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04-13-1989 VC PH-MMINUTES OF PUBLIC HEARING OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL OF NORTH PALM BEACH, FLORIDA HELD THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1989 Present: Judy M. Pierman, f4ayor ' Jerry G. Gardner, Vice Mayor U. A. Marks, M.D., President Pro Tem Al Moore, Councilman Tom Valente, Councilman Dennis W. Kelly, Village Manager Herbert L. Gildan, Village Attorney Shaukat Khan, Finance Director Dolores R. Walker, Village Clerk Mayor Pierman called the Public Hearing to order at 7:00 p.m. -ROLL CALL All members of the Council and the staff were present. -- The purpose of the Public Hearing is to hear comments from the PURPOSE OF public concerning the Comprehensive Land Use Plan for the Village PUBLIC HEARING of North Palm Beach. Legal notice of the Public Hearing was published in the Palm LEGAL NOTICE . Beach Post on April 5, 1989. Immanuel Grinn, 536 Greenway Drive, went through the entire COMMENTS FROM Comprehensive Land Use Plan and had numerous comments on it. PUBLIC The Public Hearing was exceeding the time which had been PUBLIC HEARING ' allotted; therefore, it was recessed at 7:32 p.m. so that the RECESSED Regular Session, scheduled for 7:30 p.m., could be called to order and recessed until the end of the Public Hearing. The Public Hearing was reconvened at 7:34 p.m. PUBLIC HEARING RECONVENED Attorney William Boose, who was representing the Passionist Order, COMMENTS FROM read a letter dated April 11, 1989 to Mayor Judy Pierman from THE PUBLIC the Very Reverend Justinian Manning, C.P., Provincial Consultor/Treasurer of the Passionist Provincialate in South River, New Jersey regarding the Monastery. A copy of the letter is attached to the minutes of this Public Hearing. Mr. Boose strongly objected to the proposal of our Planning Commission to downzone the property from its current C-1 Commercial zoning classification to an "Other Public Facility" designation. He asked that the C-1 zoning classification be retained and that we add language t6 the Comprehensive Plan for a master plan of development or a mixed-use development. Mr. Jim Fleichmann, Vice President, Land Research Management, stated that the Department of Community Affairs told him that we do have an opportunity to make changes to the Comprehensive Plan ' prior to the plan being adopted by the Village. He estimated we had until September, or possibly December, of this year pending various review processes. After Mr. Fleischmann's comments, Mr. Grinn continued with his comments on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The Public Hearing was recessed at 8:45 p.m. and was reconvened RECESS at 8:50 p.m. After the recess, Mr. Grinn continued with his comments. ~. --+ Minutes of Public Hearing Held Thursday, April 13, 1989 Page 2 There being no further business to come before the Council, the ADJOURNMENT Public Hearing was adjourned at 9:08 p.m. Dolores R. Walker, CMC, Village Clerk C ,. 'gg~yg QRRIST OQ ~~c Office of the Treasurer 80 DAVID STREET SOUTH RIVER, NEW JERSEY Q,$8~82_ (201) 257-7177 April 11, 1989 The Honorable Judy M. Pierman The Village of North Palm Beach Village Hall 501 U.S. Higqhwayy 1 North Palm Beacfi, Florida, 33408 ~~~~~~ ~ n:~~ a .3 t989~ v~~c~ CLERN'S ~#FF4CE Re: Passionist Monastery of Our Lady of Florida, Inc. (the °Monasterv"1 Dear Mayor Pierman: I am writing in response to Mayor C of March 9, 1989 in which he sought a x refusal to purchase the Monastery props response to the proposal,of the North F Planning and Zoning Commission to downz from its current C-1 commercial zoning an "Other Public Facility" designation. The decision to sell the Monastery difficult due to our strong emotional a to the North Palm Beach Villaae communi we in g Mundt's letter t of first --- and in 'Beach Villaae s extremely spiritual ties We have been ue trom our ....~ .~v.,u.~..ciy t,i vNci ~.y . THE PASSIONIST'S FINANCIAL CONCERNS The North Palm Beach Monastery is onl one of 24 Passionist Monasteries in the Eastern ar~ of the United States. The past 25 years have brough~ a startling decline in Passionist personnel at every level of our Province. We have gone from 627 members to 287 Priests and Brothers. One quarter of our membership is over 70 years of age. As critical as these figures are, the most frightening statistic of all is this: in 1965 we had 92 seminarians joining our community; in 1989 we have 3. The financial needs of our Order are gqreat--and growin~. We are an aging community. ConEinuing our presen ministries becomes more expensive each year. Our educational, health care and infirmary costs are all increasing. In recent years we have examined the future of each of our Monasteries. For us the task was clear: we needed to sell those Monasteries that were too costly to operate and staff. This is the only practical way to reduce our a a ~`'~du, + ~y~Q ~`~' ' '7 LE AL TITLE- St. Paul's Benevolent, Educational and Missionarylnstifute, Inc. ~e,~6V9 QRRlST~~c m ~ O o~ ,~ `~,r~bru + ~y~`a~a Otlrce o! the Treasurer ~~C`5C`~~~'4J~~!IL C~C~ ~J4L©~Lt llL `ll l.