Voice of the People: Voters pay thrice for court's wrong decision on Crystal Beach

Voters pay thrice for court's wrong decision

Adding depth to the recent Ledger article on the lawsuit to stop the Polk County Board of Commission's permission to illegally develop Crystal Beach Road properties ["'It's not right': Anger simmers after legal decision on Crystal Beach Road development," Aug. 15]. Facts from the Land Development Code omitted key details which negate BOCC, developer and judge’s standing illusion.

Florida has planning councils to ride herd on the commission so they deploy comprehensive plans collinearly. Getting the Central Florida Regional Planning Council (Ref: FS 186.509) to exercise any measure of oversight in the public’s interest has proven insurmountable.  The council will not comment to the public on the veracity of any interpretations of the intent of the state’s comprehensive plan. FS 163.3167 (4), (7) and 163.3184 (2), (8)b are ignored.

Shirking responsibility caused the county to misstep on the Crystal Beach Road development. When a county hires attorneys to fight for a developer against their voters, and a developer/contractor team intervenes with their lawyers too, the CFRPC exists to facilitate solutions to obvious problems prior to court involvement.

Present fallout is the voters pay thrice for a shoddy district court decision that’s wrong. Once for their own legal representation, again for the BOCC and then again for the planning council to obfuscate successfully.

Where is real justice?

Robert O. Covington, Winter Haven

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