NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera Frederick

Just weeks before New Smyrna Beach's planning debacle brought dozens of city projercts to a grinding halt in June, Chad Lingenfelter, shown here with his hand raised, and Mark Rakowski, the two planners blamed by city officials for the mess, applied unsuccessfully for the planner's job in Oak Hill. See the attachments posted with this story for their applications to Oak Hill.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- In another bizarre twist in the city's planning debacle, then-Chief Planner Chad Ligenfelter and his former boss, Mark Rakowski, both applied for the planner's position in Oak Hill, just weeks before the scandal broke last month. Neither won over Oak Hill officials who were pleased and relieved New Smyrna Beach's embarrassment wasn't passed on to them.

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera Frederick.

NSBNEWS.net Investigative Reporting
Previous coverage click below:
NSB's Planning Debacle

NSBNEWS.net video and photos by Sera Frederick 

City Manager Pam Brangaccio spoke frankly with NSBNEWS.net immediately after the July 7 hearing with the Florida Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee, but unable to answer why the city's planning department under the direction of department head Mark Rakowski (above) and (at left) chief planner Chad Lingenfelter, who worked under him and then continued alone after Rakowski's job was eliminated in December, dropped the ball on final paperwork on  land-use zoning amendments, dating back five years (see attachment for example of the transmittal forms). This fiasco, dating back to when Rakowski was promoted, has grounded 72 community projects a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping center and a 112-room hotel Flagler Avenue.  Lingenfelter has continued in his role  to this day despite calls from the mayor to have him fired .

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Mayor Adam Barringer makes no bones about it: He wants the two city planners identified by the city manager as being culpable for the city's five-year backlog of projects held accountable.

"This borders on criminal," the mayor, who has been in office less than eight months, said Wednesday as he deals with perhaps the biggest crisis in this city's history.

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. Here is a video breakout of Mayor Adam Barringer's direct plea Wednesday to the Florida Department of Community Affairs to expedite the process of approving land-use amendments that affect more than 70 community projects, including a Wal-Mart Supercenter just west of I-95 and a high-end hotel on Flagler Avenue.  The city dropped the ball on this process dating back five years. NSBNEWS.net will post the 90-minute hearing in its entirety in eight parts later today.

TALLAHASSEE  -- Mayor Adam Barringer made a passionate plea to state officials Wednesday, asking them to expedite dozens of community projects dating back five years that the city's planning department failed to send back to them for final review.

NSBNEWS.net videos by Sera Frederick

New Smyrna Beach officials drove to the state's capital  to make their pitch for expedited approvals on an array of massive community-project applications, including a Walmart Super center near Interstate 95 and a hotel on Flagler Avenue, some dating back five years that sat in the city's planning department unfinished. NSBNEWS.net broke the original news and was the only media outlet to go to Tallahassee to cover the Wednesday morning meeting between NSB officials and those with the Florida Department of Community Affairs.NSB News' exclusive coverage of the meeting is presented gavel to gavel without cuts in the eight video segments above.

TALLAHASSEE -- Like the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, there's the good, the
bad and the ugly of New Smyrna Beach's planning debacle in the wake of the municipal
delegation's meeting earlier today with the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The city economic development crisis is far more severe than even NSBNEWS.net reported in breaking the story online Wednesday: Not only were planning documents dating back five years not sent to the state for compliance purposes, the final applications were never even created in the first place.

NSBNEWS.net photo by Henry Frederick.

David Swentor, at right, the developer of the proposed Hampton Inn & Suites on Flagler Avenue, shown here with local attorney Glenn Storch earlier this month, was pleased to finally have the city sign off on the project, or so he thought.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- South Carolina-based developer David Swentor was floored when he learned Tuesday that his proposed $15 million Hampton Inn & Suites for Flagler Avenue could be jeopardized because city staff failed to follow through with zoning and land-use amendments.

"This is insane," Swentor told NSBNEWS.net when reached by phone late Tuesday night.

NSBNEWS.net file photo.

Mayor Adam Barringer, shown in this photo in the weeks leading up to his successful election in November with economic development as his cornerstone, faces a major crisis with at least two multi-million dollar projects now in jeopardy because of a breakdown in planning management and oversight.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Just hours before Mayor Adam Barringer met with his newly formed economic advisory board Tuesday night, he was facing the biggest crisis of his seven months in office, and perhaps in modern times for this seaside community: Screw-ups in planning oversight at City Hall that have put the proposed Hampton Inn on Flagler Avenue and the Super Walmart near I-95 in peril.

"It's as bad as it can get," Barringer said tersely in a brief interview. "We stand the potential to lose the hotel. We've identified some administrative issues back through this entire process and I'm working with the city manager to resolve them."