|
Growth
panel at work: For some, pass the rubber stamp
As
a Volusia County resident, taxpayer and activist, I find myself thoroughly
frustrated and angered by those few members of the Volusia Growth Management
Commission whose predictable voting records cannot help but be seen as
something other than impartial public service. On
Monday night, some of those entrusted with making our county's
most crucial and far-reaching land use decisions were guided in their
decision-making by -- what? Certainly not by the public's best interest,
and not even by the legally mandated criteria they are sworn to uphold. Was
it fear of lawsuits? Of hurting someone's feelings? Fear of political
paybacks? Of standing up for what is right, or, simply fear of "just
saying no." Or, dare we even consider the possibility that those couple
of members who vote robotically to approve each and every application, do so
under the auspices of those who appointed them? Even, on June 11, after
having been made aware of the serious negative impacts that, in the state's
words, "the land uses in the commercial category will have on the At
Monday's hearing, some members of the growth management commission were
barely able to disguise their boredom, nor were they able to hide the
fact that they were already comfortably settled into their lounge chairs of
approval, and no facts or technical information that came before them would
disturb that mindset. In fact, as I distributed copies
of a relevant letter from the Florida Division of Historical Resources, one
member rudely barked at me to make sure I "only used 3 minutes."
I wonder if she gave the same reception to those who were wildly beating the
drums for the "free road paving" and "free sewer
hookups" that a kindly developer was about to bestow on them. Pass
the buck was most definitely the order of the evening. Pass it to the
applicant . . . no, to the developer . . . .no,
to the state . . . no, to the county --back to ya!
-- yada yada. When
the music stops, just don't be left holding the hot potatoes of principles
or integrity. Perhaps
the legal statement about the commission's responsibility, taken from our
county's charter, (yes, the county where we ALL live) should be blown up to
poster size and hung on the wall under the American flag, so that in the
future, some of the members won't forget that they aren't there just to keep
the seats warm. Perhaps they think that long service is synonymous with good
service. To
their everlasting credit, most growth management commission members, God
bless them, try very hard to understand the issues, and they make decisions
for the right reasons, but a few aren't in that class. They act like
emissaries sent to a hostile land to quell the natives -- that would be
anyone with an opposing viewpoint, and especially those pesky
"environmental groups" with their incessant complaining about
handing out density increases like Halloween candy. "Thank
God we can ignore all this" was flashing on the foreheads of several
commission members that night as they struggled mightily to find ways to
excuse, explain or ignore such minor details as overloaded roads;
disappearing archeological sites; missing utility agreements; incomplete
field data; technical discrepancies; silted water; state regulations and (oh
here they go again, I hate it when they keep bringing this up) the MANATEES
who, no matter what we do, will try to survive anyway with 500 boat
propellers aimed at them. So
what did we learn? We learned that Mr. Developer is "sacrificing"
to "donate" a couple hundred acres he can't use. And, Mr.
Developer met with all kinds of agencies because he is a nice guy (and
possibly also because he was required to). But most importantly, we learned
that Ms. City will drop her lawsuit if we approve this project. We did not
learn to heed the warnings of Mr. River, who's lived an esteemed fisherman's
life for 75 years, of how you make a hurting river worse by stuffing a big
marina, a "yacht club," and 250 houses on some open land on its
shore. We did not learn that if you bow to bullying and intimidation, don't
be surprised the next time the bully comes looking for you. And most
importantly, we did not learn that in order to fulfill the public trust
placed in you, you really ought to do something more than say, "that's
not our job," or "of course we'll change the law for you." To
those growth management commission members who
give their time in a conscientious effort, thank you. The watching public
can see that they're thinking, listening, trying to be fair, and want to
make the best decision possible. The commission needs more like them. Those
with other agendas, who fall back on "let somebody else decide,"
or whose votes are seemingly tied to their job description (city planners?),
or those offended when ordinary citizens get too involved in the process,
ought to just stay home. Walters
lives in Seminole
pay ordinance disputed
Robert
Perez
|
|
|
The
engineering department's plan eliminates three construction projects around
the
The
revenue forecast, which is part of a twice-a-year update to the county's
five-year road program, changed swiftly just over the past seven months.
