Planning amendment statement revised after justices rejected it By BILL KACZOR Associated Press Writer TALLAHASSEE

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has announced plans to raise as much as $65 million to fight a constitutional amendment sought by citizens supporting Florida Hometown Democracy.

The FHD measure would require that changes to local zoning plans—required by Florida law of each and every municipality and county—to first run the gauntlet of local voters before being voted on by local legislatures.

This moment in Florida history is framed by the biggest housing bust since the 1920's.

The soul of Florida is at stake in the battle by Florida Hometown Democracy against the Chamber of Commerce and the building and development lobby.

Florida’s developed landscape did not become such a point of contention, by coincidence.

But for a mortgage industry that proliferated through the use of obscure financial derivatives, multiplied from the lowly consumer or commercial mortgage, there would be no incipient rebellion by citizens.

What is visible on the ground are for-sale signs, rising taxes, tightening credit, struggling production home builders and condo developers.

What is less visible, is how the last stage of the building boom, now in cinders, used financial engineering to sell distant investors on high returns pegged to pools of underlying packages of mortgages.

The trick, now being revealed in crashing financial markets--and not just homebuilders--was in mis-marking risk by laying off low quality development against higher credit quality debt.

What Wall Street persuaded investors of financial derivatives, (too complex for all but the most sophisticated analysts to understand), goes something like this. Imagine a mutual fund (remember, this is an imaginary example) comprised of many different mortgages. Now in this fund, there are a few dogs -- strip malls in bad neighborhoods, cheap, platted subdivisions two hours from any source of work-- but on balance, the risk of having some dogs is minimized by returns the fund will generate on better quality malls and higher priced subdivisions.

Now, more than a trillion dollars of real estate investment--across the United States--is based on this premise: that the value of the fund will not be affected by the risk of default, if the dogs fail.

Put another way: Florida's growth is shaped by financial engineering based on the performance, not of better quality community design, but by the lowest common denominator.

On the ground you see strip malls and platted subdivisions by the thousands. What you don't see is how the entire financial system that depends on diversifying risk, fails to account for what people want and what people need in terms of quality of life, the environment, and principles of "sustainability".

Builders complain about their critics: "we are only building what the market wants." It's a fallacy. Builders build what bankers can finance.

And bankers, in this case Wall Street, will finance whatever generates the most commissions and bonuses for top shareholders, absent regulation.

What Florida Hometown Democracy and its amendment says, in fact, is that Floridians no longer trust either government or business to lead the way in the design and plan for growth.

And with good reason: what has government or the growth machine done to earn anything but the anger and enmity of a majority of Floridians?

In the 1920's, Florida was a sleepy and relatively empty state. When real estate markets cratered, for the most part Florida itself was intact.

80 years later, Florida is a much different place. On the issue of water alone, Florida's growth has manifestly failed to protect both public health and the environment.

It is the pressure for more growth, for instance, that is the root cause of government agencies allowing benzene to contaminate the drinking water supply for Miami-Dade.

The pressure for growth is also what caused recommendations in the most comprehensive watershed study undertaken anywhere, anytime, to be shelved by Miami-Dade county commissioners who found the whole idea of restricting growth to serve people to be distasteful in the extreme.

These stories--how the unallocated costs of growth continue to pile up in multi-billion dollar increments, even to the point of putting people in the way of cancer--could be repeated anywhere in Florida: Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Pasco County, Collier or the Florida Keys.

This time, as 'for sale' signs sprout like weedy species across the state, it is manifestly clear that business interests, led by the growth machine and building lobby, have no plan, no idea, and no interest in taming the costs of growth imposed on citizens and ordinary people.

There is little question that the Florida Hometown Democracy measure will pass the test of state voters, if enough signatures and be gathered and enough money raised to communicate with Floridians.

Growth showdown bound for ballot?

By NICHOLAS AZZARA

nazzara@bradenton.com

MANATEE --

And like any other high-profile debate, millions of dollars are being spent to sway your vote.

Tired of seeing paradise paved over for parking lots, Lesley Blackner and 278,000 like-minded Floridians are ready to rein in the booming development industry that has dominated headlines in previous years. Their primary weapon is a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voters, rather than elected officials, to approve changes to land-use designations.

Business and development leaders shudder at the prospect of slowing growth to a snail's pace. They say providing more hurdles to development could be the dagger in the heart of a sluggish Florida economy. That's why they're willing to spend millions to fight the proposed ballot measure.

The vehicle driving the proposed amendment is Florida Hometown Democracy, which Blackner, 46, co-founded four years ago. Opinionated and outspoken, Blackner has lived in Florida for more than 40 years.

She's an environmental attorney who says she has seen Florida's natural habitats "go down the drain."

"Florida has embraced the model that developers want: If you build it they will come. But maybe if you don't build it they will go somewhere else," Blackner said. "Government seems to think the next 30,000 people who live here are more important than those who already live here."

