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."

Specifically, the city's General Comprehensive Amendment Plan and accompanying hospitality overlay zoning amendments that are required for state approval for such large-scale projects are flawed. And those flows date back as many as five years. The city's Evaluation Appraisal Report, commonly referred to as an EAR, a summary of updated amendments to its zoning and land-use codes over a seven-year period, was rejected earlier this month by the Florida Department of Community Affairs because revisions were not sent back to the state showing changes were made.

The comp plan's transportation and water elements -- parking, roads, access, sewer, stormwater, etc. -- haven't been approved since 2008 by the Florida Department of Community Affairs and some other elements related to the zoning amendments go back to 2005.

That's because city staff hadn't followed through with required or amended changes from the state, even as three mayors and multiple elected commissioners wooed developers, held countless public hearings and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in shoring up plans. The bottom line: If the city can't get the problem fixed soon, it stands to lose tens of millions of dollars, maybe more in lost taxes, jobs and protracted litigation.

City Manager Pam Brangaccio alerted the mayor and current crop of commissioners throughout the day Tuesday, but when NSBNEWS.net learned of the situation, including the fact that city planners didn't send back changes as requested by the state, she acknowledged that she had contacted the DCA and hoped to have an emergency meeting before week's end in Tallahassee. And even if the city officials can salvage these cornerstone developments, their biggest enemy right now is time.

The $15 million hotel plan was signed off earlier this month by the city after nearly a million dollars in incentives to the developer after a nearly five-year process. The Walmart was targeted for groundbreaking in August. Asked specifically what can be done to reverse the situation, while on the job barely 11 months, she answered: We just don't know. We just don't know at this point. That is the best answer I can give right now. It's under review by the City Attorney's Office."

Reached later in the day, City Commissioners James Hathaway and Lynne Plaskett were livid about the situation. "The staff let us down," Hathaway said. "It's going to take some time to figure all of this out. How can you have a planner come before the City Commission and tell us we're in compliance when, in fact we're not? Some people are going to get fired when all this is looked at and investigated."

Plaskett added, ""Now is not the time to point fingers, then quickly added, "this is what we're supposed to have a city attorney for to check these things and this is what we pay our planners to do."

Plaskett said she is fearful the entire process could take as much as six months to fix unless the DCA grants an expedited hearing.

City Attorney Frank Gummey couldn't be reached for comments after business hours.

City Commissioner Judy Reiker, who was elected with Barringer, said she's hopeful the DCA will "see that we're contrite and they're benevolent."

Originally calling the situation "grave," Reiker preferred to characterize it as "a serious situation with serious implications," adding, "we need to get it fixed quickly."

Asked what she would do if there is no quick fix, she responded, "I don't even want to think about it."

MORE COVERAGE: NSBNEWS.net will post stories with reaction from the hotel developer, residents opposed to the hotel, the potential for litigation and reaction from the business community.