Money
projected from impact fees - a cost usually handed down from a developer to
the owner of a new home that pays for growth-related services - is $81
million less over the next five years than what was envisioned last
November.
"We're
not getting new development approvals," Webb said. "I don't think
we had the slowdown figures" projected when the road program was last
updated.
According
to the latest figures available, from 2004-05, the county collected $99
million in impact fee revenues over a 12-month period, money that goes to
new schools, roads, parks, public buildings and law-enforcement.
Of
that total, $49.1 million went toward building roads.
Numbers
for 2005-06 are still being crunched, but the current and future outlook for
impact fee revenues remains grim.
"Definitely
less revenue.
Without a doubt," said Willie Swoope, the
county's impact fee manager.
Projections
of $19 million less in gas tax revenue - a portion that is collected by the
county on a per-gallon rate at the pump - stumped Webb, who believes people
are driving less and spending less money on gas because of soaring gas
prices.
Indeed,
when figures on this year's traffic counts are released later this month,
Webb, a veteran of county government, said there will be something he's
never seen before: portions of county roads where traffic volumes actually
decreased.
"We
had many locations where counts did go down," he said.
Webb
will present his suggestions on the county's road program to county
commissioners on Tuesday and at a July 10 meeting.
The
proposed five-year road program costs - which include design, construction
and mitigation costs as well as right-of-way purchases - are now estimated
at $543.3 million, down from last November's numbers of $605 million.
More
funds from reserves are being spent to make up for the shortfall, Webb said.
The
projected gas tax and impact fee revenues make up about $327.7 million of
the $543.3 million collected for the road program.
Aside
from eliminating planned road projects, tens of millions of dollars in road
plans, mostly in non-construction expenses, have been shifted.
For
example, $2.17 million in design and right-of-way plans to improve
Originally,
$5.7 million was eyed for right-of-way purchases on
"Shifting
of the non-construction dollars will cause significant future delays in the
ability to construct those road segments," Webb said.
The
dilemma in delaying construction is that costs of roadway materials have
spiked in recent years.
Commissioners
have toyed with borrowing money to pay for future road improvements, and
Webb admitted that possibility has become more real.
"There
is a fear. Is it really potentially in our interest to go out and borrow
money?" Webb said. What if the county "can't find a funding source
later on" for the road projects?
Water
board consulting deals OK'd
By
ROBERT P. KING
Friday,
June 15, 2007
ORLANDO
— Water managers on Thursday OK'd spreading $350 million worth of
consulting work among 60 engineering companies, while hinting that such a
massive contracting binge might be their last for a long while.
Some
of Gov. Charlie Crist's new appointees on the
South Florida Water Management District board expressed reservations about
the agency's increasing reliance on outside consultants, a trend that
accelerated under former Gov. Jeb Bush.
New
board Chairman Eric Buermann said he's concerned
that so many consultants amount to a "shadow government" that
creates questions of "who's in charge." He said he worries that
the move toward outside firms can undermine the usual safeguards that
oversee government spending.
"How
organizationally can we ensure that the consultants are consultants and they
don't become now the water management district?" asked Buermann,
a
Executive
Director Carol Wehle acknowledged that the shift
to consultants can cost taxpayers more in some cases than relying on
existing district staff, and she agreed with Buermann
that it probably has hurt staff morale.
The
engineering initiative divides the consulting work into 104 pieces. Three of
the slots will go to Boyle Engineering Corp., a California-based firm with
ties to former board member Lennart Lindahl
of Tequesta. Another will go to TKW Consulting Engineers, a
Later
in the meeting, Buermann cited a "poster
child" for the outsourcing trend: The district's $53 million contract
with the Jacobs/MWH Joint Venture, the private entity that helps manage the
The
joint venture's managers on the
Buermann
said he's not singling out any one company for criticism. But he added:
"I'm concerned that you're creating this parallel universe where a lot
of money is going to be spent. I want to make sure that the district can
maintain control of that."
While
acknowledging the huge stakes involved, Bush-appointed board member Nicolas
Gutierrez cautioned against "going back to the big government
model." He said the district should focus on its $11 billion
restoration and other projects, not endless reexamination of past decisions.
