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Kings Point Board Scraps Plans for On-Site Business Variance

by Guest Contributer February 5, 2016

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Kings Point residents attend Thursday’s meeting to discuss the special variance. Photos by Joe Marguess.

By Joe Morguess

Approximately 500 Kings Point residents attended Thursday’s monthly homeowner’s association meeting to seek answers to last month’s unanimously passed motion by the 13-member Board Of Directors to seek a variance to have businesses on the premises.

Almost immediately after President Len Ronik reviewed the January motion to have a real estate company, Signature, as well as a medical company in the future, there were loud boos from every corner of the room. But Ronik wasn’t finished. He then announced that he would make a motion that day to rescind the motion and seconds later, boos changed to cheers. In the “old business” portion of the meeting, he made that motion, and it too was passed unanimously by all 13 directors to more cheers.

It never became clear whether Ronik and the board reversed their decision in response to circulated petitions to kill the plan, along with the the angry buzz surrounding Kings Point over the past month, or whether Ronik and the board reconsidered the wisdom of the plan in general. With the large gathering on Thursday, and almost 100 speakers expressing themselves passionately, even after the board scrapped the plan, many directed their outrage at the board as a whole for presenting a perceived under-the-table decision without consulting its residents first. One may speculate that Ronik and the board anticipated an unhappy community down the road.

Kings Point Board of Directors

So, in effect, the Board of Directors led by President Ronik capitulated and considered the well-being and satisfaction of its residents, and decided not to pursue the variance in question. But not before the audience made loud and clear certain protocols they demanded should be followed in the future by presidents of their respective communities, and as the Board of Directors. Summarizing in part, and paraphrasing, they insist that it should never be forgotten that the community is made up of the approximately 9,000 individual residents who demand the opportunity to participate and be listened to in the governance of condo affairs, and wish to be informed in advance by postings, or on the website of agenda items, of any contemplative actions that may affect their lifestyle in the future. And to be consulted first above all else, with transparency and where practical, in the local community and Kings Point in Tamarac level.

The Board of directors did encourage the future participation of residents by attending the homeowner’s associations meetings held Thursday mornings on the first of the month. With many new residents in the past few years, it’s a good time for the Board of Directors, and residents, to get to know one another.

So what we have here is a new beginning for the better, perhaps, for the 500 attendees who learned that it’s safe to speak up for what they think is beneficial for them and their neighbors; and for the powers that be, to listen and consult with the community they represent which may ultimately prevent missteps and miscalculations in the future.