County Examines Planning Process

BROOKSVILLE - County Commissioner Diane Rowden has asked the county administrator to look into ways to improve or streamline the planning and zoning process.

Rowden wants to look at it all - from the way development proposals are reviewed to the role of the five-member P&Z in making recommendations.

After getting board consensus at Tuesday's meeting, County Administrator David Hamilton agreed to examine how other counties handle the planning process. He will report back to the full board at a future time.

"There might be some other counties and cities that are using other ways," Rowden said. "There are always things that the board needs to look at improving or streamlining and the best way to do that is now, with our new administrator on board."

Rowden said the recent controversy over a proposed RV resort near Hernando Beach "brought the issue to the front burner."

At the April 14 P&Z meeting, a dozen or so residents showed up to protest the resort in Hernando Beach, fearing it would destroy animal habitat, interfere with hurricane evacuations, cause traffic congestion and disturb their rural tranquility.

Planning and zoning commissioners voted 4-1 to approve it.

The issue never made it to the county commissioners' land use hearing last week because the developer withdrew the request.

However, the issue didn't die. Rowden questioned why planning staffers recommended approval of the controversial RV resort in the first place and the matter led to a lively debate at the hearing about the overall role of planning protocol.

Rowden's suggestion to review the planning process has so far been met with a lukewarm response.

P&Z Chairwoman Anna Liisa Covell - who voted against the proposed resort - believes Rowden is using this as a way to drum up a campaign issue for her reelection and it's a waste of time for county staffers to bother with it.

"Her last two elections have been on controlling future growth and what better way to control growth than to do away with the planning and zoning aspect of the planning process?" Covell said.

If that were to happen, Covell said private landowners could possibly suffer from a "no growth" commission without the benefit of review from the P&Z.

Commissioner Rose Rocco said she sees no reason to streamline the P&Z process because it is working well as it is.

The five P&Z members are all volunteers and appointed by the county commissioners to four-year terms. They bring a diverse background to the job and are adept at vetting projects and "cleaning them up" or streamlining them before they get to the county commissioner level, Rocco said.

County commissioners then have the option of agreeing or disagreeing with the P&Z recommendation.

"P&Z has a very important purpose, and I would not want to see that be changed," she said.

P&Z Commissioner Robert DeWitt said the board has already streamlined operations by including a "unified" agenda during meetings - which lumps quick-action items together and speeds up proceedings.

Unlike county commissioners, where politics sometimes get entwined in the process, P&Z members are apolitical and judge projects solely from a land use perspective. They are not swayed by public opinion, DeWitt said.

But that doesn't mean the public doesn't have a right to speak their mind during meetings, he added.

"I think it's very important to continue that," he said.

Planning member Anthony Palmieri, on the board 10 years, said he would not have volunteered to be on there that long if he didn't think the work the P&Z board wasn't important.

Board members may not always agree, but they respect each other's opinion, he said.

Palmieri said he believes Rowden has always harbored a grudge against the planning and zoning board, and the RV resort is merely an excuse to try and do away with it.

P&Z Commissioner Robert Widmar said there is nothing broken and nothing that needs fixing.

"We are guided by the comprehensive plan and the land development regulations," Widmar said. "I mean, that's pretty clear."

County Commissioner Jeff Stabins said he is not convinced there is anything wrong with the current zoning process in Hernando County. Still, it doesn't hurt to examine other counties, especially if it can be proved there are better options.

He's already done some checking and found that, in lieu of a volunteer planning board, some counties employ a professional planning magistrate who offers an expert opinion to the county commission.

Of course, this expert would have to be paid and "I don't think we're going to want to go down that route," Stabins said.