The responsibility of local government is to respect the wishes of the citizens as well as the rights of property owners which can at times, be complicated and involves other laws and regulations outside the City’s authority. Simply put, we cannot just take away someone’s right to use their property for certain things that are currently allowed. There are also varying degrees of property rights, for example, can a property owner build condos in a location and if so, how many? If we reduce the number of units they can have with the new code, we’ve taken some of their property rights away. As a rule, in the State of Florida, you cannot take away property rights without compensation, and that bill would be very high, and cost not just the City, but ultimately you as a tax payer.