Former comissioner calls for repeal of density regulations
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I served as a Lake County Commissioner for 24 years, choosing not to seek another term at the end of 2008. With five years now passed, and the Commission asking for comment on the density map and regulations, I am compelled to touch on a bit of history.
I served on the Commission during the development of the density map regulations, spending many hours with staff in developing the proposal, then holding several public meetings to accept comments, pros and cons, and other ideas to improve or reject the whole thing or adopt and give the document a try.
Ultimately the map and regulations were adopted with a mandatory review required after a year of implementation. The document was vehemently opposed or totally supported. It was hard to determine whether to adopt or not, but after due diligence, discussion and a sincere desire by the commission to adopt a document that would be good for the public and their properties, good for the professionals such as surveyors, developers, realtors and others who had a desire to do something with their land, it was adopted.
As expected, within the first year a number of things needed to be altered, adjusted or improved to help the document plan work better for the public and professionals, and so it was amended, with a mandatory requirement to determine its benefits or lack thereof.
By the time I left office in 2008 I began seriously doubting the need for it at all. Now with five more years out of the commission and on the outside, I am adamantly opposed to its continuation. While it contains some good things, its overall impacts have created lawsuits, confusion, and above all, too much restriction on all of our property rights, thus our personal liberties. It has created another document for bureaucrats to interpret, advise on and enforce via the County Commission. Without growing up with the regulations and not understanding how to use it, to make it easier on the public, and with planners coming and going, it has lost consistency, proper interpretation and has injected confusion with other regulations such as family transfers, state and local subdivision regulations and state and local environmental regulations.
Also the regulations do not apply to tribal or individual trust lands, which in Lake County exceeds 40 percent of the land mass. Thus there is a major inequality when applying the density regulations.
In summary, with a majority of the public’s encounter with the density regulations being disliked and all trust land being exempt, I would request the repeal of the density map and regulations in its entirety.
The current state and local subdivision, environmental and family transfer regulations are more than adequate to deal properly with land development.
