Jeremy Rodgers Questionnaire

Below is a questionnaire sent by the Tribune staff to Rodgers and his answers.

Name: Jeremy Rodgers

Age: 36

Hometown: Fort Totten, NY (Florida since 1997 to attend FAU)

Family: Mandy [married 9 years], Connor 6, Ainsley 4, Hunter 2

Current occupation:

Highest level of education:

Public service experience/Civic Involvement:

Have you ever been arrested? If so, when, what were the charges and what was the disposition?

Fun fact about yourself:

Why is city government important?

City government has a more direct impact on our everyday lives than county, state or federal government does. From the roads we drive on, to the police and firefighters who keep us safe, to the zoning regulations that determine how tall our local buildings can be and whether there are enough parking spaces where we shopthe importance of city government can’t be overstated. It’s where citizens can have the biggest impact and where I thought my children would be able to see, participate in and understand the difference our family could make in our hometown by giving back to our community.

What do you think the public’s perception of the city government is? If there are problems, what do you want to do to improve that perception?

Fortunately, I think the general perception is positive, but there does seem to be a growing divide between residents with different visions for Boca’s future. I think better communication with and involvement of the public is necessary to bring people together towards a common vision. Right now, many residents think the zoning regulations are whatever a developer’s proposed project requires. A more clear, consistent and permanent set of zoning guidelines would provide a greater sense of fairness and clear expectations for residents and developers alike. Our city government does a very good job of making all information available, but it can sometimes be a case of information overload. Technology has greatly increased our means for communication but residents should be able to know what’s going on in a simple way without having to read through the agenda of every meeting happening in the city and watching some in real time. I would like to see much more social media activity and blogging from all city council members so that the citizens are informed, involved, and part of the two-way conversation. Also, teletown halls can help connect those who are not yet fully plugged in on social media.

Downtown development has been on the move in Boca Raton. What are your thoughts on the redevelopment efforts downtown?

Right now the Interim Design Guidelines (IDG) allow buildings up to 140’ plus 20’ for architectural embellishments, and now on parcels as small as 1.2 acres, down from 2.0 acres. I do not believe the buildings we’ve seen under the IDG fit the character of the city and more than that, it’s not clear we have the capacity to absorb the new traffic, and we don’t have the capacity for the parking. We need an independent review [not UDA] of whether the MARK complies with the IDG, and then a separate independent review and charrette to develop a finalized pattern book. The current interim solution is neither fair for downtown residents, property owners or developers.

Traffic can be frustrating, particularly downtown. How should the city address this issue?

Boca is a very dynamic and thriving community that’s bursting at the seams because of our high quality of life, new construction, and the geographic limitations of some of our main arteries, like where highway access and bridges are located. We also had a failure of the imagination to plan for this level of growth in advance. Although many parts of Boca have frustrating congestion, we all remain hopeful that the new I95 interchange at Spanish River will relieve some congestion along Palmetto and Glades. But downtown is a particularly vexing problem because we’ve already approved an additional 1,000 units without the available traffic or parking capacity to accommodate them. That’s why we need to review the IDG and reconsider allowing as much density in future projects without a solution to the traffic and parking. We need to conduct a traffic study once development is stabilized [or before next project] to see what improvements we can make to reduce delays and bottlenecks.

Annexation is on many people’s minds. What is your position on expanding the service boundaries of the city?

I think expanding services may make sense, but that is a different question than annexation. While we should be guided by what’s the right thing to do, our primary responsibility as a city council is to do what’s best for city residents. Services provided to Highland Beach are a natural expansion, and possibly we should consider annexation in the future. But in each case, we have to examine if it makes sense financially, and if it is in Boca’s best interests. We want to be mindful of annexing additional areas that could dilute our votes in a larger municipality.