Inflammatory statements...

This morning WWJB radio’s general manager, Steve Manual ran an editorial concerning the DCA denial for Hickory Hill’s application to change Hernando County Comprehensive Plan while citing some very inflammatory statements in reference to the Hernando County Planning Department. Mr. Manual criticized the county planning staff for not transmitting documents in a timely fashion, not being transparent to the public and basically being biased in their submittal to DCA. Descriptive terms like mistake, misdeed, or incompetence were used to sum up the editorial by stating that “we need to know.”

Did anyone ever stop to consider that WWJB’s general manager did not have all the facts on this subject. It appears that Mr. Manual relied heavily on hearsay information from two sources, the Hernando Today, and a political activist, to formulate his one-sided argument. Mr. Manual appears to be guilty of the same accusations that he thrust at the county planning staff for not doing his homework on the issue. A simple phone call to the Hernando County Planning Department’s new director, Mr. Ron Pianta would have cleared up the entire matter.

One major issue in the Hickory Hill denial by DCA contained two major sticking points which revolved around transportation issues. First, the Hernando County Planning Department did not submit a current Long Range Transportation Plan Comprehensive amendment. Why, you ask? The amendment approval was postponed by the Hernando County Planning & Zoning Commission in August at the public’s request. This postponement was to compile information for the eastern Hernando County long range transportation issues. It was determined by the P & Z that a postponement was necessary to have complete, and accurate, transportation information from Hickory Hill representatives, the Sun Rise PDD representatives, as well as the rural residents in the area. The Planning and Zoning Commission was more concerned with having accurate information instead of submitting incomplete data to the Board of County Commissioners. A workshop is being planned this fall to consider all input for the long range transportation plan by the county planning department. Secondly,DCA required a detailed transportation network analysis by the developer. A fair share agreement was required for transportation infrastructure, based on cost and data analysis and model runs / data analysis were not complete. The cost and data analysis was required to show the proportionate fair share costs for everyone involved in the development area which includes Sunrise PDD, rural residents, and the Hickory Hill project.

In conclusion, WWJB radio would be far better serve the public needs with accurate, fact-based, responsible information and not just assume our local government is always at fault.