Florida Hometown Democracy has collected almost half of the 611,000-plus voter signatures required to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot. And Blackner says the total is actually closer to 500,000, but many signatures have yet to be verified.

Either way, the group, with the backing of the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, is inching closer to putting the question to the entire state.

"These things need to be put to voters because they determine the future of a local community more than anything else," Blackner said. "The current system has been stacked against the people."

To be adopted, the con- stitutional amendment would require the support of 60 percent of voters.

Opposition to the amendment seems to be growing faster than the movement itself. Chambers of commerce across the state are asking members to "Stop the Scam." They say the cost and consequences of the amendment could be "astronomical."

"We live in a representative democracy and this amendment really works against that," said Neil Spirtas, a spokesman for the Manatee Chamber of Commerce. "I don't think we have any idea how much this is going to cost everyone in the time and effort involved."

If the amendment passes, developers could turn into stumping politicians, pushing hard for their proposed amendments - that is, their developments - to win voter approval. In addition, they say, longer ballots would further dampen voter turnout.

"I think it's going to add to the cost of construction tremendously because in order to get a comp plan amendment, we'll have to hold an election and run a campaign that costs money," said Lee Wetherington, president of Lee Wetherington Companies. "That's just cost added to any new house and new development out there."

Mike Rahn, senior vice president of Florida Homebuilders Association added, "It could affect private property rights and where hospitals, schools, churches and fire stations go in a community, along with take away the democratic process on what you want to do with your property. It could kill growth in the state of Florida."

The Florida Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Homebuilders and other business groups have formed and raised close to $1 million for Floridians for Smarter Growth. The group is gathering signatures for a similar amendment that would have voters approve comp plan amendments only if first, 10 percent of registered voters sign a petition to hold an election on the change.

Changes to Manatee County's comprehensive plan usually occur twice a year in the form of comp plan amend- ments, but they can happen more often. Since 2000, Manatee has adopted 176 amendments, including seven so far this year. Many times, the changes amend zoning and density categories. Other amendments are designed to bring the local comp plan into compliance with state regu- lations.

Many times debates over future land categories can last hours at the county level, as commissioners try to balance private development rights with public safety concerns and objecting homeowners close to new projects. Throw in a few dozen comments from county staffers and land-use attorneys and the debate becomes downright dizzying.

County Administrator Ed Hunzeker put it this way: "I could do brain surgery, but it's going to take a while to train me. It takes a great deal of understanding on how the development process works. It's a very rigorous process."

But Blackner and her supporters say the intelligence of the electorate shouldn't be underestimated. Coincidentally, she said, comprehensive plan amendments are not brain surgery.

"I'm tired of being told voters aren't smart enough to know what they're voting for," said Betsy Roberts, chair of the Florida Chapter Sierra Club. "If most people know both sides of the story, they'll make a good decision. Voters are intelligent people."

The Florida Supreme Court on July 12 interjected itself into the debate, striking down part of the financial impact statement that would go on the ballot with the proposed am- endment.

The Supreme Court objected to the second of five sentences in the original statement: "Over each two-year election cycle, local governments cumulatively will incur significant costs (millions of dollars statewide)."

The statement, drafted by the state's Financial Impact Estimating Conference, failed to indicate the estimate depends on how many times local governments have to hold special elections to adopt or amend land-use plans, the majority wrote in the unsigned opinion.

On Friday, the conference, made up of legislative and executive branch economists, revised the offending sentence to highlight that costs "cannot be determined precisely." It also reworked a following sentence to indicate the potential costs include such expenses as ballot preparation and election administration.

The commission has separately said the minimum cost of holding special elections within a two-year period would be $2.4 million assuming elections are held by mail - the cheapest method - and ballots are sent to 25 percent of Florida's 10.5 million-plus vo- ters.

In a letter to the commission earlier this week, a lawyer for Hometown Democracy argued local governments could pass election costs on to developers and other parties that request planning amendments and piggyback referenda on other special or regular elec- tions.

The attorney general's office next will submit the new financial statement to the Supreme Court.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.• Florida Hometown Democracy must gather 611,000 verified voter signatures by Jan. 31, 2008, in order to have the amendment on the November 2008 ballot. The group now has 278,000 verified signatures, including 1,800 from Manatee County and more than 7,000 from Sarasota County.

• Local, state and national business interests have formed Floridians for Smarter Growth to oppose Florida Hometown Democracy. The new group is proposing a similar amendment that would require voter referenda on comp plan amendments when 10 percent of registered voters want to hold one.

Farm state lawmakers, allied with House Democratic leaders, last night easily defeated a proposal for a major overhaul of traditional farm programs that would have pared subsidies to big growers and spread benefits more broadly.

The 309 to 117 vote came on the first day of debate on a multiyear farm bill that was heading for final action today.

Republican support for the bill was in doubt last night because of a dispute over a provision that would tighten rules on the use of tax havens by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.

