The Davie Commons: R.I.P.?
BY BUDDY NEVINS
It May be too early to bury The Davie Commons.
But the controversial shopping and office complex is on life support after Tuesday’s election.
The Davie Commons needs four out of the five votes on the Davie Town Council to stay alive.
With the defeat of Mayor Tom Truex on Tuesday, the project lost a key vote.
After a long struggle against The Davie Commons, pissed off voters Tuesday elected as mayor an opponent of the shopping and office complex Judy Paul.
Property Appraiser Lori Parrish had three words after the election results were totaled in Davie:
“I’m so happy.
Parrish had been fighting against the development that would be built within shouting distance of her house for years.
Paul rode to victory on the backs of irate Western Davie residents like Parrish.
Angry that their town council dared approve a huge development in the backyards of their leafy rural neighborhood, they revolted against the mayor.
The result: Western Davie precincts had a higher turnout than condominium precincts like Pine Island Ridge.
It shows what has long been a rule in politics — motivated people can beat money any day.
You gotta love it. The Davie results gives me renewed faith in the American voting system.
Truex, a supporter of The Davie Commons, had a campaign chest full of money supplied by the development community.
I haven’t seen the final figures, but Truex had more than two times the cash as Paul earlier in the campaign.
The Davie Commons lobbyist Ron Book said last month that if Truex lost the election, he would flip an anti-development commissioner to support The Davie Commons.
My suspicion falls on Commissioner Marion Luis.
Vows Parrish:
“That’s okay. We’ll just beat him at the polls, too.
I believe her.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
This project is dead as a door nail now that Judy Paul is the Mayor, the Town has spoken through this project. Everybody knew this election was a referrendum on the Davie Commons itself. The project itself is worthy and Broward would be fortunate if Turnbury simply found another site to place it in. Wherever they choose, people will go there because of what they offer. There is nothing magical about that location and it will likely cost them much less to just pick up their plans and move it to another site. There is still land left. Go find another location and get on with it.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
“That’s Ok, we’ll just beat him at the polls” (!) This is one of the nicest threats I have heard from Parrish. What? No threats of job loss or worse? I’m so happy that Davie is stuck in the 1960’s with no clear vision for the future. Judy ran for Mayor for one reason and it is NOT the right reason. She is already a lame duck or worse, a puppet. Not that Truex is any better. Who wass his handler? a Scott someone? Poor job!
March 13th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Truth be told, a majority of residents of western Davie, like it or not, favored The Commons, as did the majority of Weston residents (who had no vote in this race).
By the way, Buddy, Lori Parrish, does NOT live within shouting distance of the site. In fact, you could put a demolition derby on the site and she wouldn’t be able to tell it was there. She’ll have more angst from the 70+ home community she allowed between her and the Commons site. It seems stalled in the building but will eventually be completed there.
Judy Paul lives a little closer, but not much. And she has acknowledged that the project would probably cut down the noise from I-75 where she lives.
No, Buddy, this was nothing but Lori’s whim, and that of her horseback riding cronies. They simply decided they didn’t want it, despite the fact that the project would actually benefit everyone around it.
It isolates a tiny portion of Davie (not even one percent of Davie’s geographical area) to add to Weston’s commercial mix on the other side of the highway. It’s worth 8,000 new jobs. And that tiny morsel of Davie property that would have been “removed” has the potential to generate about 7 percent of Davie’s annual budget from its property taxes, over the next fifteen years. About what Davie would get from about 70 big-box Target stores.
I hope all of you who didn’t vote will compare the time it would have taken to express yourself at the polls with how much time you’re now going to have to work just to cover the tax revenue Judy Paul’s going to lose for you.
For all the bleating about preserving the natural ambience, this “win” not only killed much of the revenue needed to accomplish just that, it also left those western communities vulnerable to more residential building, street-widening, and Eric Hersh’s burning desire to break 26th Street through from Royal Palm Parkway into Davie.
It’s no secret that those who are fearful will come out to vote. Those who simply would like something won’t get off their butts to cast a vote. I have to hand it to those who ran that campaign, whether simply ignorant or knowingly hypocritical, they certainly scared the heck out of their poor, terrified neighbors, even though there was no reason to be scared.
Well, they say it’s not over until the fat lady sings. And she only thinks she has!
ET