'Forever' is facing limits
By CINDY SWIRKO
Sun staff writer
The news that Florida's population of 18 million could double by 2060 is
creating more urgency to conserve land — just as money to buy local
greenspace is running short.
A study commissioned by the group 1000 Friends of Florida, which monitors
growth-management issues, found that population increases are expected
throughout North Florida.
The primary land conservation program locally — Alachua County Forever —
is running out of money at a time when advocates say the need to preserve
more land is growing more pressing.
A group of residents is organizing to explore the idea of renewing the
property tax that funds the program.
"Recently, as this Alachua County Forever pot of money is getting down
to the end, some citizens have gotten together to talk about ways we can
perhaps organize ourselves around a referendum in 2008 for another pot of
money," resident Lisa Molitor Gearen said. "We are in very early
discussions — would this be worth doing? What would it take? What kinds of
resources are there to put a campaign together?"
Alachua County Forever is run by the county with money from a voter-approved
quarter-mill property tax passed in 2000. A mill represents $1 for every
$1,000 of taxable property value.
The referendum that created Alachua County Forever limits the tax to the
collection of $29 million.
The program stretches that money through collaborative efforts with the
nonprofit Alachua Conservation Trust, the water management districts and
through other sources of money.
Alachua Conservation Trust buys land for preservation and often works hand
in hand with other land-acquisition efforts in obtaining money for the buys.
All told, Alachua County Forever has protected about $51 million worth of
land — of which about $18 million has come from the tax, said program
manager Ramesh Buch
But the program has bought so much land — about 8,500 acres with strictly
tax money and 11,000 total — that it is almost out of cash.
Buch said Alachua County Forever has between $9 million and $10 million in
the account — about $2.5 million raised through the tax, plus a $6.5
million state grant.
The bank account may run dry soon, he added.
"We've got more than $10 million (in land) that we are currently
negotiating on. So we could actually have all that money spent by the end of
the year," Buch said.
Three Alachua County Forever tracts are currently open to the public: Austin
Cary off Waldo Road, Lochloosa Flatwoods off County Road 325 and Cofrin
Nature Park on NW 8th Avenue in Gainesville. Other tracts will be open in
the future and activities will generally be limited to low-key recreation
such as hiking and horseback riding.
The 1000 Friends of Florida study stirred headlines statewide for the effect
a doubled population will have on the environment.
It estimates that 7 million acres of additional land will be converted from
rural to urban uses in Florida, including 2.7 million acres of existing
agricultural lands and 2.7 million acres of native habitat.
That is creating more urgency for land conservation.
"In the land conservation movement, each decade is viewed as, 'This is
the decade when we have to get it all done.' And then another decade rolls
around and we say it again," said Robert Hutchinson, project manager
for Alachua Conservation Trust. "In terms of the 2060 report — the
pressure of humanity — the real pressure we see is land prices. We have
seen a tremendous acceleration in the value of raw land. We're seeing a
leveling off right now but nobody really sees the value of Florida real
estate dropping."
County Manager Randall Reid said Alachua County Forever has been successful
in land buying and in its popularity with groups that often have differing
perspectives — developers and property rights advocates on one hand and
land preservationists on the other.
Reid added that 23 other Florida counties, recognizing the need to preserve
greenspace in the face of the ever-increasing population growth, have
similar programs.
"We think this kind of program is essential. You have to buy
environmental land if you want to really preserve it, so the concept of
Alachua County Forever is something we support, but we think it should be a
citizen-led initiative," Reid said. "If you travel throughout the
various interests in this county, the least objectionable argument is that
if someone is willing to sell their land for environmental purposes and the
government can buy it, that is the way to do it."
Hutchinson and Reid said most of the land that is purchased through Alachua
County Forever has an agricultural tax exemption, so public acquisition is
not taking much taxable property off the rolls.
Buch said the public has nominated 224,000 acres for purchase. Of that,
41,000 was placed on a list by the County Commission for potential
acquisition, including the 11,000 that has already been bought.
Lands that are now in negotiation for purchase include tracts in the Lake
Lochloosa area, Barr Hammock, Mill Creek and near the Austin Cary Memorial
Forest.
Cindy Swirko can be reached at 374-5024 or swirkoc@gvillesun.com
Land preservation merits more funding
St. Pete Times editorial
Published January 19, 2007
The Hernando County Commission has no shortage of pressing issues to deal
with as it convenes today for an all-day, priority-setting session organized
by administrator Gary Kuhl and his staff.
Roads, parks, public facilities, utilities, budgeting practices, impact
fees and expanding the jail are just some of the high-profile items that
will be discussed.
So, the commissioners will need to cover a lot of ground quickly if they
adhere to Kuhl's rapid-fire schedule, which allots only 10 or 15 minutes per
topic.
One issue that should not be given short shrift is the Environmentally
Sensitive Lands Fund. This farsighted land-buying initiative, put in place
by voters in 1988, is dangerously low because commissioners have not acted
on recommendations to increase the fund's exceptionally low tax rate.
Since its inception, property owners have paid one-tenth of a mill into
the sensitive lands fund. That equals 10 cents on every $1,000 of taxable
property value. For example, the owner of a home assessed at $125,000, who
takes the $25,000 homestead exemption, pays $10 per year into the sensitive
lands fund.
Of the 30 Florida counties that have such a fund, Hernando has the lowest
tax rate, generating only about $940,000 per year. That is not nearly enough
to keep pace with the booming real estate market in Hernando County.
A recent example of the properties that have been purchased with that
revenue is Peck's Sink, a critical groundwater collection area southwest of
Brooksville that filters much of the region's drinking water.
The county spent $1.3-million on that 80-acre property last year, and has
plans to buy 250 more surrounding it, all to protect the aquifer from
contaminants.
Members of a commission-appointed committee, which works with county
planners to advise the board on how to spend the money, recommended in early
2005 that the tax rate should be increased. Placing a referendum on the 2006
ballot that asked voters to double the rate was the most talked-about
scenario.
But the commissioners did not follow through in 2005, and by 2006 they
found themselves smack in the middle of a residents' revolt that probably
would have doomed any proposal to increase taxes.
At today's meeting, the commission should determine if there is a
consensus to put the question to voters in 2008. If there is agreement, then
they should instruct their staff to prepare to justify the need to the
uninformed residents who may doubt it.
With the rapid residential and commercial growth in Hernando County,
there is an increased need to protect habitats of endangered and threatened
wildlife species, as well as the forests, hammocks and wetlands that are
linchpins in the region's water supply. A modest increase in this dedicated
property tax is the best way to meet that obligation.
Taking sides on Hickory Hill
St. Pete Times LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published January 19, 2007
The question of whether the proposed development of the Hickory Hill
subdivision should go ahead should be based on Hernando County's needs.
Do we need to turn our beautiful rural lands into a construction meat
grinder for the next several years? Will this development cause unnecessary
market saturation to an already stagnant housing market, making it more
difficult for current owners to sell their homes? Are we going to
prematurely divert growth to Hickory Hill simply because Sierra Properties'
brochures look nice? What are the true costs in terms of road expansions,
services (fire, police, libraries, schools, etc.) to an already crippled
county budget facing a massive long-term shortfall?
There is a sense of entitlement with certain Hickory Hill property owners
that they should have their lands rezoned simply because they wish it. When
one buys rural lands one should assume those lands will stay rural. I am not
allowed to start a horse farm in my suburban environment. I assumed that
rural Hickory Hill would be not be allowed to become a suburb.
Our county eventually will face the prospect of development in the
Hickory Hill area, but the need to develop these lands is years away. Flimsy
arguments bleached of fact or passion for this development should not sway
the County Commission. A room full of our county's Republican stalwarts, who
perceive this as their own little battle, also should not influence the
commissioners.
If you really want to see what Hickory Hill will resemble, go to Clermont
near Orlando. That used to be country living. Contrast that with a drive
down Old Trilby Road and you will see how outrageous this plan is.
If you like your countryside high-fenced and exclusive to the wealthy,
then support the Hickory Hill development. If you want to preserve our open
spaces, animal habitats, and agricultural lands (not to mention public
coffers) that are extremely pleasing to the eye, then don't support it.
James Webb Wrye, Spring Hill
Go North, Ugly Tomato, Go North
Tampa Tribune Published: Jan 19, 2007
In a victory for freedom and common sense, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture is allowing the UglyRipe tomatoes of Plant City to be
shipped out of state during the winter season.
The decision overrules the Florida Tomato Committee, which deems the
breed so wrinkled and irregular that it would damage the tomato reputation
of the state. Until now, Florida shipped only what was big, red, perfectly
round and utterly smooth.
As in the bathing suit walk in a beauty pageant, imperfections are
disqualifying. Santa Sweets could sell its UglyRipe in Florida, but wasn't
allowed to ship it.
When we inquired about the restriction in 2004, Reginald L. Brown,
manager of the Florida Tomato Committee, explained the need for high
standards of beauty, regardless of taste. If an exception were made for
UglyRipes, then "everybody would be shipping nasty-looking
tomatoes."
If you've ever grown tomatoes in the backyard, you know how easy it is
to get tomatoes with odd shapes, oozing cracks, catfaced blemishes and
unappetizing colors. But people continue to grow them because homegrowns
seem to taste better than varieties bred to look good on the shelf.
Santa Sweets converted that perception into a marketing strategy. The
UglyRipe was worth buying because it had a rich, old-fashioned taste.
People like it, despite its unappealing peeling.
The Tomato Committee may now have trouble maintaining standards for
round and smooth, but the federal ruling is good news for consumers no
matter how you slice it.
Citrus Grown At Home Can’t Be Shipped
By BILL RETTEW JR.
wrettew@highlandstoday.com
SEBRING — For the kids and friends up north, there’s bad news.
There will be a little bit less Florida sunshine north of Jacksonville
this winter because of citrus canker.
Out-of-state shipping or mailing of citrus by non-commercial growers is
forbidden due to a U.S. Department of Agriculture quarantine.
Mark Fagan, spokesman with the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services, said Tuesday that Florida residents trying to mail or
ship oranges grown in the backyard (dooryard citrus) have been regularly
disappointed when they go to the post office.
Postal employees and shippers like UPS are forced to deliver the bad
news to Florida residents.
“We’ve had a great many calls from all over the state from people
who want to send citrus to their friends and family,” said Fagan.
George Wolf, of Chloe Terrace in Sebring, gives away hundreds of pieces
of citrus each season from his backyard’s five trees. He distributes
fruit freely and even leaves bags of oranges for trash and postal workers.
“I try to share the wealth,” said Wolf. “When you’ve got a good
crop, you should spread the blessing to others.”
The grower of tangelos, tangerines, grapefruit, naval and juice oranges
said he hates to see wasted fruit on the ground in back yards, considering
Sebring’s senior population.
“Particularly since senior citizens are on very, very tight
budgets,” he said.
Restrictions were put in place to prevent the spread of citrus canker. On
Aug. 2, an interim rule was released to curtail the spread of canker to
other orange producing states, which include: Arizona, California, Hawaii,
Louisiana and Texas.
The rub for those with tangelo or orange trees in the back yard is a
series of requirements, which include: grove inspection within 30 days of
harvest; crop treatment with a decontaminant; a permit confirming
inspection and treatment; and clear marking on packages to indicate that
Florida fruit is prohibited from other growing states.
Andrea McNally, spokesperson with the USDA, said the department
doesn’t have enough resources to process enough limited permits to cover
backyard growers.
During the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, airborne canker blew and spread
easily, sometimes for more than a mile at a time. The USDA ordered that
large tracts of trees were regularly destroyed to prevent canker spread.
The USDA then had a change of heart.
“Citrus canker eradication in Florida was no longer a scientifically
feasible option,” according to a news release from the USDA about a Jan.
2006 decision.
Ninety percent of Florida’s orange crop is harvested into juice, the
industry employees 90,000 workers statewide and covers 620,000 acres,
according to a media release from Florida Citrus Mutual. Fagan noted that
Highlands County is the state’s fourth leading citrus producer with
78,000 acres harvested, behind Polk County with 101,000 acres.
Fagan said that the current ban on home growers might not last forever.
“We would like to sit down with the USDA and look at the rules of
quarantine for the next summer,” said Fagan. “We hope to see changes
after this season. As long as the commercial industry follows
decontamination procedures they will help to minimize the risk of canker
exposure.”
No freezes have hit Florida growers this season, but an estimated 75
percent of California’s crop suffered four consecutive nights of
sub-freezing temperatures.
“The 2006-2007 Florida crop should help bridge the gap, as it is
maturing with excellent quality and good appearance,” according to
Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual
Permits Soar In Record Year
By DAVE NICHOLSON The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 13, 2007
PLANT CITY - Fueled in part by the housing boom, the city's building
permit activity set a lofty record in 2006.
Builders pulled permits for slightly more than $152 million in
construction, about double the previous record set in 1999.
"I was delighted to see it," City Manager David Sollenberger
said of the surge.
Building permits are considered a key indicator of economic health.
Housing, most of it single-family, accounted for $48.1 million of the
permits in 2006. Plant City has seen an unprecedented boom in housing in
recent years, with 9,000 homes proposed in a city of about 33,000.
In 2006, permits were pulled for 298 single-family homes, 33 multifamily
units, 21 mobile homes and five duplexes. Owners of more than 1,600 acres
have annexation requests pending.
However, city officials say requests for new home permits have slowed
recently as the real estate boom appears to be winding down. Mayor John
Dicks said he looks for a downturn in housing in 2007 as Plant City follows
the national trend.
Besides housing, the 2006 statistics included a large permit: one for $39
million for work at the city's utilities plant. Sollenberger said even
without that permit, the city still had a record year.
One of the larger private projects during the year was The Villages, an
open-air mixed commercial and residential project under construction on
about 4 1/2 acres in the 2800 block of James L. Redman Parkway. The first
phase should be complete in March. The project eventually will have 53,000
square feet of space, including landscaping and 10 apartments.
The developer, real estate broker Donna Jean Crocker, said she sees 2007
as another strong year for commercial development and a return to normalcy
in residential.
"That was a crazy time we had," she said of the housing boom.
"We're in a good market. I feel good about the market in Plant
City."
Crocker said customers in her project will have easy access to the
adjacent Wal-Mart. She sold Wal-Mart the property for its store in the early
1990s and is building The Villages on land she had left over from that sale.
The proximity to Wal-Mart is a big drawing card, she said.
Besides Crocker's projects, other major commercial projects during the
year included:
•$3.5 million addition at Dart Container, 4610 Airport Road
•$1.2 million addition at Plastipak, 4211 Amberjack Blvd.
•$1.2 million remodeling, Sweetbay Supermarkets, 205 W. Alexander St.
BUILDING ACTIVITY
Plant City building permit activity in recent years.
Year Cost
(in millions)
1996 $60.9
1997 $54.4
1998 $30.3
1999 $75.9
2000 $49.7
2001 $64.4
2002 $42.2
2003 $42.3
2004 $51.5
2005 $57.7
2006 $152
Reporter Dave Nicholson can be reached at (813) 865-4432 or dnicholson@tampatrib.com.
Report: State lagging in Everglades cleanup
The Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH — State water managers are not doing enough to eliminate
pollution from Lake Okeechobee and to restore the overall health of the
Everglades, according to an Audubon of Florida report released Wednesday.
The group claims more water storage areas need to be constructed north of
the lake to clean pollutants before they enter the Everglades system and
that the state has not made substantial progress toward meeting federal
deadlines for phosphorus cleanup. The state is currently operating its
Everglades restoration under court oversight that came from a 1992
settlement reached after the federal government sued Florida for not abiding
by its own clean water standards. The deal produced a consent decree under
which a federal judge oversees cleanup.
Environmentalists have accused the state of dragging its feet and point to a
2003 amendment to the state's 1994 Everglades Forever Act. Among other
things, it extended by up to 10 years to 2016 some pollution cleanup
requirements in the consent decree.
which called for phosphorous to be reduced to 10 parts per billion by the
end of 2006. The pollution comes from a number of sources, including
agricultural runoff and development.
The South Florida Water Management District has noted that marsh filters
have reduced phosphorous loads that would have flowed into the Everglades by
up to 71 percent since 1994, and that 90 percent of the Everglades are at or
below 10 parts per billion for phosphorous.
Critics claim the district's measurements are flawed and that the state must
work more aggressively to restore natural water flow.
"No solution that seeks to manage water systems with pumps and other
energy-intensive technologies will ever be as sustainable as restoring the
natural functions of the system," said David Anderson, Audubon of
Florida's executive director. "Fixing Lake Okeechobee is essential to
healing these ecosystems."
Officials with the South Florida Water Management District declined to
comment Wednesday, saying they were still reviewing the report.
USDA Permits UglyRipes
By MARY SHEDDEN The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 18, 2007
TAMPA - They ain't beauties, but UglyRipe tomatoes could be all right to
ship out of state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday announced it will defuse
a three-year dispute and allow out-of-state shipments of the unattractive
yet tasty crop during winter months.
Although most Florida consumers won't see a change at their supermarkets,
the ruling has a profound impact on UglyRipe growers, said David Sheon,
spokesman for Santa Sweets, the Plant City-based company exclusively growing
the unique fruit.
The dispute over UglyRipes started three years ago, when the crop
standard-setting group, the Florida Tomato Committee, determined the
misshapen fruit did not meet standards for out-of-state shipping from
mid-October to mid-April. That's the time of year when tropical Florida has
a stronghold on national tomato sales.
UglyRipe tomato sales outside Florida have always been permitted the
other months of the year. Last year, Santa Sweets shipped 8 million pounds
of UglyRipe tomatoes.
Santa Sweet's parent company challenged the ruling, lobbied Congress and
appealed to the USDA that the taste of UglyRipes outweighed the state's
aesthetic standards.
Reginald Brown, the tomato committee manager, could not be reached for
comment Wednesday. Brown has said that appearance standards protect the
long-term interest of the industry.
Florida's tomato industry is significant. The 2006 Agricultural
Statistical Directory reported that Florida produced $805 million in fresh
tomato crops, 49 percent of the total U.S. value.
That translated to more than 62,000 25-pound cartons in the 2004-05
seasons, the statistical directory reported.
Wednesday's decision addressed only the shape of the UglyRipe tomato.
Santa Sweet spokeswoman Leslie Gwinn said that change alone could boost the
company's production of UglyRipe tomatoes more than 20 percent.
Reporter Mary Shedden can be reached at mshedden@tampatrib.com
or (813)259-7365.
Vanguard insurance dropping policies
Property insurer's action could leave 8,600 without coverage on First Coast.
By URVAKSH KARKARIA
,
The Times-Union
As state lawmakers perform legislative CPR on Florida's gravely ill property
insurance market, yet another carrier is threatening to call it quits.
Vanguard Fire and Casualty Co., based in Maitland, has stopped accepting new
applications for residential policies or renewing existing ones - a move
that would leave nearly 8,600 First Coast residents without homeowners
coverage.
The company made the announcement in a letter to its insurance agents
Tuesday. Vanguard could not be reached for comment seeking a detailed
explanation for its actions.
In the letter, Vanguard said it anticipates the suspensions to be
temporary. However, it "encouraged" agents "to seek other
insuring options" for the affected policyholders.
Vanguard, which specializes in personal property lines of insurance for
Florida residents, was created to provide Floridians with a new homeowners
insurance source after many companies stopped underwriting policies
following Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to the insurer's Web site.
Last year, Vanguard filed for statewide average rate increases of 80.7
percent and 84.1 percent for two of its homeowners programs in Florida.
