Just to be clear, I have no opinion on this particular project. But I do find Shallows Nole and Creeklover's comments interesting. Shallows Nole is quite right, IMHO. If I can paraphrase, the days of "build it and they will come" are over, if in fact they ever really existed except in developers' dreams. SoWal is littered with failed projects that never did any market research. On the other hand, Creeklover seems of the opinion that if the code allows it, just go ahead and approve it. Probably rightly so that it is not within the purview of the county code to consider the chances of success of the project, but what about the potential lender(s)? Since they regularly dropped the ball just about everywhere and the community gets stuck with the fallout, seems quite the dilemma. And what about all those letters of credit floating around the county planning dept.? And all the liens Regional Utilities has recently placed?
Note to Shelly: I don't think there is anything in the code regarding the status of the property taxes, so I would be very surprised indeed to see the BCC refuse to consider it on that grounds. They would be inviting a lawsuit from a lawyer who takes Creeklover's view - if it meets the code, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.