But key farm state Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the amendment, sponsored by Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.). "It rips out the safety net for American farmers and ranchers," said Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (Va.), ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee.

The amendment was billed as this year's major challenge to an entrenched farm-subsidy system. The defeat was a setback for a coalition of environmental organizations, anti-hunger groups and religious leaders who favor shifting more funds to conservation, nutrition and other priorities while creating a more level playing field in world markets for unsubsidized poor farmers abroad.

"Change is tough in this place," Kind said. The current subsidies to farmers, he said, raise farmland prices to the disadvantage of young farmers trying to rent or buy land, while making big farmers dependent on "a government paycheck, not the marketplace."

Environmental Defense, an advocacy group, produced a study showing that more than 300 congressional districts would be eligible for increased funding under Kind's bill, but to no avail.

Kind's vision in recent months came into conflict with the pragmatic politics of Democratic leaders seeking to rebuild the party's rural-urban bonds. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged Democrats to support the farm bill.

Recalling that a similar Kind amendment garnered 200 votes in 2001, the Agriculture Committee loaded the bill with billions of dollars for nutrition programs, conservation, black farmers, and the Florida and California fruit and vegetable industries, in an effort to attract broad support. As late as 1 a.m. yesterday, Democratic leaders were adding money for nutrition programs.

About $840 million in mandatory spending was added for the McGovern-Dole food aid program, after nearly $1 billion was shifted out of government payments to private crop insurance companies to offset the cost.

The new funding was sought by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a key member of the House Rules Committee. McGovern said it was "a good thing" that the crop insurance industry would be contributing to feeding hungry children abroad.

The revamp effort by Kind, whose western Wisconsin farm grows corn and soybeans on 60 acres, made him few friends on the agriculture panel.

Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.) said last week that Kind and his allies are "out on a limb, and I'm trying to cut if off."

Peterson suggested that Kind "was being used by the Bush administration," which favors some of the same changes.

"There was no collusion," Kind responded. "I've been working on this for six years."

Morgan is a contract writer for the newspaper and a fellow with the German Marshall Fund, a nonpartisan public policy institution

Neighborhoods, dirt mining proposed for Mecca Farms in Palm Beach County

County administrator calls for a mix of homes, agriculture and waterways

Taxpayer-owned land once intended to house a high-tech science "village" featuring The Scripps Research Institute could instead become a mix of homes, agriculture, dirt mining and waterways, according to a proposal for Mecca Farms released Friday.

Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman on Friday called for jump-starting stalled discussions on uses for the 1,919 acres of former orange groves north of Northlake Boulevard, which cost taxpayers $60 million to buy and another $60 million to get ready for Scripps.

Environmental concerns last year moved Scripps' planned research labs and headquarters to Jupiter. Since then commissioners have had on-again, off-again discussions about what to do with the property.

Weisman's proposal calls for:

•Offering up to 750 acres of Mecca Farms for sale to developers by early next year. He suggested allowing as many as 1,500 homes but said proposed changes to development guidelines for western areas could push that to 2,400 homes.

•Selling 100 acres to the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County. Storing hurricane debris, recycling yard waste and excavating dirt to cover mounds of trash at the county landfill are among proposed uses for the property.

•Set aside land for the "flow way," a man-made filter marsh, envisioned in the Scripps plan. The flow way would help clean and deliver water that could replenish the Loxahatchee River. County officials on Friday met with representatives from the South Florida Water Management District to discuss the flow way and other water cleaning features that could be included on Mecca Farms.

•Keep at least 750 acres to use for agriculture, environmental improvements, water treatment or other needs.

The idea was to offer commissioners "max flexibility" but also to start taking action on what to do with Mecca Farms, Weisman said.

"I'm just laying out a plan to start talking," he said. "It depends where the board wants to go."

Commissioner Burt Aaronson welcomed Weisman's proposal. Aaronson has called for allowing about 2,400 homes and commercial development on Mecca Farms in order to boost its sales value.

In addition to the money spent to acquire Mecca Farms and plan for Scripps' construction, paying the debt service on the deal costs the county between $5 million and $8 million a year.

"We should get the taxpayers' money back." Aaronson said.

Commissioner Jeff Koons said he was "intrigued" by Weisman's proposal to reserve land for agriculture.

Koons said he supports carving out a portion of Mecca Farms for the Solid Waste Authority. Pits left from digging out dirt for the landfill could become water storage areas that help with Everglades restoration efforts, he said.

"We have been kind of ducking on it," Koons said about deciding Mecca Farms' future. "I think we need to take a look at it."

No price has been set for the 100 acres Weisman proposed selling to the Solid Waste Authority, but the agency would be ready to "move quickly," the authority's chief administrative officer, Marc Bruner, said. Opponents to developing Mecca Farms have argued that allowing thousands of homes there would cost too much for the roads and community services required when suburbia spreads to rural land.

