Light-up McIntosh December 15
Light-up McIntosh will begin at the Civic Center at 6:30 p.m. The event will host Santa Clause and an area choir from six local churches will sing.
01.31.07 -- REPORT: LPA advises council to repeal of historic ordinance, rezone of ag land for potential development
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
By CHER PHILLIPS
The McIntosh Land Planning Agency voted unanimously to recommend the Town Council rescind -- in effect, repeal -- Historic Ordinance 151.
LPA board member Jim Walkup questioned the ordinance due to its length compared to the old land development code. He also questioned the parts of the ordinance dictating what types of trucks can be parked in the historic district, saying this was targeting people who used them to make a living.
Board members critiqued the ordinance for restrictions involving the roof color, as well as the stipulation in the new ordinance that businesses had to have the approval of the Historic Preservation Board before they would be issued a McIntosh business license.
Board member Randy Brown pointed out that he had some concerns with the LPA address the historic ordinance because he said he understanding of the LPA is that it should deal with land use only. He said roof color is not a land use.
Regardless of his concerns, Brown conceded that parts of the 151 ventured into controlling land use, and he voted with the other board members to repeal the ordinance.
Story continued below...
Listen to the Jan. 29, 2007 LPA meeting from Tuesday night by clicking on the black player-triangle: (Internet Explorer users may need to click the start arrow twice.)
Jim Walkup motions again 151: 9:44
Bill Glass defends 151: 22:18
Rezoning Ag land: 26:00
50-foot road setback: 44:04
Board member removal codes: 1:24:00
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The LPA voted to recommend the council rezone about 80 acres of agricultural land to R1, which is residential.
In the past, the council was stalled on rezoning this land until design standards were in place. However, the ordinances offered by the LPA concerning design were found contentious by residents last summer. One of the ordinances would allow town officials to inspect homes. Some residents felt the ordinances were designed to keep trailers out of McIntosh.
This time around, the LPA and council skipped redoing the comp plan where the criteria for R1 is concerned.
Only one resident at Tuesday's meeting, Council President Frank Ciotti, spoke about the impact of opening up agriculture land as residential -- saying this rezone could open up the area to the development of as many as 80 new homes.
"I think there's potential for an awful lot of growth we didn't really anticipate," Ciotti said.
LPA chairwoman Charlsie Stott said they were not talking about that much development.
Three land owners will be effected, Council Vice President Howard Walkup, Mayor Marsha Strange and Bill and June Glass.
Strange said because homes would have to have road frontage, her land might accommodate three homes.
Walkup said the maximum he could have was 10 homes, but he didn't intend to do that.
Other agriculture land owners are Danaya Wright and Chris Rath.
LPA board members said Rath did not want to do anything with her land. Glass urged the LPA to consider doing something while they still had control of it.
Glass said Wright was putting her land in a conservation easement. An e-mail to Wright has been sent to confirm this.
Brown, who worked on the original land comprehensive plan, said that he thought in the past that the LPA had considered rezoning the agriculture land to residential was in line with the plan. But he said, in the past, the land was used for agriculture at the time.
The LPA also volleyed several other issues the council asked them to look at back to the council.
One issue sent back to the council involved the 50-foot sight line around the street corners in town that became an issue during the Code Enforcement Board case again the Smith-Henderson's involving the Great Wall of McIntosh. The LPA also bounced back to the council the request to define the codes dealing with removal of citizen board members.
posted by Cher @ 2:02 PM,
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Editor
Editor and Publisher:
I'm Cher From McIntosh, FL I'm a graduate student at the University of Florida working on a master's degree in Mass Communication. While I was finishing my undergrad degree in journalism last year, I reported on McIntosh, Fla. for an in-depth reporting class. I figured that the reporting and the public record files should go somewhere people can access them. Reporters don't report to keep the information they find to themselves. Some of that reporting is included here in a forum that allows response. McIntosh suffers because with no news coverage, the local government and the rumor mill have too much potential to run rampant over residents. I moved to McIntosh in the fall of 1999. My profile
About This Blog
The primary purpose of this blog is to accurately reflect what happens in town public meetings and dispel rumors. I record the meetings and make them available for download. One of the goals of this blog is to offer residents a place to voice opinions. The comments, views and opinions expressed there are not necessarily those of the editor.
