Merging planning boards makes sense

Streamlining government and saving public money are all the rage in this tight economy, and the Pinellas County legislative delegation has an opportunity today to do both. Pinellas lawmakers will consider legislation that would merge two important county planning agencies and still provide a vital forum to build consensus about the future. The inevitable questions about turf and priorities will have to be answered, but this is a reasonable approach.

The Pinellas Planning Council, an advisory board of mayors and other elected officials that reviews land use changes, would be folded into the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which develops long-range transportation plans. There would be a single 13-member board of local officials, who would appoint an independent executive director. The combined agency would be funded by the small property tax now collected by the planning council, and taxpayers could save at least 10 percent of what they're spending now on the two agencies.

Merging the MPO and the PPC sounds like meaningless alphabet soup, but there are real consequences. The MPO ensures road projects like the U.S. 19 overhaul get top priority. The PPC, created two decades ago, shines a public spotlight on issues such as the County Commission's wrongheaded decision in 2009 to allow water treatment plants, storage tanks and pipelines in part of Brooker Creek Preserve in North Pinellas. The planning council often has been more enlightened and progressive in evaluating land use than the county commissioners who have the final say.

The merged panel would assume the responsibilities of both land use and transportation planning, which could be good if the former isn't paved over by the latter. The legislation also calls for the revamped agency to develop a countywide plan that would reduce the number of land use categories and ultimately be approved by county commissioners. The current uses by private property owners would be protected, but there is ample opportunity for mischief here if the changes are not openly developed and debated.

County Commissioner Karen Seel and St. Petersburg City Council member Jeff Danner are among those local officials who deserve credit for building a consensus for this legislation, which will be sponsored by Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, and Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole. In another era, merging these important planning agencies may have been inconceivable. In this one, it is the prudent approach.