"We
can't be paralyzed by introspection," said Gutierrez, a
Under
Bush, the district faced pressure not to increase its staff, which has
hovered just under 1,800 employees for at least a decade despite the
agency's increasing workload. Bush and his appointees pushed the agency to
outsource work to consultants and engage in "partnerships" with
landowners, arguing that taxpayers would save in the long run.
Wehle
said Thursday the district will consider increasing its staff slightly to
handle those demands, at the same time that it plans budget cuts to cope
with the tax reductions that state lawmakers are expected to order.
Before
the vote on the $350 million engineering initiative, Crist
appointee Charles Dauray also expressed
misgivings about awarding so much work in a single step. District employees
conceded that any company that failed to win a contract could file a legal
challenge that would halt all the work, perhaps for months.
Despite
such qualms, the board voted unanimously to approve the initiative, which
comes as the district prepares to ramp up its construction of marshes,
reservoirs and other Everglades- and water-related projects. Buermann
and Melissa Meeker of Stuart each abstained from several specific deals
because of ties they have had with some of the engineering companies,
including Meeker's former employer, Tetra Tech
EC.
The
60 companies now are part of a pool eligible to work on water, construction
and other projects during the next five years. The district's staff will
negotiate contracts with each company before assigning the work. No company
is guaranteed any specific amount.
Two
projects set to help
By
Shelly Godefrin
News
Chief staff
DUNDEE
- As the population of
Two
projects are planned to help alleviate the current problems and problems
that might come up in the future.
A
new water treatment plant is in the works, as well as a reclaimed water use
system project.
The
water plant will be funded through the United States Department of
Agriculture and the reclaimed water project will be partly funded by the
Southwest Florida Water Management District, said Town Manager Charles
Saddler.
Both
projects are a part of a master plan for water and wastewater.
During
Tuesday night's council meeting, the USDA presented a check for $4,618,900
to the town. The money was from a water and wastewater disposal loan for
$3,136,000 and grant money of $1,482,900.
"A
few years ago, the town did a master utility study to look at water and
sewer needs," Saddler said. "We looked at current demand and
projected demand."
The
master utility study was based on pre-sold water connections with developers
and town staff members identified that a new well site would be needed.
"With
that, we asked the USDA for a loan and grant to assist us in building a new
site," Saddler said.
As
a part of the master plan, the town was looking at ways to take pressure off
of potable water resources by looking for a way to get reclaimed water.
That's
where Swiftmud comes in.
The
Southwest Florida Water Management District's Peace River Basin Board's
proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 includes cooperative funding projects
and these projects are proposed by local governments and are usually funded
equally by the Basin Board and the local cooperator.
One
of the Basin Board's cooperative funding projects is the Dundee Reclaimed
Water Use System Project, which will bring reclaimed water to approximately
1,821 residential customers and several commercial customers within
The
project includes the construction of 18,800 linear feet of reclaimed water
transmission main line, a high-service pump station and two 2.25-million
gallon storage tanks.
This
project will provide approximately 370,000 gallons of reclaimed water per
day for irrigation. This reclaimed water is expected to offset the need for
potable water for irrigation by 185,000 gallons per day.
The
town has submitted this project for Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI)
consideration. REDI funds are available to communities with demonstrated
economic disadvantages.
Traditional
cooperative funding projects are a 50/50 cost share. REDI projects are a
25/75 cost share.
The
total cost is expected to be $4 million.
Because
it is a REDI project, the district has agreed to fund approximately $3
million. In 2006, the Basin Board committed $205, 774 in financial
assistance to the project and has included $558,090 in its proposed budget
for FY2008, including $136,867 in funds from the State Water Protection and
Sustainability Trust Fund.
The
$1 million is from local contributions, Saddler said.
The
reclaimed water project is expected to be finished by December 2009.
The
USDA money will go toward water plant improvements and a new water plant and
well and storage capacity.
The
new plant site is located off
"We've
already started the design and hope to have it online in 16 months,"
Saddler said.
Proposed
millage rate set for
The
Basin Board met on June 8 and adopted a proposed fiscal year 2008 millage
rate of 0.195 mill, which is the same as the
current fiscal year.
In
the event that a tax reduction is mandated by Legislature during its special
session, the Basin Board has authorized the executive director to
recalculate its millage rate to reflect the
change in revenue prescribed by the Legislature.