State regulators are yet to rule on the rate request but in the past have
rejected rate requests they felt were unjustified. In October, for instance,
regulators snubbed Nationwide Insurance Co.'s request for a 71.4 percent
statewide average hike in homeowners insurance.
Most homeowners insurance carriers writing new policies in Florida are
niche players, created in the past few years, said Don Lohr, president of
The Pinnacle Group in St. Augustine, a Vanguard insurance agent. They have
not had the time to accumulate large financial reserves and are at greater
risk of becoming insolvent, Lohr said.
Vanguard policyholders will likely be able to find alternative coverage
in the private market, said John Fletcher, president of McNeill, Garrison
& Fletcher Insurance Agency in Jacksonville Beach.
"If we were in South Florida, it would be very different," he
said, "But in our part of the state, we still have carriers that"
have the financial capacity to write more policies.
However, that alternative coverage would likely cost homeowners 15
percent to 20 percent more, Fletcher said.
If Vanguard did fold, it would further weaken an anorexic property
insurance market. Several carriers in Florida have culled policies in recent
years, with some simply walking away from the state.
Less than two weeks ago, Allstate Floridian said it planned to dump
106,000 homeowner and condo policies, including about 3,700 in Northeast
Florida.
Several proposals aimed at easing the financial risk of writing property
insurance in Florida are grinding through the Legislature this week in a
special session called by Gov. Charlie Crist.
Insurance carriers have been spooked by the high risk of writing
homeowners insurance policies and the burdensome regulatory environment in
Florida, Fletcher said.
"The state of Florida," he said, "is a very, very
difficult place for an insurance carrier to do business."
urvaksh.karkaria@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4367I
Builders See Deep Losses In Spite Of Rebound
By KATHLEEN M. HOWLEY and BRIAN LOUIS Bloomberg News
Published: Jan 17, 2007
U.S. - home builders, stuck with more than 500,000 unsold houses, may
report the lowest earnings in five years because a rebound in the real
estate market is too little too late to save 2007 sales.
Net income at D.R. Horton Inc., the industry's largest company, may
plunge 60 percent in fiscal 2007 to $498 million, the worst since 2002 when
the domestic economy was recovering from the slowest growth in more than a
decade. The average drop in annual profits at America's four biggest home
builders probably will be 55 percent, according to analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg.
"The demand side of the market is stabilizing, but it doesn't mean
that all of a sudden construction is going to be off to the races,"
said Michael Darda, chief economist of MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn. He
cited a 3.4 percent gain in new-home sales in November from the previous
month.
New-home sales fell 18 percent in 2006 to 1.05 million, the biggest
contraction since 1990, after median prices rose 41 percent in five years,
making them unaffordable for many buyers, said David Berson, an economist at
Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage buyer.
Sales will rise to 946,000 homes at an annualized pace in the third
quarter and gain until at least the second half of 2008 after falling to a
five-year low of 942,000 in the second quarter, the Chicago-based National
Association of Realtors said last week.
Freddie Mac, the second-biggest mortgage buyer, and Mortgage Bankers
Association predict more housing demand in the second half of this year. The
National Association of Home Builders in Washington projects new-home sales
will gain in every quarter of 2007.
Stuart Miller, chief executive officer of Miami-based Lennar, the
fourth-biggest U.S. home builder, isn't as optimistic.
"Market conditions continued to weaken during the fourth quarter and
we have not yet seen tangible evidence of a market recovery," Miller
said on Jan. 2. Lennar reported its first loss in more than a decade in the
fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Nov. 30. Analysts believe Lennar's
earnings will fall 51 percent in fiscal 2007.
New-home sales bottomed in the fourth quarter at an annual rate of
970,000, sliding from an all-time high of 1.3 million in 2005's third
quarter, Berson said. The construction slump helped to slow U.S. economic
growth in the fourth quarter to an annual rate of 1.6 percent, down from 5.6
percent in the 2006's first quarter, he said on Dec. 20.
Buyers canceled contracts to purchase homes at a record pace in the
second half of 2006, swelling builders' inventories. Measured in terms of
how long it would take to sell off the existing stock, inventory stood at
6.3 months in November, down from 7.2 months in July and up from 4.9 months
a year ago, according to the Commerce Department.
One Home's Price Falls By $223,000
That means buyers like David and Wendy Butler of Orlando are able to
purchase an already-completed new home at a discount rather than ordering
one and waiting for it to be built. During the five-year real estate boom
that ended in 2006, that option was rare.
The Butlers are purchasing a four-bedroom, 3,700-square- foot house in
Orlando built by Ashton Woods USA LLC for $545,000. The same home was listed
at $768,000 three months ago, David Butler said. Nationally, the median home
price probably will slide 5.4 percent in the current quarter to $231,700
from $244,800 a year ago, according to forecasts from Fannie Mae.
"People were saying the average homes in this neighborhood would be
$1 million-plus, but there's so many homes on the market the prices have
been tumbling," said David Butler, 45. "It's incredible really.
All of a sudden, it's time to buy."
Analysts estimate that Centex, the nation's third-largest home builder,
will report the biggest decline in fiscal 2007 profit of the four largest
home builders, falling by 64 percent in the fiscal year that ends March 31,
said a Bloomberg's survey of analysts. The Dallas-based company is expected
to report earnings next Tuesday.
Profit at Fort Worth, Texas-based D.R. Horton probably will fall 60
percent in the year ending Sept. 30, analysts estimate. Orders fell 23
percent from a year earlier to 8,771 homes in the builder's first quarter
and the average price slid 6.1 percent to $262,000, the company said last
week.
Michigan-based Pulte Homes, the biggest U.S. builder of retirement
communities and No. 2 home builder by revenue, may report a 43 percent
decline in net income this year, as sales to aging Baby Boomers help it
outperform rivals, analysts said.
Inventory, the amount of unsold houses, dropped to 545,000 in November
from a record 573,000 in July, said the Commerce Department.
Glut Is Gone
"There is no longer a massive glut," said Darda, the MKM
Partners economist.
The high volume of completed homes for sale may result in a later start
to the spring selling season because buyers can choose a completed home
rather than order one to be built. And, the completed new homes may offer
price bargains, said Gary Balanoff, a broker at Re/Max Select in Oviedo near
Orlando. "We find that people are canceling contracts because they
found a better deal," he said. "People figure they can get the
same house for $30,000 less."
Builders also are offering sales incentives such as mortgage payments.
U.S. judge sets back pulp mill's waste plan
By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
Clean-water advocates say a federal judge has effectively killed Buckeye
Florida's plans to pipe wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico.
The pulp mill, located near Perry, has for decades dumped its wastewater
into the Fenholloway River. The mill proposed improving water quality by
building a 15-mile pipeline that largely bypasses the river.
But a ruling Tuesday by Judge Emmett Sullivan of the U.S. District Court
in Washington, D.C., could scuttle those plans. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency will now control the permit process and is unlikely to
allow the pipeline, said Sierra Club attorney David Bookbinder.
"The river in a pipe is dead because Florida has no jurisdiction
over it," he said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection last year approved
the pipeline permit. A spokeswoman said the department was awaiting word
on the impact of the judge's ruling.
Buckeye spokeswoman Michelle Curtis said she would also wait for more
information before commenting. But she said the pipeline is critical to
the company's plans.
"There are no other combination of technologies that would bring
the river to fishable and swimmable standards," she said.
The ruling likely won't mark the end of legal battles over the permit.
Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, said she'll
continue to fight in the courts until Buckeye is required to clean the
river.
"They'll either clean it up and obey the law or we'll shut them
down," she said.
The company cooks pines in a chemical brew to produce cellulose, used in
everything from diapers to sausage casings. The process also produces
wastewater that is treated and then discharged into the river.
The wastewater darkens the river and has been linked to mutations in
fish. Buckeye proposed spending $95 million to improve the wastewater
treatment system and build the pipeline to the Gulf.
Company officials said the project would improve water quality enough to
prevent harm to aquatic life in the Gulf. But clean-water advocates said
the pipeline would have merely moved problems downstream.
The Sierra Club fought the EPA over the issue in federal court, arguing
that the Clean Water Act forced the agency to take control of the
permit.
Sullivan issued a ruling in March saying the act "imposes upon the
EPA a mandatory duty to exercise jurisdiction." But Buckeye and
state officials had disputed the meaning of the ruling.
Bookbinder said the judge on Tuesday told him to write an order
requiring the agency to take control. The court will give the agency an
opportunity to make changes and then issue an official order by the end
of the month, he said, eliminating any lingering confusion over the
issue
Young said she hopes the EPA will then end the dispute by killing the
pipeline and requiring the river to be cleaned.
"I can't imagine that EPA wants to go to federal court against us
again," she said.
Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com.
California Cold Is Florida Citrus Gold
By Kevin
Bouffard
The Ledger
LAKELAND - Last year, Florida citrus growers feared they would not
have a market for their fresh oranges and tangerines because of a
statewide canker quarantine.
Now a devastating freeze that destroyed an estimated 75 percent of
California's citrus crop has opened up new markets for fresh Florida
citrus, turning an already profitable season perhaps into a phenomenal
money-maker.
California citrus officials estimate the loss at more than $1 billion.
"We now anticipate a big increase in demand for our oranges and
tangerines," said Dennis Broadaway, the chief executive at the
Haines City Citrus Growers Association, which runs the second largest
fresh citrus packinghouse in Florida. "We've got a lot of fruit yet
to be picked. We should have enough to supply the fresh market."
Tom Spreen, one of the state's top citrus economists, shared Broadaway's
optimism.
"I see a big jump in the fresh citrus (farm) price," said
Spreen, the chairman of the Food and Resource Economics Department at
the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Fresh citrus constitutes the smaller part of the state's commercial
citrus industry, but it's usually more profitable than the majority that
grow for juice.
Florida's fresh citrus industry took a hit last year when the U.S.
Department of Agriculture imposed a statewide canker quarantine that
banned shipment of fruit to 10 other citrus-producing states and
territories - a loss of more than 5 percent of the industry's
traditional customers.
Each year, more than 95 percent of Florida oranges goes to juice as does
about 60 percent of the state's grapefruit. This season the USDA
projects Florida growers should produce 140 million boxes of oranges and
26 million boxes of grapefruit.
The California citrus industry is smaller - an estimated 2006-07
production of 44.5 million boxes of oranges before the freeze - and
almost all of that goes to the fresh market. With all other states
producing only about 2 million boxes of oranges this season, fresh fruit
buyers have little choice but to turn to Florida.
Because of Florida's small citrus crop following two hurricane-racked
seasons, farm prices for both fresh and juice fruit so far in the
2006-07 season were already the best in decades.
Florida packinghouses have received 17 percent to 21 percent more than
last season for fresh orange shipments through Jan. 7, according to the
most recent report from the Lakeland-based Citrus Administrative
Committee, a federal agency that regulates the state's fresh market.
Spreen predicted the California freeze would push fresh orange prices at
least another 15 percent higher.
"That's not a bad price," said Richard Kinney, the chief
executive of Florida Citrus Packers in Lakeland, the industry's trade
group. "This will help us increase our (profit) margins."
If the California freeze has any effect on juice processing, it will
occur when processors and packinghouses start competing for late-season
Valencia oranges, which are not harvested until March.
By the time the freeze hit, California growers had picked 25 to 30
percent of its early season Navel orange crop, said Duke Chadwell, the
manager of the Citrus Administrative Committee in Lakeland.
Because California Valencias were still on the tree when the freeze hit,
they probably incurred the biggest losses, Spreen said. Before the
freeze, the USDA estimated at the California Valencia crop at 13 million
boxes.
Florida processors were offering about $13.50 on tree for Valencia
oranges before the freeze, he said, and even at the price, not many
growers were selling.
The on-tree price represents the price growers get from the packinghouse
after deducting harvesting, transportation and packing costs. It does
not account for the grower's caretaking and other production expenses.
Growers got an average $6.47 per box on tree for juice Valencias and $5
a box for fresh Valencias in the 2005-06 season, according to
preliminary USDA statistics.
Processors pay more for Valencias because it's used in most
not-from-concentrate (NFC) juice products, the most widely sold type of
orange juice.
So processors and packinghouses could get into a real bidding war over
the Florida Valencia crop, estimated at just 65 million boxes this
season, Spreen said.
That, in turn, will drive the retail prices for NFC orange juice and
fresh Valencia oranges even higher, he said.
"It's going to be pretty expensive (for the consumer) this
year," he said.
The good news for Florida processors and packinghouses is that on-tree
prices probably won't double, Broadaway and Spreen agreed, but that's
only because they began at a much higher level this season.
Even with more Florida oranges going into the fresh market instead of
the juice side, the effect will amount to a "minor negative"
for OJ production, Spreen said. It might mean another 1 million orange
boxes going fresh.
"One million boxes is not that much fruit relative to the
processing industry. It's only a few million gallons," Spreen said.
Juice oranges can't move readily into the fresh market, which requires
cosmetically attractive fruit. That requires more caretaking early in
the season, which growers for the juice market avoid because of the
added costs.
Although California produces about a fifth as much grapefruit as
Florida, the freeze aftermath also should also help the state's
grapefruit growers, who've seen prices slump this season because of a
collapsing domestic grapefruit juice market, Spreen said.
Consumers unable to find fresh oranges or tangerines - or unwilling to
pay the price - may turn to grapefruit as a fresh citrus alternative,
Kinney and Spreen said.
Broadaway, Kinney and Spreen base their optimistic outlooks on recent
history: California suffered another devastating freeze in December
1998. The state's orange production that season dropped to 36 million
boxes, down 48 percent from the previous season. The farm price for
fresh Florida Navel and Valencia oranges more than doubled in the
1998-99 season to $9.40 per box on tree, Spreen said. That compared to
$4.20 per box on tree in the previous season, according to USDA
statistics.
Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com
or at 863-802-7591
Africanized bees confirmed as
culprits in attack
State agriculture officials determine that the
aggressive variety of bees were responsible for a December attack in
Fort Lauderdale.
BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
Africanized honey bees were responsible for last month's attack on
two teenagers and a dog in Fort Lauderdale, according to test results
released Tuesday.
The findings from the Florida Department of Agriculture confirmed
suspicions that the bees involved weren't the familiar European kind.
The Dec. 26 attack on the two teens and the friendly red husky was one
of the first by Africanized honey bees in Broward County, officials
said.
Thousands of the bees swarmed out of a tree stump in a Fort
Lauderdale back yard, terrorizing the trio and landing the dog in an
animal hospital for treatment.
All survived, but test results provide ominous evidence that the buzz
of Africanized bees in Florida is getting louder. The influx of the
aggressive strain -- also known as killer bees -- is worrisome for
agriculture officials, beekeepers and everyone who spends time outdoors.
''The real message is that where there's one, there may be more,''
said Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue Assistant Chief Stephen McInerny.
Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue bagged samples from the 50-pound
honeycomb and dead bees from the yard of the home atat 1519 N. Dixie
Hwy. and sent them for testing .
The Africanized variety looks identical to the European honey bees
common in Florida, but wingspan and body-segment measurements confirmed
the worst.
WINTER ATTACKS RARE
''It's concerning because this shouldn't be happening at this time of
the year,'' said Gerry Hayes, Chief of the Apiary section for the
Florida Department of Agriculture. He said the bees reproduce more
slowly in the winter and it's rare to see an attack, though
warmer-than-usual weather may play a part.
Prior to the Dec. 26 incident, the Department of Agriculture had
found 17 cases of Africanized bees in Broward County over two years,
including one in which a dog was stung, Hayes said.
''We've had traps along the port areas for about a decade trying to
intercept these bees,'' said Hayes. ``Obviously we didn't get them all.
. . . I have no doubt our situation will be similar to South America.
All our gentle bees will be gone, and we'll have all these grumpy bees
to deal with.''
In the 1950s, scientists from Brazil imported bees from Africa,
hoping to increase honey production in the humid climate. But the bees
found their way into the wild and soon began taking over colonies of
European varieties throughout the continent.
In the United States, the Africanized bees were first sighted in
Texas in the early 1990s and about 15 fatal attacks have been reported
since then, Hayes said.
''Our population seems to have come off of shipping traffic,'' Hayes
said. ``These bees dominate the environment because they reproduce so
quickly.''
The Africanized bees have also been found in New Mexico, Arizona,
California, Louisiana, Arkansas, Nevada and Utah, Hayes said.
AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE
Africanized bees protect their colonies with thousands of stinging
soldiers, whose combined toxins can be lethal. Their zone of protection
around the colony is much wider, with a radius of about 300 yards,
compared with 30 for their tamer cousins.
''With a European bee, you can cut grass with a riding lawn mower
about 10 feet from a hive and get a very moderate defensive response,''
Jamie Ellis, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of
Florida. ``Forty feet from an Africanized colony, that same vibration
could be enough to make the bees react.''
On Dec. 26, the Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue Department was called to
a Fort Lauderdale home where bees were attacking Nicole Sinder, 18, and
her boyfriend, Charles Graham, as they bathed Sinder's red husky, Sasha
in her back yard.
The two had started hosing Sasha down when a cloud of bees swarmed
around their heads, chasing the teenagers into the house. Hearing
Sasha's terrified whining, Sinder raced back outside to free her.
Furious bees also attacked the first firefighters, who fought back
with a foam used on chemical fires. It kills the bees in about 60
seconds, McInerny said. Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue workers received
special training in August for dealing with the Africanized bees. All of
the department's engines and ladders carry the foam.
''This incident was the most serious incident that we had ever been
involved with . . .'' McInerny said. ``It's definitely a wake-up call.
Fortunately, we were prepared.''
''I'm just really glad to be alive,'' said Sinder, who estimated she
was stung between 15 and 20 times. ``I'm really glad I didn't get stung
more than I did . . . It packs a punch.''
''The venom load one gets is quite significant,'' Hayes said. ``The
average human can take 800 to 1,000 stings before they succumb.''
John Warner, the owner of Shalom Pest Control, said the Africanized
bees are not going away anytime soon. They can nest in tight spaces such
as mail boxes, barbecue grills, old tires and meter boxes. The European
variety needs more space and reproduces more slowly.
REPORTS ON RISE
''I'm treating all calls now as Africanized bees,'' said Warner, an
entomologist. ``Previously I would get one or two calls a year for bees.
Now I'm getting one or two calls a week, sometimes one or two a day.''
Last week, Miami-Dade firefighters temporarily closed Arch Creek Park
in North Miami while they destroyed a colony of 30,000 bees. The park
has since reopened. Scientists have not determined yet whether the bees
were Africanized.
If people see a large number of bees flying in and out of a building,
experts agree, the best thing to do is call a pest control company.
''If you see a colony do not assume the best, assume the worst,''
said Ellis, from the University of Florida. ``If people find themselves
being attacked, do not stand still and swat. Run. . . . The best thing
you can do is run as fast as you can.''
Miami Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report.
Broward
to devise new manatee plan
The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE — Broward County officials are set to meet Thursday to
devise a new manatee protection plan for the region after the state
rejected a previous proposal that would have allowed the construction of
thousands of new docks.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told the county it
needed to find ways to reduce the number of collisions between manatees
and boats.
Watercraft killed seven manatees in Broward County last year, the
highest number in at least three decades. Last year, watercraft killed
at least 86 manatees statewide, the second-highest total on record,
according to the commission.
The rejection of Broward County's plan dealt a blow to the region's
boating industry because a current three-year moratorium on the
construction of new docks will remain in effect. About 40 proposals for
new marine construction have been on hold because of the moratorium,
said Frank Herhold, executive director of the Marine Industry
Association of South Florida.
"We're disappointed," Herhold told the South Florida
Sun-Sentinel.
