Lisa Brouillette: Politics plays part in planning

Lisa Brouillette
Columnist
Published: August 15, 2008

A few months back, another columnist in this paper made the comment “there is no politics in planning.” Recent ap-pointments to the Auburn and Lee County planning commissions alone show the reverse is true – the planning process is full of politics.

Look at the Lee County planning commission nominees. Most have direct, vested interests in development; some have po-litical ties. One nominee, for example, is not only a practicing local real estate broker, but also is the exclusive agent for an RV development owned by one of the Lee County commissioner members. No politics? Do you believe that?

Auburn’s planning commission appointments are equally telling. Development and political interests abound, as do poten-tial conflicts of interest.

Under Auburn’s regulations, although the entire city council votes on planning commission appointments, it is the mayor who chooses the nominee.

Recently the mayor chose not to nominate an experienced planning commissioner for a second term – although such reap-pointment generally is a given, especially due to the time needed to master complex planning issues. Not-so-incidentally, development interests often opposed the strong environmental and “stick to the rules” stance of that commissioner.

Interestingly, some were told that the commissioner wasn’t reappointed so that a racial minority representative could be appointed instead. Clearly, diversity is important. However, even if that were the motivation, the mayor could have ap-pointed such a minority representative at any time in his many years in office. He directly appoints one planning commis-sion member as his representative and can change that appointment whenever he wants. But he didn’t choose to do so. In-stead he chose this course.

No politics in planning? No such luck.

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When you buy a home connected to a sewer, you expect what goes into the sewer to flow in only one direction -away from your house. So it might surprise you that the city of Auburn is approving plans for homes that have ‘potential sewer back-flow issues.’

In other words, what should flow out might instead flow in.

The city isn’t ignoring these potential backflow problems. However neither is it taking any responsibility for damage caused by them, nor affording future homeowners much protection against them.

The city’s approval simply requires the plat for each potential problem lot note that: 1) a potential backflow problem ex-ists, 2) that a special device should be installed to avoid the problem, and 3) the city is not responsible for the installation, maintenance or proper use of any such device.

What if you don’t read those fine print notes on the plat before you buy a property, didn’t expect such a thing to be al-lowed? Tough luck.

This week’s Auburn planning commission agenda shows two new subdivisions with lots needing such stipulations: the Cleveland’s Mimms Trail project on Shell Toomer, and Tom Hayley’s Donahue Ridge development. As the saying goes — buyers, beware.

Issues such as this underscore the importance of planning commission appointments.

Lisa Brouillette is a community activist, editor, and writer. Contact her at or visit her Web site http://placeforum.org.