The Rights of Residents to be Heard

Remember that old saying? “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.” In 2014, our City Council wisely “streamlined the process” of allowing City Staff to Administratively Approve development proposals and plans under some conditions without oversite of the Planning Board and/or City Council. At the same time, our Council determined that MORE public oversite was needed in most circumstances and in the BEST interests of our residents a more transparent review process was implemented.

So, for the past 5 or 6 years, Marco has had their Planning Board Review all projects that required Variances and all commercial development plans with a follow-up overview by our elected City Council. All meetings open to the public.

City staff has demonstrated their ability to collect and present the project development data along with their recommendations. With the existing ordinance, you get 14 additional pairs of eyes along with the public’s input, So, what’s the problem? I agree with Maria. So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just leave it alone. Our residential citizens are better served by a Public Review Process, no matter how minor the Variance is.

Developers will just have to be patient and wait for any review to be presented and processed, including input from the Public and Planning Board. And if it costs a little more for the process, so be it.