Barry Molino Town Hall: Rural Development, Roads, More

February 13, 2019

About 100 people attended a town hall meeting Tuesday night with Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry.

Discussion touched on numerous issues, including recent rural development changes.

Last week, the Escambia County Commission voted to remove a section of the county comprehensive plan that restricts the development of agricultural and forestry areas. “If I held property in agricultural areas, I would view what happened as a very good thing,” Barry said. Deleting the provision, he said, would allow the board to consider rezoning on a case-by-case basis.

“Addressing this at least will allow us to hear a future land use amendment.” He said it the change will allow applications for one dwelling per four acres instead of the previous one dwelling unit per 20 acres.

“I don’t think one per every four acres is very dense. I don’t think that is an inappropriate way to develop,” Barry added.

Escambia County residents also asked questions about roads, dirt road paving, code enforcement and more.

For additional photos, click here.

NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

7 Responses to “Barry Molino Town Hall: Rural Development, Roads, More”

  1. Tabby on February 14th, 2019 6:01 am

    @Jacqueline & Litmus Test

    I was unable to attend the meeting due to a problem at work. I was gonna hammer Barry on his yes vote for the ruination of rural life in favor of developers. Thank you for being there and for calling him out on his greed. We were going to wait, however, we’re moving to rural Santa Rosa County and renting our home here on property in my family almost a century. It’s sad and I hate it but commissioners and country yuppies have made it so.

  2. Jacqueline Rogers on February 14th, 2019 12:02 am

    I apologize for the error (and any typos):
    That link was for the Escambia County Comprehensive Plan, not LDC.

  3. Jacqueline Rogers on February 13th, 2019 8:13 pm

    Don’t believe you lying eyes when you read for yourself at the link below, on page 21 of 104 in the Escambia Land Development Code, where it says that Agriculture Future Land Use (FLU) is one house per 20 acres and Rural Community FLU is 2 houses per acre:
    https://myescambia.com/sites/myescambia.com/files/pages/2012/Oct/Comprehensive%20Plan%20and%20Land%20Development%20Code/Escambia_County_2030Comp_Plan2_22_2015BCC%20_FOR%20WEB_.pdf

    The Comprehensive Plan amendment allowed the conversion of Agricultural (AG) lands to Rural Community (RC) where it was previously prohibited to maintain/preserve agricultural lands in the county.

    Comm. Barry is maintaining that the initial zoning of Rural Residential will keep properties at one house per every four acre, but when I asked him if people would not be allowed to upzone from there, he couldn’t deny that they would be able to request that.

    Comm. Barry thinks that the BCC should make development decisions on a case by case basis. There was no required analysis done by staff for this change.
    It has nothing to do with “home rule” as the Comprehensive Plan was developed by the Board of County Commissioners with local PUBLIC HEARINGS.
    The LOCAL Planning Board denied the change unanimously 5-0.

    There was no justification for this change except that a developer, J. Miller, could not get the upzoning that he wanted to build his subdivision after he bought timberland and Mr. Barry thought that was unfair.

    And “Watcher”, Comm. Bergosh is wrong again as, with that appeal, we were able to stop Light Industrial uses from being established in Mixed Use Suburban areas but, then again, you knew that.
    Half truths are both your specialties. Too bad you both always comment anonymously.

  4. Information Please on February 13th, 2019 8:04 pm

    Barry please tell the public exactly what Gulf Power Company / FP&L plan to do with the large track of land they now control in McDavid ( you know North of Molino)

  5. Litmus Test on February 13th, 2019 7:59 pm

    Land use regulation protect individual rights of land owners. The family farm can not stand alone against Big Corporate Organizations. The corporation has a staff of dedicated lawyers, Lots of Money, and Lobbyist working on behalf of corporate interest. What will the single family farm owner do to resist all of these resources.
    Barry says trust me the board and I will look out for you. Since he just took away your right to fight in court. The citizens need to wake up Don’t wait until you receive a letter from Out of State that says to you “Florida laws provide rights for surveyors and engineers to enter upon an owner’s land to support public infrastructure planning activities. Translated it means They don’t need your permission to enter and/or use your land in the public interest.

  6. Whisperjet on February 13th, 2019 5:39 pm

    ..Thanks Steven for getting the left turn light on Becks Lake rd. Fixed..thank you too , Mitchell..good job..

  7. Watcher on February 13th, 2019 4:00 pm

    Of course removing the paragraph was appropriate. Home Rule, legal, property rights.

    https://jeffbergoshblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/escambia-county-wins-doah-appeal.html