Commissioner Jennings' twisted take on the role of the Planning and Zoning Board

This is part of an e-mail that was sent out by Commissioner Cara Jennings' encouraging "her people" to apply for Planning and Zoning Board positions. By the way, the deadline is 5 p.m. tomorrow. Go to the City's website for an application - see link at right. Below is the message as it appeared in the e-mail. Below is my reaction to its slanted content:

Planning and Zoning: Interviewing for Five of the Nine seats. The Planning Board’s job is to review and approve development plans. They have the power to approve buildings such as the Lucerne in downtown and the Greater Bay beach plan. Although planning requires consideration of natural resources and population density, most of the recent members are from the development/ builder, legal or real estate profession. Help us create a board that reflects all the elements we need to consider when approving development in our city! If you want a say in how high, big, or green we grow, then step right up!

Planning and Zoning (ignores the fact that the board also has Historic Preservation, Nuisance Abatement functions):

Interviewing for Five of the Nine seats. (seven seats are full voting members of the Planning and Zoning Board, the other two are alternate positions that are up for re-appointment every year. She makes it seem like there is an opportunity to swing the majority of the Planning and Zoning Board with this round of appointments. In actuality, only three of the seven regular voting member seats are up. The two alternate members are full voting members on Historic Preservation Board matters.)

The Planning Board’s job is to review and approve development plans. (The Planning Board's job is to review plans and balance private property rights with public needs within legal constraints - it is not there to "approve" plans only. It also makes recommendations to the City Commission on zoning changes and Comprehensive Plan amendments, but it's understandable that the Commissioner wouldn't realize that since she does her own thing once it gets to the Commission anyway.)

They have the power to approve buildings such as the Lucerne in downtown and the Greater Bay beach plan. (The Planning Board has authority to review applications from all over the city - not just the most controversial projects in the history of Lake Worth. By the way, the Planning Board never approved the version of the Lucerne building as it was built. The version that it approved had a public parking garage and it had much more architectural interest than the one built. If you want to know, refer to many posts about the need to adhere to establishrd process. And, by the way, the Planning and Zoning board never approved the Greater Bay plan - period. Bringing these projects up is nothing but waving a red flag to "her base.")

Although planning requires consideration of natural resources and population density, most of the recent members are from the development/builder, legal or real estate profession. (Whoa Nelly! - this assumes that members of those professions are incapable of "considering natural resources and population density" - which is an insult to those that have served and are currently serving on the Planning and Zoning board and again, a gross over-simplification of the board's role. Perhaps the greatest potential legal liability a city has is in its decisions on land use and zoning. I have always stressed the need for a more balanced representation on the Planning Board, as well as all advisory boards - especially from a geographic perspective. It will be interesting to see how many applicants are appointed that are from west of Dixie. In my eight years of being on the board myself - and in the years since - I know of only one person west of Dixie Hwy. that has been appointed to the board. And Commissioner Jennings, if you want to talk about "population density" - let's talk about over-crowding in our city. Let's also talk about the need to direct redevelopment east - away from the state's critical natural resources and finding a way to better serve our citizen's by having daily goods and services within walking or biking distance.)

Help us create a board that reflects all the elements we need to consider when approving development in our city! (Again, as a Commissioner, it is appalling to chastise members of the current Planning and Zoning board for apparently not doing their job, according to Commissioner Jennings. Reading between the lines here, it's another way of extending and expanding the policy of "NO" through the Planning and Zoning board.)

If you want a say in how high, big, or green we grow, then step right up! (You can look at the Commission for this responsibility and their lack of getting out an approved Comprehensive Plan in over 5 years and $1 million dollars spent. And, when you get right down to it, we all need to be involved in these decisions by encouraging broad geographical representation on this board, keeping neighborhood associations in the loop on the decision-making process, have meaningful discussions of decisions at all points along the process and not go in with a "NO" first mentality.)