The city planning board voted 4-1 on Dec. 14 to deny the application, mainly because neither Cepero or a representative of the company attended the meeting. Board members had questions for the company, and voted against the application when those questions went unanswered.
A final reading was scheduled for the Panama City Commission meeting on Feb. 9 to reflect the zoning designation as light industrial, but the item was postponed.
Cepero then pulled his application and is now working with the Development Services Department on a development agreement so SLM Contracting can continue its work. In a perfect world, I would have preferred to not have to go through any of this, he said. In this particular scenario that I m not used to, it hasn t been painful or frustrating because I haven t had to have lawyers involved.