Broward is one of 13 counties required to produce a manatee protection
plan. State and federal wildlife agencies say watercraft are the biggest
single threat to manatees.
Staff
Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Preserving Volusia
County's least touched lands remains one of the County Council's top
priorities heading into 2007.
To achieve that goal, county officials plan to work closely with
other local governments, heeding the direction clearly conveyed by
voters during last year's elections, County Chairman Frank Bruno said
Tuesday in his State-of-the-County address at the Ocean Center.
"I'm proud of what we've been able to do as a community here in
Volusia County," Bruno said after an hourlong address that included
a videotaped segment highlighting county economic development,
recreation and conservation activities in 2006. "Again, we're going
to have some challenges next year."
Coming together to decide how to deal with growth is one of those
challenges. Dealing with homelessness and a state tax system largely
seen as inequitable are also among the challenges, Bruno said.
Before an estimated crowd of 320, he reiterated his plan for a
countywide summit on human services and said a summit on growth would be
delayed until March to get state officials involved and give an
organization of local governments time to prepare its recommendations.
Last fall, city officials led a campaign against proposed amendments
to the county charter, calling the amendments a county power grab. Many
county officials said the campaign, which cost almost $500,000,
contained misleading statements about the proposals.
Since then, focus has turned to a proposal by the Volusia Council of
Governments to revisit a "smart growth" report issued in 2005
by a committee that included representatives from the building industry,
environmental community and others.
Delaying the summit until March will allow the VCOG group to provide
crucial recommendations, said Holly Hill Mayor Roland Via, who serves on
the council of governments.
Deltona Mayor Dennis Mulder said Bruno has done a good job trying to
get past any bad feelings from the elections.
"They've swallowed a large amount of pride to get everybody
together (for a summit) and I really commend that," Mulder said.
Not everyone was as optimistic.
Charles Cuidera, a former president of the Volusia County chapter of
the Florida Native Plant Society and graduate of the county's Citizens
Academy, said he had little faith VCOG would put the environment first.
The county should simply take the lead, the Ormond Beach resident
said.
"I've never heard an orchestra play with everyone wanting to
play lead," Cuidera said.
Bruno dedicated much of his speech to last year's accomplishments,
touting such things as hiring County Manager Jim Dinneen, the ongoing
$76 million expansion of the Ocean Center convention center and
ground-breaking for the DeLand Crossings industrial park -- an economic
development project.
He also said a county survey showed 91 percent of random respondents
rated county services "good" to "excellent."
The roughly $5,000 event was paid for by private sponsors.
james.miller@news-jrnl.com
Deal Or No Deal, County Seeks Land
By JULIA FERRANTE The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 17, 2007
LAND - O' LAKES - It's been more than six months since Pasco County
Tax Collector Mike Olson set his sights on 22 acres in central Pasco for
a new branch office, and still there is no sign of a deal.
Olson says the parcel, which sits southeast of State Road 54 and
Henley Road, is the best place to expand his growing operations.
Convincing the property owners to work with the county and sell the
undeveloped land is, however, proving a challenge.
In June, the county commission agreed to pursue negotiations with Lou
Eleanor Vanderham, the widow of Frans Vanderham, and try to obtain the
land, even if it means doing so through a public taking. Vanderham, who
recently inherited the land, has expressed no interest in selling to the
county. She has hired an eminent domain attorney to represent her, and
has indicated she wants to sell to developers.
That leaves the county with little option other than to initiate
eminent domain proceedings or find another site, which Olson said has
not been easy.
Government bodies may exercise eminent domain if they are
constructing a road or building for a public purpose. In such cases, the
property is appraised and, if the owners don't sell willingly, legal
proceedings ensue.
"This is a vacant hayfield that is overgrown with weeds,"
Olson said. "Unfortunately, the owner passed away, and his family
is fighting amongst itself. We have a public interest. Eminent domain is
to be used for a public interest and a public purpose."
Olson noted that the Vanderham property is zoned agricultural, with a
future land use of high-density residential, so possibilities for
development are limited. The county is exempt from zoning regulations.
If Vanderham wanted to sell the land for commercial purposes, she would
have to secure a state-approved land-use change.
"I'm not sure the owners realize they don't have a commercial
gold mine there," Olson said.
The Vanderham property is an ideal location for the tax collector's
needs, Olson said, because it has room for parking and a driving course,
and it is centrally located. The closest tax collector office in Land O'
Lakes is at the busy Central Pasco Government Center off U.S. 41, also
the site of a restaurant, the Pasco Economic Development Council offices
and a supervisor of elections office.
Patrons and workers often complain they cannot find empty parking
spaces at the complex, even on days that are not particularly busy.
About 10,000 customers visit the Land O' Lakes office each month. With
many communities still under construction along U.S. 41, Olson expects
his office to get even busier.
Olson has been researching other possible sites for a new tax
collector office, he said, but the Vanderham property remains his first
choice.
"That's where it should go," Olson said. "I fully
expect to build it there. It has been a struggle."
The tax collector operation, since it took over driver's license
operations, has departed from rented offices, favoring stand-alone
buildings, Olson noted. Just one tax collector office in Zephyrhills is
rented, and it does not offer driver's license services. The other
offices have added security measures, such as cameras, and space for
driving tests.
Olson and County Administrator John Gallagher had the Vanderham
property appraised and offered the owners $1.6 million. The next step is
to initiate eminent domain. In such cases, a jury decides on a fair
selling price.
"If this were someone's home and we had to bring in bulldozers,
that would be one thing, but we're not talking about that," Olson
said.
County Commissioners Ted Schrader and Pat Mulieri, who represent east
and central Pasco, respectively, questioned in June whether eminent
domain was necessary. Pasco acquired land for the East Pasco Government
Center through eminent domain, but usually officials avoid it because it
is an expensive and time-consuming process.
Mulieri said she is hoping the county and the Vanderhams can
"reach some kind of resolution," but she does support building
a new branch office.
"This is a needed facility, and the parking [at the government
center] is atrocious. I think that most definitely this is an ideal
place to have it. It will be a well-used facility, and there is a place
for parking. The only way it may be settled is through the courts."
Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.
Full Disclosure Needed On Scope Of Moffitt-Merck Biotech Venture
Tribune editorial published: Jan 17, 2007
When leaders at Moffitt Cancer Center, drug maker Merck &
Co. and former Gov. Jeb Bush announced a new biotech venture for Tampa in
December, they said the project included $35 million in state and local
incentives. What taxpayers weren't told is these tax incentives are the
first installment of a commitment that could cost county taxpayers tens of
millions of dollars more.
The failure of Moffitt and local public officials involved in the
negotiations to disclose the big-picture plan for the venture called M2Gen
is troubling. Perhaps the announcement of what's now called Phase 1 was
rushed to give Bush one last economic hoorah before leaving office. But
given that considerable public dollars are being invested on this venture,
the center should have foreshadowed the need for further public dollars up
front.
M2Gen is an exciting project. It plans to build a bank of tissue
samples from which scientists can determine which types of cancers respond
to which type of treatments. Moffitt and Merck scientists then would
develop targeted treatments with the hope that better tailored medicines
will save more lives. The project will create 150 jobs with an average
wage of $80,000 and an estimated $105 million annual economic impact on
the region.
To make it happen, the county will pony up as much as $28 million in
cash and land. The state will chip in $15 million, a far cry from the $300
million investment Bush sent to Palm Beach County to attract an arm of
Scripps Research Institute. The City of Tampa is pledging $500,000, a
paltry investment given the project's potential to generate sales tax
revenue if it is built in city limits. And another $825,000 would be
provided in state and county tax credits. Merck has not disclosed its
share of investment in the project, only calling it
"substantial."
The project's second phase - a 150-acre research park for spin-off or
relocated life science companies - is equally exciting, though the need
for further public investments needs to be addressed. Already companies
are calling Moffitt about possible affiliations, excited by the proven
success and big dreams of those who run Florida's only comprehensive
cancer center, an elite designation awarded by the National Cancer
Institute.
However, no price tag is available for the second phase because the
planning hasn't gotten that far, says Moffitt Director William Dalton. Yet
in briefing Hillsborough commissioners on the center's big dreams, Moffitt
outlined the need to also find or compile 150 acres to build the
envisioned research park.
Hillsborough Commission Chairman Jim Norman has reasonable concerns
about the county taking the bulk of the risk at the same time it's also
being asked to conceptually commit to Phase 2. The state and Tampa - but
especially the state - should contribute a larger stake, given the
potential this investment holds.
Commissioner Mark Sharpe, the commission's point man in luring biotech,
says he will not bring the matter before his colleagues until more clarity
is available. There also should be ample time for public comment, full
disclosure of the expectations and a thorough examination of the roles the
city and state should play.
Hillsborough need only look to the south for the financial pitfalls of
investing in biotech. Scripps sought another $94 million from Palm Beach
County - on top of the $500 million in public incentives it received to
come to Florida. In Martin County, the cost of getting into the biotech
game is considered so high that some commissioners and residents say it's
not worth it.
Hillsborough is right to pursue biotech as a potential source of
high-wage jobs and economic growth, but if it's going to be pledging
public resources to aid private companies, it cannot expect taxpayers to
be a blind or silent partner.
Thumbs down for Carlisle buyout
Winter Park rejects a $5.3M deal and girds for a legal fight.
Christopher Sherman
Sentinel Staff Writer
January 17, 2007
WINTER PARK -- The City Commission late Tuesday shot down a proposed $5.3
million buyout of The Carlisle and dug in for a legal battle after
rejecting the project's development plans.
With a court reporter sitting by, attorneys took the spotlight in the
yearlong fight over the four-story condominium, retail and post office
project planned next to Central Park.
The 4-0 decision for commissioners became a highly technical one about the
city's definition of a "significant change" and whether the
plans included such changes. Both sides conceded it would have to be
decided in court, but they left open the possibility of further discussion
once legal maneuvers begin.
After the meeting, Mayor David Strong said the chance for a settlement
remains.
"I think we're going to raise some more money and get an
agreement," Strong said. "They had to get a vote to protect
their legal interest. That doesn't mean it closes the door on a
settlement."
The effort had already raised about $1.5 million in pledges and
contributions, he had told fellow commissioners.
Earlier in the evening, Strong's proposal to buy out the developers for
$5.3 million failed on a 2-2 vote after hours of discussion and pleas from
two dozen residents to end the controversy.
Commissioners John Eckbert and Doug Metcalf said they could not support a
proposal that could put the city on the hook for millions of dollars if
residents failed to raise enough private funds.
The developers immediately asked commissioners to vote on their
development plans, what appeared to be a legal formality. But it was
apparent that those plans had even less of a chance than the buyout
proposal, hatched in private by Strong and the developers.
As both sides girded for battle, the earlier atmosphere of compromise
disappeared.
Resident Philip Tiedtke pledged $100,000 from his family's foundation for
a legal-defense fund before the city rejected The Carlisle's development
plans.
Another resident, Bernie Essex, said the developers could not be trusted.
"These applicants cheated, and cheats should not expect fair
play," Essex said. "My plea to Broad Street Partners is take
whatever we can come up with and run."
Steve Walsh, one of three principals in Central Park Station Partners,
responded to the allegations and said his door would remain open to
commissioners while the developers moved ahead.
"No project is worth this community division, but at the same time,
you must be fair," Walsh said.
"We've not abused the process, manipulated the process, gone around
the process," he said.
The project has polarized the city for more than a year because of its
size. It had received all but its final approval from the city and was to
be built where the current post office sits on Central Park.
But its reach has stretched far beyond Winter Park.
It was the domino that set in motion the scandal that is now engulfing the
Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority. Notably, former Expressway
Authority Chairman Allan Keen is also one of three principal partners on
The Carlisle.
It was Strong who ran for mayor on a campaign focused on opposition to The
Carlisle. And it was political consultant Doug Guetzloe who sent an
anonymous flier attacking Strong.
Guetzloe was convicted on a misdemeanor charge for sending the flier
without the required disclaimer. That investigation opened up Guetzloe's
financial records showing that the expressway authority had paid Guetzloe
$107,500.
Before Tuesday's second vote, resident Marc Hagle urged commissioners to
get the lawsuit started so they could begin legally meeting in private.
Hagle, a real-estate developer of Wal-Marts who is familiar with
litigation, said a trial should be avoided at any cost.
"Litigation has nothing to do with the truth," he said. "In
front of a judge or jury, the outcome is uncertain."
City planning director Jeff Briggs summarized The Carlisle's history and
emphasized that plans initially approved by commissioners had changed in
significant ways, such as increased height and building area. The city's
planning board agreed and rejected those plans Oct. 25 with a 3-0 vote.
"What you actually have is a project larger than what was represented
in January 2005," Briggs said. "It is not the same
project."
But the developers' attorney, Michael Elsberry, a partner with Lowndes,
Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, disagreed.
"There have been no legally significant changes," he said.
"That entitles the developer to approval of these plans."
"It's the equivalent of changing the rules in the middle of the
game," Elsberry said.
Elsberry said he will meet with his clients today to decide on their next
step.
Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com or
407-650-6361.
Charlotte approves rezoning for condos despite
residents' opposition
Twice-denied project gets OK
ENGLEWOOD -- A controversial Grove City condominium project that twice
had been rejected for rezoning because of opposition from neighbors
finally gained the Charlotte County commission's approval Tuesday.
The change from a zoning designation of mobile homes to medium density
multi-family development allows Naples-based developer Lemon Bay
Holdings LLC to move forward with plans to build 43 luxury condos on
5.88 acres along Lemon Bay. Neighborhood residents showed up in force to
protest the project Tuesday.
Nine residents spoke at the meeting. Many said the condos were not
compatible with the modest homes in their neighborhood.
Last summer the neighbors convinced county commissioners to vote down
the rezoning request after producing what they said was evidence that
wetlands on the property were illegally filled.
The county's Planning and Zoning Commission also voted against the
project.
But on Tuesday county planner Jie Shao told commissioners that she
disagreed with the planning commission. Shao said the developers had met
all the conditions for a rezoning.
The wetlands issue came up again Tuesday during a two-hour
quasi-judicial hearing that included included testimony from more than a
dozen people.
An attorney for the developer argued that the filling occurred long
before her client purchased the property in 2006.
"My client committed no wrongs on this property," said Punta
Gorda attorney Geri Waksler.
County commissioners said they were disturbed by the possible
destruction of wetlands, but in the end they voted 3 to 2 to approve the
project.
"I can't find a legal reason to deny it," said Commissioner
Tricia Duffy
Boynton may try to annex Briny
By Eliot
Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
GULF STREAM — Developers who have bought the Briny Breezes mobile
home park heard Tuesday from concerned neighboring towns - including
Boynton Beach, which supplies the park with water and sewer and said it
might make annexing the place a condition of continuing that service.
"If we're going to do all that, I'd certainly want to explore the
idea of annexation," Mayor Jerry Taylor said after the hourlong
meeting. Boynton Beach is separated from Briny Breezes, which already has
a municipal government, by the town of Ocean Ridge and the Intracoastal
Waterway, But Boynton Beach would become the new community's major
shopping destination and Briny residents would go through Boynton Beach to
get to U.S. 1 or Interstate 95.
Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty had called Tuesday's closed
meeting at Gulf Stream's town hall. Jean FranÁois Roy, president of Ocean
Land Investments, and builder Dan Catalfumo, and their associates, met
with representatives of Gulf Stream, Ocean Ridge, Manalapan, South Palm
Beach, and Boynton Beach, as well as the South Florida Water Management
District and the county's engineering and planning departments.
"Height and density, traffic, and water. Three big issues. They
didn't have a lot of answers," McCarty said. "It's so conceptual
and preliminary, there's nothing to love and nothing to hate."
Developers did offer some glimpses: Tiered towers would range in height
from 12 to 20 stories; the three Toscana towers in Highland Beach are each
18 stories. Employees of the hotel, the marina, the restaurants and the
few small shops would be "trolleyed" in; from where, developers
didn't know yet. There would be underground parking. And the marina would
be redesigned, which means digging in the Intracoastal Waterway.
"They gave us hopes and dreams - I should say their hopes and
dreams," Ocean Ridge Mayor Ken Kaleel, who has hinted his town and
others might mount a legal challenge, said after the meeting. "We're
not going to fall victim to a sales pitch."
William Koch, Gulf Stream's mayor for 40 years, said, "If you let
some 18-story buildings come in, how long will it be before you have a
canyon of high rises?"
And McCarty said, "These people in these towns are very
sophisticated. They have political clout and monetary resources to make
sure this resort community is compatible with the area."
Ocean Land Vice President H. Logan Pierson said after the meeting his
team didn't underestimate the towns' influence or concerns.
"We have the highest regard for all these folks," he said.
"We came out of the meeting encouraged that there seemed to be a
willingness to have an open discussion."
Pierson said he heard the Boynton Beach annexation idea for the first
time Tuesday and so couldn't comment on it.
Durney Key soon to be Durney Key - officially
John Durney, who preserved the spoils island, is given his due by a
national naming board.
CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published January 17, 2007
For decades, it was a no-name blotch on a map, an isolated island in
the Gulf of Mexico.
John Durney, a local businessman and politician, worked to dredge the
spoils that created it. And for years, people have called it Durney Key.
But you couldn't find it on a map.
Soon, that will change.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted Thursday to officially name
the island Durney Key.
The change ended a long, laborious process to name the island that
began more than 30 years ago.
In 1975, Durney's father-in-law, Ernest Oberdorf, wrote to the U.S.
Board on Geographic Names to officially name the island Durney Key.
But the federal agency in charge of officially naming landmarks had a
rule: People must be dead one year before something is named after them.
In 1995, the rule changed to five years.
Meanwhile, Durney Key went unnoticed.
After Durney died in 2001 in a Schroon Lake, N.Y., motorcycle accident,
his stepson, Tim Gamble, wrote the board in 2006.
Gamble's request, combined with letters from local officials supporting
the naming of the island after the former Port Richey and New Port Richey
mayor, prompted the board to vote in favor of naming Durney Key and
recognizing it on maps.
Port Richey Mayor Mark Abbott, New Port Richey Mayor Dan Tipton and
Pasco County Administrator John Gallagher sent letters to the board
supporting the move. Resolutions in support of the name also were passed
by both cities and the county.
"It all adds up to evidence of local support," said Jennifer
Runyon, senior researcher at the board's headquarters in Reston, Va.
Paperwork will be sent to Gamble, the Florida Department of
Transportation and mapping centers in the next two weeks to officially
name the island.
Although the island never had an official name, locals knew it as
Durney Key. Friends of Durney, who was also a poet, held a dedication
ceremony on Sept. 1, 1975, and put up a wooden sign marking the island.
Weather took a toll on that sign and others. So on April 6, 2003,
Durney's friends dedicated an 8-foot steel sign that stands today. It
reads: "Durney Key. State of Florida. Property of its people. Protect
our birds."
Gamble remembers planting trees with his stepfather to keep the island
from eroding, and is grateful for the community support.
"I figured the more we did, the better," Gamble said.
"The next time they do a map, it will be there."
Camille C. Spencer can be reached at cspencer@sptimes.com
or 727 869-6229
Walk-in-Water-Exploring the Creek by Canoe
By Tom Palmer
tom.palmer@theledger.com
There's something about paddling a creek for the first time.
You know nothing. You're prepared to experience anything.
That's the way it was for me when I set out to explore the section of
Walk-in-Water north of State Road 60. Now that the Polk County
Environmental Lands Program is planning to buy a good bit of the land in
the creek's floodplain and beyond, I decided it was worth a visit.
