Developers Game System every time

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Letter to the Editor

The Palm Beach Post
February 6, 2014

Developers game system every time

Re: “Chapel condo project evolved over time; so should this one” Monday editorial: How do developers get a local city council to break its local zoning laws and dump “big, controversial projects” on unhappy voters? It just happened in the Chapel condo approval. It happens every day in Florida. There is a method to the madness.

Step One: the developer goes over the top and demands way too much. The proposal demonstrates complete indifference to the applicable zoning “laws.” The neighborhood is justifiably outraged. Neighbors are thinking: “I have to live here too!”

Step Two: The developer “listens” to the neighbors and comes up with a “compromise.” The new proposal still violates the zoning code, but is not quite so outrageous. The city council begins to “moderate.” This process can go back and forth while the developer continues to engage in the “listening” and “compromise” dance.

Step Three: “Win-win!” The developer scales back the proposal so that only “moderate waivers” (according to the Post editorial) of the applicable “laws” are required. Hard core neighborhood opponents remain angry (“The council voted to exempt the project from our zoning code!?*”) The rest of the neighborhood thinks, “Yes, it’s not good, but it could have been so much worse! I guess I will have to live with this.”) The city council says “We forced the developer to back down and compromise.” The developer silently smiles: “Yes, I led them by the nose to where I want to be.”

All land use boils down to politics. If you can get three votes out of five from the council, you get your land use waiver. That’s why many Floridians worked hard to put the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment on the 2010 ballot. These “moderate” and not so moderate land use violations would have gone to the voters for final approval or rejection. That’s why the real estate industry viewed Hometown Democracy as an existential threat and crushed it in a tidal wave of money.

Developers understand all this. Will voters ever learn?

LESLEY BLACKNER

Palm Beach