Some notes on today's County Commission meeting:

Tax Increment Financing for the Devon Group's plan for a mixed-use tower on the old News Sentinel site passed easily. The three no votes were Craig and Frank Leuthold and me. The Leutholds argued the TIF was too long (20 years) and too generous. I agreed and laid out additional reasons (precedent and corporate welfare), noted in recent articles in Planning magazine, the journal of the American Planning Association.

Chairman Scott Moore withdrew his suggested changes to the ethics policy.

I sent out an irony alert, drawing attention to an ordinance (1st reading) from Law Director John Owings and Moore. It, in effect, is a giant but quiet oops, noting that the charter and other ordinances set out travel rules for several officers, ie. fee offices and others. Namely, each gets a vehicle or $300 a month. I got Owings to admit that sometimes some people well exceeded that amount, relying instead on some budgeted amount. The ordinance not only would allow reliance on a budgeted amount but would backdate such a policy to 1990. After all the proper criticism of the county mayor over travel, one has to wonder what kind of travel payments by whom are covered by this blanket backdating. The ordinance passed 1st reading with my solo dissent. Second reading and passage looms next month.

A group of more than a dozen 8th district residents uniformly opposed to a zoning change (Babelay Road east of Harris) walked away in disbelief and disillusionment as the commission majority ignored them and sided with a classic sprawl development. Both district commissioners, Huddleston and Ballard, opposed the rezoning from Agricultural to Planned Residential (similar to a plan rejected just a few years ago). Ballard's impassioned plea was eloquent. I argued we respect our own urban growth boundary and these neighbors. The vote was 10 for re-zoning, 7 against, 2 (Ivan Harmon and Charles Bolus) not present.

One rezoning actually did not go the developer's way. An attempt to amend the sector plan along Middlebrook Pike (changing a site northwest of Albany Road from "Mixed Use Limited to Offices" to Commercial) fell just shy, 9 votes for (ten needed). Another zoning appeal (MPC unanimous for denial, neighbors uniformly opposed, and documented flooding problems) was postponed 30 days.

BankEast in the Development Corridor asked TTCDA for a waiver to a sign height rule. The rule was six feet. Bank East wanted twelve. The TTCDA staff looked at the elevation and compromised, saying eight feet was sufficient. Bank East's attorney asked us on commission to toss out the compromise and let it have the full 12 feet. Commission did; I was the sole no vote.

--Mark Harmon