Stop approving all variances
- The Land Development Code should cover all geographic parts of our communities and all activities that affect physical development.
- The LDC is not supposed to be a straitjacket. It should summarize policies and proposals and is intended to provide flexibility.
- Our LDC strives to present a vision of the future of Santa Rosa County. While addressing short-term issues and problems, its main function is to look beyond current conditions to those desired 20 years from now.
Our Land Development Code is designed as a tool to be used by all decision makers, both public and private. In so doing, the LDC should be updated and reflect the expressed desires of the community and serve as a guide to decision making (i.e. zone change and development planning). In order to be effective our LDC must be evaluated at least every five years to ensure that it still–guides the community in the most appropriate direction. Once this is adopted it will be imperative to continue to periodically review, revise, and update to ensure its relevance to our communities.
Currently the Santa Rosa Zoning Board is approving 98% of everything submitted to the county staff, without so much as even visiting the locations or following the recommendation of the staff. The goals of Santa Rosa County should be to create and perpetuate stable and attractive residential neighborhoods. Commissioner, your volunteers are completely out of touch. To make a comment during a public hearing stating that “we don’t have the time to visit all of the locations” is totally unacceptable. Why are they serving on the Zoning Board if they are not going to do the job? This is YOUR representative! We are starting to notice they are not even reviewing the packages sent to them by the staff until the meetings. Again, “This is YOUR representative”!
After filing an application with Santa Rosa county, the staff reviews it to determine if you are the property owner and how the requested rezoning classification might affect the neighboring properties. A notice is posted in a public forum for a public hearing to take place. This process takes anywhere from 90 to 180 days. If neighboring property owners have any objections to the rezoning of the particular property, they will usually have the opportunity to offer their comments and concerns before the zoning board who makes its decision. 98% is approved with little discussion with the exception of one board member who appears to adhere to the LDC. Again, “These are YOUR representatives”! Enough-is-Enough, they (the Zoning Board Members) need to STOP approving everything because it’s effecting our communities. The most recent approval by this zoning board was the variance requesting a setback from 50’ to 0’ on highway 98…really!!! What are they thinking? We’re starting to make Panama City look classy…
Van Hibberts
Gulf Breeze