Quiet No More

I want to share some facts about implementation of the County’s new Conservation Design Subdivision regulations.

Implementation is a joke.

The County staff are rapidly turning it into an ordinance to give developers the ability to dramatically increase density on sites, while virtually ignoring the natural resources, and mass grading the entire site (in at least some instances).

Oh, the problem isn’t the issue of “density bonuses” that some worried about, no, none of the projects that have been reviewed to date actually meet the standards for any bonuses, yet they are seeing density increases of 30-70%.

That’s right. How about a development that was previously platted with 60 1-acre homesites that is now winding its way through the approval process to resubdivide so to have 103 one-third acre homesites! Yep, that’s right, a 70% increase in the number of homes that will be built – a 70% increase in traffic, a 70% increase in spray-irrigated sewage, etc etc.

And to boot, they are mass grading the entire site – you can drive by it right now on Church Road in Coral Township.

And now there are folks who would like to submit the County’s ordinance for awards, and to highlight the “success” at the regional level. I am outraged.

There was a point in the conversation about the new ordinance where I encouraged people to support this step by the county board, thinking (naively) that perhaps with such a clear policy direction as is written into the ordinance, that surely, the staff couldn’t get away with screwing this one up too.

Well, I was wrong, and I am not afraid to admit it, and had I known then what I am seeing now, I would have fought adoption of the ordinance.

To the County Board’s credit, I do not believe that the majority of them are even aware of what the staff are doing to completely disregard the intent of the ordinance. They are not likely to realize what is taking place until the staff have moved enough “lots and lots of small lots” style projects through the pipeline, that an effective precedent has been set, and the County Boards’ hands will be tied.

I lay this travesty at the feet of the County staff – who work for the County Board – and I will be expressing that to the County Board at their meeting tonight. Something has to change, and soon.

It is time for those of us who care to speak up. There is so much at stake, and we need to remind the county board that there are a lot of people who care about the county and that we are looking to them for strong leadership.

The list of public abuses and failures is long when it comes to the Planning & Development Department – in just the last few years, I've seen them waste $400,000 on the failed 2020 plan, publicly attack volunteer planning commission members and the public during the 2030 planning process, fail to enforce the 4-year-old stormwater ordinance (have you driven by the intersection of Route 176 and Ballard Road?), and tell landowners that the motocross track operating in your back yard (ruining property values and threatening sanity) is permitted in the agricultural district! The list is long…

This is our county too, and I am sick & tired of watching a small group of people trying to destroy it.