No favoritism: Developer should have stood in ZHB line
Is it “Back to the Future” in Fayette County, where two of the three county commissioners agreed to circumvent the normal zoning hearing process to expedite the rebuilding of a Dollar General Store in Masontown? We won’t quibble with the logic laid forth by Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites, whose rationale for granting an indemnification waiver was that he wanted to promote economic development. Who in Fayette County doesn’t? But the move approved by Vicites and Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III – which amounts to bending the rules to the near-breaking point – doesn’t in retrospect appear to have been warranted.
First, a primer on the role of the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board. In this case, the board’s function was to hear testimony and render a decision on a parking variance, according to county department head Tammy Shell, who says the number of parking spaces was the issue. Such things are governed by the county’s planning and zoning ordinances, so there was a legitimate reason that the Dollar General Store project needed a ZHB approval in order to proceed.
But hold on. This developer just couldn’t afford to wait six weeks for a ZHB hearing. It had to get things moving, pronto, or the deal could be scuttled.
Not wanting to have that shameful albatross hanging around their necks, Vicites and Hardy signed the waiver so the project could proceed, justifying the action by framing it in “we had to” terms.
In doing so, they succumbed to a pressure tactic we’ll kindly refer to as the “deadline faker-oo,” It crops up all the time, in various forms, but often as in, “You have to approve this application today, because the deadline is next week, and if you don’t do it we’ll miss out on any chance at the funds.”
In short it’s a way to get around: A. Someone’s failure to do things in a timely fashion, which would have avoided a deadline crisis; or B. Someone’s desire to get special treatment, even if that means not having to wait in the proverbial line.
If you think differently and need any type of ZHB approval to get your project rolling, why don’t you try asking for an indemnification from Hardy and Vicites? See what they’d tell you. Chances are pretty good you’d wait six weeks, even if you showed up with a baby in swaddling clothes seeking approval to add a manger.
Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink, who refused to sign the indemnification out of fear that it would set a precedent, made the proper call. Her prediction came true, as the Fayette County Housing Authority that she also chairs came knocking at the commissioners’ door, looking for a little indemnification help with its own projects in Brownsville. Once you bend the rules for one, it’s harder to not bend them for all.
But for you Paul Harvey radio fans, here’s “The Rest of the Story,” straight from a June 8 memorandum authored by assistant county solicitor Sheryl R. Heid. In it she notes that she met with Vicites on matter, that ZHB Chairman Mark Morrison said a June hearing was possible if it could be advertised in time, and that, “The contractor admitted that he did not follow through after the (Fayette County) Planning Office provide the necessary information in December 2004.”
So the contractor who couldn’t wait six weeks had apparently waited six months? And, as in all good fairy tales, this one has a happy ending. Turns out the indemnification wasn’t needed after all, as a regular ZHB hearing suddenly became doable and the developer opted to go that route.
Isn’t it funny how some of these “Fayette County things” turn out?