Margalli quits; blasts system
BY ANN HENSON
Citizen Staff
Planning Commissioner
Jiulio Margalli didn't mince words about the county and County
Commission when he resigned from the board effective immediately late
Friday.
There was no inkling
about his feelings in his resignation letter to county Mayor Sonny
McCoy, who appointed him to the board three years ago. In the letter, he
said his private attorney practice is keeping him too busy "to devote
the attention needed as a Planning Commissioner."
But in a phone interview,
Margalli gave other reasons.
"It's because of the
[newly created] oppressive nature of not wanting people to speak their
minds on the planning board," he said. "I think ultimately a lot of
people believe this is a good position and will end up doing anything a
county commissioner wants."
Planning commission
members, who make recommendations to the County Commission about zoning
and land-use issues, now serve up to three two-year terms.
County commissioners take
turns recommending them, but the county mayor makes the final decision.
Planning commissioners can live anywhere in Monroe County, including
incorporated cities, but they have to work in the fields of planning,
development and environmental sciences.
Margalli said the County
Commission is using affordable housing as a Trojan Horse to the
detriment of the environment.
"I cannot tell you how
many affordable housing projects turn out not to be affordable," he
said. "There's always a loophole in there."
A project, he said, can
start out as affordable, but in the end, most of the homes will be
market rate.
"The overriding theme is
to push it through. These commissioners can get away with things and
have them glossed over by using the term 'affordable housing.' "
Nobody is paying
attention to the quality-of-life issues in the Keys, Margalli said.
"I've been here since
1994 and I can tell you that I have seen the deterioration."
Margalli praised former
planning director Marlene Conaway but did not speak highly of the late
County Commissioner Murray Nelson. He said Nelson led the charge to chop
up the Tier System, a zoning program that initially divided undeveloped
lots into three categories: buildable, not buildable and a mixed
category. The latter didn't sit well with commissioners, who tossed the
idea, only to have the state demand a replacement category, called
special protection areas, that encompasses 500 acres where development
is prohibited.
"If the county would have
adopted our land-use maps [and original Tier System] they would never
have had the problems they had with the governor," Margalli said,
referring to the commission's tinkering with the Tier System after
agreeing to adopt it. During a Cabinet meeting, the governor told Nelson
there was no "wiggle room" and to adopt the state-approved plan.
Margolli said Nelson was
"very mean" to Conaway and tried to take away her authority, and
eventually forced her out. Conaway quit in October to take a planning
director job with the state.
"We spent a lot of time
dealing with these [environmental] issues and anything that would impede
development, Nelson attacked," Margalli said. "He had an abrasive nature
and attacked everyone; I just hope the County Commission gets its act
together."
The last straw for
Margalli came when the county commissioners voted to allow themselves to
fire planning commissioners for no reason. Margalli said Commissioner
Dixie Spehar was the force behind that issue.
"Ultimately her goal is
to make everyone else think like her and she couldn't care less about
the environment," he said.
He said serving on the
Planning Commission requires two days a month just for meetings, not to
mention the time it takes to read the paperwork on cases, and other
duties. As a solo practicing attorney, he said he needs to focus his
time on his practice. The majority of his work is criminal law with 20
percent civil litigation.
"I have some trials
coming up," he said, "and besides, the Planning Commission is not
getting anywhere." |
