In Your Corner

Article Ten is the county ordinance that dictates how any development

application, other than a single family home or duplex, (and they may

not be far behind), is processed. Development is very broadly defined

here to include even the alteration of appearance of any structure. The

expansion, or remodeling, of any structure other than a single family or

duplex home, is a development. The addition of a building to a church

site is development. Many property owners are surprised to discover that

minor improvements to their property are defined as development.

In the last few years, the former county commissioners decided that they

wanted to review and approve almost every application for development.

They required extensive public notice, including display advertisements

in the newspapers, posting of signs on subject properties and letter

notice, return receipt requested to all property owners within 600 feet

of the boundary of the subject properties, for every public hearing

involving every application. All this costs quite a bit of money. The

commissioners mistrusted their professional staff , took administrative

approval away from them, and took it upon themselves to review and

approve these applications. In many, if not most, cases these

applications were "by right", meaning that the county commission really

had no legal choice but to approve them if they meet the written

requirements.

The result of those practices was to drastically increase staff time,

the time of volunteer advisory boards and county commissioners' time.

This translated directly into expenditures of tax dollars, wasted tax

dollars. It also resulted in the increase in the cost, sometimes as

much as thousands of dollars, of what might have been a simple building,

and taking as much time as a year to obtain all the information

required. This wasted time also put Martin County at a disadvantage in

their efforts to recruit high paying employers to build a sustainable

economic base.

The county commission that was recently seated has been approached by

its professional staff to make needed amendments to Article Ten to

protect the citizens and taxpayers of Martin County. This commission

asked its advisory panel, the Local Planning Agency (LPA) to look into

the proposed amendments and make recommendations to the commissioners to

restore order, protect the county and its citizens. The LPA held at

least three Public Hearings on Article Ten, spending many hours on this

subject. There was very little public participation at those hearings.

One reason could be that the LPA hearings are less political as they are

not usually covered by the Press.

The LPA's recommendations for amendment to Article Ten appeared on the

county commission agenda, and a very well organized group was present to

oppose any and all recommended changes. Using misstatements of facts,

the amended Article was labeled as being developer friendly and,

therefore, against everything that Martin County stands for - a virtual

attack on our sacred Comp Plan. The county commissioners had little

choice but to postpone the hearing of Article Ten and set a public

workshop on this matter for April 17th, 1:30 PM, at Blake Library.

We will tell you that the recommended amendments do more for the

taxpayers of Martin County than for developers. The amendments still

require that every rezoning, every Comp Plan amendment, and every

proposed use of property not in compliance with the established legal

right to use that property involve the same general procedures.

Additionally, every development of 50 units and commercial buildings

over 100,000 sq. ft. must still have public hearings, advertisement and

letter notice, although the distance for notice is recommended to be 300

feet, which it had been for many years prior to the previous county

commission's changes. All approvals, minor and major, are subject to

staff review, and all staff approvals are subject to appeal. However, if

our staff is not qualified to review and approve minor applications,

then we need a better staff and should get one given the amount of money

we spend for them.

Perhaps the the thresholds which define major and minor developments

need further adjustment , perhaps a notification distinction should be

made between rural and urban areas. One thing is certain Martin

taxpayers are being poorly served by the inefficient system currently

used. If you are interested in better government take the time to

review Article Ten and tell your county commissioner how you feel, don't

allow a group of persons whose political agenda you may not share, apply

focused political pressures on your elected officials? If your county

commissioners don;t hear from you they may assume that you really do not

care. Is that true?