Public trust, public effort, public consensus and public policy: Public servants in a democracy are trusted to submit to the will of the people and serve the public when elected. The general public endured years of due process to get public consensus into policy on county growth during the revision of the 1989 Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The resulting national award-winning Managed Growth Tier System contains rural and exurban tier objectives, goals and policies that tell county government how much long-term growth taxpayers planned to fund and where, so that “westward ho” development, costs, speculation and imbalance are limited.
Palm Beach County’s award-winning Comprehensive Land Use Plan is essential to grow and maintain livable, sustainable communities, businesses, year-round tourism, natural resources and renewable food and fuel, now and in the future for everyone. A few self-serving people must not kill the long-term comprehensive balance of planned growth that keeps Palm Beach County a unique place to live and valuable to the United States.
Prior to this plan, county growth was urban form. Now rural and exurban tier objectives, goals and policies provide more than one lifestyle choice in Palm Beach County, protect both built and natural environments and existing communities, and prevent Browardization. Profiling rural citizens as deprived of urban lifestyle, or less intelligent than urban citizens, shows arrogance, ignorance, bias and contempt for the lifestyle choices of thousands of citizens whose planning efforts helped this county win a national smart growth award. Dismissing this public effort, public consensus, public policy and public trust would make Palm Beach County an oligarchy.
Comprehensive Land Use Plan objectives, goals and policies of District 6 citizens must not be killed again and again by commissioners from other districts whom District 6 voters can’t elect or vote out of office! Years of public effort and public consensus to control intensity and density of development in the central western communities with comprehensive plan policy must not be killed by a few current politicians in a few county commission meetings.
Why would county commissioners, whom the people affected by this project cannot elect, give a developer the gift of more population and profit than the affected public or even the state enclave allows? It is not the job of politicians to put value into land to benefit a few at the expense of the general public (i.e., the Ag Reserve). Because the state has already increased the value of this one specific property to a specific density and intensity, more cost and impacts to taxpayers must be denied. The original state enclave is closer to comprehensive plan public consensus than Minto’s demands.
Changing the planned population increases of the central western communities to a population explosion with one amendment that sets legal precedence for Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar, GL Homes, Centex, Lennar, etc. to also abuse taxpayers, infrastructure, existing communities and the environment with more Broward-like piecemeal project-by-project uber-urban population “master plans.”
Rita Miller, The Acreage
And the will of the people has been diffused by the Districting or Sectioning off Palm Beach County into 6 different districts.
If there were Countywide Commissioners, meaning that every citizen of the county was able to vote for every commissioner who was running for County Commission, these Countywide Commissioners would be less inclined to increase units in developments or even rezone land from agriculture to commercial to residential. They would fear the voters at the ballot box.
What does District 1,2, 3, 4, or 5 Commissioner care about the development out West? They do not have to answer to the voters of District 6 who live out West. They answer to those who only vote in their District.
Beware of government entities, communities who seek to further distant themselves from the people.
Can there be a Voter Initiative to be placed on the next ballot or the ballot after that; to go back to Districtwide County Commissioners? Or has the County locked up, sealed the deal with the involvement of the State and made that more difficult or impossible?
Or can District 6 secede from Palm Beach County and form a new County? Or once again, has the State involvement, Tallhassee put that out to pasture?
There is no – Power To The People
We can do without your little fear tactic in a feeble attempt
to get County Commissioners to vote your way.
MintoWest is the right decision and our Commissioners are doing the
correct thing for both Acreage as well as Palm Beach County residents.
Because it’s a better plan, for both the Acreage and Palm Beach County.