County Growth Direction

I was reading this article in the News-Press about Commissioner Mann's comments at a recent BUPAC meeting as reported below...

Mann speaks out

Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann was the featured speaker at BUPAC (Businesspeople United for Political Action Committee) this week, where growth-related issues took up much of his address.

In about 20 years, Mann, said, experts predict Lee County will be about $2 billion behind on needed roads and highways, leading him to question why the county should move so fast to create gridlock.

“There’s 800,000 buildable lots vacant right now in Lee County, so when I said OK, no more zoning changes to allow more, I don’t think I hurt a single builder,” Mann said. “I think 800,000 new units are probably enough. People say they don’t want another Fort Lauderdale here, but that’s exactly where we’re headed. Why should we talk about granting additional density when we’re destroying our quality of life?”
With no new revenue sources in sight, and pressure growing from the state and from local residents to cut spending, Mann said the board has to look at every new service and cost.

Originally published in the News-Press by Betty Parker on 8/31/07

This gets back to an earlier post on staff "reading the tea leaves" wrong information, which . This statement is a prime example of why staff's tea leaf reading in regards to zoning can be used by staff to give the BOCCleads to them not being able to make an informed and intelligent answer for doing what is good for the county. I believe that commissioner Mann is right and what he is really saying is...we have a comprehensive plan that is in place, let's stick to it. There is no need to stray outside the confines of the plans that it currently enacted. Developers must stay within the line and policies as defined by our current land uses. At least, I think that is what he is saying. Although, he might be saying as an example, if you are in Urban Community and currently zoned AG-2, he believe that the zoning should not change, even though the code allows the land to chnge from AG-2. Stay tuned!

In the 1980's we had a commissioner who was hell bent on stopping growth. It led to a BOCC that was in turmoil at a huge cost to the residents of the county for the misdirections and roadblocks. In spite of our thick zoning books (Lee Development Code, LCD, Lee Plan, etc.) we still on the whole get poorly planned communities and mediocre houses and the growth will still happen mainly because our staff is not planning but "reading tea leaves". The only thing that can happen, is Lee County's name will be tarnished and it will take years to rebuild it when sounder minds prevail!