Notes from 10/23 City Commission Meeting

Here I am sitting in a City Commission meeting where the items on the agenda are the ground lease, developer’s agreement and construction contract. What I am hearing during public comment is a list of pros and cons of doing the beach. That is not what is on the agenda. What is on the agenda is not being discussed. The Mayor said that they are considering the zoning change at this meeting. It is not on the agenda, but he did nothing to state what was actually on the agenda – and didn’t do so to confuse the issue and rile up the crowd.

You know what is terrible – is that at each point of the process we will be confronted with the same issues – whether we are going to go ahead with the project or not. That is not what is at issue. It will cripple the ability of the City to go forward with improvements at the beach. To some extent, I feel that the Mayor led us down this path because his backers saw exactly what we would be experiencing – a split community that at every turn is going to question whether or not to move forward. It is going to be a City that is afraid of its own shadow, if it isn’t already.

That is not to discount the public process. There is a site plan that needs to be formatted and presented by the City Commission. The site plan will be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Board. The zoning district change, which the Planning and Zoning Board had many comments on at its last meeting – it is not set in stone. Somewhere or another we will come to a decision on the aspects of the zoning change – with public comment at every turn and then again when it gets to the City Commission.

The opposition doesn’t want to explain the process. They want to paint the whole process as being corrupt. I have an idea – let’s establish a process that cannot be deemed “corrupt” – that is agreed upon in advance and move forward from there.

It is frustrating to know that cities, towns and villages that do not have this situation would find this project difficult. The level of difficulty is compounded due to its environmentally sensitive area, the existence of a partner and the maintenance of public access during the construction process. Fighting amongst ourselves is no way to get the project done.

A wise gentleman just got up and recognized that there is flexibility with the beach plan, he talked to Peter Willard and they worked out some changes that would make the project better. That will happen before the Planning and Zoning Board as well. But, it doesn’t serve those that are against the project to point that out. They want to make it seem like it’s a “done deal”. It is a done deal in that we are moving forward with redeveloping the beach. How we do it is still to be decided. Why don’t those that oppose the project work to change it to make it better?

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