My opinion: Cunningham violated the law of Holes - All of Palmetto Bay will pay the price. PBVC has all the cards. To be known in Palmetto Bay history as the Cunningham 575-605 unit plan.

Mayor Cunningham - stop casting stones at me and prior counsel members for our affirmative actions in regarding the Palmetto Bay Village Center (PBVC). We took action.

This includes former Mayor Stanczyk as she participated in and voted for the 2008 VMU district as well as championing the proposal to build an additional 40 units and a fire station in the environmentally sensitive 22 acres back in 2014. 

It is your inept handling of the Palmetto Bay Village Center that has led to a MEGA project no one wanted; that we could not have even feared in our worst dreams. Your failure to address these issues, which includes simply following the law in 2022 has actually put Palmetto Bay at risk of 2,385 residential units.

None of this was ever talked about in the open - at no time did you engage residents to work with the developer through an updated Charrette process or town hall meetings.

You do no not even want to take responsibility for preserving the 22 acres - instead you are willing to allow the developer to sell off this land to the County Environmentally Endangered Land Program (EEL) - which at least we were able to get the 22 acres listed on the B list for purchase by the County while I was mayor (which you had nothing to do with - long before you ever showed any interest in Palmetto Bay).

The facts as to how deep the hole reached are spelled out in a 3 page letter of June 20, 2025. from attorneys for the PBVC - I suggest that the residents review this letter as in my opinion it seriously contradicts the propaganda that has been disseminated under your watch.

Again, your record is one of passive avoidance - simply taking a populist no-vote when staff has recommended otherwise and you have set this Village up for the multiple failures before the Courts. My advice to the current Mayor, Council Members back in December 2023: ‘when in a hole (and mayor, you are deep in this hole) STOP DIGGING!’ See the Law of Holes.

From Wikipedia:

When it is said, "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging," it is because digging a hole makes it deeper and therefore harder to get out of. More generally, the adage advises how one should solve problems of their own making.

The second law of holes is commonly known as: "when you stop digging, you are still in a hole."

But you just had to keep being a populist, blaming others and milking that political football.  You had to keep digging.

RESULTS - The PBVC could have been limited to anywhere from 389 to 420, 450 if the 2022 zoning hearings and decision been handled with even slight skill - and a commitment to following the law. That its - application closed.  Now Palmetto Bay is facing an initial 450, then a max of 480 without any further council input (interference?), significant commercial including a 125 unit hotel (bringing the actual total number of "units" to between 575-605).

I'd say "great job" but the sarcasm would be lost. At least - and this is a slight 'win' - the PBVC has stepped up to protect the 22 acres where the Village refused.  They, not the village will partner with the County EEL program and receive millions for it - money that the village taxpayers would have been entitled to see go to the village had Palmetto Bay stepped forward.