They have called for returning Mecca Farms to its natural state and leaving it as open space. The county could sell its development rights to builders elsewhere who are willing to pay for the chance to build more homes than otherwise allowed.

"Why are they so gung-ho to develop it right now?" asked Joanne Davis, spokeswoman for the growth watchdog group 1,000 Friends of Florida, which opposed building Scripps on Mecca Farms. "They have got all these grandiose ideas. ... They have jumped way ahead of themselves."

Andy Reid can be reached at abreid@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5504.

Rediscovered documents 'flush out' history of Estero Bay preserve

Take away the jagged, mangrove-lined shore and the seagrass beds and the fish will follow.

The bay is a massive seawall and dredging project away from looking like, and fishing like, many of Florida’s once productive estuaries.

With the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve in place, the area is safe from the scenario that made so many bays in Florida barren.

A developer had purchased waterfront property along the bay and drew up plans to develop it. Then, locals took a stand.

The documentation of exactly how local fishermen and residents saved Estero Bay from dredging and a concrete lip was recently uncovered.

Searching for material for a video for the preserve’s 40th anniversary, a researcher uncovered 21 nearly forgotten boxes of records stored in the Southwest Florida Museum of History.

“If this stuff were lost, it would be a loss of local history,” said Neil Ayers, a resource management specialist for the Estero Bay Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve who created the video based on much of the information.

An archivist is working to index and catalog the information so it one day may be put on display or digitized and placed on a Web site.

The files document in full detail the history, the lawsuit and the personal struggles to save Estero Bay by creating the state’s first aquatic preserve.

It all started in 1958 when Barry C. Williams and Investors purchased 5,500 acres along the northern and eastern coast of Estero Bay for $1.6 million.

Robert Troutman, an Atlanta attorney representing investors, drew up a plan to expand a seawall deep into Estero Bay along 18 miles of coastline.

The seawall, called a bulkhead, would straighten out the jagged coastline by using 17 million cubic yards of fill. Along the way it would swallow up submerged lands and islands, creating 1,100 acres that previously was under water. For fill, Troutman proposed dredging a 12-foot channel through the seagrass beds around his bulkhead.

The same technique had been employed along the east coast and in areas to the north, such as Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

The results were well-documented. Some of the most productive estuaries in the state turned barren when developers removed the mangroves and seagrass beds that served as a nursery for fish, shrimp, mammals and birds.

Determined to keep Estero Bay from the same fate, local residents and fishermen formed the Lee County Conservation Association.

“This was a homegrown effort by local citizens interested in preservation,” said Matt Johnson, general manager of the Southwest Florida Museum of History. “They battled some pretty large developers and corporations interested in development and won.”

At one point during the 1960s, it’s estimated that about 50 percent of the registered voters in Lee belonged to the association.

Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann was a state legislator when the association still was active.

“That group lived in my office for two years,” Mann said. “That little committee was very active and very loud and they single-handedly beat Troutman.”

Up until the creation of the Lee County Conservation Association, residents had quietly tolerated local developers mowing down mangroves to create small communities along the waterfront, said Wayne Daltry, director of Smart Growth for Lee County.

“There was a casual tolerance of the little things,” Daltry said. “But there became an awareness, a realization that if they didn’t have protection, it was going to be toast.”

The members of the association wrote letters, engaged politicians and used their voting bloc to change leadership in Lee County.

They argued that submerged lands belonged to the state and tried to create the Estero Bay State Park.

The law clearly states that any land above the high tide mark can be owned privately but property below it belongs to the state.

The state eventually would use the preserve as a model to create 41 others along Florida’s coastal waters.

“We now have over 2 million acres in the program protected from dredging and habitat loss and damage to resources,” said Larry Nall, environmental administrator for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas.

Johnson is working with members of the Estero Bay Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve to find grants so the historical data can be preserved and archived.

Knowing about Southwest Florida’s history is important as the environmental battle rages on, Johnson said.

“This is the cornerstone of a success story in preserving our environment, which down here is a major issue,” he said. “The battle between development and preservation is not something that’s gone away.”

As deadline looms, Lee eyes Weeks property

County is interested, but can't make promises, in a last-minute deal for land that includes one of the few boat ramps on eastern Estero Bay

Lee County and state officials are looking hard at Weeks Fish Camp, and the historic home of one of the area’s oldest families may yet become a county-owned boat ramp.

Current owner Michele Pessin of the 131 Group is staring at a Tuesday deadline to get a deal done — or at least started. A bankruptcy court judge has held off creditors that long.

Pessin bought the waterfront portion of the old fish camp in 2003. Many members of the Weeks family, who carved the little community they called Coconut out of the scrub in the 1940s, still live there on streets named for pioneer couple Draine and Mamie Weeks.

Some of them welcomed Pessin as a savior when she bought the land, but it hasn’t worked out that way. Legal, land-use and financial hurdles drove her into Chapter 11 early in 2006.