The
proposed budget for the fiscal year 2008 is $16,755,731, which is an
increase of $778,749 from the approved fiscal year 2007 budget. The increase
is primarily due to an estimate increase in property tax revenue due to
growth in property values.
For
the owner of a $125,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption, the 2008
Basin Board tax would be $19.50, or about $1.63 per month.
The
fiscal year 2008 will run from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2008. The Peace
River Basin Board area includes Hardee, DeSoto,
portions of Polk, Highlands and
The
Basin Board's proposed budget also includes $4.49 million for the water
supply and resource development program, which provides matching funds for
the development of additional new sustainable water supplies.
The
district's governing board will adopt proposed millage
rates for the district's general fund and the eight Basin Boards at a
special budget meeting July 12 at the
These
millage rates will be used by county property
appraisers when mailing out Truth in Millage
(TRIM) notices to residents.
Two
statutorily required public TRIM hearings on the district's total budget
will be held in September. The first will be at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 11 at the
district's
, The Charlotte Observer
Bob
Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against
So
last fall the
His
reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine
last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He has been told to expect
another $1,000 fine from the federal government.
To
legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first
post a $2,500 bond.
Teixeira
is one of a growing number of fuel-it-yourselfers -- backyard brewers who
recycle restaurant grease or make moonshine for their car tanks. They do it
to save money, reduce pollution or thumb their noses at oil sheiks.
They're
also caught in a web of little-known state laws that can stifle energy
independence.
State
Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Denton, is known around
"If
somebody was going to go to this much trouble to drive around in a car that
uses soybean oil, they ought to be exempt" from state taxes, he said.
The
state Department of Revenue, which fined Teixeira, has asked legislators to
waive the $2,500 bond for small fuel users. The department also told
Teixeira, after the Observer asked about his case this week, that it will
compromise on his fine.
But
officials say they'll keep pursuing taxes on all fuels used in highway
vehicles. With its 29.9-cent a gallon gas tax, the state collects $1.2
billion each year to pay for road construction.
"With
the high cost of fuel right now, the department does recognize that a lot of
people are looking for relief," said Reggie Little, assistant director
of the motor fuel taxes division. "We're not here to hurt the small
guy, we're just trying to make sure that the playing field is level."
Alternative
support
State
policies firmly endorse alternative fuels.
In
2005 legislators directed state agencies to replace 20 percent of their
annual petroleum use with alternatives by 2010. About 6,000 of the state's
8,500 vehicles are equipped to use ethanol. The state fleet also includes
about 135 gas-electric hybrids.
Few
states, however, are prepared to regulate the new fuels, says the National
VegOil Board, which promotes vegetable oil fuel.
"State
offices do not have the forms to appropriately and fairly deal with VegOil,
nor the staff to enforce the nonexistent forms," said director Cynthia
Shelton. "So either they tell people inquiring about compliance to get
lost, or they make them jump a bunch of arbitrary hoops."
Outraged
In
the mountain district of state Sen. John Snow, D-Cherokee, home-brewed
ethanol was once known as moonshine. But a couple of constituents who made
it for fuel have been fined for the same tax violation that got Teixeira in
trouble.
Snow
has introduced several bills to promote biodiesel, which under state law
includes vegetable oil.
"One
of the biggest problems in the state is a real lack of information for
people who want to use alternative fuels," said Snow's research
assistant, Jonathan Ducote. "It's just now appearing on [regulators']
radar."
Teixeira's
story began near Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 14. As recreational vehicles
streamed in for race week, revenue investigators were checking fuel tanks of
diesel RVs for illegal fuel.
The
investigators spotted Teixeira's passing bumper sticker: "Powered by
100% vegetable oil."
"It
was like some twist of fate that put me there," he said. "It was
like I was asking for them to stop me."
Teixeira
says revenue officials are just doing their jobs. But he thinks it's unfair
that he was lumped with people who purposely try to avoid fuel taxes.
"Individuals
who are trying to do the right thing environmentally cannot and should not
continue to take this kind of financial hit," he wrote Gov. Mike
Easley.
He'll
pay the state fine and apply for a state fuel license.
"I'm ready to get myself legal," he said, "and start using vegetable oil again."
Cape residents defend Golf Club
Course owners want to change land use
More than 100 people piled through the doors of La Venezia's ballroom on
Club Square on Thursday to voice their opinions about the residential and
commercial development of Cape Coral's The Golf Club.
