Letter to Island Sun Editor

As many of you know, on May 27th the Anna Maria City Commission denied PAR's 308 site plan application. The June 2 issue of the Island Sun contained an editorial you can read HERE.

The following is a letter to the editor submitted to The Sun in response to its editorial:


June 5, 2010

To the Editor of The Island Sun:

Mr. Field’s recent Island Sun editorial (“Anna Maria Does It Again”) asks for an “explanation” of PAR’s 308 Pine Avenue site plan denial by Anna Maria’s City Commission. He implores that “history” should have guided the Commission to rubber stamp previous approvals simply because, well, they were approved.

His logic fails in numerous respects.

First, in Mr. Field’s world it would appear that the role of a legislator is to blindly follow the analysis and interpretations of staff, regardless of whether those interpretations may differ in the minds of reasonable men and women. Is it Mr. Field’s position that we elect commissioners to cower and follow instead of to think and lead? Should the courage behind every vote be tamed by the specter of litigation? Of course not.

Secondly, Mr. Field did not attend the commission meeting at which the vote was taken. The minutes have not been published and it is doubtful he ordered and reviewed the tape prior to offering his opinion. He did not contact any of the three commissioners who voted to deny the site plan approval to better understand their thinking – imagine that, actual thought applied to the legislative process – prior to criticizing their denial. Multiple valid and incisive questions were raised by the commission which staff, the city attorney and the applicant were obviously unable to adequately address, at least to the satisfaction of the majority.

Finally, as reported by the Sun in its June 2nd edition, world renowned “Walkable Communities” expert Dan Burden visited Anna Maria on Friday June 4th. Mr. Burden was given a tour of Pine Avenue to assess first hand the situation at ground zero. If you have spent any appreciable time with PAR principals, it does not take them long to espouse Mr. Burden as an expert without peer in his field, the man we should all rely upon to lead us to a walkable promised land, one lined, of course, with PAR development. Well, after months and months of PAR and the local press poo-pooing the issue of current Pine Avenue safety, Mr. Burden was characteristically clear in his assessment, summing it up quite simply: “What you have now is the most dangerous situation.” He repeated this warning several more times. Mr. Field, will your paper accurately report this blasphemous betrayal of the Book of PAR by its own messiah? We shall see.

So, not only was the commission’s denial of the 308 Pine site plan on Tuesday the result of thoughtful inquiry and analysis at the time, it was a prescient vote, one legitimized three days later by PAR’s own guru.

There’s your explanation Mr. Field.

Bill Yanger