Part of her plan was always to keep the marina open to the public, and she and bankruptcy receiver Gerald McHale have been talking to the county about a sale or at least an easement agreement.

“I’ve indicated I can’t make any promises,” Judah said. “It takes a whole board and a vote.”

Judah said he has met with McHale and with Tom Gilhooley. Gilhooley isn’t invested in the property, but he and Pessin live together and have children. The county’s Conservation 2020 environmental lands program is negotiating to buy another Pessin property, but the same program balked at the asking price for the marina property.

Judah said there are concerns about water depth and what an increase in boat traffic could mean to the shallow bay.

“There is a channel,” Judah said, “but it’s a very shallow channel. Obviously, the state and the county would be very concerned about the amount and the type of boat traffic.”

Estero Bay is the first Aquatic Preserve in Florida, so designated in 1960. Preserve Director Heather Stafford has also been involved in discussions, but she couldn’t be reached for comment.

Steve Boutelle, marine science director for the county, said the state’s most recent check found about 3½ feet of water in the channel.

“As far as the site goes, the channel now severely limits the use,” he said. “That’s the main part of why we recommended to commissioners it wasn’t a good opportunity for a public boat ramp.”

That was several months ago, when Pessin and Gilhooley first approached the county. Boutelle said the state found deeper water than he expected, however, and the last complete engineering assessment was done in 1999.

“My opinion is there will clearly be boating impact from any facility,” Boutelle said. “But there are boating impacts from the use now.”

Judah and other commissioners are hearing from boaters, hundreds of whom have signed petitions urging the county — or someone — to keep the ramp open. One of them is Capt. Ron Kowalyk, who’s been fishing Estero Bay since 1978.

Kowalyk said the county would have to balance the increased boat traffic with the prospect of boaters hauling their trailers down 41 and out Bonita Beach Road and Hickory Boulevard to reach the Lovers Key/Carl E. Johnson State Park boat ramp, the next closest public ramp on the bay. He said the channel is shallow, but good local knowledge is always the key to boating back bays.

“There’s plenty of water to get in and out of there, usually,” he said. “You can get a boat drafting 24 to 30 inches in there. Like with any boat ramp, you have to know what you’re doing.”

Kowalyk described Weeks as unique, situated as it is on the eastern shore of the bay. There’s a ramp on the Imperial River a few miles down 41, but launching there means a long slow ride down the river to reach the bay. There’s also a ramp at the Koreshan State Historic Site, but it’s also designed for smaller boats like canoes and kayaks.

“It’s the only area that’s reasonable on the entire east coast of Estero Bay,” he said. “I really think it’d be a disaster if it disappeared and we didn’t have access.”

North Collier development deal reached, fight moves to federal level

A deal between a developer and a local environmental group has put a controversial development in northern Collier County a step closer to breaking ground, but opponents are vowing to keep up the fight.

Saturnia Falls is one of three projects — the others being Parklands and Mirasol — that environmental advocates are working to defeat to save what is left of a natural flowway that is being choked off by development southwest of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

A series of legal challenges to the projects have focused on their effects on wood stork habitat and wetlands north of Immokalee Road and west of Collier Boulevard. Now, one of the challenges has run its course.

Earlier this month, the South Florida Water Management District approved a deal between Saturnia Falls developer G.L. Homes and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida by which the district would issue the Saturnia Falls permit when the developer transfers 154 acres to the district as mitigation.

G.L. Homes vice president Rick Elsner said Friday that the company is working to close on the purchase of three parcels to satisfy the requirement. The parcels could be in district hands within weeks, he said.

The developer is paying some $3 million for the acreage in Lee and Collier counties within the boundaries of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed preservation project.

G.L. Homes then would sell the land to the district for $713,000, the amount of money the developer paid the district as mitigation for a 2004 permit for an earlier version of the Saturnia Falls project.

The district was supposed to use the money to buy land for mitigation for Saturnia Falls, but the district never spent the money. G.L. Homes paid another $547,000 to the district for restoration and management of the land.

In 2006, the district issued a modified permit for Saturnia Falls to reflect changes to the project’s water management system, and the Conservancy challenged the permit.

In May, an administrative law judge issued a recommended order siding with G.L. Homes on issues of water quality and wood storks but found that the $1.26 million payment for the 2004 permit was inadequate “as a result of the passage of time and market forces” and that the district shouldn’t issue the Saturnia Falls permit.

Conservancy President Andrew MacElwaine said the deal with G.L. Homes resolves the issues with the district permit and sets up the next legal fight in federal court over a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for Saturnia Falls.

The Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Collier County Audubon Society and the National Audubon Society filed the federal lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the corps and the Interior Department in April. The case has been on hold awaiting the outcome of the challenge to the district permit.

Elsner called it “unfortunate” that environmental groups are continuing to challenge the Saturnia Falls project in light of the Conservancy’s failure to stop the project from getting the district permit.