"We are here to make a statement that we all stand together against the
land use change," said Mary Neilson, president of the non-profit Save
Our Recreation group.
Florida Gulf Ventures LLC, owner of the course, wants the city to change the
allowable land uses from single-family homes and parks and recreation to
include retail shops, offices, townhomes and condominiums.
The investors want to develop because the course continued losing money
after they took over in 2006. The company closed the course last July
because of mounting debt.
The company showcased a preliminary conceptual plan at the public meeting
that could get it back in the black.
The plan includes a residential village, a retail store area and a mixed
use area all surrounded by parks and trails on the 175-acre site.
"This meeting is an opportunity to gather information from the
community and explore what they think about what could be in their
community," said Kent Carlson, of Ryan Companies US Inc., working for
Florida Gulf Ventures.
"There are two things that are needed for a successful development,
community support and the market for it. You need both not just one."
Despite the recent housing market slowdown, about 160,000 people live in the
Cape and commercial buildings remain under construction — offering retail,
office and other business space to serve the growing population.
Many attending the meeting said they preferred the golf course.
“The city is growing so fast one golf course is not enough,” said Cape
Coral resident Brian Whitehouse, 65. “The first two things anyone asks
when coming to cape Coral, Where do I keep my boat and where is the golf
course?”
Trekking
to the top of Volusia's highest peaks
DELAND
-- No sign marks the little grass-covered ridge of land nestled between two
big suburban homes on Trail in the
But
at 120 feet -- a third of a football field if you could stand one on its end
-- it rises above all of Volusia County's natural landmarks like a
marshmallow on a mountain.
Stepping
to the top, I look down and wonder why I bothered to change from flip-flops
into sneakers.
The
usual list of climbing gear seems laughable from where I stand, surrounded
by turkey oaks and a few scrubby bushes. Backpack?
I've got a cute white Target purse. Energy bars? That wasn't even worth five
minutes at the gym.
Yet,
my reverence for this mini alp, this bite-size cliff, and the fact that it
still stands after all these years is worthy of a momentary meditation.
Neighbors
of the peak are bemused by my curiosity. I wonder aloud to members of the
"Surprisingly,
on more than one occasion people come by and say, 'We came to see the
highest place in
And
though the little cliff is normally just another area for Mike Bell to mow,
it becomes a powerful conductor when a storm comes through. The whole family
is careful to react and unplug all computers, sewing machines and major
appliances.
"TVs,
the sprinkler system, cable . . . they used to get hit and just fry
constantly," says Debbie Bell. "It's happened enough that when we
hear thunder and lightning, we unplug things -- at least the things
important to me."
State
geologists and a certain bow-tied county property appraiser look at the
peaks with a rosier vision.
A
large blue, green and yellow map hangs just inside the door of Volusia
County Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath's
office, marking the topography, or land elevations, throughout our little
slice of Earth.
Gilreath's
eyes smile at the map as he reminisces about one similar to it that colored
the varying peaks, mostly in the DeLand ridge
throughout
"That
one was almost psychedelic," he says. "But this one's pretty too.
"I
say the lines were drawn by God."
Builders
often have a hard time working with the slope of a
"It
may not be a disrespect, but (builders are) there to develop a property, so
it's much easier to come into an area and to level it for roads or
houses," he said. "It is more costly to develop properties that
have a slope."
THE
'OTHER' PEAKS
Deer
moss, sand pine and rosemary snarl the thick brush between Our Lady of the
Lakes Catholic Church and Abraham Zacour's home
on
News-Journal
columnist Ronald Williamson, a lover of land and all things historical, has
joined me in my journey up the imaginary mountain. He reaches up and grabs a
shrub.
"Wild
blueberry," he says, looking out into the scrub bushes. "You might
find a dead body here. Sometimes, people do."
This
time, my flip-flops won't do. The cliff is steep, especially on the ends
where it has been cut into for development.
Nonetheless,
my nose still isn't bloody, and I've found no Sherpa to carry my load or
lead me up a safe path as the locals on
Zacour,
the neighbor, says he built his home into the cliff in October 2001 with the
hopes it would remain king of the hill.
