Planning Commission ignores the community’s desires

(Note - This June 25 letter-to-editor was given an inaccurate headline.  The Planning Commission voted down the Walgreen's project.  It is the Monroe County Planning Director who acted against the wishes of the community by recommending approval.)

EDITOR:

How appalling that the Walgreens corporation is bulldozing its way into the Big Pine Key community at the soon-to-be vacated Scotty’s Hardware site. What a shame that a site that could have been a site for an enlarged library, a community meeting center, or expanded firehouse will instead become an unwanted and duplicative chain store directly next to an existing Eckerd Drug.

At the June 11 Monroe County Planning Commission meeting, more than a score of Big Pine residents in attendance protested Walgreens effort to invade our tiny, special island. Not one resident at the meeting spoke in favor of this 24-hour-a-day mega-store.

I and other residents voiced grievous concerns on Walgreens impacts to our community’s rural character, including increased traffic and a debilitating effect on already-established local businesses. There was a resounding plea to maintain our rural community, its irreplaceable small-town atmosphere, its unhurried way of life, and its wealth of natural and scenic resources.

More, months ago at the Livable CommuniKeys planning meetings, there was a resounding cry by residents to keep our island a place unsullied by big corporations and their attendant problems. Despite residents’ concerns and the Planning Commission’s unanimous vote against its proposal, Walgreens, in true corporate arrogance, has decided they know what is best for our tiny island.

Our planning director, who is supposed to be working for the residents of this community, for some curious reason seemed to be welcoming Walgreens with open arms. Sadly, it seems that any corporation, regardless of local need, can move into an existing structure without the approval of the people or Planning Commission on the premise that a new Walgreens is but a minor conditional change in use.

The Walgreens hired guns on a traffic study did not include the additive factors of the store being open 24 hours a day or its operation of a liquor store. County Commissioner George Neugent courageously opposed the Walgreens project at the Planning Commission meeting. But why is our chamber of commerce, the group that so strongly espouses its role as protector of local businesses, strangely mute on the Walgreens invasion?

Is the community vision of the CommuniKeys master plan developed by the people for the people simply a worthless document to be tossed to the wayside and ignored?

Katie Lyons