The Strong Towns frame
May co-founded Strong Towns Clermont before joining the PZC and the orientation reads through every hearing. His voting pattern surfaces land-intensity concerns above use-compatibility concerns. The April 2025 Juniata dissent is the cleanest example: Dr. Handy's solo audiology practice was a sympathetic small-business case (one patient at a time, Tuesday-Thursday, 10 AM to 2:30 PM); May's NO was not against the audiology use but against the rezoning to Downtown Mixed Use that authorized future 55-foot development on the parcel. The applicant returned in June 2025 with the lower-intensity Residential/Office FLU + CUP path. The revised application passed 7-0 with May joining the unanimous bench. The feedback loop closed.
The DPZ engagement
May's most durable corpus contribution may be the DPZ CoDesign engagement. He reported in June 2025 that City Council agreed to update the Comprehensive Plan, with one council member requesting a downtown-specific overlay. He reported in September 2025 that DPZ — the New Urbanist firm — was approved by Council to lead the form-based-code initiative. By October 2025 the DPZ CoDesign + USA BMX kickoff was underway. The form-based-code direction the board now operates within originated as May-and-Cramer staff-and-council coordination.
The downtown form pole
May's voting pattern on downtown projects reads through DPZ alignment. The March 3, 2026 Salt Shack on the Lake hearing — May's detailed environmental and structural questioning paired with Tidona's, Vice-Chair Niemiec's failed 2-4 motion to table citing unresolved DPZ-alignment questions, the eventual 5-1 approval. The April 7, 2026 Kohl's annexation hearing — May referenced page 105 of the utility agreement (the 50-ERC purchase obligation conditioned on annexation plus development approval) — staff and city attorney noted the issue was Kohl's-side, not P&Z-side. May reads agreements at the page-and-clause level. The discipline is structural.