Seeing the "Planning Mistakes" thread come up, I recalled the first biggie I made, only a couple of months ago.
I think every planner involved in development review has done this before -- setback goofs. I was swamped, with a pile of building permits for single family homes stacked high on my desk, along with other "gotta' do it this week" types of tasks -- stuff that makes for a 60 hour work week where, after it's over, you still feel like you got nothing accomplished.
I checked all the permit applications and plans, making sure everything was kosher -- drainage, finished floor elevation, corner elevations, sidewalk plans, drainfield locations, that the elevations matched the footprints, and so on. Except ... the side yard setback for one spec home. Side yard setback should have been 7.5'. This one got away with a 5' setback on one side. It wasn't caught until the foundation was poured. Oops. In my career as a planner, I've reviewed plans for thousands of houses. I reject about a third of the building permit applications I get. This was the first time ... ever ... that this happened.
So, what to do? In the past, I've made builders chop off parts of houses that encroached into the setback, but this time I felt I was partly to blame for this, having approved the permit. Still, that doesn't justify a variance. Wait ... the house on the other side ... 12' setback, and it was still owned by the builder. REPLAT!
Phwew. My pride took a big beating, but in the end, it turned out okay. I still feel bad about it, though.
The big picture, though ... I've got a town with a commercial slate that's pretty much clean. Down the road a couple of miles is Development From Hell ... mostly small lot auto-related and trade uses aplenty, with absolutely no architectural design or access control. It's creeping this way, and most of the development inquiries I get are for similar uses -- auto dealers, mini-storage, flexi-space for mechanical trades, and so on.
This is a historic town where new houses sell from $150,000 to $600,000; and a strong sense of community identity and place. We've got tough architectural design, signage, landscaping and site planning standards. However, excepting VTDs and income we don't meet the criteria site placement specialists look for when determining potential locations for quality restaurants and retail -- no sewer, no daytime employment, no consumer-oriented retail. What's knocking at our door? Auto and motorcycle dealers -- pounding, as a matter of fact. It's as if we're destined to become the Orlando area's newest auto row, something the residents and town leaders definitely don't want. I'm rewriting the town's development regulations, and there's a moratorium on vehicle-related uses in place. If the town ends up developing as auto row, though ... well, that'll be a huge failure on my part. The destiny of a town laid in my hands, and I couldn't do anything to change its path ... if that happened, it would be time to seriously reexamine the planning profession, and my role in it.