This comes from the Save the Coconut Grove Playhouse Facebook page:
Commissioner Xavier Suarez met with Playhouse preservationists on Friday to listen to their concerns and discuss plans. The future look of the Playhouse is still unclear, but the commissioner did care enough to take time out of his day to listen to this group's concerns. It was mentioned that there have been several people interested in making generous contributions to the development of the property in exchange for naming rights. Mr. Suarez emphasized that although he wants to work with these people he wants to make sure it is done in a way that doesn't overshadow the actual original name of the place.
The preservationists concern with the naming rights is that this type of thing tends to become a slippery slope, whereby wealthy donors expect development to happen according to their liking. We want to avoid a situation where politicians are so eager to get a $10 million donation that historical preservation, TRUE historical preservation, ends up being compromised.
The question was asked why has the county never applied for state or national historical registry status. Being on these registries opens up funding eligibility that would not be there otherwise. Better to have money come from that than to be at the mercy of donors who, along with their naming rights, have very high demands of how they want it to be developed.
Let Commissioner Suarez know you appreciate his efforts and to make sure there is a public hearing on this issue, and to finally apply for the national historic registry. Also let him know we don't need another convoluted plan to develop some ill defined retail/entertainment entity, especially one that toys around with altering a historic landmark.
There is a hearing tomorrow as part of the County Commission meeting.
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