Opinion: A 2020 wish list to improve lives of Lee County citizens
Editor's note: This column has been revised by the author to clarify some previous points.
A new decade means new hope for a more livable, environmentally committed, and civically-engaged Lee County. With this vision in mind, Women For a Better Lee proposes the following 10-point wish list of actions for our Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) -- actions that will improve the quality of life of all Lee County citizens:
1. Allow citizens to communicate with commissioners on land use and zoning matters without fear of fines and/or jail. Currently, any communication with a commissioner on a rezoning or land use issue could put a resident in jail for 60 days or result in a fine of $500.
2. Post signs at county waterways warning citizens of water quality health hazards. Concern about the public health impact of toxins in our water requires coordination with state agencies to properly notify the public.
3. Update flood resiliency plans to address threats from rising sea levels. In 2010, the county helped fund a plan to deal with sea-level rise, a plan which has sat on the shelf for the last nine years.
COUNTY MANAGER RESPONSE:Lee County Manager: Commissioners promote responsible growth management, work hard to be inclusive
4. Restore 100% impact fees and adopt ‘growth pays for growth’ policies. The BoCC should reinstate impact fees paid by developers to fund the additional infrastructure required by new development. Only then should it borrow to pay for road projects to minimize interest costs paid by taxpayers.
5. Implement safe streets planning to reduce the alarming number of pedestrian and bicycle deaths. Lee County is the 8th most dangerous metro area in the nation for pedestrians.
6. Require developers to adopt low impact design standards that minimize the effects of septic systems, nutrients and fertilizers on our environment. We can improve water quality by implementing environmentally-friendly design standards for construction.
7. Enable citizens to sign up on the county website for email notifications of upcoming meetings and restore historical documents from prior to 2017 to the website. Re-designing the county’s website will enhance citizen participation by proactively informing interested individuals about future workshops and commission meetings as is done in Bonita, for example. Furthermore, historical documents should be easily accessible, rather than require researchers to make often costly public records requests that are slow to be produced.
8. Participate in the SWFL Regional Planning Council and have all commissioners regularly attend meetings of the Metropolitan Planning Organization to improve relationships with the six Lee municipalities. Over the past two years, the full contingent of commissioners has only attended two meetings together. Inasmuch as the MPO is an important nexus in regional transportation planning, the absence of any commissioner is significant. Furthermore, the BoCC should coordinate its plans and activities regionally. Its failure to do so only exacerbates already dysfunctional relationships with the incorporated jurisdictions and poorly serves those Lee residents living in these municipalities.
9. Permit limited time for public comment at BoCC workshops. In the past, citizens were allowed to speak at workshops. Today, no time is allotted on the workshop agenda for public comment. Citizens may speak at the morning meeting of the commissioners; this, however, requires citizens to attend both morning and afternoon meetings if they wish to participate.
10. Restore openness and channels of communication between senior county staff and citizens and organizations that had been the practice of past county administrations. Some citizens report that they have met with county staff with a communications staff person present, a practice that has a chilling effect.
Mr. Desjarlais’s attacks on the messenger and belittling of unfavorable research serve as a warning to others to stay silent and refrain from suggesting improvements. This is the very reason we are in this situation today.
Implementation of the above wish list is not rocket science. These suggestions are feasible, affordable and practical. So why can’t we get this done? The answer: our Board of County Commissioners lacks the political will to ensure that all who live and work here have the quality of life we deserve. Women For a Better Lee challenges our county commissioners to act on this wish list and put the concerns and needs of Lee citizens ahead of developers and land speculators who build and move on, leaving us to foot the bill and deal with the resulting shocks to our environment, traffic and quality of life.
Charlotte Newton lives in Fort Myers.