High Springs seeks to untangle red tape

From computers, to phones, to assembly instructions for IKEA furniture, the fast pace of today’s society calls for functionality and user-friendliness.

High Springs needs to be more user-friendly. It’s been said over and over during economic development workshops and regular commission meetings; if the city wants to attract business and industry, it must welcome new prospects with open arms, rather than make them jump through the hoops of bureaucratic procedures and paperwork.

This was the consensus during a June 10 meeting when the commission considered authorizing city staff to draft an ordinance to amend the process of obtaining a conditional use permit.

Under the advisement of City Planner Christian Popoli, Mayor Bill Coughlin identified a table of classifications and correlating rules within the city code that could be a viable place to start making changes.

The city’s entire land development code is due to come under full review in the coming months, but the commission expressed the intention to start as soon as possible with this particular aspect, because as the code now stands, the process of opening a business within the city limits can become an unnecessarily long and drawn-out process awash with red tape.

No official decisions were made, but the commission agreed to take up the issue at the next regular meeting on June 24.