How much has been approved?

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Today we are going to talk development projects and take a look at what exactly has been approved. This is courtesy of Commissioner Rebecca Bays.

Back in February, she asked Eric Landon for a list of all the projects that have come before the board during her tenure (November 22 through that date).

Curious what county purpose she has for this information for why staff is spending time to compile this data for her.

In any case, she got the list from Eric Landon a few days later.

The total was 74 projects that have come to the board since November 2022. Some of these projects are things like Land Development Code items, the Interchange Management Areas, Marijuana ban, etc. Not all of them were growth related or projects for housing/commercial developments.

For this article, I took those items out. I left only the development projects that added houses, commercial, RV sites, etc. A lot of people are concerned with the growth in this county and it is these types of projects they are concerned about.

That leaves a total of 57 projects.

Next, I wanted to see the ratio of approval to denials. How many projects did the board approve? How many were denied?

Of the 57 projects remaining, 43 were approved by the board. 14 were denied. That is good for a 75.45% approval rate. 3 out of every 4 projects related to growth have been approved under her tenure.

Wow. I know a lot of projects were approved, I did not realize it was 3 out of 4.

Not sure that is the number she was looking for or if it helps whatever reason she was asking... but that is a little shocking.

Now, many of these projects are good projects in the sense that they where they are supposed to be or in the area they are supposed to be. A few of them were contentious however... The Glampground in Ozello... Pine Ridge... Tuscany for example.

Now, in fairness, this also applies to Commissioner Finegan's time on the board as she came in with Bays in November 2022. So we will include her in this discussion.

Since it is an election year, I took it a step further and looked at each of their votes for all 57 projects.

For the 43 projects that were approved, Bays voted to approve 41 of them. She voted against two... the Dix Development project on 486 to expand towards the YMCA (too many turn lanes) and an RV campsite project that would add 142 RV sites (Bella Vista RV Park).

Finegan voted to approve 37 of the 43. She voted against the same 486 Dix project, an RV campground (Sweet), Mini storage at Target, Bella Vista RV Park, Tuscany Ranch and Pine Ridge (2025).

Of the 14 denied projects, both of them voted to deny all 14 projects.

That means the overall project approval rating for Bays is 71.93% and the approval percentage for Finegan is 64.91%.

Do what you want with that information, I am just providing it.

One interesting note... Of the 14 projects denied, two of them from what I can tell were from donors to political campaigns. Both were James Dicks' projects. One of those was ultimately approved in 2025 (Pine Ridge). His other project... the Crossings.. was denied... so really just 1 donor was denied for a single project... but he had several that were approved.

Of the 43 projects approved, I count 14 projects with donors to commissioner's campaigns. There may be more than that as I just did a surface search and did not dive into each project... just ones I recognize.

Donors have a 6.66% rejection rate.

Just thought that was worth mentioning.

Have a great day everyone!! Tomorrow is going to be a fun one.