Environmental groups lost a second administrative challenge this past week, when a different administrative law judge issued an order recommending that the water management district issue a permit for Mirasol.

The corps rejected an earlier version of the Mirasol project, citing worries that a manmade flowway proposed to wrap around the golf course community would damage the environment. The corps has said it will issue a permit for a new version of the project, without the flowway. The environmental groups have pledged a federal lawsuit if that happens.

The corps settled a federal lawsuit over the Parklands project by agreeing to take another look at its permit for Parklands. That review is ongoing.

Parklands, Mirasol and Saturnia Falls would destroy some 1,100 acres of wetlands in the Cocohatchee Slough, but developers say the wetlands are degraded and their projects will help the environment.

Old, old Florida: Academics trace Florida's geography over eons

Planning amendment statement revised after justices rejected it
By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - State economists on Friday revised a financial impact statement that would go on the ballot with a citizens initiative designed to give voters a say in local planning and development decisions.

sponsored links
buy a link here
The Florida Supreme Court ruled the initial statement was misleading in a 5-2 opinion July 12.

The proposed Hometown Democracy Amendment to the Florida Constitution would require local governments to hold elections so voters can decide whether to adopt new comprehensive land use plans or make changes in those designs. The impact statement is required to give voters an idea of how much an amendment may cost.

The statement, drafted by the state's Financial Impact Estimating Conference, failed to indicate the estimate is dependent upon how many times local governments have to hold special elections to adopt or amend land use plans, the majority wrote in the unsigned opinion.

The conference, made up of legislative and executive branch economists, revised the offending sentence to include a statement that "probable" costs will depend on the frequency and method of the elections. It also reworked a following sentence to indicate the potential costs include such expenses as ballot preparation and election administration.

Portions of the statement saying local costs cannot be precisely determined and state expenses would be negligible were left unchanged.

The attorney general's office next will submit the new financial statement to the Supreme Court.

Florida Hometown Democracy so far has collected about 45 percent of the about 611,000 signatures from registered voters that it will need to get the amendment on the November 2008 ballot.

Neither the group nor its lawyer, Ross Burnaman, immediately returned calls seeking comment on the language change.

In a letter to the commission earlier this week, Burnaman argued local governments could pass election costs on to developers and other parties that request planning amendments and piggyback referenda on other special or regular elections.

The number of individuals and families moving into new homes in Orlando-area subdivisions plunged 26 percent during the second quarter, and home builders continued to slam on the brakes.

Starts, or new homes getting under way in the region, fell more than 41 percent in the period ending June 30 compared with the same time a year ago, a report by Metrostudy showed Thursday.

And despite efforts by builders to entice buyers with discounts and deals, more than 5,600 new homes still sit empty in the Orlando area, a number that's virtually unchanged from a year ago, the Houston-based research company reported.

Unsold inventory did fall overall, a helpful sign for the health of the industry, but it was mostly in the under-construction category, said Anthony Crocco, director of Metrostudy's Central and Northeast Florida divisions.

"The Orlando MSA [metropolitan statistical area] is experiencing the same problems many Florida markets are experiencing -- large new- and existing-home inventories," Crocco said in his quarterly report, which goes out to builders, researchers, academics and other professionals in the housing industry.

"The high percentage of finished, vacant inventory remains a major concern," Crocco said. "On the upside, the Orlando MSA continues to add jobs and housing demand remains strong relative to most other markets in the state."

In the four-county Orlando metro area -- Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties -- 3,299 single-family homes were started in subdivisions during the April-through-June time frame. That was down 41.4 percent from the same period a year ago when 5,631 units were started. On an annual basis, local housing starts are down 38 percent.

Closings, or the number of homes sold and physically occupied in the Orlando area, totaled 4,004, or 25.9 percent lower than a year ago, Metrostudy found in its survey. On an annual basis through the second quarter, closings were down 8.2 percent.

The survey data are considered valuable to the industry because Metrostudy, which charges fees for its reports, physically drives through subdivisions to verify whether new homes remain vacant or are occupied, a more reliable third-party measure of closings.

One of the Orlando area's top retail-property brokers said Thursday that the slowdown in home construction in the suburbs means retail construction also will slow, particularly in outlying areas.

"Retail follows rooftops," and the trend now toward urban in-fill development means that retail construction will shift from suburbs to downtown, said Martin Forster, a director with Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc., and a partner in his own firm of Pocklington, Pocklington & Forster Retail Investment Group.

Forster spoke during a monthly meeting for the Central Florida Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

With residential construction slowing nationwide, commercial construction has been taking up the slack, absorbing unemployed residential construction employees in many cases and generating ongoing economic impact.

Forster and other local experts who spoke, including top brokers Ron Rogg of CB Richard Ellis and Bo Bradford of GVA Advantis, said that strong global capital flows and low interest rates have kept commercial properties in hot demand and construction in high gear.

