John Moore on Tra Ponti:
The quiet voice of ignored sanity (video)
In 2005, Councilman Moore warned about the down sides in the wording of the CMU ordinance -- he was ignored; it's now 2007 and the future that Moore predicted has become a reality, so you'd think that council would pay heed to his current warnings about Tra Ponti, but council doesn't want to hear it this time around either
-- John Patten, 09/14/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Didn't want to hear it then, don't want to hear it now
Back in 2005, during the same city council meeting in which CQG prez C.J. Fishman gave his now-famous 'I own council and you'll vote the way I want you to vote' speech (video), Councilman John Moore gave an impassioned speech about the necessity of a commercial mixed use ordinance (CMU), but felt that the proposed law before him for consideration, the very ordinance that Fishman was pushing hard to strong arm council into passing into law, was very badly written. Moore, a retired judge, then gave detailed and specific reasons for coming to that conclusion (transcript).

Moore's impassioned plea for sanity then was quietly ignored by the majority of council, as the CMU ordinance passed into law on a 4-3 vote with Moore, Rick Tacy and Vicki Taylor casting the dissenting votes.

Now we are in 2007, and the very same project for which the CMU was intended to allow is now before council. Four six-story buildings were proposed by land developer Mike Miller and his attorney, Jeff Boone, for placement on two acres at the northern entrance to the island -- this area is in between the north bridge and the Venice Avenue bridge.

In the face of public outcry, Mayor Fred Hammett and Councilman Bill Willson simultaneously, spontaneously, and independently, proposed Plan B, a small compromise to those opposed to the radical height of four 80-foot tall buildings: knock two of them down to five stories. Hammett voiced the idea first, as though he had just come up with it. Willson, in turn, immediately produced a previously written detailed motion advocating the same compromise (see videos of Hammett and Willson). This begs the question of who came up with the idea and how did it simultaneously enter the heads of two members of council, but I'll save that for keener minds.

In the midst of the current debate on Tra Ponti, Moore again quietly pleaded for sanity. This time, he was asking council to address the goals that had been stated several years back for height limits in the area in question. He was also asking council to take a look at a basic point of law in the CMU which pertains to a requirement to study the impact of these six-story buildings on the primarily two-story surrounding neighborhood prior to approving the project.

Moore was, again, ignored this time around, and that is a shame.

Moore's plea two years ago about the then-proposed CMU and his current plea for a re-examination of the height and density issues in the proposed Tra Ponti project were and are calls for wisdom and judicious contemplation. His thoughts as verbalized on these two occasions show an incredible amount of common sense as well as attentiveness to legal detail.

Here, then, is Moore speaking on the proposed Tra Ponti development from this past Tuesday's council meeting:

(Quick note: Moore mentions 80-story buildings a couple of times when he clearly means six-story/80-foot buildings)

Photo at top of page: John Moore (stock photo, Venice Florida! dot com)

John Patten is the editor and publisher of Venice Florida! dot com and had previously worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.