The Black Diamond of mini-storage

Not sure where to go with this.

So I’m just going to ramble.

— The County Commission voted 3-2 to approve a three-story mini-warehouse at the Target shopping center complex.

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— It’ll be the first three-story mini-warehouse in the county.

— The three commissioners who voted for it — Rebecca Bays, Holly Davis, and Ruthie Davis Schlabach — said they disliked storage units, and didn’t like this one either.

— They were dissuaded, however, by an interesting argument chamber CEO Josh Wooten floated, one that we’re bound to hear much more about in the coming political months. It’s this: The county has higher standards for mini-warehouses than it did a year ago, resulting in a storage facility that’s easy on the eyes and won’t junk up the shopping center.

“If you’re going to get one, that’s the one you want,” he said. “This is the standard we want to see Citrus County grow in.”

— And that’s the conversation. Not banning all car washes and mini-warehouses, but setting up community standards for developers to follow.

— It’s a fairly new concept that commissioners are expanding as they go along. Short of a total rewrite of the Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code or simply saying no to all projects that increase density, commissioners are seeking a middle ground. Gotta give them credit for trying.

— Commissioners Diana Finegan and Jeff Kinnard were both a hard no for similar reasons.

“I don’t like these things. I don’t like them on our main roads,” Kinnard said.

Finegan added: “I’m waiting to hear who’s excited about it.”

— Here’s my confusion: Why say yes when it’s not what you want? I don’t recall a majority of commissioners being so negative toward a positive vote.

— I mean…is that our approach toward certain projects? Hold our nose and vote yes? I kinda understand that — doubt we’ll see the celebratory mini-warehouse ribbon cutting — but it also has somewhat of a defeatist air to it. 

— The public scrutinizes zoning votes looking for patterns. I haven’t seen any. Well, other than the County Commission has never been so in tuned to zoning cases than it is now. These people do not live in a cave. They have the same concerns you do with the added responsibility of trying to solve them.

— In an earlier zoning case Tuesday, I heard a commissioner say something that drives me crazy: “We can’t stop developers from developing the land they own.”

She is technically correct. Many people in this county are of the mistaken impression the commissioners can stop the land-clearing and construction taking place. Truth is, much of our county is platted for thousands of vacant residential lots that need little more than a standard building permit for houses.

But the statement is overly broad and misleading. The government shouldn’t tell me what I can do with my 100 acres, for example. However, if the code says I can build 100 houses on my 100 acres, and I want to build 200 houses on my 100 acres, guess what? Now it’s no longer a right, and the County Commission says yes or no.

— Space needs: Led by Kinnard, the board said it would hire a consultant first before deciding who goes where in the Courthouse space carousel.

Great decision. Shows maturity, and a fair amount of political will. As they’ve done anytime the subject of space comes up, judges were in the audience Tuesday. They never got a chance to say a word.

— Oh, and they made it clear they’re not leaving Inverness. That may be a no-brainer since Inverness is the county seat. Unfortunately, this is one of those “we’d rather not talk about it” blemishes in the Inverness-Citrus County relationship over the years.

The county seat actually extends west on S.R. 44, then turns south on C.R. 491 to include the jail property and Lecanto Government Building. The idea behind this absurd configuration was that, if it wanted, the County Commission could move from Inverness to Lecanto without violating state law that requires the principal offices of the county government to be in the county seat.

That idea faded over time. So when one of the space-needs suggestions included moving commissioners and administrative staff to the Lecanto Government Building, commissioners quickly said no.

— OK, I’m done. Have an awesome Wednesday, friends.

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