"Money drives the juggernaut," Forster said, and financing has shifted from residential construction to commercial.

Jerry W. Jackson can be reached at 407-420-5721 or jwjackson@orlandosentinel.com.

Columbia County officials have sent letters of concern to local and state representatives regarding several applications which have been filed to draw water from the Santa Fe River for use by bottled water plants.

Copies of the letter were sent to Gov. Charlie Crist (R), State Sen. Debbie Boyd (D-Dist. 11), State Rep. Will Kendrick (R-Dist. 10), State Sen. Steve Oelrich (R-Dist. 14), State Sen. and Charles Dean (R-Dist. 3).

Lisa Roberts, assistant county manager, said the letter was sent to state officials July 18.

“They usually respond in writing,” Roberts said of the letters.

The letter, which was signed by all five county commissioners, indicates that the commission has concerns regarding the issuance of new and renewal permits for the extraction of water for bottling plants from the aquifer underlying the Santa Fe River .

“The bulk removal of water will prove to be detrimental to this fragile ecosystem and sustainability of Florida 's groundwater and springs is essential,” it says.

According to the letter, new applications for water withdrawal at July and Santa Fe , LLC Springs in Columbia County and at Lily Springs in Gilchrist County were submitted in early 2007.

“This means that five applications for water withdrawal on the Santa Fe River have been applied for or approved by the Suwannee River Water Management District,” it states. “If these permits are granted, the amount of water approved for extraction from a three-mile area would total over one billion three hundred and fifty million gallons (1.35 billion) per year. This is in addition to water that is removed for existing residential and agricultural purposes, which would eventually be returned to the aquifer; water removed by bottling plants is not.”

Jon Dinges, Suwannee River Water Management District Director of the department of resource management, confirmed that several applicants have applied for permits to draw water from the Santa Fe River . He said the Suwannee River Water Management District has received at least five permit applications for water bottling facilities on the Santa Fe River .

The applications and their status:

n Lilly Springs - Permit applied for;

n July Springs (in Columbia County ) - Permit applied for;

n Ginny Springs - Active; (owned by Coca Cola); withdrawing an estimated 350,000 gallons of water per day.

n Blue Springs (in Gilchrist County ) - Not active; permit issued in 2003;

n Santa Fe Springs “Saw Dust Springs” (in Columbia County ) - Permitted to withdraw 150,000 gallons per day, but currently not in operation.

Dinges said the proposal from the permits are to drill a well,

or wells, and access ground water for bottling purposes.

“The water would normally flow through the spring into the river,” he said.

Water Management District officials have scheduled Minimum Flows and Levels testing on the Santa Fe for 2008. Minimum Flows and Levels testing are scientific studies used to determine the minimum amount of water necessary for the optimal health of the river.

The Water Management District has budgeted more than $250,000 in its 2007-08 tentative fiscal year budget for minimum flows and levels testing on the lower Santa Fe River and its springs as well as the upper area of the river.

“We urge you to take the necessary action to preserve our valuable water resources until such time as there is a completed scientific study essential to determining the minimum amount of water necessary for the optimal health of the river and springs,” Commissioners urged in the letter. “Without establishing this scientific basis for our future water use, Florida 's valuable resource, it's aquifer, will be permanently depleted.”

HIGH SPRINGS -- The line in High Springs designating what area in the city can be developed to a higher density and what area in the city will remain rural has been drawn.

The High Springs Plan Board and the High Springs City Commission approved a long awaited Urban Service Area boundary that will guide the city as it approves development in the future.

The Urban Service Area approval from the joint meeting of the Board and the Commission on July 24 separates the city into two areas.

The Urban Service Area is the area in the city that will be served by utilities and be more highly developed, while the Rural Fringe will only be allowed to have a maximum of one unit per five acres.

To view the map and zoom in to see street names, click here: http://www.highspringsherald.com/content/current/multimedia/pdf_072607/urbanservicearea.pdf

The approval of the Urban Service Area is not a final designation; rather, the approval allows the planning staff to move forward with an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, a guide that the city will use to plan projected development for the next 20 years.

The approval comes after more than a year of meetings and workshops that allowed the public to voice their opinions on what area in the city should be included in the Urban Service Area, City Manager Jim Drumm said.

The Urban Service Area and the final Comprehensive Plan Amendment will not change any of the zoning designations that city currently has -- the amendment will simply designate what area in the city can be more highly developed and what will remain a rural area.

The Rural Fringe does have two clauses that allows subdivisions in the rural area.

A "conservation subdivision" may be developed in the Rural Fringe, with a minimum of one-acre lots and 50 percent of the land must be protected conservation land.

A "cluster subdivision" may be developed in the Rural Fringe, with a minimum of one-half acre lots and 20 percent of the land must be protected conservation land.

The plan also designates protection of open spaces and primary and secondary conservation lands, meaning that land with sinkholes, wetlands or otherwise environmentally sensitive land will be protected from development.