"We
thought it was going to be left higher than the street," he says,
taking a break from mowing the parts of his yard not covered in sand.
"But that's code; we couldn't build much higher than the house next to
us."
But
according to newspaper articles dated from 1995 to 2005, the peak that gets
the most visitors is Sugarloaf Mountain in nearby
Both
peaks are honored with names, unlike those found in Volusia. Geologist
Paulette Bond says people have poked fun at
"Suddenly,
there is a great deal of respect if they are buying a home and have to deal
with the sinkhole issue," says Bond, who has worked for Florida
Geological Survey for 27 years. "Our response is to just kind of smile
and laugh because it's a great land, and, geologically, there is a lot going
on. It's just all very recent."
The
Fossil
shells packed with limestone and sand make up the
coquina rock formations on the east side of
And
all but forgotten is DeLeon Springs' little
mound of land near the radio tower off
Waiting
to be built upon.
Jerry
W. Jackson
Sentinel Staff Writer
June 15, 2007
A sprawling live oak weighing more than 50 tons was carefully uprooted and
moved Thursday by Castle & Cooke Florida to a special spot within a new
development it is building in west Orange County.
The tree is the largest of dozens of oaks the developer is moving to
preserve as work begins on the community, called
If the giant tree survives the transplant as expected, it will become the
focal point of a shady community park, said Matthew Bullion, Castle &
Cooke's project manager. The company moved the tree about a quarter of a
mile to save it, rather than bulldoze it to make room for a home, Bullion
said.
"One like this takes a long time to grow," Raul Guzman said as he
supervised the tree-moving process for Valley Crest landscaping company.
A giant crane lifted the more than 60-foot-tall oak onto a flatbed truck for
a slow ride to the
The subdivision is the first in
Robin Vieira, director of building research for the
In terms of the points needed to earn the nonprofit group's green
certification,
Guzman said he has probably moved 1,500 trees during his career. Many newer
communities in Central Florida, such as
Trees add value to a development, said Bob Hennen,
sales director for
But trees are valuable in a lot of other ways, said Rob Northrop, an urban
forester with the
"They remove air pollutants that cause asthma and other diseases, and
they remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change.
They do that in a way that's very inexpensive," Northrop said.
"These are living things cleaning the air."
Trees also produce shade that cools homes and extend the life of streets and
roads. They reduce water runoff and perform other services, but their
greatest benefit, he said, is the connection that trees have with people,
culture and communities.
"Socially, we love them," he said. "Kids play in them; people
stop to stand under them and talk to their neighbors. And I think their
longevity really touches people. Things just move and change so fast these
days, but trees give you a sense of permanence and place."
Oakland Mayor Kathy Stark, who has two towering oaks in her yard, said
Castle & Cooke deserves credit for being tree
friendly.
"We have a lot of beautiful oak trees. It makes us what we are,"
Stark said. "I was really pleased that they're trying to preserve the
oak trees and weave them into the fabric of the community," though the
oaks being moved are technically in neighboring Winter Garden's side of the
development.
Sales in
Jerry W. Jackson can be reached at jwjackson@orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-5721.
Bear
meanders into neighborhood
By TROY
ROBERTS troberts@lakecityreporter.com
Thursday, June 14, 2007
11:56 PM EDT
A
black bear injured a horse in the May Fair subdivision off of
Shortly after 8 p.m., the bear climbed down from the tree and headed north
out of the subdivision. Officials believed the bear would return to the
forest.
According to officials, the bear entered the subdivision sometime Thursday
afternoon and injured a horse.
“The horse had some scratches to its hind quarters and its right
flanks,” said Matt Pollock, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission Regional Wildlife Management biologist.
After the scuffle with the horse, the bear climbed a tall pine tree and
remained there for several hours.
A bulldog from the area also was missing Thursday night. Officials believed
the bulldog may have been involved in a scuffle with the bear earlier in the
day.
Pollock said the bear's appearance is curious.
“We're still unsure of where it came from,” he said, adding that the
bear could have been displaced by the recent Bugaboo wildfire, although he
said it is unlikely the bear would have made it across Interstate 75 without
it being reported.
The bear could have just been after food, with a horse trough in the
vicinity of where the horse was injured. Pollock said he didn't believe the
bear intended to injure the horse.