The creek curves in the typical corkscrew pattern of many creeks on a
5.2-mile course from Lake Walk-in-Water to Lake Rosalie east of Lake
Wales.
For the moment, there are no public canoe launching areas on the creek, so
you have to come in from the ramps at the lakes.
I chose the county ramp on the south end of Lake Rosalie about a mile from
where the creek empties into the lake.
The mouth of the creek is near a wide, shallow cove that you could mistake
for the mouth except for absence of any obvious channel.
Cow lilies form a sort of boundary. Behind them are shrubs and behind that
are trees, mostly maples and gums.
They don't have much foliage in early winter, so your only canopy is the
sky.
Because it's winter, butterflies are as sparse as the blossoms;
dragonflies are scarce as mosquitoes.
It was quiet at this end of the creek the day I was there. I was too far
from State Road 60 to hear traffic. The only man-made sound is the
occasional airplane flying overhead or a distant bass boat.
Around the first bend, I spotted what looked like a local recreation spot.
There was a swing hanging over the water to take advantage of the oak that
was growing at somewhat less than a 45-degree angle to the ground, rather
than the normal 90 degrees.
Beer bottles were strewn around nearby.
Once I was around another bend, there was nothing but natural scenery.
The water in the creek is low as it is everywhere else in Central Florida
at the moment.
If it had been much lower, I probably would have been forced to portage or
pull, as I did on the Peace River a month ago. But my luck held and the
only tight spot was picking my way under a fallen maple tree.
It had obviously been wetter in the recent past.
There are cattails growing on the shore among the trees.
The underbrush of cattails, ferns and some shrubs is green in contrast to
the trees that are either bare or just beginning to leaf out.
My intrusion disturbed a succession of wild creatures.
I saw turtles that moments before were quietly basking in the warm winter
sun suddenly having to scramble clumsily from some raised tree roots and
disappear in a cloud of silt into the water, where they are more agile in
evading perceived threats.
Alligators head for the water while I'm still more than 100 feet away,
except for one medium-sized bull.
He moved slowly into the water, paused and watched me as if to say,
"Yeah, I'm moving, but I don't know why, because I'm big enough to
take you."
I played along and paused until he submerged.
Upstream, I see another ripple that doesn't look like an alligator.
An otter suddenly surfaces, reaches shore and disappears.
Next it's a pair of wood ducks' turn to flee on rapid wingbeats and
high-pitched call.
I encounter wood ducks three more times on my journey, concluding it's
probably the same pair.
Above me, the mood of the avian population is different.
A bald eagle circles lazily overhead at treetop level.
Above the eagle, a turkey vulture glides on the thermals.
Higher still, a red-shoulder hawk floats for a moment, relatively
motionless.
Then there's an unexpected sound.
For some reason, a barred owl decides to call just after midday from
somewhere in the floodplain forest. I guess he couldn't wait until evening
to say what was on his mind.
In between alligators, otters and eagles, I watch the creek.
The water's relatively clear with the typical tannin color, but clear
enough to show that the bottom in this creek is still mostly sand. Enough
light is getting through so eel grass will grow, something I don't see in
every stream I visit.
I'll return in summer when the flowers are blooming, the water's higher
and bird songs fill the air.
Tom Palmer can be reached at
tom.palmer@theledger.com
or 863-802-7535.
Sinkhole plan 'done deal'
Two Pasco legislators look to trade optional sinkhole coverage for
lower insurance rates.
DAVID DeCAMP
Published January 17, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - A proposal to make sinkhole coverage optional in return
for a big cut in rates for homeowners insurance has been added to a
proposed Florida Senate bill, making two Pasco County lawmakers optimistic
it will become law.
"It's a done deal," state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey
said Tuesday. He is pushing the plan with state Rep. John Legg, R-Port
Richey.
The proposal limits mandatory coverage to catastrophic collapses that
leave homes uninhabitable. More comprehensive coverage, now standard with
most policies, would be available as an option with a deductible.
A draft house bill contains the Fasano-Legg proposal, but the original
Senate version had different requirements. That caused officials in Pasco
and Hernando county to worry last week that rate-increasing sinkhole
claims would not be curbed enough. With leaders in both houses now backing
the change, its chances seem strong of being passed during this week's
special session.
Insurers blame sinkhole claims for driving up rates in Pasco, Hernando
and northern Pinellas counties where most claims originate. Hundreds of
claims come from residents of these areas, but few if any involve homes
actually collapsing.
Pasco officials met with Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp on Tuesday afternoon to
seek support of the sinkhole option, among other items.
"I know your problems are unique when it comes to sinkholes,"
Kottkamp said.
Dropping sinkhole coverage for all but catastrophic claims could cut
rates up to 58 percent in areas of western Pasco, according to a proposal
by state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Pasco's largest insurer.
However, some local officials and activists worry about a provision in
the House bill but not the Senate's that says a house must collapse within
seven days of a sinkhole opening to be covered under standard policies.
For instance, what happens to a homeowner whose house collapses over eight
or more days?
Ginny Stevans, president of Pasco-based Having Affordable Coverage,
said the law should allow collapse coverage "if you have an
uninhabitable house - period." But the group does agree with allowing
customers to have more insurance options, she said.
The seven-day provision in the House bill is "a sticking point but
it's not something that's going to kill the bill," said Legg, who
said the seven-day limit made some lawmakers more comfortable about the
standard.
David DeCamp can be reached at (727) 869-6232 or ddecamp@sptimes.com.
They're all fired up to do ... something
By HOWARD TROXLER, Times Columnist
Published January 17, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - This is weird. For once, there are more citizens than
lobbyists around the Capitol in this week's special session of our
Legislature.
The Legislature is all fired up to do something about Florida's hurricane
insurance mess, even if the insurance companies don't like it.
The insurance lobbyists, as a result, seem shell-shocked. They hang
around committee meetings listlessly.
Occasionally one of them stands up to protest weakly into the microphone.
He is treated by the lawmakers with all the patience and deference the
Legislature usually reserves for bleeding-heart liberals and the Save the
Cute Little Puppies Club, meaning, not so much.
So, yeah, the Florida Legislature is in full-scale action mode, which is
a little scary.
Sorry to sound like a sourpuss or to look a gift horse in the mouth. But
if the only thing the Legislature does in its special session this week is
roll back the rates of Citizens' Property Insurance, then this week will be
a failure.
Oh, sure, if you're a customer of Citizens, like me, then a repeal of
that 25 percent rate hike that took effect on Jan. 1 would be nice. Also
nice would be repealing the law that requires an additional 55 percent
Citizens rate hike later this spring.
But those things by themselves aren't enough. They don't solve anything.
And then, on Jan. 1, 2008, Citizens would have to turn around and jack up
rates again.
So, what else to do?
Here is the biggest idea being kicked around in Tallahassee this week:
Let's put ourselves on the hook, and promise to use tax dollars to cover
storm damage above a certain level.
Tax dollars! This would be a huuuuge philosophical shift.
Let's say we had a big, Katrina-sized hurricane. First, the private
insurers would cover it up to a point (right now, that point is $6-billion).
Next, the state's "cat fund" for catastrophic coverage kicks
in, with the private companies still making a co-payment along the way.
Let's say that gets us up to covering, heck, $23-billion or so.
But if the total damage from a single storm were even bigger, we would
promise to make up the difference out of future state tax revenue. The
overall limit would be something like, say, $40-billion or $45-billion, or
roughly Katrina-size.
Good things about this idea:
Right away, private insurance companies would be off the hook for much of
their current risk. They would be required to reduce their rates.
We taxpayers wouldn't have to pay anything up front, either.
Bad things about this idea:
We're writing a blank check against the future. And we're shifting the
burden from property owners to taxpayers in general. Even poor folks buying
shoes for their kids would be subsidizing storm damage.
Like I said, that's the biggest idea. The Senate likes it, but the House
is skeptical. It's an open question whether it will pass.
Otherwise, there's a hodgepodge of stuff getting kicked around. Nobody
knows exactly how much good any of it will do.
The House agrees with Gov. Charlie Crist: Let's make it illegal for the
big insurers to create new Florida-only subsidiaries.
And if those big guys are selling homeowners insurance in other states,
but giving Florida the shaft, then let's crack down on their ability to sell
auto insurance here.
There's a bunch more stuff. But the one overarching truth is that just
ordering Citizens to reduce its rates doesn't address the underlying causes
of Florida's problem. It will take something more than that for the governor
and Legislature to claim victory this week.
Proposals include deals
for industry
Sinkhole coverage may be
cut drastically
BY PAIGE ST. JOHN
FLORIDA TODAY
TALLAHASSEE - Amid all of the get-tough proposals lawmakers are pushing
for insurance companies, this week's special session includes
"plums" for the industry.
There's talk of increased protection from paying hurricane losses, as
well as a gutting of sinkhole coverage and protections for surplus-line
insurers that cover second homes at unregulated prices.
"There are some things in there, but you're getting into the
weeds," said House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
"The difference is this year there are very small plums hidden in a
bill that, by and large, is a consumer-friendly bill.
"In previous occasions, it has been the reverse, where you have
insurance industry plums where you have to hide in consumer-protection
measures," Gelber said.
Insurance lobbyists disagree that the industry stands to gain from
anything offered in the special session on insurance.
"Name one thing good for the industry," said Gerald Wester, a
former insurance regulator who now lobbies on behalf of insurance companies.
Bills in both the House and Senate would limit standard homeowners'
policy protection to only the most catastrophic sinkhole collapses,
requiring homes to be declared uninhabitable or the subterranean collapse to
be visible from above ground before consumers could collect damages.
Homeowners who want protection for less-disastrous settling would have to
pay more.
"I see it as for the consumer, they will have a choice," said
Sen. Mike Fasano, the New Port Richey Republican who is behind the clause.
Fasano said the fear of costly litigation over minor sinkhole settlement
cases has driven insurers from homeowners' markets in Paso, Pinellas and
Hernando counties, landing those consumers in the state-run Citizens
Property Insurance.
Faced with sinkhole claims that ballooned from $160,000 in 2002 to $42
million in 2005, Citizens has sought regulatory approval to exclude sinkhole
coverage. It is only fair to allow private insurers to do the same, Fasano
said.
In return, private insurers will be required to lower rates, he said.
It would make sinkhole insurance in Florida a "cruel hoax,"
said Reggie Garcia, representing trial lawyers. "In our judgment, there
will be virtually no claims paid by this provision."
In addition, the Florida subsidiaries of existing national insurers such
as Allstate and State Farm are exempted from proposals to require such
subsidiaries to invest more money in their state spin-offs, giving those
companies a competitive advantage over newcomers to the Florida market.
In the House, a special $7 million state loan is set aside for any new
mobile home insurer able to match that amount. The Florida Manufactured
Housing Association seeks to start such a company. Existing mobile home
insurers or other property insurance companies applying for the loans must
put up at least $25 million of their own money to qualify.
Both the House and Senate leave in place a provision of last year's
legislation that in three months will force all second-home owners out of
the state-run Citizens Property Insurance and not allow them back unless
they are rejected by surplus-lines insurers at any price quote.
If second-home owners do get back in the state insurer of last resort,
they face steep penalties -- extra charges of up to one third of their
annual premiums -- if Citizens runs a deficit.
Contact St. John at 850-222-8384 or stjohn@nettally.com.
County Commissioner Wants Ethics Reform
By MARK HOLAN The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 17, 2007
TAMPA - Gift bans and other ethics reforms didn't gain much support from
Hillsborough's Republican-dominated county commission when proposed by
former Democratic board member Kathy Castor.
Now freshman GOP Commissioner Al Higginbotham says he's putting ethics
reform back on the agenda.
"I don't look at it as a partisan issue," Higginbotham said.
"It comes down to the perception that elected officials get something
that everyday citizens don't get."
At Thursday's commission meeting, he plans to ask commissioners to accept
a total gift ban, whether coffee mugs or T-shirts from school groups and
civic organizations or tickets to sporting events and free or reduced
parking fees.
Commissioners are required to report any gifts valued at $100 or more and
are prohibited from accepting any gifts of $100 or more from registered
lobbyists, said county Managing Attorney Mary Helen Farris.
In addition, lobbyists are required to file a report any time they spend
$100 or more on county officials.
Higginbotham said he also wants the gift ban to apply to department heads
and other top county administrators.
Higginbotham, former chairman of the county's Republican Executive
Committee, said he hasn't observed any ethics lapses since November, when he
won his first election.
"I've seen nothing here that's drawn a red flag," he said
Tuesday in his second-floor office at the Fred B. Karl County Center.
"But the public has generally been distrustful of elected
officials."
As one of two Democrats on the seven-member board of commissioners,
Castor had mixed results in her attempts to get the board to accept ethics
reforms.
In 2005, the board agreed to more public disclosure of its travel plans
and expenditures. In January 2006, commissioners gave preliminary approval
to a gift ban.
The gift ban was sidetracked by a proposed $625-a-month stipend for
attending community events, which also died.
In November, Castor was elected to Congress, where she has been active in
the new Democratic majority's efforts at ethics reform.
Higginbotham said he wants the county to abide by the same rules as state
lawmakers.
"I have no idea how this will be received," he said. "It's
worked for the Legislature. I don't see why it wouldn't work for us."
Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 259-7691.
State Road 54 plan aims to ease traffic near mall
Cypress Creek Town Center's developer is designing projects for CR 54
and SR 54.
CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published January 17, 2007
LAND O'LAKES - This fall, central Pasco can expect to see work started on
two major projects on the State Road 54 corridor.
The developers of the proposed Cypress Creek Town Center mall are paying
$6-million to extend County Road 54 south toward County Line Road, said Tom
Schmitz, vice president of the Richard E. Jacobs Group, the mall's
developer.
The new road, barely a mile long, will accompany the much-touted
$17-million widening of SR 54 between U.S. 41 and Interstate 75, which will
bring it from four to six lanes.
"We are designing both of these projects," Schmitz said.
"We aim to complete planning by June or July, and ... begin moving dirt
and site work in July or August."
Of the two projects, SR 54's widening has attracted more attention
because it is expected to relieve bottlenecks on one of the last remaining
four-lane stretches on the county's busiest east-west artery.
But residents on that 41/2-mile drag also have voiced fears that the
widening would make it tougher to get in and out of their subdivisions.
The new extension of County Road 54 to County Line Road might also bring
the same division of cheer to motorists and woe to residents.
The project will open with five lanes at SR 54, run south through the
mall's property and narrow to two lanes as it cuts through the King ranch
before it hits County Line Road.
Drivers would find bliss in another shortcut to and from New Tampa and
the Meadow Pointe development.
But neighbors had protested - without success - a similar proposed
shortcut at Northwood Palms Boulevard, which would connect County Line Road
to SR 56.
Naysayers warned it would create a "Daytona 500" of drivers
jamming the new road to bypass congestion on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and
I-75.
In any case, the two projects hang on the mall developer securing
environmental permits from the Southwest Florida Water Management District
and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The mall's developer and Swiftmud are facing a lawsuit from
environmentalists who charge that the regulator hasn't done enough to
protect wetlands in the development.
The lawsuit will be heard in March, but appeals might follow.
"We're very confident it's going to resolved in our favor,"
Schmitz said.
The Jacobs Group is proposing a fall 2008 opening for the mall, which is
also when it expects to complete the road improvements.
But if the mall project falls through, Pasco might have to figure out
another way to pay for these improvements, both of which are in their
long-range plans.
"If there's no (mall) development, the mitigation is not
necessary," said Tracy Daily, a planner for engineering firm
WilsonMiller who is working with the Jacobs Group on the proposed roads.
WilsonMiller also is working with the state Transportation Department on
neighbors' concerns, and the state is expected to take another month before
signing off on the SR 54 widening, Daily said.
Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development. He can be reached at (813)
909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.
Seven Oaks Commits To Widen Bruce B. Downs In Autumn
By KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 17, 2007
WESLEY CHAPEL - The developer of Seven Oaks expects to begin widening Bruce
B. Downs Boulevard this fall.
"I know everyone's anxious to have that road done," said Craig
Weber, general manager for Seven Oaks developer Crown Communities.
"Nobody's more anxious than me."
Seven Oaks is committed to widening Bruce B. Downs as part of its
development deal with Pasco County. That work was supposed to have started in
2005 but never got off the ground.
County officials shut down new development at Seven Oaks in the summer
after the development fell behind on its pledge to widen Bruce B. Downs
Boulevard to six lanes between County Line Road and State Road 54.
At the time, the developer had one month left on its 18-month construction
schedule and had nothing to show for it.
Since then, Seven Oaks has secured a $34 million line of credit to cover
the construction costs. That is almost six times the original price tag for
the project.
Last month, Seven Oaks and Wiregrass Ranch, its neighbor across Bruce B.
Downs, agreed to share the drainage for the widening, Weber said.
Bruce B. Downs, formerly the "Road to Nowhere," now carries more
than 15,000 cars a day, Department of Transportation traffic counts just north
of State Road 56 show.
With thousands of new homes and a hospital proposed for Wiregrass Ranch and
new retail developments planned for Seven Oaks, DOT traffic projections show
sharp increases in the coming years.
Wiregrass developers also are eager to see work begin on Bruce B. Downs.
The 5,100-acre ranch has been plagued by concerns that it will overwhelm Bruce
B. Downs and other regional highways as it develops. Those concerns have
hamstrung the project for months.
During a hearing last week, Wiregrass attorney Joel Tew offered to do the
work on Bruce B. Downs if Seven Oaks can't get it done.
"If Crown doesn't get going on Bruce B. Downs, we'll step up and do it
as a pipeline project, and you give us the money they owe you," Tew said.
Seven Oaks has submitted designs for a widened road to the DOT for review.
It's also waiting to hear back from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
must approve any wetland-filling on the project.
Beyond the $34 million for Bruce B. Downs, Seven Oaks still owes the DOT $6
million for unspecified projects along Bruce B. Downs. Weber said he hopes the
DOT will let that money go toward the widening work.
"I'd prefer to use that money for the road," Weber said.
DOT officials say the money Seven Oaks owes them is supposed to offset the
development's effect on Interstate 75.
To put that money toward Bruce B. Downs, Seven Oaks must show how that work
will reduce congestion on the interstate, said Bob Clifford, the DOT's
Tampa-based planning director.
"That will be difficult for them to do," Clifford said.
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
Residents concerned about
31st Street
Officials holding meeting to discuss
design, address concerns of locals.
BY SUSAN LATHAM CARR
STAR-BANNER
OCALA - Kellie Murphy lives on the south side of Southeast 31st Street in
the Cedar Hills II subdivision. She is going to lose her house when the road
is widened to four lanes from Southeast 19th Avenue to Southeast 36th Avenue
with an extension to State Road 464, also known as Maricamp Road.
"You want a fair deal," said Murphy. She and her husband have had
discussions with Marion County officials about the value of their home and
the adjoining vacant lot that they own on the two-lane road. So far, the
Murphys are not pleased with what is being offered for the modest ranch home
they share with their two children and dogs.
Murphy said she knows she is going to have to move but she has concerns
about being able to get a mortgage on a new home. She also is concerned that
she will lose the "Save Our Homes" 3-percent cap on property taxes
that she has on her current home.
Most of all, she hopes she can find an affordable home in the same area so
she can keep her daughter, Kaitlynn, 7, in South Ocala Elementary, where
Murphy also went to school.
"I do love this side of town," Murphy said. "But it's
definitely grown."
She is trying to look at the bright side. She said the traffic on the
two-lane road is heavy and the cars go very fast, a concern for a mother of
two children. She plans to get an independent appraisal. She also plans to
attend a public informational meeting Thursday evening.