~~~!I.JT-^l~.W_J 80 DAVID STREET SOUTH RIVER, NEW JERSEY 08882 (201) 257-7177 The Honorable Judy M. Pierman April 11, 1989 Page 2 growing deficit and provide some hope for long-term - financial stability. As responsible stewards of our Order we were compelled to make several critical decisions. North Palm Beach is but one of these. We closed our Monasteries (and Retreat Houses) in Union City, New Jersey, Boston, Massachusetts, and Baltimore, Maryland, as well as our seminaries in Dunkirk New York and West Hartford Connecticut. At this date, t{~ese properties have either been sold or are in the process of being sold. Needless to say, every one of these sales is painful. - Our anal sis of the North Palm Beach Monastery revealed tha~ in spite of the fact that the State of Florida had witnessed vast growth in population, the number of retreats and retreatants over the years had not measured up to its seeming potential. We studied whether we could sell only the lands surrounding the Monastery but our professional advisers determined that piecemeal divestiture of this asset would mean a serious financial loss; this shortfall in sales revenue might in turn, necessitate the closing of yet another Monastery. Thus, we made the difficult decision to sell the entire pproperty. It appeared that the sale of the Palm Beach Monastery was essential to place us on the road to financial recovery and to ensure the long-term care of our sick and aged. PUBLIC ACQUISITION OF THE PASSIONIST PROPERTY In light of the critical needs of our order, we are extremely concerned b the efforts of your Zonin Commission to change ~he designated zoning from ~he now favorable commercial classification to the commercially undesirable designation of "Other Public Facilities". We are also troubled by the Village's expressions of interes in ac irinqq the Monastery property. In addition to Mayo Mundt~s wri~Eten expression of interest, various Village Councilmen have made known to the Palm Beach press their intentions to acquire the propert One press account recites that if the Village is no~ successful s.n acquirin all or a part of the Monastery land, the Village official will "take steps to block high-density development." We are concerned that discussion of public acquisition will chill the interest of qualified purchasers. LEGAL T1TLE - St Pau!'s Benevolent, Educational and Missionary Institute, Inc. ~~~6v9 aearsr~ ~L d ~~~dtt! } tiy~ T~ Office of the Treasurer 80 DAVID STREET SOUTH RIVER, NEW JERSEY 08882 (201) 257-7177 The Honorable Judy M. Pierman April 11, 1989 Page 3 I urge that you act cautiouslyy in your dealings with the press and citizens so as not to send the message that our property is other than freely alienable, or that the dis osition of the Monastery propert is in some manner controlled solely by the Village. Please ensure that the Village does not use its re ulatory powers to take from us the value of our property--hat value being the lifeline of our order. If the Village expresses a vague interest in acquiring the Monastery pro erty and contemporaneously downzones the Monastery proper~y in a manner that makes the property valueless to the people who can afford to pay us the monies we so desperately need, we will be left in a sorry and seriously worsened predicament. If the Village intends to acquire our property for a public purpose, I urge that you expeditiouslyy present your intentions to ether with your plan for providingq fair and lust compensation to our religious community If the Village intends only to deter all who can offer us fair compensation from considering acquisition of our property, I plead with you to reverse this course of action.