Does City need its own Arts Advisory Council? Should it address land development? Neighborhood zoning?

The prospect of allowing commercial businesses in City residential neighborhoods has many concerned about our "small town" character.

The specter of rezoning neighborhoods, or 'upzoning' some call it, rears its head again but more on that below. This interesting item appeared on the City Commission agenda in June. There is a 14-minute video of the proceedings (below). Here is the agenda item in question:

12B. Ordinance 2016-22 first reading establishing an Arts Advisory Council.

This first reading of the ordinance ended up being tabled for lack of a second. Note this quote by Commissioner McVoy:

My concern is there has been a group of artists [emphasis added] who have met and did research on land development regulations and what other cities have done and it hasn’t received a positive reception from us as a government body.

The "group of artists" referred to likely is the Artist and Cottage Entrepreneurs (ACE) that I met with last year. Learn more about that using this link. This issue has drawn much attention from the public vis-à-vis residential neighborhoods and impacts any changes would have on the quality of life: traffic, parking, noise, more demands on City services, etc.

If this issue interests you strongly suggest you watch the entire video and pay attention to what's said about LULA and the Cultural Council located in the City's downtown. Note these parts of the video:

• Mayor Pam Triolo starts off the discussion; at the 1:00 mark Commissioner Amoroso makes mention of the "cart before the horse".
• Triolo says there's "no rush to create this".
• At 6:20 Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell says there are already too many boards and suggests whether some should be eliminated. Would he be referring to the Sister City Board?
• McVoy at 8:30 makes comments not mentioning any specific "group" and at 11:50 Commissioner Maier makes mention of "affordable housing" for artists.

Near the 14:00 minute mark talk turns to tabling the item and the vote is taken:
If you would like to read more about my thoughts on this topic look in the right-hand column for, "Flawed logic by supporters of home occupations" (or use this link) as it relates to traffic, parking, and the Gulfstream Hotel redevelopment project which includes a parking garage. To say there is a logical disconnect is an understatement.