“There’s not a whole lot of condos selling right now,” Barker said, though he added he wasn’t a real-estate expert. “The probability this thing even comes out of the ground is maybe 50 percent.”
This was part of a discussion on how to finance the parking garages the city wants to build in the Destin harbor.

Councilor Cyron Marler: “Don’t watch the TV. Participate. Show up … that’s how city government gets it done and gets involved, not by sitting in your easy chair and watching and complaining.”

As covered in my Wednesday article, some of the council believe the city needs another look at the Tier Three standards and review processes (Tier Three being the biggest developments, such as Emerald Grande or the 15-story Harbor Reflections condo approved last week).
Tonight, Bagby called for a workshop on the process, as soon as possible after the new council members are seated in March (even though the election is next week, the transition occurs under the old schedule, from when the primaries were in March).
Ted Corcoran, joking: “It’ll be a good opportunity to break them in right, to make them realize it’s not one meeting every other week, it’s every day!”
The motion passes unanimously.
Bagby said his reservations about the way parking is calculated under the new ordinance have persuaded him not to approve anything until the glitch (read my article on-line about Tier Three for more detail) is fixed. City Manager Greg Kisela said, however, that before the workshop is in place, there’ll be two more development hearings involving the same parking issues.

City Manager Greg Kisela says there will be one coming to council probably within two months.

There’s a reason the public sometimes waits until late at night to address the City Council, Mayor Barker says.
In response to a proposal from Councilor Ted Corcoran that the public comment section of the meetings be moved up higher on the agenda, Barker said that he’d spent two terms as a councilor when the agenda led off with audience comments.
“We would spend hours on hours on hours debating issues that had been brought up to city council that evening. They had never been vetted with city staff, they might have been solved easily,” Barker said. “In my estimation we wasted a lot of time.”
After Barker became mayor, he convinced the council to adopt a resolution that moves unscheduled presentations from the audience to the end of the meeting. Citizens who fill out a form in advance get to speak earlier.
As someone who was there when the old system was in place, there’s no question meetings–even though they can still take a long time–move faster than they used to.

When the extension is done, drivers will go straight to Airport Road instead of Commons to Two Trees to Indian Bayou Trail to Airport. Having been caught in that tangle more than a few times, I’m looking forward to it.

On the police-protection impact fee, Larry Williges objects that “eating/drinking establishments” of under 1,000 square feet have been lumped in with general retail, which leads to a massive drop in their impact fee. And for the first time, churches and synagogues are paying a police impact fee.
“Adding that in, reducing eating/drinking establishments so much, to me it sends forth a very strange picture,” Williges said.
City Manager Greg Kisela said the fee for eating/drinking places is still three times higher than any other category.

5-1 vote, Larry Williges voting no, Dewey Destin absent.

Jim Bagby says the real-estate professionals he’s spoken to say Yes: Since the fees add to the cost of new homes, it makes the stock of existing houses that much more attractive, which encourages people to dig into the stockpile of unsold houses.
“A soft market is the time to do this,” Bagby said, adding that he’s against taxes but new development needs to pay its way in providing infrastructure.

The city attorney has to read the title of every ordinance aloud before the council votes. The titles are often amazingly long bureaucratese things, some of which run as along as a page (on the plus side, they do make explicit what’s being voted on).