The meeting will run from 5-7 p.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church, 2255 S.E.
38th St., Ocala. There will be a brief presentation at 5:30 p.m. County
staff members and the design consultant will be available for questions.
The road widening is the last leg in a joint city of Ocala and Marion County
project that has been controversial since 1991, when residents of
subdivisions along Southeast 31st Street first objected to the proposed
east-west corridor that is designed to take traffic off heavily-traveled
17th Street.
The city completed the first portion, two lanes with a median that can be
expanded to four lanes, from Southeast 19th Avenue to U.S. 441 (Pine
Avenue), including a bridge over the CSX railroad tracks.
The county is near completion on the western portion of the roadway, a
four-lane divided road, from U.S. 441 to Southwest 27th Avenue, also known
as Shady Road. That portion is expected to open fully in early March, County
Engineer Mounir Bouyounes said.
According to Nancy Swanger, the county's project manager for the final
section, the right-of-way acquisition is expected to cost $9 million,
construction $9 million and design slightly more than $1 million for the 2.5
mile project.
"We have already bought some lots and houses," Bouyounes said.
"We have been in contact with almost everybody that will be impacted by
this taking."
Residents in subdivisions along the last section have mixed feelings about
the project.
"Obviously, I am not happy about it," said Larry Martin, who lives
in the Avondale subdivision. "It will make it a much busier street than
it is now."
Delores Beynon, who lives in Citrus Park, is happy with the project.
"It's going to be good for people coming from the east on Maricamp to
take over to the mall," Beynon said. "Ocala is growing so fast. We
have such traffic problems. If it helps that in any way, I am for it."
But she did feel badly for the people who live right along the roadway.
"They might find it harder to get in and out of their driveways,"
Beynon said.
Ualthan Bigby, who works in the county's Information Technology Department,
knew when he bought his home in the Quail Hollow subdivision eight years ago
that Southeast 31st Street likely would be widened to four lanes.
"I am OK with it, especially since they have not asked me to sell this
property," Bigby said about his house on the north side of the road.
"It's left to see how the construction activities are going to affect
us. I anticipate we will have a lot of dust and noise."
He hopes the wall separating the subdivision from the roadway will muffle
the traffic noise.
"I guess when you live in a growing community that's a part of the
reality," Bigby said. "I can console myself that it will be easier
to get to the mall, eventually."
Susan Latham Carr may be reached at susan.carr@starbanner.com
or (352) 867-4156.
St. Joe Co.
terminates about 50
Reorganization hits employees in Tallahassee
By Steve Liner
DEMOCRAT BUSINESS EDITOR
The St. Joe Co. called it reorganization, but to about 50 Tallahassee
employees, it felt like being fired when the office was closed abruptly
around mid-day Tuesday.
“A very talented group of people were let go today by a good
company,” said Erin Ennis, who until Tuesday was a St. Joe Co. vice
president in Tallahassee.
Even though the reorganization process began in August, local employees
were unaware of the terminations until Tuesday's announcement.
Company spokesman Jerry Ray said the staff reductions were “the end of
a long road of reorganization” for his company and “absolutely the
last” job losses remaining in the company. Ray's office is at the
company's headquarters in Jacksonville.
St. Joe Co. projects involving thousands of acres in Northwest Florida
have attracted some of the area's most visible business leaders. In addition
to Ennis, a former board chair of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of
Commerce, Will Butler, formerly an international engineering executive and
Tallahassee real-estate developer, signed on. Butler also became a St. Joe
vice president. Both lost those jobs.
They were recruited by Everitt Drew, also a former chamber board chairman
and a partner in SouthGroup, a real-estate practice specializing in
commercial property. Drew resigned last week and did not return calls from
the Tallahassee Democrat on Tuesday.
The company's official filing of the reorganization with the Securities
and Exchange Commission Tuesday reported a 5-percent work-force reduction.
That would equate to a total reduction of about 60 employees, based on a
company profile completed by the Hoover's stock-analysis firm.
Ray would confirm neither the number nor location of the jobs eliminated.
Company has major local projects
For decades, the company and its predecessor, St. Joe Paper, have been
highly visible. The company is developing the 3,300-acre SouthWood mixed-use
community in southeast Tallahassee and a number of projects throughout the
area, notably in Franklin County.
The terminations will have some impact on different aspects of the
company's operations in Tallahassee, Ray said, but would not elaborate.
“Five months ago, St. Joe Co. began an important reorganization of our
company to create a strong foundation for the next 10 years of value
creation,” company CEO Peter S. Rummell said in a prepared statement.
Ray said the reorganization changes company managers from leading offices
designed to support particular products or sales efforts to placing all
projects in an area under central management.
The St. Joe Land Co., of which Drew was president and Ennis and Butler
vice presidents, was originally formed to sell land deemed unsuitable for
its developments. Instead, Drew's team changed the business model and
vision, beginning to develop larger-acreage home sites. The strategic change
gave rise to Rummell's announcement almost two years ago that the company
was altering its course to pursue a “new ruralism,” a series of planned
developments based on The St. Joe Land Co. model.
Mayor hopes firm can fill local housing need
Taking the helm of Tallahassee operations as vice president and general
manager of the company's new Capital Region is Des O'Neill. Rummell said
O'Neill will lead business activity in the Tallahassee area, including
SouthWood.
“This is an environmentally and culturally great company,”
Tallahassee Mayor John Marks said when told of the news by the Democrat.
“We want them to stay here and thrive.”
“I think they overbuilt,” he said, referring to the SouthWood
development. “If there is any way St. Joe can help us meet our work-force
housing needs, we want to encourage that. Whether this fits with their plan,
I don't know, but their major development at SouthWood is where thousands of
state employees work.”
News of the reorganization plan's finalization did not affect company
stock prices before markets closed in New York on Tuesday. St. Joe Co.
stock, listed as JOE, opened at $56.09 and closed at $57.19.
Water-pump ruling leaves state in limbo
Requiring permits to move polluted water could halt Everglades
restoration, critics say.
Brian Skoloff
the Associated Press
January 15, 2007
WEST PALM BEACH -- If not for the pumps, canals and dikes that dissect South
Florida, much of the region would be under several feet of water part of the
year.
Towns along the south rim of Lake Okeechobee would be inundated during
downpours. To prevent such catastrophes on the northern edge of the
Everglades, state water managers move water back and forth through channels in
and out of the lake and have done so for decades.
But a federal judge's ruling in Florida that the U.S. Clean Water Act requires
the state to obtain permits before pumping contaminated water from farmland
and urban runoff into Lake Okeechobee has put state flood-control operations
-- and similar programs across the country -- in limbo. It could affect a
multibillion federal and state effort to restore the Everglades, critics say.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now says it may seek an amendment to
the act, arguing that the Florida ruling and others have created confusion
about when and where permits are required. Some judges are interpreting the
law in a manner Congress never intended, EPA contends.
"In the last several years, courts have offered very different and
conflicting interpretations of the Clean Water Act, and we think it's
important to add certainty and clarity," said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's
assistant administrator for water.
The EPA's latest push for Clean Water Act clarification came after the
December court ruling over Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake
in the contiguous U.S.
Several groups, including the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, which considers the
lake and the Everglades part of its ancestral home, sued the South Florida
Water Management District, claiming that back-pumping of polluted water into
the lake was putting the entire restoration project in jeopardy.
U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga's decision concluded a yearlong trial
and threatens a rule proposed by the EPA in June that would allow state water
managers nationwide to skip having to obtain permits when transferring water,
no matter how polluted it is. Permits would still be required if the transfer
process might introduce additional pollutants.
If Altonaga's ruling stands, and the EPA still pushes through its rule,
flood-control projects across the country could be put on hold or face suits
from environmentalists.
"The national implications of this case are very significant and
important for water quality nationwide," said Joan Mulhern, counsel for
the nonprofit Earthjustice law firm, which represented parties suing Florida
water managers.
The act requires a permit for "the construction or operation of
facilities, which may result in any discharge into . . . navigable
waters." But it also gives some leeway to states to approve projects
without permits.
Water managers say the method is crucial to keep cities from being inundated
and that a lengthy permitting process would slow Everglades-restoration
efforts and could halt development in places.
At issue is whether permits are needed to simply move the water. Carol Wehle,
executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, contends
Congress never intended for the Clean Water Act to cover such movements, but
rather govern pollutants coming from industrial sources.
"Our contention is we shouldn't have to get a water-quality permit
because the source of the pollution is not the district," Wehle said. If
permits were required, Wehle predicted "our entire flood-control system
would shut down."
Even Judge Altonaga acknowledged in her ruling there was no quick fix to the
decades-old practice.
Robert Coker, vice president of U.S. Sugar Corp., which farms near Lake
Okeechobee and was a party in the lawsuit, predicted "utter chaos across
the country" if the judge's ruling stands.
What fate awaits wild areas: paved or saved?
Counties are bidding to save land, but growth has made it a tough race
for the top price.
Etan Horowitz and Steven D. Barnes
Sentinel Staff Writers
January 15, 2007
Anyone who has lived in Central Florida very long has had the experience:
You're driving along a familiar road when all of a sudden you see something
that wasn't there last time.
Like workers putting in a subdivision. Or a strip mall.
And what you don't see anymore are the trees and brush that once provided
habitat for critters, scenery for commuters and potential for parks, trails
and other forms of recreation for everyone.
County governments are trying to save thousands of environmentally sensitive
acres from an asphalt future by buying key parcels, but skyrocketing land
costs are pushing many properties out of reach.
Preserving land in Orange, Brevard and Seminole counties has become so
difficult that officials are leery of revealing which properties they have
their eyes on. They're worried that if their wish list gets out, it will
drive prices even higher.
Sometimes, the slow-moving nature of government can seal a property's fate.
And unlike the land speculators and developers cashing in on growth,
counties are often bound by appraisals that are well below the asking price.
"Land is worth what somebody else is willing to pay for it," said
Glenn Storch, a prominent Daytona Beach land-use attorney.
Volusia County has preserved the most land locally: 26,637 acres since its
land-buying program began in 2001. But with land values escalating during
the past few years, officials have had some properties slip through their
fingers. For instance, Volusia was eyeing a 4,700-acre property near Lake
Helen that a group of investors bought in May 2005 for $13 million. About a
month later, the county had the property appraised and offered the owners
$16 million.
"They wanted $46 million, and we said no," said Rob Walsh, program
manager of Volusia Forever, the county's land-buying program. "Their
asking price is out of this world."
J. Christy Wilson, an Orlando attorney representing the owners, said they
had the land appraised at $53 million. He said the owners have not decided
what to do, but developing the land is a possibility.
Lake County missed out on a 30-acre property along Dora Canal in Tavares
because negotiations with the landowner broke off. The county had the
property appraised at $391,000 but only offered the owners $300,000.
"If they would have offered us the appraised value, we probably would
have sold it to them and everybody would have been happy," said Jim
Ellrodt, one of the property's co-owners.
Now the property is listed at $800,000, and Ellrodt is looking to develop
the portion that fronts U.S. Highway 19.
David Hansen, Lake's public-lands manager, said the offer was fair and the
county might have gone higher if the owners had made a counteroffer, but
none ever came.
In Seminole, land preservation was dealt a blow after voters in November
defeated a referendum for a 20-cent increase in property taxes for every
$1,000 of property value for the next 10 years. The new tax would have
generated $70 million that would have paid to add about 4,000 acres to the
county's Natural Lands program as well as complete about 70 miles of
wilderness trails.
"It couldn't be any worse," said Michelle Thatcher, chairwoman of
Friends of Natural Lands and Trails. The county has about $1.5 million left
from the last referendum and expects to receive an additional $1.4 million
from the state. But most of that money -- about $2.1 million -- is earmarked
for improvements at existing properties, leaving very little for new
acquisitions. "Every day that we don't have money to buy land is going
to be a burden on the taxpayers of the future."
Bob Guido, a senior project manager at the Trust for Public Land, a
nonprofit land-preservation group, said there are things governments can do
to make acquiring land easier. His organization speeds up acquisitions by
purchasing a property and holding it while a local government lines up
funding. This prevents the property's value from escalating.
To make costs more manageable, counties can partner with the state and other
government entities such as water-management districts, which have their own
land-buying programs. Another strategy is to allow a landowner to develop
part of a property at a higher density in exchange for preserving the rest
of it.
Some county officials think the slowdown in the region's housing market
could help them buy more land by spurring landowners to lower their asking
prices.
"When the market was very hot and a developer could come in and offer
above an appraisal price, we couldn't compete," said Randy Matthews,
Osceola's environmental-lands coordinator. "But the developers are not
banging down the doors anymore."
Etan Horowitz can be reached at ehorowitz@orlandosentinel.com or
386-851-7915. Steven D. Barnes can be reached at 386-851-7911 or sbarnes@orlandosentinel.com.
Channels For Change
By MIKE SALINERO The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 14, 2007
The Hillsborough River is sick.
Sparkling waters that dazzled early explorers are now fouled by
oxygen-destroying nutrients and harmful bacteria. Described by a 19th-century
traveler as "fresh down to its mouth," the lower river is now salty
much of the year.
Restoring the river will require tough choices, some of which will be made
this year. In the next few months, state water authorities will try to address
the lack of fresh water flow into the lower 10 miles of the river. This
summer, the state will roll out the first of several river cleanup
initiatives.
These actions are aimed at restoring healthy habitat for fish and other
marine life in a river suffering the ravages of urbanization.
A healthy river will also present a picturesque setting for Tampa's
multimillion-dollar Riverwalk, a 2 1/2 -mile pedestrian walkway from Tampa
Heights to Channelside. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the Riverwalk will
unite restaurants and other commercial ventures with public projects such as
the new art museum.
"We're really blessed to have this jewel of a river running through
the city," said Lee Hoffman, who heads Tampa's Riverwalk effort.
"It's really something we haven't taken advantage of. It's time to do
that."
But the river is about more than prosperity. For many Hillsborough County
residents and visitors, it offers a sliver of serenity in a chaotic world.
"It's very important to me and to my life," said Shelton Harrison
Sr., who fishes the river near downtown at least once a week. "It's
somewhere to go as far as being peaceful."
Make no mistake: The river isn't dead, not even terminal. Anglers still
snag snook, redfish and speckled trout below the dam at Rowlett Park. Manatees
still flock to the warming waters of Sulphur Springs.
In some respects, the river's water quality has improved in the past
quarter-century, thanks mainly to construction of advanced sewer treatment
plants in Hillsborough County and at Hooker's Point in Tampa. No longer does
excrement float upriver with incoming tides.
Yet much remains to be done. State and federal environmental agencies have
designated the lower 10 miles of the river "impaired" because it
doesn't meet water-quality standards.
The amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, necessary for fish and other
creatures to breathe, is too low. Levels of fecal bacteria and nutrients, such
as phosphorus and nitrogen, are too high. Tributaries to the river's upper 44
miles also fall short of state water-quality standards.
It has been 182 years since the Army built a frontier outpost on the
Hillsborough River called Fort Brooke. Since then, the river and the city's
fate and fortune have been inextricably intertwined.
Now the river and city are entering a critical phase.
'Minimum Flow' Sought For Dam
It took decades for the river to reach its present infirmity.
As Hillsborough County's population grew from 490,000 residents in 1970 to
more than 1 million now, pavement and rooftops replaced pastures and orange
groves. The land lost much of its absorptive and filtering capacity.
Pollutants, including fertilizers and herbicides from new lawns, now rush
largely unfettered into the river and its tributaries.
As Tampa's population has grown, more water has been drawn from the
reservoir formed where the river pools behind the dam 10 miles upriver from
Tampa Bay. Several dams have blocked the river here since the 1890s, first for
hydroelectric power, then to supply most of Tampa's drinking water.
Before 1970, it was a rare day when no water flowed over the dam. Since
then, no-flow days have averaged about 140 a year.
During those low-flow periods, saltwater from Tampa Bay moves upriver to
the dam. Many tiny mollusks that live in the river mud and provide food for
fish can't tolerate the high salinity. Some juvenile fish that need mostly
fresh water during their early life spans avoid the river or die.
"The nursery doesn't produce fish and other critters like it
should," said Phil Compton, a spokesman for Friends of the River, an
environmental group. "The good news is we know exactly what we need to do
to bring it back."
Compton's group is pushing the state for a guaranteed "minimum
flow" of fresh water over the dam to the lower river. Scientists with the
Tampa Bay Estuary Program, a nonprofit agency dedicated to restoring Tampa
Bay, say more fresh water is necessary to re-create an ecology that benefits
the Bay as well as the river.
"These unions of sea and stream are among the most fertile junctions
on Earth," the agency says on its Web site.
The fight over a required minimum flow promises to be contentious.
Scientists at the Southwest Florida Water Management District recently
released a draft report recommending to the district board that a continuous
flow of at least 20 cubic feet per second, or 13 million gallons a day, be
released over the dam. The city of Tampa, which has resisted giving up any
water from its reservoir for a minimum flow, only recently agreed to the 13
million gallons per day minimum.
Other groups, including the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection
Commission, say 13 million gallons per day is not enough to restore a fresh
water zone for miles below the dam or to improve low levels of oxygen in that
zone.
The final decision will be made by the water district's governing board in
the spring.
"It really comes down to what you want the river to look like in the
future," said Ed Sherwood, a biologist with the county. "Do you want
the river to look like an enclosed lagoon or a fully functioning tidal
river?"
Upper River Dropped From Cleanup List
Florida has been slow to clean up the Hillsborough River and other polluted
waterways.
In the late 1990s, Earth Justice, an environmental law group, filed a
federal lawsuit charging the state with violating the 1972 Clean Water Act.
The act requires the state to identify and clean up its polluted waters.
As part of the lawsuit settlement, Florida and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency agreed on 712 polluted waterways that were to be cleaned.
The Hillsborough River was on the list for several "impairments,"
including nutrients, fecal coliform bacteria and low dissolved oxygen.
After Jeb Bush was elected governor, however, the state dropped about 200
waterways off the "impaired waters" list. The upper Hillsborough
River was one of them.
The EPA forced the state to return 80 of the waterways to the list, but
most of the upper Hillsborough River was not among them. A lawsuit to restore
the entire list is in the courts.
In the meantime, the state is working with local government agencies and
agricultural groups to set pollution limits for the lower Hillsborough River,
which remains on the list of impaired waters, and its polluted tributaries.
The limits are the highest volumes of pollutants that a water body can absorb
and still meet its designated use, such as for fishing and swimming. For
dissolved oxygen, the limit would be the lowest amount that could support
healthy fish populations.
After the limits are set, the local agencies will develop cleanup plans. In
July, the Hillsborough Basin cleanup team will submit a draft plan to the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection to address fecal coliform
bacteria contamination in the lower river. As part of the plan, local
governments will agree to certain cleanup projects.
"We have to give EPA and DEP a road map that says here are the
projects we've agreed upon, here's the timetable, here's how much it's going
to cost, here's what the load reduction is going to be," said Scott
Emery, a University of South Florida biologist working with the basin cleanup
group.
Preservation Can Save Homes
The Hillsborough River emerges out of the Green Swamp, a vast liquid
repository covering more than 800 square miles in Polk and Pasco counties.
Winding through a landscape of nearly undisturbed splendor, the upper river
offers a startling contrast to its lower, urbanized branch.
On a recent day, Kenneth Kramer dipped a paddle into the dark waters
downriver from John B. Sargeant Memorial Park in northeast Hillsborough
County. The canoe slipped along so quietly that a great blue heron less than
10 feet away barely moved at its approach. Dozens of white ibises seemed to
walk on water as they hunted grubs among the cow lilies and light-green
pennywort carpeting the marsh.
