To the Editor:
I would like to respond to Mr. Paul Hannan’s comments in your article “Lady Lake commissioner calls for removal of planning and zoning board chairman.”
Mr. Hannan stated, “But we’re talking about property rights. You own a piece of property and you follow the rules and you can develop it.”
The Town makes the rules. You allowed residents just a year ago to become agriculturally zoned on Edwards Road, ignoring the Future Land Map (FLU) when it was convenient for you. They invested in an agricultural life of hard work and at much personal cost and now you want to drop a development in the middle of their agricultural pursuits, that you fostered. The town is well aware of the negative impacts building will have on agricultural operations. A corporation bought a piece of land with the intent of making millions of dollars off the community and you and the town stand to profit off that the most. The more development, the more money for the town, the more people you can hire, the greater salary you can earn. You have irresponsibly approved hundreds of acres of land for “workforce” development in the last year. A careful examination of the prices ranging from $300,000 and above clearly demonstrates that is not workforce housing. Tell me Sir, do you have a development being built in your backyard? The answer to that is, “No.” So how dare you make the rules and then condemn those who suffer and protest under them. The chairman listened and that may be something the town needs to start doing. Listening to the people of Lady Lake. The Future Land Use map can be changed, ordinances can be amended and instead of loyalty to developers who come in, make millions and leave maybe the loyalty of the town should be with the people of this town, their livelihoods, their safety and their future.
Erin Gruwell
Lady Lake
