THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONCERN YOU, even if you live in a city. If I have to say this again, I am going to scream. I have tried to explain this from every angle, but here it is once again.
I was at a meeting of a Citizens group (45 people) on Sunday in a city which will remain nameless. I suggested to the group that they should be concerned with their County Commissioner’s appointee to the County Planning Advisory Board.
The Chair of this meeting said:
That doesn’t concern us, we have our own zoning in this City and the County Planning Advisory Board has no say in our city’s planning. I say: "WRONG."
The BIG decisions are made at the County level. And all city plans have to work in conjunction with the County Master Plan.
The County Planning Advisory Board (PAB) is the County's main advisory board to the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) on matters related to planning and annexations/incorporations.
County Planning is suppose to promote a high quality of life for current and future residents of Miami-Dade County through the exercise of sound planning and by administering and enforcing the Comprehensive Development Master Plan, the Zoning Code, and other development regulations. The PAB should promote these goals as it advises the Commissioners.
The PAB meets on a regular basis and its membership consists of seventeen voting members. Of the seventeen voting members, one is appointed by each of the thirteen County Commissioners while the remaining four are appointed by the BCC as a whole.
So Mr. Chair of the meeting I was at: the County may have nothing to do with an office building going in on the corner within your city, however, they have to make decisions on sprawl developments at the edge of the Everglades that take school funds, water allocations and infrastructure money away from your city. The decisions they make not only effect your quality of life (traffic for instance), their decisions effect your pocketbook. When your water bill triples to pay for that two and a half billion dollars of unfunded infrastructure at Water and Sewer, it won’t be your City you can bitch to. It was the Planning Advisory Board not doing its job to promote smart growth within the county - making sure infrastructure did not fall behind growth.
So get concerned! Those County Board Appointees are more important than your stupid city boards.
6 comments:
Tell you what... it is scary not to watch any of them.
You elect them...but if you don't pay attention, how else do you know if you should re-elect them?
And some pretty life changing votes are made in the caves known as city council and commission chambers.
Beware!
People do watch their cities...the problem is not enough people are watching the county. I agree that cities need to be watched but they both need to be watched. 1/2 the people don't understand the county government...
Miami is rotten to the core. Where is the FBI? Why aren't they arresting Miami politicians and bureaucrats by the boatload?
johnny i just read your profile, glad to have you reading our blog.
I wish everyone in the County would watch at least one of the county commission meetings to understand the politicians "we the people" elect... it's despicable, no wonder only 15% of the voters go to the ballot boxes. if you have nothing better to do in life, get on the internet and watch
http://webcast.miamidade.gov/vwb/vs_webcasting/viewer/showWebcast?eventId=419
last anonymous:
No, I have something better to do -- I have to rip out my fingernails...Those meetings are too painful to watch...
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