There is a proposal going through the Palm Beach County Planning & Zoning Commission and the Palm Beach County Commission to drop a high-density urban development called Minto West into the heart of the central western communities, a decidedly rural area.
During this process, many of us who live in this area asked the county commission to hold some evening meetings at the county’s Vista Center office on Jog Road. This would have enabled many more residents to ask questions and provide input. As it is, normal county commission meetings held in downtown West Palm Beach are both distant and take place during normal business hours, precluding many from participating in the “government of, by and for the people” principle. We have now learned that is will not occur as it was first projected.
What are we to think? It is so tremendously inconvenient for a few public servants to give up a few evenings in order to maximize public input. This serves the vested interest of the developers and not the people. Those with the money talk and the rest of us can take a walk. It is time to go to election of commissioners on a countywide basis so any single area is not beset upon by the whims of those who do not represent that area. I’m highly disappointed with the present board.
Dr. J. William Louda, Loxahatchee Groves
