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‘Approve new zoning law without flloor amendments’
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Posted on Feb 29 2012
By Clarissa David
Reporter
Reporter
Zoning Board chair Diego Blanco is urging the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation to adopt the 2012 Saipan Zoning Law without any additional floor amendments.
Blanco, in a Feb. 23 letter to delegation chair Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb (R-Saipan) about House Local Bill 17-26, said that the Zoning board is “strongly in favor” of amending the Saipan Zoning Law of 2008 to make it “more workable” for the island.
However, Blanco said they “cannot endorse the haphazard and destructive process of zoning” by adopting the floor amendments.
“We feel that the additional floor amendments would rezone much of the island of Saipan without sufficient consideration of the public’s concerns or the principles of zoning,” Blanco said.
He reminded Tebuteb and the delegation that the Zoning board and office conducted about nine hearings in 2011 in addition to the “many” public hearings from 2009 to 2010 “at the request of the Legislature on a proposed amendment that was substantially similar to the current floor amendments to the bill.”
The Zoning board and office, Blanco said, ended their efforts to gather public comments on June 30, 2011.
“It found that, generally, public reaction to rezoning most of the paved roads as “mixed commercial” was highly unfavorable and that public turnout for the hearing on this issue was significant,” said Blanco.
On July 7, 2011, the Zoning board unanimously voted to recommend to the delegation the disapproval of the wholesale rezoning of paved roads to mixed commercial after considering the public comments and the staff’s recommendations.
Blanco noted, though, that they did consider other aspects of the current floor amendments.
According to Blanco, the Zoning board’s recommendations were incorporated in the revised zoning map and the new proposed zoning law that is “the culmination of many years of work.”
“Unfortunately, all of the board’s and office’s efforts were dismantled by the ill-considered adoption of several pages of floor amendments without adequate consideration,” he added.
