By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Levy County Commissioners will meet Tuesday at 3 p.m., three hours before their regular board meeting, to discuss changes to the county land development code and zoning map that could spark controversy, particularly regarding how animal rescue groups should operate, and what type of regulations are needed, if any, for governing the rescues.

            “I’m sure we will have quite a bit of discussion there, but I’m not going to let it get off the rails. The discussion is not about how we’re handling the rescues currently. The discussion’s going to be how we handle them going forward,” said Levy County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks Monday.

            The commission’s land development code and zoning map are enforceable in the unincorporated portions of the county, not in any municipalities.

            Brooks said if a rescue is currently in violation, there’s nothing the county commission can do to alter the course of what’s happening nor will he allow people to come down hard on Code Enforcement Officer Dave Banton for the way he has handled enforcement of the current codes for animal rescues in the past three or four months.

            “We’re going to decide as a board if we’re going to have them, where we’re going to have them, and how we’re going to allow them, or if we’re going to allow them,” Brooks said.

            Commissioners met in November of 2022 for the first round of discussions on how to revise and improve the county’s land development regulations and zoning map, but in the view of some members of the public, the workshop didn’t go well. The county commission chairman at that time, Rock Meeks, wouldn’t allow the public to ask questions or comment until late in the meeting when Planning and Zoning Director Stacey Hectus finished her presentation.

            Brooks said Monday he hasn’t given a lot of thought to the way Meeks administered the workshop, but he doesn’t think the board will proceed in the same way it did last November.

            “I don’t think we’re going to proceed that way. I haven’t set a plan on how to do it. I do know that I’m going to, not limit, but I’m going to try to maintain decorum because there more than likely will be some contentious issues that come up,” Brooks said. “What I don’t want is 15 people coming up and saying the exact same thing. We’ll allow for some conversation back and forth at the workshop but we got a lot of ground to cover.”

            Spotlight pointed out that Hectus appears to be headed in the same direction with this workshop in an effort to cover all the potential changes to the land development code and zoning map in one meeting, but she may be trying to squeeze too much into one workshop.

            “We’ll get through what we can get through. If we have to do multiples (multiple workshops) that’s what will have to do. The best-made plans can go awry,” Brooks said. “I don’t plan on holding everything to the end because there’s so much being discussed. It’s my opinion – nothing against Rock or how he did it – if somebody’s there for one thing, I don’t want them to wait to the end if they can talk about it and leave and be done.”

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt February 20, 2023; Posted February 20, 2023