Zoning board slams ‘massive changes’ to 2008 zoning law

The Zoning Board and its staff staged a walkout in the middle of a Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation session on Tuesday to express disappointment and dismay over the passage of a local bill that makes major changes on the Saipan Zoning Law of 2008.

Zoning Board chair Diego C. Blanco said the “additional massive amendments” to the law were done “without prior consultation with the zoning office or the communities islandwide.”

The delegation approved by a 10-4 vote the additional amendments introduced by Rep. Stanley Torres in House Local Bill 17-26. The bill now heads to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial for enactment.

Zoning officials described the amendments as “inconsistent with zoning principles and have been rejected by the public.”

“We believe we tried our best to amend the law to make it more workable for the public, but Congressman Torres’ amendments being snuck back into the new law is beyond anyone’s comprehension,” said Blanco.

Although the Legislature has the authority to amend the zoning law, Blanco noted that lawmakers also need to understand “that the Zoning office was established to administer it and had worked very hard to provide recommendations for the amendments based on sound zoning and planning principles.”

According to Blanco, he and acting Zoning administrator Therese T. Ogumoro gave oral and written pleadings to adopt the proposed amendments based on input from public hearings and the review of the Zoning office.

“It is very discouraging to know that, after all these years of presenting to them our findings and recommendations for a much improved zoning law for this island, they still managed to turn their backs,” said Blanco. “What more do they want? To take over the administration function of zoning? They need to come out straight and let us know now.”

He also accused lawmakers of disregarding over the years the explanations that they provided them regarding zoning regulations and principles.

“I tried my best to work with legislators to support us in making a better zoning law and thought we had an understanding about that, but it’s very obvious now that there was never any,” added Blanco.

Ogumoro, for her part, said that the Zoning board and staff, including their legal counsel, exhausted all efforts “in coming up with a new and much improved law” that she felt Torres and the nine lawmakers still failed to see.

“The outcome was very unreasonable and hard to describe,” said Ogumoro. “All of the technical and difficult works which were guided by careful planning and zoning guidelines for over two years went down the drain within just a few minutes.”

According to Ogumoro, they offered to work with Torres’ additional amendments to be presented to the public and reviewed again for subsequent amendments to the law, asking lawmakers to pass the proposed law as submitted by the board, “to no avail.”

“I hope the lawmakers get a chance to see the impact their actions would have on this entire island. It is just equivalent to having no zoning at all,” she said.

Both Ogumoro and Blanco acknowledged delegation chair Ray Tebuteb, Vice Speaker Felicidad Ogumor, Reps. Rey Basa and Edmund Villagomez for voting to support the law as proposed by Zoning.

“The public needs to know who strongly supported a law that was improved through the input and participation of business communities and residents for the benefit of the general public and not just a few,” added Blanco.

Torres refused to comment on the matter, saying that he will do so once the bill is signed into law by the governor.