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Hollywood Beach is a narrow barrier island wedged between the Atlantic surf and the Intracoastal Waterway. Located within a unique natural environment (now rare in South Florida), Hollywood Beach today is a dynamic, evolving, and eclectic contrast of remnants of a quintessential "Old Florida" seaside community with the encroaching influences of high rise condominiums and hotels. Recently named first in a list of the best beaches in South Florida, the sandy shoreline complemented by a backdrop of low rise buildings provides a human scale context to a variety of open air activities, including swimming, biking, skating and jogging. Hollywood Beach is a tremendous public resource that can be enjoyed by local families and tourists alike, catering to strolling the Broadwalk and beachfront recreation. It is a vibrant and welcoming place, supporting a diverse, multi-cultural and multi-generational mix of users and uses in harmony, including restaurants serving an array of international cuisine, shops catering to beach goers and residents, music, and an outdoor performance space.Hollywood Beach provides a special quality of life for 7,000 year round residents, nestled among a network of pristine parks, beaches and trails, where citizens can walk barefoot on the sand, enjoy the peaceful moonlight reflected on the surf or explore the wildlife and plantlife in tropical nature reserves. It also represents a welcoming, safe and stable "old world" ambiance that attracts tourists from around the globe. At the same time, it is threatened by forces prone to disrupting the delicate balance of habitat and commerce that supports the island’s unique atmosphere and lifestyle. We believe that traffic congestion, parking issues, infrastructure problems and added density will, if left unmanaged, open the way for bland, stagnant, "improvements" that will duplicate "Everyplace, South Florida", and obliterate the last vestiges of a quiet, harmonious, natural, and sustainable beachfront community. "Improvements" of that nature would, we believe, dilute property values throughout Hollywood. Redeveloping and strengthening, rather than eroding, the ambiance of Hollywood Beach will have the added economic benefits of increasing property values throughout Hollywood and continuing to attract a quality base of tourism. Conclusion:
We recognize the City and State policy to maintain existing densities and intensities on the barrier island. We also believe this policy provides new
opportunities and challenges to improving the quality of life on Hollywood Beach. Our plan, among other things will identify historic resources, including
clusters of buildings that promote the historic fabric of the beach, and provide design guidelines for infill development of vacant and underutilized property
on the beach. |
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