Six members of the eleven-member Mount Plymouth – Sorrento Planning Advisory Committee , believing that the committee was not adequately representing the community, sent a letter to the County Commission to resign and state a broader vision.
The following appeared in the December 5 Orlando Sentinel:
OrlandoSentinel.com
6 of 11 members of Mount Plymouth-Sorrento area task force resign in protest
Frustrated members studying the future of Mount Plymouth and Sorrento may regroup.
Stephen Hudak
Sentinel Staff Writer
December 5, 2007
SORRENTO
More than half of an 11-member advisory committee, charged with studying and planning for the future of Mount Plymouth and Sorrento, resigned Tuesday, saying the panel was falling short of its goals.
"This is our declaration of independence," said Clark Morris, one of the frustrated six members who stepped down and plan to form their own task force. Their declaration was delivered to county commissioners by Timothy J. Bailey, 58, a retired businessman who said he hoped the new group will be "guided by a larger and brighter vision." Bailey also appealed to commissioners to be receptive to the new panel's recommendations. "We care passionately about the Mount Plymouth-Sorrento area," he said after addressing commissioners. "It's our home."
But County Commissioner Linda Stewart, the commission's liaison to the advisory committee, dismissed the resigning members' criticism, saying some of them had been "sidetracked by outside influences," which she would not specify. She said she would re-craft the old committee with fewer members so it could finish its work. In remarks to the commission, Bailey raised issues that are crucial not only for his community but for Lake County overall, including the State Road 46 corridor, realignment of County Road 46A, septic tanks in the Wekiva River basin and the site of a new elementary school.
He called the old committee "a useful starting point," but added that it no longer addressed -- or even discussed -- other important community issues such as the future of the Mount Plymouth Golf Course, which abruptly closed earlier this year. "We passionately believe that the Mount Plymouth Golf Course and other historic sites must be protected to become the foundation of our distinctive community," Bailey said, reading a letter the other members had signed. "We must preserve and accentuate the positive aspects of our community in order to successfully move into our future."
Bailey and other resigning members said the former panel needed more members and more community input. They said meetings should have been in the evening so more residents could attend and be heard. The committee, which worked with the Department of Growth Management and other agencies, usually had monthly meetings from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays to accommodate county staff.
It was unclear how commissioners would view recommendations and suggestions proposed by rival task forces.
Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.