Pollock said the FWC's plan was to maintain a
perimeter and keep people away from the scene of the bear. The area was
reopened after the bear's descent from the tree.
Officials did not think the bear had any previous run-ins with people or has
caused any trouble in the past. From its perch in the tree, the bear did not
appear to have an ear tag, which would have indicated it had been marked by
wildlife personnel.
Published:
Jun 14, 2007
WESLEY
CHAPEL - Land O' Lakes resident Dan Rametta
opened a new front Wednesday in his running battle with the developers of
Rametta
filed papers in
That
permit clears Jacobs to move a mix of adult and juvenile tortoises found
June 2 when crews began digging up what they thought would be 10 adult
animals.
The
tortoises will be moved to the Alston Tract. Jacobs has set aside that
property on the
Cleveland-based
Jacobs plans to build a 1.3 million-square-foot regional mall at State Road
56 and Interstate 75.
The
gopher tortoises live between S.R. 56 and Cypress Creek.
Rametta's
request will be reviewed by wildlife officials to handle in-house or forward
to the state Department of Administrative Hearings, said attorney Ross Burnaman,
who filed the request on Rametta's behalf.
Burnaman
said Wednesday that he planned to file a second hearing request on behalf of
Citizens for Sanity. Rametta sits on that
group's board.
Rametta's
request is the fourth legal challenge to the
The
third was dropped after mall officials explained their plans to their
opponents.
The
filing repeats claims Rametta has made in recent
weeks that the developer and wildlife officials aren't following the letter
of the law in approving the tortoise relocation.
Rametta
says the developer failed to survey its property within 90 days of moving
the tortoises to see how the population may have changed.
Rametta
also charges Jacobs with "material misrepresentation" for saying
the Alston Tract preserve is 300 acres. It is 249.1 acres, Rametta
said.
The
entire Alston property is slightly more than 300 acres. Jacobs has a
conservation easement covering most of the site.
Rametta
also repeated his charge that Jacobs did not get all its required permits
before beginning work on the site. County and state officials say Jacobs met
their requirements.
Jacobs
officials had not seen Rametta's challenge by
Wednesday afternoon and offered no comment on it.
Reporter
Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813)
948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
Gophers
slow construction
Mayo
Free Press
An
estimated 19 gopher tortoises have delayed the beginning of the construction
of a plant by Maronda Integrated Production
Systems, a producer of pre-manufactured roof and floor trusses. The company
plans to build a plant in
Before Maronda could file for the necessary
permits for construction, a Phase I Environmental Assessment and a Protected
Wildlife Study had to be conducted. A survey of the property for gopher
tortoise activity was carried out in April and 33 burrows were found. Gopher
tortoises are listed by the state of
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC),
without proper management, gopher tortoises are likely to become a
threatened or endangered species. Tortoise burrows also serve as habitats
for a variety of other wildlife species that are listed as species of
special concern or as threatened species.
Due to its protected status, it is illegal to take, harm or harass a gopher
tortoise. Anyone who plans any development in gopher tortoise habitat has
several options: Avoid development in the area occupied by tortoises; plan
development to avoid burrows; mitigate for activities that will probably
entomb or kill tortoises by providing similar habitat elsewhere; or relocate
the tortoises. The last two options require permits from the FWC.
Dennis Price, Environmental Consultant for Hamilton County Tourism and
Economic Development, has applied for an Incidental Take permit and a
relocation permit. The Incidental Take permit allows for the “taking”-
entombment or killing - of gopher tortoises on development sites if a
compensatory amount of gopher habitat is purchased and preserved elsewhere.
According to a formula provided by the FWC, Price calculates there are about
20 tortoises on the site and it will cost the County $26,365.50 to use the
Incidental Take permit. He estimates the cost of capturing and transporting
the tortoises will be between $8,000 and $12,000, plus a recipient site
charge of $1,000 per gopher. Maronda has agreed
to pay half of the costs of mitigation or relocation, up to $15,000.
Price said he contacted the FWC, Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD),
Division of Forestry, Department of Environmental Protection’s State Park
Division, and PCS Phosphate, White Springs asking for a site to relocate the
tortoises.
“All of them have suitable property, but none of them were inclined to be
of assistance,” Price said. “I thought for sure they would know of some
land and be willing to help. I was surprised when they wouldn’t.”
