It looks as if city planning, bureaucracy, and incompetence have all combined into a critical mass to bring progress in New Smyrna Beach to a shuddering halt. It was brought to light by the reporting of NSBNEWS.net journalist Henry Frederick that the city has apparently failed to meet state requirements in complying with its own planning- and land-management rules in permitting the new Flagler Avenue hotel and a Super Wal-Mart store near Interstate 95.
This has to be one of the biggest disasters in modern times for New Smyrna Beach, already crippled by the lingering national recession, high unemployment and the potential of either city layoffs or a tax increase to support the new city budget.
Any serious delay in these projects moving forward could cost the city untold millions in lost revenues, nevermind almost-certain litigation by the developers impacted.
It is too early to tell how big a delay this massive “screw up” will cause. It may effectively cause an infinite delay in these two projects and effectively cancel other projects as potential developers decide that the New Smyrna Beach maze of planning, bureaucracy and regulation make it too hazardous and expensive to put any big projects into New Smyrna. All delays cost serious money.
The reader should be aware that wherever city planning and land-use planning are applied, the cost of new building skyrockets along with the price of existing buildings. In some areas such as Palo Alto Calif., new development has almost ceased altogether.
A true cynic would be hesitant to use the word incompetence in the case of New Smyrna Beach because this is the way that city planning, land-use planning and regulations are supposed to work. They tend to bring all new projects to a halt or make them extremely expensive while trampling on people’s property rights.
The people who have opposed the beachside hotel and the new Wal-Mart out near the intersection of State Road 44 and I-95 will be ecstatic over this stoppage of development.
Eventually there may not be anyone left to enjoy it, but of course, we are preserving the charm, even with incompetence as a driving force.