The Timucua Indians called this river Mocoso. More than 400 years ago, they
plied its waters in dugout canoes from Flint Creek down to Tampa Bay. They
were fierce warriors who clashed with Spanish conquistadors captained by
Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto.
This pacific stretch of the river probably looks much like it did during
Timucuan times. Cypress, live oak and sweet gum trees crowd the banks, shading
the coffee-colored water with moss-draped limbs. Although parakeets,
ivory-billed woodpeckers and other species from long ago are gone, snowy
egrets still strut slowly in the shallows, and anhingas perch on dead logs
drying their wings. The only jarring connection to modernity is the occasional
plane flying over from Vandenberg Airport.
Kramer has paddled this and many other rivers for 40 years. He remembers
staring face to face with a trembling fawn along this stretch. On another
occasion, he passed a wild turkey that ignored him to concentrate on several
nearby hens.
"This 4 1/2 -mile stretch of river, day in and day out, has more
wildlife than any place I've paddled," Kramer said.
Kramer was a land manager for the Southwest Florida Water Management
District for 26 years. During his tenure, the district bought 16,000 acres
around the river north of Tampa to hold back floodwaters and protect the
watershed.
The land served its purpose during torrential rains in the winter of
1997-98. Kramer remembers the river rising to within a few feet of the bottom
of Morris Bridge. The surrounding swamps filled, absorbing waters that could
have flooded homes downstream.
The floodplain is just as valuable for its conservation value, Kramer said.
Five parks on water district land allow the public to fish, canoe and hike
this relatively wild river.
"It's important that we bring young people out and show them this kind
of thing," he said. "If you don't know it and understand it, you're
not going to preserve it."
It May Be Swimmable Some Day
Ebbing and flowing through the heart of Tampa, the lower river maintains
its grace and beauty despite a continual in-flow of trash, oil and other urban
filth.
Gordon Leslie and Sherwood, scientists for the Hillsborough County
Environmental Protection Commission, surveyed the lower river recently from a
slow-moving skiff. An eclectic mix of housing lines the bank, from
Mediterranean-style mansions to peeling wood-frame homes with rickety docks.
Concrete sea walls and riprap protect many homes from erosion. Other areas,
Leslie points out, have natural vegetation. That's ideal because it holds the
soil together, filters pollutants and provides home for birds and fish.
Leslie said he disagrees with a city official who once described the lower
river as an industrial canal.
"You've got a valuable ecological habitat here," he said.
The lower river is in transition, Leslie said. Vast improvements have been
made since the early and mid-20th century when raw sewage and dirt from
hundreds of construction sites flowed into the river and Bay.
In her 1972 book, "River of the Golden Ibis," Gloria Jahoda wrote
about a river where "too many gushing pipes spewed effluents into the
channel down which floated water hyacinths in a tide of bacteria to the
sea."
"The Hillsborough is still a beautiful river," Jahoda wrote,
"but for many species, the waters of its lower reaches meant death as
early as 1900."
The lower river's water quality has improved since then, thanks chiefly to
construction of the Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant at
Hooker's Point in 1979. The plant dramatically improved water quality by
removing solid wastes and reducing nutrients and bacteria in the treated sewer
water. Sea grasses, which had been disappearing from the Bay, began to regrow.
Snook, redfish and speckled trout once again came upriver, as did
fresh-water-seeking manatees.
Cleaning up sewage discharges was important, but it was only a first step,
Leslie said. The river still suffers excessive nutrient loading, largely from
fertilizers, high levels of bacteria and low dissolved oxygen.
As they chugged upriver from Lowry Park, Leslie pointed out countless
stormwater culverts that funnel litter, mud, fertilizers, pesticides, oil and
gas into the river.
"In decades past, the main concern was flooding," Leslie said.
"The idea was to move the rainwater that fell on city streets as rapidly
as possible to the river."
Sherwood, a fisheries biologist, pointed out Jack Crevalle fish swimming
near the boat. Seeing a saltwater species nearly eight miles upriver from the
Bay illustrates the dearth of fresh water flow in the lower river.
Leslie and Sherwood say the prescriptions for healing the river are
straightforward: Cleaning up stormwater, restoring a more natural shoreline
and increasing fresh water flow over the Rowlette Park dam.
"It's probably going to take years to recover," Leslie said.
"But getting the fresh water over the dam and cleaning up the stormwater
coming into the river should get us there."
Leslie and other scientists say the river will never regain the sparkling
clarity that Spanish conquistadors marveled at in the 1500s. It can, however,
become a vibrant nursery for fish and a clean, healthy waterway where people
can swim without fear of getting sick.
Whether Hillsborough County residents and their political leaders are ready
to commit the money and other resources to make that happen soon will be
determined.
Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.
A Balancing Act
By MIKE SALINERO The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 15, 2007
Hundreds of years ago, a pristine Hillsborough River poured fresh water
into salty Tampa Bay. That magical mix of fresh water and saltwater formed an
estuary where juvenile fish grew and crabs and oysters were bountiful.
"The river is fresh down to its mouth and abounds with fish
innumerable," wrote S.S. Seymour, an American adventurer who visited the
area in the 1820s.
Today, oysters are mostly gone from Hillsborough Bay, where the river
empties into Tampa Bay. Fish and crabs still live there but are no longer
abundant. A big reason for that is the diminished flow of fresh water to the
lower river and out into the Bay.
In the next few months, state water authorities will address the lack of
fresh water flow into the lower 10 miles of the river.
The Hillsborough River is Tampa's main source of drinking water. As the
city's population has grown, so has the amount of water drawn from the river,
leaving less and less to flow over the dam at Rowlett Park.
In 2006, a year when rainfall in the Tampa Bay area was about 9.6 inches
below normal, there were 290 "no-flow" days at the dam.
Most scientists agree that restoring a more natural flow of fresh water to
the Bay could again make the river a prolific nursery for all types of fish.
The question is: How much fresh water is enough?
The city says it will fight any attempt to increase the minimum flow of
fresh water at the expense of the city's water supply. That may put the city
in conflict with Hillsborough County scientists who want enough fresh water
delivered to the lower river to restore a healthy ecology. The conflict could
end up in court this year.
Homeowners Have Stepped In
Florida law calls for the state's water management districts to set minimum
flows for rivers and streams. The idea is to prevent water withdrawals that
cause significant environmental harm.
In 1999, the Southwest Florida Water Management District set a minimum flow
at the Hillsborough River dam of 10 cubic feet per second, or about 6.5
million gallons a day.
The decision angered environmental groups that charged that it was based on
politics, not science. Proof, they said, was a 1998 letter that Tampa Mayor
Dick Greco wrote to the chairman of the water management district. Greco said
water from the city reservoir behind the dam could not be used for a minimum
flow to the lower river because it would endanger the public health and safety
of 440,000 water customers.
Before Greco's letter, the city persuaded legislators to make changes to
the law saying minimum flow rules shouldn't apply to rivers with significant
alterations, such as dams and sea walls.
A group of homeowners, calling themselves Friends of the River, hired a
lawyer and filed a challenge to the district's minimum flow decision in state
administrative law court. Before the challenge could be heard, however, the
city and the water district offered a settlement.
The two sides agreed the district would study the lower river for five
years, then set a new minimum flow. In the meantime, the city agreed to pump
water from Sulphur Springs to the base of the dam to provide a minimum flow of
about 6.5 million gallons a day.
Phil Compton, a spokesman for Friends of the River, said that if the group
hadn't challenged the flow, the city "would have finalized the permanent
amputation of the lower Hillsborough River."
New Recommendation Disputed
The water district report, published late last summer, recommended a
minimum flow of 13 million gallons every day. That's twice the current minimum
flow but not nearly the 19.5 million gallons per day or more the Friends of
the River and the county government wanted.
Water district scientists said a flow of 13 million gallons per day would
create a nearly fresh water zone directly below the dam, then a gradual
increase in saltiness toward Sulphur Springs, just more than two miles
downriver.
The report drew fire from the county Environmental Protection Commission
and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. They said the recommended flow is not
enough to create a complete "salinity gradient," or gradual decrease
in saltiness, from brackish water at the mouth of the river to a completely
fresh water zone just below the dam.
"Fish that live in the Bay or live in the river may need those
different salinity zones at different times of their lives," said Holly
Greening, lead scientist at the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Fish Would Choke, Critics Say
County and estuary program scientists were also troubled that the report
settles for an average dissolved oxygen goal of 2.5 milligrams per liter, half
the amount state law calls for as a minimum in a healthy river.
County scientists say their research shows that flushing the lower river
with fresh water raises the dissolved oxygen levels.
Fish, like humans and other animals, need oxygen to live. When dissolved
oxygen in the water gets too low, it's like pinching the tube that feeds
bubbles into an aquarium: The fish die.
Martin Kelly, the water district's lead scientist on the minimum flow
study, said most fish that thrive at 4 milligrams per liter can also survive
at 2.5 milligrams per liter.
County scientists and environmentalists disagree. The state standard for a
healthy river is a minimum dissolved oxygen level of 4.
Finding Water To Meet Demands
A final decision on a minimum flow is due this spring. If the water
district board approves the 13 million gallons per day, Hillsborough County
may challenge the rule in state administrative law court.
Steve Daignault, Tampa's director of public works and utilities services,
said the city hasn't decided whether it will go to court to defend the new
minimum flow.
Brad Baird, director of the Tampa Water Department, said the city will have
a hard time finding enough water to meet even the flow requirement of 13
million gallons per day. Dry weather this winter forced the city to buy water
from the regional water supplier, Tampa Bay Water.
Baird said the city might pipe water from the Harney Canal to the lower
river. The canal connects the river above the dam to the Tampa Bypass Canal.
The city is also investigating a proposal to connect a closed spring basin
called Blue Sink, in the Forest Hills neighborhood in northwest Tampa, to the
lower river.
Compton argues that the city should increase conservation efforts. In May,
the city cut lawn watering from twice a week to once a week, a measure that
saves about 14 million gallons a day.
Baird, however, said no amount of conservation will free up enough water
from the Hillsborough River to supply both Tampa's potable water needs and a
minimum flow.
"Even with saving that water, we were still not discharging water over
the dam," Baird said. "We need to meet the minimum flow requirement
using water from sources other than the reservoir."
A Dirty Job
By MIKE SALINERO The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 16, 2007
The Hillsborough River should have been cleaned up years ago.
The federal Clean Water Act of 1972 called for states to identify their
polluted waterways, then develop cleanup plans.
But Florida and other states ignored the law. The task was too big, too
expensive and politically unpalatable. Making rivers and bays safe for
swimming and fishing again meant cracking down on politically powerful
polluters such as paper mills, municipal sewer plants and factory farms.
As a result, the Hillsborough River and other state waterways remain
polluted.
Now, pushed into action by lawsuits filed by environmental groups, state
and local leaders are readying the first cleanup plans in the Hillsborough
River watershed.
One of the first waterways slated for action is the lower 10 miles of the
river, where bacteria from human and animal waste exceed state standards. In
July, the Hillsborough Basin cleanup team will submit a draft plan to the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection to address fecal coliform
bacteria contamination in the lower river. As part of the plan, local
governments will agree to certain cleanup projects.
Cleanup plans for five creeks in the watershed are also due this year:
Black Water Creek, New River and Flint Creek, all of which empty into the
Hillsborough River; and Sparkman Branch and Baker Creek in north-central
Hillsborough County.
The plans could include stormwater treatment, locating and fixing leaking
septic tanks and sewer mains, and educating the public to limit the
fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides used on lawns and gardens.
In a separate program, farmers are signing voluntary agreements to manage
the waste from cattle, fertilizers and other chemicals.
Environmentalists, who have spent years in court trying to make Florida
officials adhere to the Clean Water Act, see the recent flurry of meetings and
planning as another delay.
"It's all a paper dance. There is no cleanup action," said James
May of the Mid-Atlantic Environmental Law Center.
Local scientists, however, insist the plans will work because of pressure
from state and federal governments.
"I think this process has the best chance of bringing all the parties
to the table because there are some regulatory teeth behind it," said
Holly Greening, chairwoman of the Hillsborough River basin cleanup group and
lead scientist at the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Cities and counties that don't reduce their pollution could be hit with
stricter stormwater discharge permits from the state, forcing them to spend
millions on treatment systems.
"It's not just a voluntary effort," Greening said. "It's
something the cities and counties need to be a part of and need to take very
seriously."
River In Cleveland Caught Fire
In the mid-1990s, environmental groups filed lawsuits in an effort to make
the federal government enforce the Clean Water Act. Federal courts ordered the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop cleanup plans for waters in 20
states, including Florida. The EPA also settled lawsuits calling for cleanup
plans in an additional six states.
The EPA and the states were supposed to identify a list of "impaired
waters," then set pollution limits. The limits are the maximum amount of
a pollutant a waterway can absorb and still meet the state's water quality
standards for fishing and swimming.
Some progress had occurred before the lawsuits. After Cleveland's Cuyahoga
River caught fire in 1969, the federal government forced big industrial
polluters to clean up their discharges. Fish and wildlife started returning to
waters that had been industrial cesspools.
In the Tampa Bay area, the 1987 Grizzle-Figg bill, named after two local
legislators, forced sewer plants to upgrade their treatment systems. Sea
grasses in Tampa Bay, which had been devastated by the waste, began to grow
again.
Cleaning up the industrial discharges helped, but the waters still weren't
healthy. Runoff from growing urban and suburban development still washed into
rivers, lakes and streams.
In the late 1990s, a lawsuit filed by Earth Justice, an environmental law
group, forced Florida to identify 712 impaired waters, but nothing happened on
the next step, setting pollution limits, for seven years.
Environmentalists blame Gov. Jeb Bush's administration for stalling the
cleanup. In 1999, the state dropped 200 waterways from the impaired waters
list, including much of the Hillsborough River. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency later forced the state to add back 80 of the waterways, but
most of the upper 44 miles of the Hillsborough River was not reinstated.
In what environmentalists saw as further delaying tactics, the state threw
out decades' worth of water monitoring data and ordered years' worth of new
tests on all the state's waters.
State environmental regulators justified their actions by saying the old
data were flawed. They said the cleanup would take massive investments in time
and money, so the effort should be concentrated on the most polluted waters,
identified by using the best possible science.
Cooperation Is Key
Early last year, the state started convening local scientists and
government agencies to work on cleanup plans.
It won't be easy. Every hard rain carries pollution into the river and
connected creeks from thousands of yards, parking lots, farms and golf
courses. More than a million people live in the river's 950-square-mile
watershed, and most of them contribute to the river's pollution in some way.
Some of the solutions, such as cleaning up stormwater and replacing leaking
septic and sewer systems, will cost millions of dollars and may hit taxpayers
in the wallet.
"I have laid awake at night for three or four years thinking about
this," said Tampa stormwater director Chuck Walter. "This is what we
live and breathe. … This is one of the biggest things we have on the
table."
Local officials have been trying to chip away at the problem. For instance,
a recent stormwater project at Lowry Park Zoo now captures most of the animal
waste that was contributing to high bacteria levels in the river.
Tampa requires new developments on the river to put in stormwater treatment
systems. The city is also spending millions of dollars on new sewer mains and
pump stations to stop overflows and leaks.
Roy Mazur, stormwater manager for Hillsborough County, said his department
now includes wetlands in flood-control projects. Wetland plants absorb
nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the stormwater before it is
funneled into lakes or streams. Nutrients fuel algae growth, which lowers
oxygen in the water.
"We're trying to take little chunks out of this now," Mazur said,
"because if we wait, we're going to get a bomb dropped on us."
Hillsborough County is also considering widening from 30 feet to 50 feet
the buffers that protect waterways from developments. Developers, which have
to give up the land for the buffers, oppose the idea.
Officials say they hope to lessen the financial burden of cleanup programs
by cooperating with other agencies. Such an effort is under way in east
Hillsborough County where the Southwest Florida Water Management District is
constructing a 60-acre stormwater treatment system.
In addition to wetlands, the system will use aluminum sulfate to coagulate
pollutants so they settle to the bottom of ponds. Plant City will operate the
aluminum sulfate treatment, and Hillsborough County will dredge the pollutants
out of the ponds and replant the wetland plants every two to five years.
Scott Emery, a biologist working on the cleanup, said the river and its
tributaries may not be restored for at least 10 years. The project is so
complex, he said, that it shouldn't be hurried.
"You don't want to make a multimillion-dollar mistake with public
dollars," Emery said.
Venice news briefs: City's growth issue may be
put on ballot
SARASOTA COUNTY -- The County Commission will meet Jan. 24 to decide whether
to put a growth-control question affecting North Port in a countywide
referendum.
Commissioners met Friday to discuss the referendum, but ended up postponing
their vote. Four of the five commissioners seemed to be in favor of putting
the issue on the ballot.
Sarasota County and North Port are locked in a dispute over whether a
referendum is necessary if the two parties approve a joint planning
agreement.
The parties will meet Tuesday to discuss the planning agreement.
Investigation into land deals gains support
David Damron and Christopher Sherman
Sentinel Staff Writers
January 13, 2007
Local leaders Friday urged state investigators to aggressively probe land
deals involving the region's embattled expressway authority, with some
renewing calls for stronger financial-disclosure rules for expressway
officials.
"Restoring public trust in the [Orlando-Orange County] Expressway
Authority is my top priority," Orange Mayor Rich Crotty, an
expressway-board member, said in a written statement.
Crotty said he welcomed news that an investigation by Orange-Osceola State
Attorney Lawson Lamar has now widened to examine land deals near the Western
Beltway as well as bond sales used to pay for expressway projects.
"The more oversight, the better," Crotty said.
Other officials went further, saying the widening probe points to a need for
tougher disclosure rules.
"It's not clear the public has the information they need to know about
the land holdings and conflicts" board members or other toll-agency
officials may have, said Orange County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs, a
longtime proponent for tougher ethics rules.
"The critical thing [about disclosure requirements] is that appointed
people should have as much or more than elected officials," said Orange
County Commissioner Linda Stewart, who recently was elected chairperson of
MetroPlan Orlando's regional transportation-planning board. "I'm
encouraged that there's going to be a very thorough review on this."
When reached for comment, some members of the toll authority were more
muted, either declining to discuss the widening investigation or referring
reporters to written statements.
Authority member Orlando Evora declined comment.
A written statement Friday from the agency read, "The Expressway
Authority has cooperated fully with the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's
Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and will continue to
assist them in their investigations. We have provided, and will continue to
provide, any information the agencies request that is in our
possession."
Board member Arthur Lee said he was unaware of the probe's details and would
not comment. Lee's term on the board is up, but he has not decided whether
he wants to serve another term. "That's the governor's decision,"
he said.
An official for Broad & Cassel, the law firm that handled many of the
agency's land acquisitions, said the investigation will show that the
dealings were proper.
"We are often asked to provide this type of information to various
agencies for review. Each time, two things are apparent: the process OOCEA
[the expressway authority] employs to acquire land is transparent, and the
process is effective," said a written statement from Broad & Cassel
Chief Operating Officer Connie Smekens. "We are confident that the
records will once again clearly show that to be true."
Meanwhile, the expressway authority released a letter Friday from its lawyer
to its former marketing firm Pecora & Blexrud demanding the firm repay
the authority $336,461 by next Friday.
Pecora & Blexrud was fired in October after expressway officials said
the firm had billed for work that wasn't done and had given "bad
public-relations advice."
"Certain invoices for 'outside expenses' were not billed to the
Authority at the Consultant's 'actual cost' and as such, Consultant received
and retained money from the Authority to which the Consultant was not
entitled under the Contract," read the letter, dated Jan. 11.
