODA critic on the City Commission.
Who is funding LWB for all? This seems bizarre and a waste.