It was hard to tell if it was just a misunderstanding, but the proposed resolution to support an initial application for consideration of a Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) grant for future development planning ended Nov. 6 with Palmetto City Council members voting 4-2 against the measure.

While discussing the resolution, Mayor Clark Boddie referenced a letter from an unnamed council member that had been submitted as part of the package of support letters from businesses and council members that would accompany the grant application request. The submission deadline is Nov. 17.

“One of the letters from the council was very, very disturbing,” Boddie said as he read a sentence from the letter. “‘We now look like a one-street abandoned horse town in the western movies.’ I found the letter to be offensive and disturbing.”

Boddie added that the city had made previous LCI applications, though the city had not been successful in obtaining grant funding.

The author of the letter, Councilman Greg Rusch, said after the meeting he was trying to convey a need and a desire for quality development. Taken as a whole, the letter’s intention was to support the acquisition of an LCI grant, he said, adding that his comments were taken out of context. Rusch said he would have been happy to omit the sentence or rewrite it if he had known Boddie found it offensive.

“Please consider Palmetto as a recipient of your grant,” a portion of Rusch’s letter said. “We are primed for development and we need guidelines in place to attract the right kind of business and development. We need mixed-use development with live-work spaces. We need better quality of designs and better built homes. We need an increase of upper-level homes to attract people to move to Palmetto. Our town square perimeters need to be expanded and developed. We now look like a one-street abandoned horse town in the western movies. We can do better and have the ability to.”

Another letter intended to accompany the resolution came from Councilman John Miller. The letter suggested that guidance provided by an LCI study, one that would allow a blueprint for downtown growth and development, would improve the direction of residential and commercial development within the city.

“The design and development decisions made today by our community leadership will impact the area for generations to come. Unfortunately, mistakes made at this point in Palmetto’s development would be long reaching,” Miller said. ”The negative consequences of traditional Euclidian land use planning will be tremendous in a city as ripe for growth as Palmetto. Without this study funding, it is unlikely that a city our size would ever be able to formulate a well-considered, expert game plan.”

Another point of conjecture with the LCI application apparently involved the communication method used to generate the resolution for the application. Councilman Thomas Morrow commented that any grant the city would pursue should be handled as a group and not individually, an apparent reference to one of the council members. Rusch responded, saying that City Administrator Bill Shell had been involved in communications with consulting firm TSW & Associates and that the city had met with consultants Keck & Wood on the issue on several occasions.

In recent months, TSW representatives met with the city council and Keck & Wood representatives on issues relating to the LCI application.

The idea of applying for an LCI grant was not a new one, nor is the stated need to upgrade city requirements for residential developers. Rusch and Miller had initiated both ideas earlier in 2006 soon after taking office, requesting that the city consider the measures.

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