‘Cutting out the public' or encouraging faster, quality development?

As the city prepares to speed up the development review process, Jim Bagby worries that public participation is being thrown to the wayside.

“We are completely cutting out the public input in my opinion,” the two-term councilman said. “I understand the reason we are doing this and I support the rationale, but we are swinging the pendulum too far…”

Part of streamlining the development review process would rename the Technical Review Committee (TRC) the Technical Review Team (TRT) and would eliminate its monthly meetings. The TRC meetings were open to the public, but the new TRT meetings would not be subject to Florida’s Sunshine Laws, since they would not be meeting as an official body, but reviewing applications independently.

The TRT would be comprised of city staff, city consultants and representatives from local utilities and The Destin Fire Control District. The group does not have the ability to pass policy or vote on development applications, they only review them and make comments for the developers.

Although they are eliminating the TRC meetings, the city still plans to post signs and would still continue to mail out notifications to affected property owners within 300 feet of the development.

Community Development Director Ken Gallander told The Log that for the past 10-12 years, the city has been interested in ways to shorten the review process while still promoting quality development.

Sitting at a TRC meeting with the applicant, Gallander said oftentimes there was little dialogue between the two sides and the applicant would take their papers and review them from their office or somewhere else.

“We asked ourselves if it was worth the time and effort to hold the meetings,” he said. “It just wasn’t making sense.”

As for Bagy’s concern over eliminating public participation, Gallander says that’s not the case and the public still has the ability to come to the community development department and talk to them. He said their “doors are wide open” and they are willing to listen to anything a concerned resident might have to say.

The development review process, from the time the city receives the formal submittal to when the development order is issued, can vary based on the project. For a Tier I projects, such as the Raceway gas station being constructed by Big Kahuna’s, the process can take anywhere between three to six months. For a Tier III project, Gallander says, the process can last anywhere from nine to 18 months.

City Manager Maryann Ustick said by streamlining the process, the city should be able to reduce the review time by about seven weeks.

When the vote came up, city leaders voted 5-1, with Councilman Larry Hines absent and Bagby voting against, to move the proposed ordinance on to its second reading.