PLEASE SIGN IF SOUTH PALM BEACH TAXPAYER

We the undersigned registered voters, residents, owners, taxpayers, and collectively the population of South Palm Beach STRONGLY OPPOSE the unnecessary planning by our town council for the demolition of the current South Palm Beach Town Hall and exorbitant spending for a new "state of the art" Town Hall as proposed on Thursday, April 3, 2025, and DEMAND repairs to our existing Town Hall building and cessation of all spending of our tax dollars planning a new building. 

Since the beginning of this petition we found that the RFQ for  design services included a requirement that read:  

“The selected firm shall hold at least three community-wide meetings with citizens of the community seeking input from residents.”

These meetings have not been held, yet the Council steamrolls to the Engineering Drawings to be used for Construction.

This is a breach of trust as what good is to seek input AFTER the engineering drawings are done.

While the desire of this petition is along the lines of fixing not nixing, even those wanting a ground up building would not want to replace an under 6,000 sq. ft building with a 12,000 sq. ft building.

At $ 550/sq. ft. per 12,000 sq. ft building is $ 6.6 M dollars.

Even if the building was determined not fixable, replacing it with a similarly sized building would cost half that at $ 3.3 M dollars with $ 3.3 Million to spare.  

Finally no change is without pain. In this case the permanent pain will be inflicted on the Residents of Horizon West and 3550 one losing their Ocean view the other one their intracoastal view. A shame as residents of those buildings had a reasonable expectation that a Town who operated for 35 years out of a modest building would not be placing a huge building in their line of sight.

INFORMATION ON SOUTH PALM BEACH TOWN HALL PETITION

• On September 24, 2018, the South Palm Beach Town Council held a special meeting where architect John Bellamy presented a proposal for the adaptive reuse of the existing Town Hall, estimating the cost at $1.4 million, which, adjusted for inflation, equates to approximately $1.7 million in 2025 dollars (based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator, assuming a 21% increase from 2018 to 2025). During the discussion, former Vice-Mayor Patricia Schulmayr commented that the Town Hall was “about perfect for the residents with minor changes,” indicating the existing facility’s suitability with modest adjustments. Despite this option, the Council chose a new building approach and has since held public hearings for matters like sewer rate increases (e.g., August 17, 2021), but there is no record of any public hearing addressing the fix vs. new Town Hall debate. Furthermore, the Council allowed the building to deteriorate over the years, reflecting a lack of due care, which has fueled the current controversy over the proposed demolition and the failure to hold the three community-wide hearings mandated by RFQ No. 10-10-2023-Q.
• It's April 2025 and 90% of the residents we've approached agree with the sentiment of then Vicemayor Shulmayr, for our Town the size of Town Hall is about right. Given availability of $7M we rather spend $1.7  in existing building than $7M in a new building.  Lets keep the balance in reserves and lower our taxes going forward.
• Currently the Town of South Palm Beach has only about 10 employees-3 administrative staff, a custodian, 2 in the building department, and a few PBSO staff including a sergeant in during weekdays plus patrolmen-working at or using our Town Hall. PBSO District 19 has no desk officer and predominantly and by design are on the road patrolling 0.6 miles of A1A, our only road.
• Spending a budgeted minimum of $7,000,000 (as we all know these construction projects always increase in costs from the projected amount) is an insurmountable and unnecessary financial burden on us as taxpayers.
• The Town Hall is barely used by the majority of our population and this huge expenditure is unnecessary. The new building will not change or add to the current use and these exorbitant expenditures are not justified.
• The 0.6 of a mile that makes up South Palm Beach is predominantly comprised of condominiums, many of which have their own event spaces, which also are barely used.
• There is no community need for the proposed new Town Hall event space as contemplated, it is unnecessary, unwanted, and parking is insufficient for large gatherings such as weddings as suggested by Town Council.
• The Town Council has no plan where our PBSO, all our town-owned equipment supplied to this district, about 10 employees, once-a-year voting, once-a-month meeting, 6-a-week classes, and once- or twice-a-year ice cream and Memorial Day events will be held during the demolition and construction timeline, which will likely take several years to completion (we also know these projects especially of this magnitude and managed by government take much longer than anticipated).  Simply, there is no alternative space in South Palm Beach to provide any of the few services or storage space that our town needs and currently provides during construction.
• The beloved Town commissioned art, which includes the centerpiece turtle statue and engraved brick walkway, must be destroyed or dismantled in the current proposed architectural plans unveiled on April 3, 2025 to the public.
• The Town Council has already spent in excess of $250,000 of our taxpayer money on planning the new building.

Please sign the petition if you are in agreement and make our collective voices heard to stop this wasteful spending of our tax dollars by town government.

We are NOT Asking for money to promote this petition.