The letter also charges that the firm defaulted on its contract by not
maintaining and giving access to required records. The records are being
sought as part of a special audit by an outside lawyer for the expressway
authority of the $1.7 million Pecora & Blexrud marketing contract.
Company President Ron Pecora was out of town and had not seen the letter but
said, "It doesn't really mean much to me because our attorneys will
respond to any of that."
"We've given them all of the information from records that comply with
the contract," said Pecora's attorney, Russell Troutman.
"I have no idea how they've arrived at the $336,000," Troutman
said. Pecora & Blexrud contend it is still owed money for work
performed.
David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-5311. Christopher Sherman can be reached at 407-650-6361 or csherman@orlandosentinel.com.
Amid oaks, elms, he's home
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published January 15, 2007
NEW PORT RICHEY - Rick Feagley found his bliss, and a little piece of the
Florida Everglades, in his own back yard.
A little more than a decade ago, Feagley paid $42,000 for a small
concrete-block house in the Spring Lake Estates subdivision off Trouble
Creek Road.
The house and terraced gardens overlook what he estimates to be a
1,000-year-old sinkhole - essentially, a primordial body of water that's
about 1 1/2 acres wide and ringed by moss-draped oaks, cypress, palms,
hickory and Chinese elms.
Late on a winter afternoon, it's a backyard hideaway so beautiful that it
feels like a time warp - a place that outlived the subdivisions, strip malls
and traffic gridlock that have come to define 21st century Florida.
"It's really, really peaceful here - another world," said
Feagley, 53, who works in mosquito control for Pasco County. "At night,
there are so many frogs and crickets that you can't hear U.S. 19. It's
totally quiet, like you're miles out in the country."
Tall and lanky, with the easy disposition of someone who spends his life
outdoors, Feagley roams his property with a pet squirrel, Rascal, on his
shoulder, and a rescued raccoon, Rocky, trailing at his heels. Over the
years, he has transformed his back yard into a room with a view: a handmade
cedar deck ringed with burly, hand-carved rails overlooks the dramatic
sinkhole. Paths fashioned from antique brick he has collected wind down to
the water, edged by railings built from old terra-cotta sewer pipes. He made
a hot tub from a stainless steel cow-milking bin (years ago, he milked cows
at a local dairy) and built a finch aviary from smoked-glass storefront
windows he salvaged from the old Zayre store. Staghorn ferns and other
Florida-friendly plants he collected and replanted over the years grow in
lush abundance. Small seating areas offer visitors alcoves to relax and
enjoy the view during the day; and cold evenings are warmed by a cozy,
natural fire pit built into the side of the small cliff.
Along one path, Feagley tucked one of his hand-hewn wooden sculptures, an
eagle with elegant, elongated wings that look like they are buoyed by wind.
In his spare time, when he's not playing basketball or fishing, he carves
exquisitely complex cedar sculpture. Though he has no artistic training, his
work is sophisticated and impressive. An outstretched, abstract ballerina
with elongated limbs arches her back as if she's about to do a flip, long
hair trailing behind her. A powerful tarpon, taller than a man, is carved
with intricately detailed scales. A panther sports the well-formed hands of
a human. A jumping dolphin - made of driftwood from Anclote Key - doubles as
a sofa side table.
"I love to carve, but it's hard to find the time to do it,"
Feagley said, "especially when I don't have space in my garage."
His Aegean-blue, concrete-block house has shells lining the front windows
and the address numbers painted on a life preserver. At 1,200 square feet,
it's just big enough for Feagley, his girlfriend and her teenage daughter.
The house, with two bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths, was built about 36 years
ago in this small subdivision near U.S. 19.
Back when he was house hunting, he drove through the neighborhood a
couple of times, not sure if it was for him.
"I didn't have a lot of money to spend," he recalled. "My
sister found the house and loved the back yard. She called me up and said,
'You like living on the water, don't you?' "
An understatement, to say the least, he said with a smile.
A true environmentalist, Feagley cares deeply about the health of the
sinkhole and its relationship to the aquifer, the underground river that is
Florida's principal source of drinking water. He worries about the direct
drainage from the streets into the ancient hole, a consequence of its
incorrect classification as a retention pond decades ago.
Feagley wants to see that changed.
Over the years, he has hauled truckloads of waste and litter from the
sinkhole.
When it rains, he said, oils, toxins, bottles, trash and chemicals flow
from the streets into the hole, darkening the water with pollution and so
drastically altering the water level that it kills good plants such as
duckweed.
He has a solution, if anyone wants to listen: Reroute the runoff to a
real drainage ditch behind a nearby school.
He keeps what look like long butterfly nets propped against a tree by the
shoreline for daily litter removal. He can fish out what's visible on the
surface, but worries about what he can't see. By his measurements with a
rope and concrete block, he estimates the depth at 35 feet or more.
"There's another 15 feet or so of dead grass and muck," he
said. "It's so polluted, you can't get down where the springs
are."
For now, he keeps on cleaning.
"I just love nature and knew when I saw this place what it could be
- like the Everglades."
Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.
Protect the land
BY SUSAN LATHAM CARR
STAR-BANNER
OCALA -
Sharon Sawallis and her husband, Dick, were raised in Fort
Lauderdale where they enjoyed the beach and the mangrove trees.
"There used to be a fort that was made of coconut palm trees,"
Sawallis said. "All that's gone."
Condominiums began popping up. By 1969, when the couple moved to Marion
County, there was only two miles of public beach left.
"I have seen so much go, even in Ocala," said Sawallis, a
semi-retired pharmacist who loves raising 50 cows at her homestead, west of
Reddick's center.
So it really is not surprising that she decided to protect some of her land
from development, specifically 93 acres she owns at the Orange Lake Overlook.
"I love the view," Sawallis said. So do many other people who drive
along U.S. 441 and happen to glance eastward at Orange Lake.
"It's a gorgeous view when the sun comes up or the sun goes down over
that lake. That's what I want to preserve and not look at a bunch of
houses."
Through Marion County's voluntary Transfer of Development Rights program,
Sawallis was able to put her land in a conservation trust and still be able to
obtain some monetary value from her property.
"The way I look at it, my kids have 350 other acres of land,"
Sawallis said. "I don't think they are going to worry about not having
enough estate, and my kids agree with me."
Douglas Lee Turco, who owns 214 acres along U.S. 27 about three miles
southeast of the Levy County line, also entered the TDR program.
Those properties are the only two that have been preserved under the program
since its inception in January 2005.
Those familiar with the TDR program say it needs to be adjusted for both
landowners and developers.
"It's not functioning like we would like it to," County Commission
Chairman Stan McClain said. "We need to add some elements to make it more
attractive for both sides. You have developers who are looking to buy TDRs and
you have landowners who are giving up their rights forever to a piece of
property, and I think it has to be equitable for both parties."
The county should do more, Commissioner Charlie Stone said.
"One of the things we fell short of as a commission is we have not made a
real push and effort to make the information available and get it marketed the
way it should be. We need to make a full board effort to do that."
TDRs will be one topic discussed at a commission workshop on Thursday.
HOW IT WORKS
The county has established two specific areas where the TDR project will
apply.
One is the "sending area," which is rural land - mostly designated
farmland preservation area - that the county hopes to preserve.
The other is the "receiving area" - designated urban reserve - which
is land close to urbanized areas with infrastructure, like roads and sewer and
water, where the county would like to encourage growth, rather than having it
sprawl into the rural areas.
Basically, the program involves a swap.
The owner of the rural land agrees to give up the right to develop his or her
land by placing it into a conservation trust never to be developed.
For that agreement, the county issues the rural landowner TDR credits. For
every 10 acres preserved, the landowner receives three TDR credits.
Those credits may be used in the receiving area, where growth is encouraged,
to increase the number of homes allowed on a piece of property.
Rural landowners can use the credits to develop more homes on a piece of
property they own in the receiving area. Or they can sell those rights to a
developer.
Then the landowner makes money on the land, the developer gets to build more
homes and the county preserves the farmland.
POOR PARTICIPATION
"It's only 2 years old," said Judy Greenberg, executive director
of the Marion County Citizens Coalition. "What do you expect - the whole
world to change in two years for something you haven't educated people
about?"
Greenberg - at the time interim executive director of the Conservation Trust
for Florida - was instrumental in getting Sawallis to join the TDR program.
Greenberg said developers have argued the program, which is part of the
comprehensive plan, is too difficult and there are no TDR credits to buy.
"Have they gone to any landowners to ask if they were interested in
selling their TDRs?" Greenberg asked. "The answer is no."
She said most of Sawallis' 27 TDRs are still available.
But there are glitches, Greenberg said. Because the ratio is three TDRs for 10
acres preserved, the market has set a very high value on the TDRs, and that
prices many developers out of the deal. If that ratio were changed to one TDR
for each acre, the program would present a more attractive opportunity.
Steven Gray, a land attorney who represents many developers, agrees. He said
people in the rural areas do not want to sell their rights too cheaply.
"They can't figure out the value of that and, I think, that worries
people," he said. To be safe, particularly in the recent hot market, they
have valued the TDRs at very high rates.
"I think the question is: How do you create the system to make those
development rights saleable," Gray said. "It's a very popular
concept with land planners, but the mechanics are difficult and very few
systems work."
Gray said allowing even higher densities in the receiving area might help.
Throughout the county, a developer is allowed to build one unit on 10 acres on
urban reserve land.
So a person with 40 acres could build four houses. A developer would be
allowed to build one home per acre on urban reserve land, instead of one unit
per 10 acres, if he bought 36 TDRs. And, as a bonus, he would not need County
Commission approval to increase the density.
Not only is that expensive, Gray said, but developers do not want to build one
unit per acre.
"We can't have one-acre subdivisions, or we will cover the whole county
with subdivisions," Gray said. And the cost of providing the roads and
utilities would be prohibitive.
On the other hand, he said you would not want to create so much housing
density that an apartment building could be built next to a house.
"One possibility might be to take it to two units per acre," Gray
said. "You will have more buyers at two units per acre.
Also, he said, "If you made everything in urban reserve a receiving area,
you would have a lot more potential buyers."
Greenberg agreed the receiving area needs to be redefined and expanded.
But she had a caveat.
"Until it's redefined, we need to hold the line," Greenberg said.
She said developers should still be required to buy TDRs if they want to
develop in the current receiving area.
If the commission expanded the receiving area and increased the TDRs awarded
to one TDR per acre, she said, the project would be more palatable.
COUNTY OPTIONS
In August, the county planning staff presented the commission with a text
amendment to the comprehensive plan to make some of these changes in the TDR
program, but it was withdrawn when commissioners said they wanted to discuss
the issue further.
County Planning Director Dwight Ganoe said that, if the number of TDR credits
are increased to one per acre, some sort of adjustment would have to be made
for Sawallis and Turco for the 300 acres they placed under the conservation
easement.
"If we changed that to something greater, I don't think we would want to
penalize them for being the first to participate," he said.
Ganoe said another possibility that had been discussed, but was not in the
text amendment, was the possibility of making the conservation easements
sunset rather than remain permanent.
"There was a minimum time period it had to remain under a conservation
easement," Ganoe said.
If over time everything has built up around the conserved land, it might make
sense to allow development and move the easement to a more environmentally
valuable piece of property, he said.
"You are not going to get the entire farmland preservation area under a
conservation easement," Ganoe said.
'A HARD LINE'
Commissioner Andy Kesselring is adamant that the TDR program will work.
"They want to get the development rights as cheaply as they can and, when
they can't get it inexpensively, 'It doesn't work - boo hoo me,'Ê"
Kesselring said about developers' complaints. "[TDRs] are worth what
people are willing to sell them for and what they are willing to buy them
for."
He said the commission has not always stood firm and demanded that TDRs be
bought for development in the receiving areas.
"What we have always said is: The only way you are going to make it work
is not to approve new development in the receiving area," Kesselring
said. "You can't give them an out. That's what we have done."
He said the commission needs to take "a hard line."
"We are going to ruin what everybody says Marion County is about,"
Kesselring said. "We have heard a million times, 'This is the horse
capital.'"
Susan Latham Carr may be reached at susan.carr@starbanner.com
or (352) 867-4156.
Auburndale to talk about keeping 'small-town charm'
For the News Chief
AUBURNDALE - One of Florida's leading experts on growth will present a
talk to members of the Auburndale Chamber-Main Street organization on how
small municipalities can preserve their "small-town charm" in
the face of major population growth.
The talk is schedule at noon Jan. 25 at the Auburndale Civic Center.
Geoff McNeill, AICP, RLA, is vice president for Collaboration and
Design Innovation with MSCW, a Florida company committed to creating
lasting communities through collaborative professional design services.
His talk will be titled: "Growth: A Challenge for Sustaining Small
Towns."
"Auburndale has a lot of growth coming its way in the very near
future and yet our residents are telling us in our community surveys that
they like our small-town ambience and our way of life," said Joy
Pruitt, executive director of the Auburndale Chamber-Main Street
Organization.
"We need to be thinking now about what we can do as a community to
handle growth and keep all those elements that make Auburndale a special
place to live," Pruitt added.
Joel Thomas, president-elect of the Auburndale Chamber, agreed.
"We continue to seek input from all parts of our community about
Auburndale's future and this is a great opportunity to keep the
conversation going, Thomas said. "We have a historic opportunity to
Tget it right' with regards to preserving what we all like about
Auburndale and its going to take building a common vision in order to make
that happen."
Town preparing for industry
By ANNE SPENCER
Jackson County Floridan
Thursday, January 11, 2007
COTTONDALE ? No news isn't the best news, but it could be good or bad when
it comes ? the word, that is, whether a company that manufactures wood
pellets will locate here or not.
Mayor James Elmore says there's nothing new on whether the development
will come, but the city is working to get everything in place that the
company would need should it decide to pick the Jackson County site, and
the Jackson County Development Council is working on getting the deal.
Two other places, both in Alabama, are being considered as well.
"They've already built a port facility next to the Bayline
(railroad track) in Panama City," Elmore said. "They'll be
shipping (down) on the Bayline."
The company's business is taking scrap lumber and compressing it into
wood pellets for fuel. Elmore said the company has made deals with area
lumberyards and the pellets would be shipped to South America.
One of the city's efforts is to get natural gas lines extended from the
Family Dollar distribution center in west Marianna, a distance of seven
miles to Cottondale.
At the city's regular monthly meeting this week, the city had a light
agenda, with discussion on the make-up of the city commission, the area
the volunteer fire department serves, and what kind of work requires a
development order.
With two of the seven commissioners having moved out of town, the city
board talked about leaving the board at five commissioners.
City attorney Matt Fuqua advised that to permanently change the make-up
of the board, the city charter would have to be amended and that would
have to be done by voters.
Commissioner Council Glass said that because the city may grow, having
only five commissioners would mean doubling up on committees.
No action was taken, and Elmore said after the meeting that because of
the cost of a special election, "We'll probably leave it as it
is."
The board voted unanimously to expand the area the city volunteer fire
department covers, from five to seven miles, to not only provide more
coverage but have a larger area to draw volunteers from.
The board approved purchase of a chain saw to replace the one stolen
two months ago from the fire department. Volunteer fire chief Richard
Dominguez was told to use the state bid price as a guideline for cost.
Dominguez reported that the serial number had been given to the city
police department for tracking.
The board rescinded an annexation ordinance that had never been
advertised because it contained an error, and unanimously adopted the
correct version.
The ordinance concerns annexation of the city's recreation field and
20-plus acres an owner wants in the city.
Glass asked for clarification on what kind of work requires a city
development order. Fuqua said the city had general written guidelines, but
they couldn't be specific for all situations.
While on the topic of development, Commissioner Bruce Lambert said he
was interested in knowing whether Cottondale might be a candidate for
redevelopment like the City of Marianna was with its Main Street Marianna
organization.
City Manager Willie Cook said he would check into it.
The board agreed it should seek a grant to fund the expense of making
the new addition to Cottondale Elementary a hurricane shelter. If properly
equipped, the classroom addition could house 75 people, and city officials
say they're especially concerned about senior citizens.
A resolution was adopted urging the Legislature to support certain
issues, one being restoring and maintaining Home-Rule authority for
municipalities within charter counties.
In the "citizens comments" time period, Robert Scopie White
expressed his appreciation for the cooperation in the dedication of a city
street to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The city will commemorate Willow Street in honor of King. A ceremony to
unveil a sign will be held on Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, at 3:30
p.m.
White said after the meeting that he and the group Sons of Allen asked
the city to commemorate the street, and "the city has been a lot of
assistance."
He said the city got the sign donated.
Willow Street was chosen for the commemoration, he said, because it
crosses U.S. 231 and "is very visible."
Another item on the agenda was the development of a city retirement
plan, about which City Clerk Judy Powell gave a brief update.
Misunderstanding leads to wrong vote
By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER
Jackson County Floridan
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Grand Ridge Town Council members next month may reverse the action they
mistakenly took last week in an attempt to ensure funding for the
wastewater treatment system the town plans to build.
Last Thursday, with their city manager absent from the town's monthly
meeting, board members voted to seek an interim commercial loan to get
things started while they await a state grant/loan that will pay for most
or all of the project.
It turns out they didn't need to do that, according to City Manager J.R.
Moneyham.
He said the board apparently misunderstood what he said they needed to
do that night.
Moneyham said he intended for the board to vote on another matter
altogether. He was asking, instead, that the board decide whether he could
send in a request to the state for a $1 million appropriation in 2007.
He said sending legislators a Community Budget Issue Request is a
standard procedure taken by most Florida communities near the beginning of
each calendar year. It's something of a 'wish list,' and it could be used
to help with the wastewater plant if awarded by the state, Moneyham said,
although most of the funding for that project is already in place or
promised.
A site for the plant has been identified on State Road 69 south, just
outside the city limits, and the board is working on a deal to buy the 375
acres for roughly $6,300 an acre. The parcel is bigger than what the city
needs for the plant, according to Mayor James Barwick, but the landowner
will not separate the property.
Barwick indicated at Thursday's meeting that he understood the
commercial loan would be needed because the state wastewater funding
package would not cover the purchase of the entire parcel since it would
not all be dedicated to the wastewater project.
The state appropriation Moneyham wanted to request, rather than a
commercial loan, may be a potential funding source that could be used to
pay for the extra land, if Barwick is correct about the limitations in the
grant/loan program.
The town has looked at several sites for the plant over the past year,
and met with much resistance when it considered a parcel south of the
Cypress community.
The difficulty of finding a suitable site may be one reason the city is
leaning toward the purchase of the larger parcel.
Whale's death may yield
clues
Biologists study
scavenged carcass of humpback calf found on beach
BY JEFF SCHWEERS
FLORIDA TODAY
Studying a dead female
humpback whale stranded on Cocoa Beach during the weekend could provide
important clues to the deaths of almost 30 other members of the endangered
species in the Atlantic Ocean in the past year.
Beachgoers discovered the year-old, 4,000-pound calf three blocks south
of the Cocoa Beach Pier around 8 a.m. Saturday, police said. Marine
biologists believe the animal had been dead about a week before it washed
ashore.
"It was severely scavenged by sharks, the bone was exposed,"
said Megan Stolen, a research biologist with Hubbs-SeaWorld in Orlando.
"It was a big blob."
Researchers took the skull, reproductive organs, blubber and other tissue
for further analysis to help figure out what caused the death, she said.
Hubbs-SeaWorld will send its data to the die-off coordinator in the
northeast, which they'll use to help find a cause for the stranding, she
said.
