Hurrah for a Refreshing Positive Plan from our Town Board President

The September 3rd Letter-from-the-Editor about Town Supervisor Stuart Weiss’ suggestion to restructure the project review process for zoning approval is a very welcome direction I would recommend the Town Board pursue. For residents of the town, the process for building project approval is a fog, and it leaves open the perception that sometimes “things” may not be “on-the-up-and-up.” With public confidence in public officials’ honesty, integrity, and motivation at an all-time low, it’s important to improve transparency and public representation for real. These people on the various boards work voluntarily, and we praise them for their hard work, but I think it’s a good idea to have these meetings held in public or available for streaming.

Last week’s paper also had a front-page article about The Villages’ project being granted a one-year extension on the “conditional amended site plan” approval due to the developer’s continued compliance with the plan. OK. As I read it, this implies the developer has done something in the last year. Really? Has he? I could be wrong, but the approval sounds an awful lot like Sanderson, the developer, still hasn’t fully completed a fully approvable site plan yet. Sanderson’s attorney also told the zoning board, that the bulk of the project’s recreation fee of $1/2 million will be paid once the project is completed. WHAT??? How about BEFORE certificate of occupancy is given, Sanderson pays the recreation fee.

This project’s failure to move forward sounds an awful lot like a developer who can’t find financing to finish the deal because he can’t even get a site plan approval because he doesn’t have the money to complete the revised site plan. Maybe I’m wrong; but this is such a visible disaster. At some point (soon?) the Town of Lloyd could/should simply take steps within the law to no longer approve the project for this developer and give another developer a chance to pick up the pieces and move forward with something productive.