BAKER, Fla., March 26, 2023—It was standing room only and then some yesterday evening at the first of 12 town hall meetings organized by the Orlando company contracted by the county commissioners to develop a comprehensive plan that addresses future north county development.

It began a bit rocky—it was as blustery inside the Baker community center as yesterday’s winds were outside.

To start it off, planners underestimated north county interest in the study. It was obvious the venue was not large enough for the crowd that attended, with two-to-three times as many people attending than the building could accommodate.

It was estimated that 300-400 or more people showed up for the meeting. And people continued to arrive after the 6 p.m. start time. The overflow wound up outside in the pavilion area.

Inside, with that many people confined to a small area all trying to talk at once, the noise level was deafening.

To say the situation was overwhelming, was an understatement.

“I’ve been a commissioner for 12 years—literally never had this level of turnout at anything,” said District 3 Commissioner Nathan Boyles to the community center crowd. “We’re super excited about the level of turnout we got here.”

Because of the overflow, a decision was made to begin the meeting with the overflow crowd outside in the pavilion first, leaving residents inside the community center to wait another 15 minutes after the posted start time.

Once Boyles, District 2 Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel and Inspire Placemaking Collective president George Kramer, whose company is conducting the study, returned to start the meeting inside, the crowd was more than ready to go. Attendees immediately began making statements and firing questions at the commissioners, talking over each other, voices raised to be heard.

“There’s a lot of things we should have done differently, clearly,” said Boyles as he opened the meeting inside the building. “Let us speak for a few minutes, and if you start yelling at us, then it’s going to go the way it went out there,” which he described as “rowdy.”

Advertised as a town hall, the meeting was more of a participation workshop, and many attendees, confused about how the process was supposed to work, attempted to make it a question-and-answer session and to vent their frustrations.

Boyles tried to tamp down the anxiety about the anticipated results of the study.

“Nothing has been decided. There is no predetermined outcomes” associated with the study, he said.

Kramer stepped in to try to calm the crowd and get the ball rolling.

“Our sole purpose here is to listen—to listen and to document,” he said. “We’re going to get as much information as we can tonight through a format that’s less than ideal. Wednesday night in Crestview, it’s the same format, and we’re going to have more people there.”

Kramer went on to explain how the process will help develop a community vision and a set of recommendations about future development for the county commissioners to consider.

The primary concern of people attending the meeting was the county changing the zoning codes to allow more urban development rather than allowing agricultural land to remain just that—agricultural.

According to Boyles, the current zoning codes allow for all different types of development, regardless of how land is zoned.

For instance, property designated as agricultural or rural-residential does not mean that it can only be used for those purposes.

Under the way the current zoning codes are written, someone could build a Walmart in an area designated as agricultural, said Boyles.

The only way to work through changing the zoning codes to prevent something like that from happening is through a process like the study that is being conducted, he said.

After nearly 30 minutes or more of chaos, Inspire facilitators finally got down to business by working in small groups, asking questions about primary focus areas of transportation, housing, parks and recreation, conservation, agricultural and rural, and commercial and business.

In addition to participation in the town halls, there is an online survey with 11 questions, a space for a write-in response and an opportunity to leave a contact email on the study website. In addition to the survey, residents can leave comments on either the interactive map, “share a vision” on the “idea wall” or comments on comments already posted.

The next “town hall” is scheduled for Wednesday at the Crestview community center starting at 6 p.m. It will follow the same format, hopefully without all the bluster.