The boundary was drawn with consideration of residents who gave input at public meetings, as well as the consideration of future traffic patterns, future annexations and protection of environmentally sensitive land near the Santa Fe River .

The meeting lasted for more than two hours with both the Plan Board and the City Commission making changes to include pieces of land not on the initial map.

And that was the point of the meeting, to get the input of the Board and the Commission on the map that the planning staff designed.

"The outcome of this meeting is a consensus from the group to see what they like or don't like," High Springs City Planner Christian Popoli said.

Two changes that were approved included one area proposed by Plan Board Member James Forrester concerning a tract of land in the northeast area of the city.

The area included several large tracts of land that Forrester said the owners may one day want to annex into the city and develop the land with city utilities and a higher density than the Rural Fringe designation would allow.

The other change was brought forth by Commissioner Jim Gabriel, who said that a large tract of land in the southwest corner of the city, near the railroad tracks and the sewer plant, could have the potential to be a good industrial area.

"Are we providing an adequate place for industry in this core zone?" Gabriel asked. "We can't just say we are going to have a community of little cottages with white picket fences. That is not going to sustain itself."

Commissioner Larry Travis and City Planner Gene Boles agreed that the area should be included.

The two additions were all that the Board and the Commission chose to change because the plan has to start somewhere, members said.

"We could sit here all night changing lines, but we have to start somewhere," Forrester said.

The planning staff said they were happy that the Urban Service Area was approved so that they can move forward with the Comprehensive Plan Amendment that may include up to eight new zoning designations that will be added to the current zoning designations.

These new zoning designations may include conservation, rural residential, residential subdivision, residential mixed, mixed use, commercial, business industrial and public.

The staff will spend the next few months working with the state Department of Community Affairs to get its approval of the plan.

"People may have different ideas of where the boundaries should be," he said. "But we took many peoples' ideas into consideration as well as professional expertise."

Big Bend, Crystal River on non-profit report's hit list for pollution, lack of efficiency

Tampa Electric Co.'s coal-fired Big Bend power plant in southern Hillsborough County is one of nine U.S. plants to rank in the top 50 for carbon dioxide emissions both in sheer tonnage and in amount per megawatt of electricity, says a new report.

From the movie An Inconvenient Truth to Gov. Charlie Crist's recent Climate Change Summit in Miami , greenhouse emissions, such as carbon dioxide, and global warming have received unprecedented publicity - and pressure for change.

The nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project report - Dirty Kilowatts: America 's Most Polluting Power Plants - issued Thursday ranked 378 U.S. plants based on their total output of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury. The ranking was based on data reported to federal agencies by the utilities. Nationwide, power plants produce 40 percent of carbon dioxide, about two thirds of sulfur dioxide, 22 percent of nitrogen oxides and about a third of mercury, according to the report.

"We do not need to take this dirty route for our energy needs," said Valerie True, spokesperson for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "Most southern states have a lot of energy-efficiency potential, some even up to 40 percent."

While high in the carbon dioxide ranks, Tampa Electric's Big Bend plant overall ranked 45th out of the nation's 50 dirtiest power plants.

Progress Energy's Crystal River coal-fired plant ranked 21st as the only other Florida plant on the list. But it ranked 3rd in tons of nitrogen oxide emitted - 35,412.

The Big Bend plant generated 30,714 tons of nitrogen oxides and produced 11.7-million tons of carbon dioxide.

"The global warming debate is over," said Dean Hulse of the Clean Electricity Committee of the Dakota Resource Council. "We are heating up the earth, and the burning of coal is one of the biggest contributors of global warming pollution."

Carbon dioxide pollution could rise 34 percent by 2030 if large, old and inefficient power plants continue operating unchecked, according to the report.

To address some of the concerns over traditional coal-fired power plants, Tampa Electric recently proposed to the Florida Public Service Commission building a so-called "clean coal" or IGCC baseload plant in Polk County , said Rick Morera, Tampa Electric spokesman. IGCC, or integrated gasification combined cycle, technology gasifies coal before it's burned to cut the amount of pollutants.

"The current technology to deal with carbon is just in the developmental stages and is not ready for application in a coal-fired plant," Morera said. "If the requirements are that we have to capture a certain amount of carbon, this new technology will allow us to be able to do that."

Sorry, I have had to take a mental health break for a couple of days. The same issues are raised and debated all over this state but nobody seems to learn anything. I hope Tom Pelham means what he says and does what he says he is going to do.

Developing a middle ground

Abuse Of Rural-Preservation Law Pushes Voters To Radical Remedy

Why the Chamber of Commerce Wants to Kill Hometown Democracy

Battle for the Soul of Florida

Who will buy the empty homes?

Contaminated Water Reaches Florida's Offshore Keys

Increased development will result in higher taxes

Interesting commentary...

Battle for the soul of Florida by gimleteye