Lee County- Building a big county takes lots of hard work. "It's plenty of building going on. It needs to stay building going on like that," says roofer Eddie Jones.
That's something that's been happening at a steady rate in Lee County over the years. "Everybody wants a home, and a comfortable home to live in." But developers will have to put a temporary hold on some projects for a few months. The county wants to step back and see what's best for Lee County.
"Issues just such as design type standards. They want to consider issues such as sidewalks and recreation areas and changing how we do those perhaps," says county administrator Langford Holbrook. Monday, commissioners voted for a 90 day moratorium while they look at issues such as greenspace, flooding problems, and home construction.
They want to evaluate the citizens' health and safety. The county won't accept any new applications for major and minor subdivisions or rezoning until the end of the moratorium. "Just some ways to have things have more character and they don't know what that is yet. That's part of the moratorium so that they have time and a little bit of a pause," says Holbrook.
They want to use that time to ensure that future development is what's best for citizens. They don't want to stop the growth, just improve the quality.
"We want something that our children and grandchildren will be proud to live in," says contractor and Planning Commission member Scott Johnson. As a contractor and member of the planning commission, Johnson is a voice for the county and developers.
"All the developers that I've talked to are all for this moratorium. They want what's best for Lee County," says Johnson. Most everyone agrees what's best, in the end, is to keep growing.
"That's the only way they're going to make the cities look good and the counties look good, keep building. That's the only way," says Jones.
The moratorium is effective Monday night and ends August 7th. It may be shorter or even extended depending on the board's evaluation. It does not affect any applications approved or pending before Monday.
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