P & Z Appointments Procedures

This afternoon at the Hernando County Commission meeting the discussion continued on potential changes to the Planning And Zoning Commission appointment procedures. Commissioner Stabbins brought forward a new recommendation that would have eliminated the P & Z method of voting on applicants verbally and just supplying written comments to the county commissioners, if they so wished, and have the Board of County Commission interview all applicants for the P & Z at the podium. Mr. Kingsley proposed removing all Planning & Zoning recommendation procedures and proposed that the administrative staff and the Planning Department make recommendations to the BOCC to eliminate political influence in the decision. Mr. Schenck called on Anna Liisa Covell, chairwoman of the Planning & Zoning Commission, to voice her concerns. Mrs. Covell stated that she did not have a problem with the BOCC conducting the entire interview process of applicants, if that was the pleasure of the County Commission but requested that no changes be made to P & Z procedures. Mr. Kingsley made his proposal into a motion that failed with a 3-2 vote. With further discussion, the consensus of the County Commissioners was to leave the existing policy intact and agreed that appropriate measures had been taken since they had previously voted to a more stringent application form at last week's meeting.