I
have been of resident of Deerfield Beach since 1968. I spent many
sunny days with my children at our beautiful beach with its safe and
easy access.
In
1998 my friend Mary Beiriger and I read in the newspaper about plans
a developer had for a 7 story, 240 room hotel - condominium complex
to be built on city owned beach front property. Idealistically we
decided to start a petition against the hotel. We were under the impression
that a petition would carry some weight with the City Officials. As
we know now, it did not.
We
later found out, after consulting with Tom Connick, our pro-bono lawyer,
that what we needed was to initiate a referendum to protect city owned
beachfront property.
We
joined forces with a group of Deerfield Residents who on their own
had also started a petition against the hotel, named our group "Save
Our Beach" and started our campaign.
1.
We handed in written requests to speak before the City Commission
and voice our concerns and objections and submitted our anti-hotel
petition with 4,000 signatures. The commission ignored it and us.
2.
We continued to attend commission meetings so they could see we weren't
going to go away.
3.
We decided to initiate a referendum to save our city-owned beach property.
4.
We formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) so we could legally campaign
for the referendum.
5.
We made the scope of the PAC the entire beach area, not just this
referendum.
6.
We went out on the streets and talked to people one-on-one.
7.
We wrote letters to the editors of the newspapers. 8. We went door-to-door
and handed out flyers.
9.
We handed out flyers at shopping centers, the post office, the library
etc.
10.
We invited residents of all areas of our city to join our cause and
circulate information.
11.
We had a strong core group who worked diligently day after day to
get signatures for our referendum.
12.
At election time we manned the polls, holding signs and asking voters
to Save Our Beach.
13.
Voters overwhelming approved the referendum, saving our city-owned
beachfront property from a hotel.
After
the referendum passed we closed the "Save Our Beach" PAC because naively
we never thought that the City would try to overdevelop the beach
again.
In
2000, what we never imagined came to pass. The city again proposed
a commercial development to be built on city owned beachfront property;
calling this development "Ocean Park".
A
committee that was in favor of development and this new project opened
a PAC and took our former name "Save Our Beach" in hopes that the
public would not realize that the proposed "Ocean Park was not in
fact a park, but a commercial venture, again targeted for our city
owned beach property.
We
were shocked and upset that they took our name and we reopened our
PAC under the name the "Original Save Our Beach".
We
also broadened the stated purpose of our PAC to "appropriate use of
the beach and beach area" which gives a wider scope.
We
reorganized and campaigned and again the voters showed that
they did NOT want the beach property commercially developed. The voters
overwhelmingly came out and defeated the proposal.
In
November 2002 for the third time in four years we campaigned
and went out again to protect not just beachfront city owned property,
but the entire beach area from over-development.
We
initiated a referendum to protect the main beach parking lot, and
another to reinstate building codes which the commission had discarded
in favor of developers.
Again
we attended commission meetings, held rallies, wrote letters, went
door-to-door, recruited new supporters, handed out flyers, and worked
to the point of exhaustion getting our message out.
Again
the voters spoke and in no uncertain terms told the city commission
that they do not want our little gem of a beach overshadowed by mammoth
high-rises.
75%
of the voters voted for the referenda!!!
Because
the Original Save Our Beach group want to preserve the remaining beauty
and tranquility of our beach - it is our inheritance from the past
and something to pass on to future generations - some of the members
formed a non-profit corporation called Original Save Our Beach, Incorporated.
This group is running this site. This group , as the OSOB Inc. will
not campaign or support ballot issues, the PAC group will still be
active for those purposes.