Historic Lafayette Park, Tallahassee, Florida

INFO UPDATE 1-20-2011: City's Public Open House for Historic Preservation Districts Marred by Poor Attendance

Last night's open house for the Long Range Target Issue topic of Historic Neighborhood Districts was somewhat disappointing. Due to lack of attendance, the much-anticipated lively discourse and exchange of ideas fell a bit flat, and the meeting ended early with most of only two dozen attendees leaving disillusioned or disappointed. The City Commission chambers were booked for the event, in anticipation of hundreds.

One of the reasons for the poor attendance stems from the Planning Department's limited advertising. Really, this department needs a staff member with a minor degree in marketing! The legal ad in the Tallahassee Democrat was minimal. As readership of that periodical has plummeted in reaction to the skyrocketing price they charge for their paper and the amazing bail-out of advertisers, one has to question whether it is even a viable outlet for a legal notice. It's a shame that our only newspaper in town seems intent on self-destruction.

Per Wayne Tedder, director of the planning department, emails were also sent to many of the neighborhood associations in the city. Although Planning has an extensive email list from the HPO war days, they didn't use it. The president of the Lafayette Park Neighborhood Association, Mr. Wallace, was in attendance. He said he forwarded the information to the 178 persons on his list and contacted them several times by email.
178 persons....that's the LPNA information list, not the membership.

There is a chronic problem with the City of Tallahassee making the seriously erroneous conclusion that neighborhood association social clubs are representative associations of the neighborhoods for which they are named. They are not. In spite of two years of documented notifications to the city management and planning department, the city still fails to correct their procedures which are built on the presumption that neighborhood associations are mini-governments. Almost without exception, they are small non-political clubs with only a tiny percentage of the adults in a neighborhood as members, and they certainly do not speak with one voice on any issue, regardless of claims by their officers.

Word to the wise to:    Assistant City Manager Jay Townsend,
            City Attorney Jim English,
            Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Director Dee Crumpler
               Planning Department Director Wayne Tedder:

    Take heed! The continuing failure to correct this problem is going to blow up in the City's face some day. And you are the ones who will be assigned the blame. This has gone on for so long, in spite of repeated requests for correction; it can no longer be characterized as a minor oversight. An ordinary citizen, as well as the courts, might even come to the conclusion that the notification system you are using is designed deliberately to leave citizens out of the process.

    Here is a simple tip, gentlemen: Try using the already well-established newsy insert in the utility bills, if you're truly trying to reach the public. The postage and mailing is already in place, and the added weight of a paragraph of paper has got to be far less than the cost of a Democrat legal notice.

On other topics, related to the Open House, Planning Director Wayne Tedder announced that they would be maintaining web-page information on the Talgov/planning website. He has promised that all citizen input will be archived here for easy access and review. The exact address is:
http://www.talgov.com/planning/
Once there, click on the link in the upper right-hand corner, thus:
http://www.talgov.com/planning/zoning/historic.cfm

Hopefully public comments and thoughtful contributions will be posted there without too much delay....

This sounds simple to find, but if you just go to "talgov", you will not be able to navigate to "planning" without serious good luck and a whole lot of patience. There is no heading for it under government or the site map. Again, citizen access to planning decisions seems to be compromised. Wayne--talk to somebody about this. Talgov is a big site, but your department still needs to be findable...it should be listed under "government".

There is another, much larger issue coming up regarding the LRTI committee agenda, but it will require some additional research prior to posting. Hint: The agenda statement is based on a lie. More to come...!