- Presently we are having the,Monastery property appraised to determine more precisely the current value of the land. We have been advised by counsel to avoid giving a right of first refusal to any party. At this time we ask that you realistically assess the seriousness of tie Village's interest in our property. We would be heartened if the Village has a sincere interest in acquiring title to our property and can quickly and justly compensate our Order. On the other hand, if the Village does not possess-the resources to fairly compensate our community, we urge that you deal fairly with us taking care not to allow the pressures of the moment ~o result in the arbitrary deprivation of property rights. COMMERCIAL USES OF THE PROPERTY ARE APPROPRIATE Our legal advisors have informed us that zoning decisions are based on the appropriate uses of property and not upon,the people who may want to use it. Although a small portion o£ the Monastery property has been used historically for reli ious purposes, we submit that this property is,appropria~e for a wide variety of commercial uses including those that are contemplated by the current C-1 zoning classification. The Village of North Palm Beach recognized these a ppropriate uses for the Monastery property by designating ~he property as commercial in the 1979 Comprehensive Plan. LEGAL TITLE- Sf. Pau!'s Benevolent, Educational and Misstonarylnstitute, Inc. „ . '~6V9 QRRlST 04 ~~i Office of ttre Treasurer a a ~'ta'iu + ~y~ ~ ~~~~~®~~~~~ -~~®~~m~~z~~~~r~ 80 DAVID STREET SOUTH RIVER, NEW JERSEY 08882 (201) 257-7177 The Honorable Judy M. Pierman April il, 1989 Page 4 Since 1979, no change has property that could make it le use. As you can probably imag learned that the Village or No Zoning Commission proposed to that it could only be used. for impact that this change in z of the property the Passion and the expectations of pros relied upon the current zoni developing their plans. taken lace on the Monastery ss sui~able for commercial ine, we were upset when we rth Palm Beach Planning and downzone our property so "Other Public Facilities". xtent of the devastating ing would have on the value ve that have in Perhaps the most troubling as ect of the" Other Public Facility" classification is the a~sence of any articulated governmental justification for this action that has such a dramatic impact on the financial health and viability of the Passionist community. We have asked our legal advisors to explain to us why our roperty is no longer suitable for commercial uses, and hey cannot provide us with any answers. When we ask for the reasons that the Villagge Planning and Zoning Commission ggave as ustification for taking this action, tFiey tell us only hat the Village likes the pro erty in its current state and that the Village may want ~o acquire the property. The Monastery property is adjacent to other commercial structures which were built after the Monastery was constructed. We have been informed that transportation and environmental issues do not dictate a need for a less intensive zoning classification. Moreover if the adjacent land is appropriate for commercial use, and if the Planning and Zoning Commission found that commercial uses of the Monastery property were appropriate and consistent with the 1979 Comprehensive Plan, and no legitimate overnmental rationale has been advanced which would_dicta~e a less intensive use, why would the Village The Passionists remain North Palm Beach Villagge c Monastery pro erty to be d be a detrimen~ to the Comm Village desires an aesthet development that will comp become a valuable asset fo community., We do not beli Public Facility" designati assure the Village that it. responsible members of the ununity. We do not want the eloped in a manner that will pityy We understand that the all pleasing, tasteful men ad acen structures and the Nor h Palm Beach Village e, however, that the" Other is reasonably calculated to objectives will be achieved. LEGAL TITLE - St Paul's Benevolent, Educational and Missionary Institute, Inc. t ~ ' oe,~6V9 aRRlST~~a A m ~ o v ,Z ~~'!~'tir + tii"a~a Olfice o(the Treasurer 80 DAVID STREET SOUTH RIVER, NEW JERSEY 08882 (201) 257-7177 _. The Honorable Judy M. Pierman April il, 1989 Page 5 Please meet with us to discuss your concerns. Let us explore alternatives which can yield mutually beneficial results. I am confident that we will find a variety of options which are far less drastic than the" Other-Public Facility" designation and which will further both of our goals. We are very cognizant of the fact that the Lord has blessed our ministry in North Palm Beach over the past 25 years. We are proud of the accomplishments of the Priests and Brothers who have served there. We deeply appreciate the love and loyalty shown them by both the retreatants and the Village of North Palm Beach. Sincerely yours,-~-~ Very,Rev rend Justinian Manning, C.P. Provincial Consultor/Treasurer cc: Ginsburg, Feldman & Bress, Inc. Boose Casey Ciklin Martens McBane & O'Connell, Inc JM:wr LEGAL TITLE- St. Paul's Benevolent, Educational and Missionary Institute, Inc.