The rest of the whale was buried on the beach in a pit
10 feet deep.
"We couldn't remove it from the beach," she said.
It took nearly to four hours just to move it 50 feet, she said.
The only other option would have been to tow it offshore, she said, but
only the Coast Guard can do that. It's not an easy task, requires a lot of
attention and is not safe, she said.
The dead whale is an important find for the National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration, which has monitored a sharp increase in humpback
deaths since last summer. Observers have spotted bloated, rotting carcasses
in the ocean, but this is the first stranded leviathan from which they could
get fresh biological samples, NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Terri Friday said.
"We don't get a lot of opportunities to sample, so necropsies are
very important," she said. Such samples can provide a baseline life
history of the animal, its food habits, illnesses and viruses that might
compromise the rest of the population, the presence of biotoxins or injuries
that indicate the cause of death, she said.
Mendy Garron, the northeast stranding coordinator for NOAA Fisheries,
said her agency has noticed a sharp increase in humpback deaths since July
in the feeding grounds in New England, "so we will be investigating any
mortalities as they migrate south."
Including Saturday's stranding, there have been 28 deaths in the past
year along the entire eastern Atlantic coast, she said. That's a significant
number for a population of 8,000 to 10,000 whales, she said. Normally, 10 to
15 humpbacks die each year.
Ideally, there should be no more than three deaths a year to have a
successful reproduction rate, Garron said.
A similar die-off in 2003 was caused by a biotoxin, she said.
"So we'll be comparing data," she said. "We don't have a
lot of samples from these animals, so it is important to get a thorough exam
done."
Contact Schweers at 242-3668 or jschweers@flatoday.net.
County planners like mall redesign
SARASOTA -- For a few hours Friday, Sarasota became the capital of new
urbanism.
A collection of national planning experts were here to vet Benderson
Development's overhaul of its plans for the region's biggest mall during a
special three-hour morning session before county commissioners.
Looking around at all the experts Friday, one county employee estimated that
Benderson and the county were likely being charged thousands of dollars an
hour for the assembled talent.
Two of the experts took the opportunity to plug their books.
Whether the vision of Benderson's University Town Center as "a
satellite city" to Sarasota will wash with commissioners won't be known
until Jan. 23, when the project faces an up-or-down vote.
In November, commissioners rejected an earlier version of the development at
University Parkway and Interstate 75 as simply too big for congested roads
and possibly as too big of a retailing threat to downtown Sarasota.
Over the last month, Stefanos Polyzoides, a new urbanist guru from Los
Angeles, redesigned the project to reduce its traffic impact.
At 1.9 million square feet, the project remains the same size -- nearly
twice that of the county's current biggest mall, Sarasota Square Mall. But
county planners say they're excited about the changes Polyzoides has made so
far.
The idea is to create a self-contained city with 1,750 condos, where
residents can walk to nearby stores, a movie theater, restaurants, a
lakefront park and a proposed county paw park for dogs. Meanwhile, luxury
retailers would appeal to shoppers in a five-county area.
"We tried to shift the uses over in such a way they would become
synergistic," Polyzoides said of the revised plan.
Gone are the 130-foot-high anchor stores and the enlargement of a nearby
lake to handle storm-water runoff. New features include a maximum height of
85 feet, a "green" storm-water system that provides more land to
spread out the stores, more offices and a trolley system that could shuttle
people to nearby Lakewood Ranch.
Polyzoides is one of the most prominent members of the Congress for New
Urbanism, a 13-year-old group founded to push alternatives to sprawl, mainly
through the design of neighborhoods.
When he helped found the Congress for New Urbanism with Polyzoides and
others, these anti-sprawl architects were seen as "flaky," said
Peter Katz, who was flown in by the county to discuss the proposal with
planners. Now the group is becoming the mainstream of urban planning.
"Most of the damage that's been done out there are the death by a
thousand cuts," Katz said.
Local governments have created sprawl and congested roads by approving
"single-use" projects, like strip malls, or isolated residential
projects that can only be connected by automobile.
Katz suggested the county look at whether the project creates an "urban
walkable" setting by blending its uses.
County commissioners appear open to the concept, considering this week they
approved spending $1.5 million to study requiring developers to mix
residential and retail, and require construction with more of an urban look.
Polyzoides, who has become familiar with the area since landing work two
years ago to help New College develop its master plan, was one of six
planners hired by the county.
Also testifying Friday were top new urbanist engineers Richard Hall of
Tallahassee for the county and Jim Daisa of San Francisco for Benderson.
Benderson has committed to constructing a four-lane North Cattlemen Road
through the project.
Combined with county plans, Cattlemen would become a much-needed north-south
connector to Fruitville Road, Daisa said.
The new section of Cattlemen would add 27 percent to the north-south road
capacity in the area, more than the Benderson project will absorb, Daisa
said.
He also claimed that the new mixed-use design would cut traffic down by
several hundred vehicles during peak hours on University.
Local realtors confident going forward
By DAVID PALMER
Jackson County Floridan
Friday, January 12, 2007
Despite challenges facing the Florida housing market, the outlook for
Jackson County and the surrounding area should be steady.
That was the assessment outlined by Chipola Area Board of Realtors
President Gina Stuart.
The board enjoyed its annual awards banquet Thursday in Marianna on the
campus of Chipola College.
Brenda Hatcher of Coldwell Banker The Hatcher Agency was awarded the
prestigious Realtor of the Year.
"Brenda is a person who is just a joy to work with. She is fairly
new in the real estate industry, but she has accomplished a lot in a short
time," Stuart said.
Hatcher, who entered the real estate business in 2004, previously
worked in insurance.
"She is the kind of person you want to work with because of her
kindness and professionalism," Stuart said. "She stays very
involved in our community, too, through Altrusa. She was one of the key
people involved in Coats for Kids."
Stuart said 2006 marked a slowdown in local and area real estate in
comparison to 2005. Nonetheless, she said the past year remained healthy
for business.
"You can see by the number of real estate agents who performed so
well, in winning these awards, that slowing down did not carry as bad a
meaning as you might think," Stuart said.
The greatest challenge for the real estate community is the spiraling
insurance costs throughout the state.
"That is the number one challenge," Stuart said. "I know
that Gov. Crist has made this a priority and I'm confident he will work
with the Legislature to do something quickly and then look for a long-term
solution.
Stuart also said the real estate trends for Washington, Holmes and
Calhoun counties will be somewhat different than Jackson County's
direction.
"A lot of what is driving real estate in Holmes and Washington
counties is linked to the animal park Jim Fowler is involved with, and the
new airport just below those counties in Bay County. I think you will see
quicker commercial and residential growth."
Jackson County, she said, will likely see more subdivision growth and
some newcomers from others areas of Florida looking for cost-effective and
peaceful settings.
"I can remember when people used to drive through Jackson County
and just fall in love with its beauty and they would move here,"
Stuart said. "That's happening again. They want to be a part of this
smaller setting with its natural beauty."
Stuart also noted that preserving Jackson County's unique natural areas
will be important to its growth.
"To me there is nothing more important than protecting our land
and water. Much of our future is tied to how we care for those
treasures," she said.
Stuart also said Jackson County could experience growth if more
professional jobs could be secured for the area. She said planning and
preservation could be key factors in meeting that goal.
STAR-BANNER
BELLEVIEW - City commissioners on Tuesday are expected to tackle again a
proposal to create an impact fee on new home construction, with the money
collected going toward buying land for recreation.
The measure has been discussed since early 2006, because city officials say
the gap between green space and the population is rapidly closing.
The city's comprehensive plan, which is mandated by the state, requires 10
acres of recreation space per 1,000 residents. Presently, the city has
roughly more than 40 acres for recreation and a population close to 4,000.
Those numbers soon may change with several large-scale developments coming
to the area.
In 2006, city staff came up with a formula and a figure commissioners could
use in applying the fees. But disagreements about how to implement the
formula and what to put on the property forced commissioners to delay a
final decision until they could agree on a plan that would not only be
feasible, but also legally sound.
"We'll hear from our attorney on what we can or cannot do," Mayor
Tammy Moore said.
Moore said the city should have passed an ordinance that would have at least
allowed it to collect money to purchase property until a permanent plan
could be devised.
"We need to do something," Moore said.
The city's land development coordinator, Jeff Shrum, said it's not as simple
as it sounds. Fees would have to be devised for each type of development, he
said.
Commissioner Ken Nadeau agrees something needs to be done fairly soon. He
would like to see an impact fee in place within 30 to 60 days.
"It's important for us to do it now so we can purchase land for
recreation because we don't want to destroy our comprehensive plan,"
Nadeau said.
Even if the city buys vacant parcels, it must decide what then to do with
them. Nadeau said there should at least be minimal improvements.
"Those minimal improvements include site clearing, utilities, paving
for an entrance and bathroom facilities," Nadeau said.
Developer Kirk Boone, who is planning to build a residential complex off
Baseline Road, said the fees will affect the price of homes.
"Do I like the impact fees? No. But I know they have to have some
method in place to collect fees on things that impact a community,"
Boone said.
Some have suggested that if developers set aside green space in a
subdivision, then that would eliminate the problem. Boone disagrees.
"The problem with that is, the state won't give you a credit for that,
because the park is owned by a homeowners' association and not the
city," he said.
Also Tuesday, city commissioners hope to finalize a deal to purchase a
27-acre parcel.
Because the city is making a purchase of more than $500,000, officials must
get at least two appraisals. If the agreed-upon price exceeds the average
price of the two appraisals, then the purchase can be approved only by a
super-majority vote.
The offer price of $1.246 million is slightly more the average of the
appraisals, which came in at $1.242 million.
Austin L. Miller may be reached at austin.miller@starbanner.com
or 867-4118.
'King Corn' Could Be Dethroned
By Cory
Reiss
Ledger Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Lonnie Ingram has mixed the genes of two bacteria in his lab to
make a bug that is particularly efficient at eating wood and other plant
material to make ethanol, a gasoline alternative.
Soon, demonstration plants in Jennings, La., and Osaka, Japan, will churn out
about a million gallons of ethanol a year to show that commercial-scale plants
of 30 million gallons or more are feasible.
They could turn yard waste, construction debris or citrus peels into an
antidote to the world's oil addiction.
If that sounds like science fiction becoming reality, consider that Ingram, a
researcher at the University of Florida, got his first patent for these
plant-to-fuel bacteria back in 1991.
His is one of many ethanol inventions that, until recently, have been shelved
or slowed by a fickle market for oil alternatives.
"The political nature of ethanol and ethanol subsidies and ethanol use
over the past 10 years has been a pretty up-and-down affair," said
Ingram, now director of the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals and Fuels
at the university. "The difficulty is getting the first plant
built."
For years, corn has dominated the tiny ethanol market in this country. A new
mandate for ethanol in gasoline, high fuel prices and rising concern about
global warming has sparked a boom for corn-ethanol plants across the Midwest,
promising a resurgence for rural communities long on a downward slide.
Now lawmakers and President Bush are preparing the hardest push yet for
ethanol sources that don't come off a cob.
The idea of making fuel from switch grass, pine trees, yard waste, citrus
peels and other sources available outside the corn belt is catching on just as
Congress prepares to write the next major farm bill.
The House also is expected to take up legislation this week to roll back oil
subsidies and apply them to renewable fuels.
States such as Florida and California, which have the potential to grow vast
quantities of practically any ethanol source except corn, are at a crossroads.
"We should be the Silicon Valley of bio-fuel," said Rep. Tim Mahoney
of Florida, a newly elected Democrat assigned to the House Agriculture
Committee last week.
Chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees say the next farm
package is going to be driven largely by energy issues for the first time,
thanks to fears about energy security and greenhouse gases. Many provisions in
the last farm bill, passed in 2002, expire in September.
"Our new bill this year will not be a farm bill in the classical
old-fashioned manner," said Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who chairs
the Senate panel, at a hearing last week about ethanol issues in the coming
package. "It must be bold ... and supportive of a transition to a
bio-economy."
The direction of the corn-ethanol industry in the last year illustrates
potential side effects of merging farm policy and energy policy. Moreover, a
fight over direct or indirect subsidies that historically have gone to crops
such as corn, cotton, soybeans and sugar could add a host of new interests to
an already crowded debate.
"The farm bill should not pick winners and losers in renewable fuels
technologies," said Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, whose family is in
agriculture and who is the third-ranking Republican in the House. "It
should have incentives for a host of technologies."
GRASS TO GAS
The sagging paper industry, for example, suddenly has a stake in what happens
on this front as researchers at Georgia Tech advocate a process that uses pulp
from southern pine trees to create ethanol.
A competing process invented by Ingram and licensed by a company called
Celunol Corp., which expects to break ground on its Louisiana demonstration
plant next month, could benefit municipal waste facilities, builders and
unforeseen players that could profit from diverting wood waste into the energy
stream.
Last year, Bush mentioned switch grass in his State of the Union address as an
ethanol feedstock, and he is expected to revisit the issue in his next State
of the Union. But it's unclear where millions of acres to grow switch grass
would come from or how growers would get paid to pioneer a fuel source before
the market exists.
Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, Democratic chairman of the House
agriculture panel, has suggested a subsidized program to establish the first 5
million acres of switch grass. Lawmakers also are debating whether farmers who
receive payments for conserving land should be allowed to use those acres to
grow energy crops, raising questions about how conservation fits in.
The main player now is King Corn, a powerful force in agriculture debates.
"I'm a little bit worried at this juncture that corn is going to kind of
become the internal combustion engine or the coal fired power plant of
bio-fuels," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group,
referring to environmental criticism of corn production for its reliance on
fertilizers and herbicides.
At the same time, cattle, hog and poultry farmers are warning lawmakers not to
expand federal ethanol mandates, as some propose, if that would further boost
corn prices. They say the price of livestock feed is hurting them.
The nation's 111 ethanol plants, almost all using corn, can produce about 5.4
billion gallons. Another 75 plants under construction, plus eight expansions,
will more than double that capacity in the next five years, according to the
Renewable Fuels Association. The vast majority of those refineries are in the
Midwest.
Production should surpass a congressional mandate that took effect last year
requiring gasoline distributors to mix in 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by
2012. Still, that is only 5 percent of the nation's annual gasoline
consumption.
Ethanol production would have to far exceed the likely capacity of cornfields
to fulfill dreams of displacing a quarter or half of gasoline consumption in
the next 20 years. Believers say if lawmakers and investors build plants using
the burgeoning "cellulosic" technology, alternative crop supplies
and a stable ethanol market will come.
NEW ADDICTION
That's quite a leap, though. A typical commercial corn-ethanol plant costs
about $100 million, by one estimate, while a cellulosic plant is expected to
cost about twice that. Investors worry a crash in gasoline prices could
undercut the market for these expensive projects. Despite offerings at the
Detroit auto show last week of vehicles that will run on 85-percent ethanol
blends, there are hardly any gasoline stations that supply it.
Some existing farm policies aren't helping.
For example, few people expect American ethanol to come from sugar, a
plentiful crop in Florida and the source of Brazil's thriving ethanol
industry. U.S. farm policies keep domestic sugar prices too high for ethanol.
In Florida, U.S. EnviroFuels LLC plans an ethanol refinery at the Port of
Tampa, the only such facility planned in the state, but it would import corn.
Florida lawmakers say their state has plenty of potential ethanol sources -
ranging from citrus byproducts to grasses to trees.
Putnam said he does not expect the farm bill to focus on new crop subsidies to
push this industry. He said the government should help private companies cut
the cost of building cellulosic ethanol plants, perhaps through tax
incentives, thus creating a market for crops that Florida can grow.
Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, said his state needs to get into the renewable fuels business
especially after a year that saw fierce fighting over how close to drill for
oil off Florida's shores.
"We need to get off the dependence on corn," he said. "Florida
needs to grow the other materials."
Palm Bay seeking public's
input
City's land use on agenda
BY LINDA JUMP
FLORIDA TODAY
A public workshop Saturday will allow citizens to say how the city should
look in 25 years. The second of five sessions will cover land use as the
rapidly growing city works to design its future.
About 70 people attended the first session on economic development last
weekend, said Robin Carmichael, coordinator for the city.
"There was good participation," she said.
Those attending were asked to pick a spot along a "growth line"
to show whether they preferred no growth or unlimited growth.
"It got everybody talking," Carmichael said. "Predominantly,
the group wanted to preserve the quality of life with more industry and
jobs."
Beverly Wiggins, who moved to the city last April, said she attended the
session to learn more about her city.
"I thought I should be there to hear what was said," she said.
Wiggins runs PIP Printing with her husband. She said she sees a lot of
growth on the Melbourne and West Melbourne side of Palm Bay Road to the north
but not as much on the Palm Bay side to the south.
"I want to see Palm Bay grow with more businesses so that I can spend
my money in Palm Bay," she said.
Wiggins said she would attend another public workshop.
City Manager Lee Feldman was pleased with the turnout.
"It was great to see a lot of new faces out there, people interested
in the future of their city," he said.
Councilman Pat Woodard called Saturday's meeting "good for a
start." He said the consensus was for planned economic development.
"People don't want things coming in willy-nilly," he said.
A 17-member Community Vision Steering Committee will guide the six-month
process to create a visual map of Palm Bay's future. Red Oaks Consulting was
hired as consultants. The project complies with the state's Growth Management
Act of 1995.
Contact Jump at 409-1423 or ljump@brevard.gannett.com.
Developer again delays hearing on condo plan
EMILY NIPPS
Published January 15, 2007
TAMPA PALMS - Drivers who cruised along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard last April
might remember the people and poster boards lined along the road, protesting a
proposed condo development just south of Tampa Palms.
It was the beginning of a fight against the Giunta Group developers, who
want to put a 1,500-unit, multistory condominium community on the west side of
Bruce B. Downs.
More than a thousand people living in the nearby Tampa Palms, Lake Forest
and North Oaks communities, who fear the development will cause excessive
traffic and hurt wetlands, vowed to battle it until the end.
But where is the end?
On Jan. 2, Giunta Group's project planner requested a fourth continuance on
its public zoning hearing, which is required before construction can proceed.
Hundreds of opposing homeowners living near the proposed 644-acre site were
hoping to attend the Jan. 17 hearing before the Hillsborough County
Commission, but now must wait until March 6 - almost a year from the original
hearing date.
"It frustrates from the standpoint of getting all the buses of people
together to go down there," said Maggie Wilson, a consultant to the Tampa
Palms Community Development District, who opposes the condo project.
Some worry that that's exactly why the hearing keeps getting delayed, that
developers are hoping perhaps people will lose interest in the project over
time. Others wonder whether the Giunta Group is trying to see if the sagging
condo market picks back up before proceeding with plans.
"We're just afraid that one day, when no one's watching, they'll get
that thing approved," said Tom Macri, vice president of the North Oaks
Condominium Association.
The Giunta Group's planners from Englehardt, Hammer & Associates, and
representatives from the surrounding communities have not been in contact, and
the Giunta Group's principal planner did not return calls to the St.
Petersburg Times, so the reasons for the delays are unclear.
"We are still planning on meeting with the adjacent property owners
and interested citizens groups prior to the ZHM zoning hearing master and will
do so once we have prepared a revised general development plan," wrote
principal planner Ty Maxey in his continuance request to the county.
"To my knowledge, he has not contacted anyone," Macri said.
The opposition is "still all together in this," Macri said. The
hundreds who have promised to speak out against the proposed condos will still
be around if, and when, the hearing takes place.
Still, "who is going to ask the question?" Macri said.
"At what point do they (county commissioners) say enough is
enough?"
Emily Nipps can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or nipps@sptimes.com.