Commissioner Mike Adams said during a board meeting on June 5, “A company
is willing to bring jobs to this county and we are being held up by gophers.
The Water Management and PCS should be willing to help. We are trying to
create jobs and they don’t want to help.”
Mike Williams, Public Relations at PCS Phosphate, White Springs, told the
Board the company had moved 85 gopher tortoises from approximately the same
area in
Commissioner Randy Ogburn noted that Nancy
Oliver (Executive Director, Tourism and Economic Development) told the board
Williams had said PCS had no room for the tortoises and there was nothing
they could do. Williams replied, “I don’t think we do. I don’t have
the final answer.”
When Charlie Houder, SRWMD Deputy Executive
Director, spoke to the Board, he said it has not been the policy of the
District to accept gopher tortoises from other landowners. He offered to
meet with Price and a representative from the FWC.
“If they find any acceptable land, the District will look at the plan. If
there is any way possible to help the County, we will,” Houder
said. Then he added, “We don’t know if we have land available or not. We
have not done gopher surveys across our ownerships.”
Commissioner Lewis Vaughn pointed out the county’s taxpayers paid ad
valorem taxes that helped fund the SRWMD. “Look at all the land along the
river they have bought and preserved, but we can’t put the tortoises on
it. I have a problem with that.”
“The taxpayers of this county have bought thousands of acres of land and
we can’t find room for the gophers. We have a real problem - as poor a
county as we are, to have to spend $30,000 to move the tortoises,”
Commissioner Leon McGauley said. “We have all
this public property that’s supposed to be preserved for conservation of
animals and we may be forced into killing some animals that you could simply
let loose in the woods and they would survive. There’s something wrong
with that.”
Price has located a pre-approved site in
“We don’t want to carry them where they’re not used to being,”
Vaughn told Houder, “Now that you know
there’s a problem, it would be nice if the district would take the lead
since you own property in all the counties in this area.”
By
CRAIG PITTMAN
Published June 14, 2007
On
Wednesday, the agency's board voted unanimously to end the practice,
condemned as inhumane and immoral by animal advocates.
"This
is long overdue," state wildlife commission Chairman Rodney Barreto
said. "What we've done here is wrong, and it's time we made it
right."
The
commissioners also shot down a proposal to allow homeowners to kill
alligators under 4 feet long that turn up in their pools or carports, rather
than calling for professional trappers. And they approved moving manatees
one step closer to being taken down a notch on the endangered species list.
But
the topic that kept the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
talking most of the day was the lowly gopher, known in
Since
1991, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has
issued 2,900 permits allowing the death of an estimated 94, 000 gopher
tortoises. Now the tortoise population has declined to the point where
biologists say it should be classified as threatened by extinction.
Tortoise
burrows also provide a home for about 300 other species. Those, too, were
suffocated to death when the burrows were sealed up and paved over.
Development
representatives said nobody really wanted to suffocate thousands of
tortoises. But paying to move the tortoises to another location was more
expensive than buying a permit to suffocate them.
"There's
no one out there that hates gopher turtles and wants them all dead,"
said
Developers
asked the state to grandfather in anyone who already had a permit to kill
tortoises or was
on the verge of getting one.
Over
the objections of environmental groups, the state agreed to grandfather some
people who have already applied for permits, on a case-by-case basis. But it
told its staff to strongly encourage everyone to move the tortoises instead
of kill them.
Wildlife
agency officials presented a draft plan for increasing protection for the
tortoise, including a revamped permitting program that requires relocating
tortoises instead of killing them.
Some
prodevelopment advocates fretted that that might
increase the cost.
"This
is kind of like communism -- money is coming out of the hands of the people
and it's going over to the state," said
The
commission made short work of a proposal by its staff to allow homeowners to
go ahead and kill alligators smaller than 4 feet long that turn up in
suburban back yards and driveways. The change was opposed by the state's
professional gator trappers, who warned about the consequences.
"Even
a little alligator's got 80 teeth," said professional trapper Bill
Robb. "I don't think people should be dabbling in that."
Commissioners
also voted unanimously to approve a controversial draft plan for managing
manatees, leaving just one more step before the popular marine mammal is
taken off the list of endangered species.
The
draft plan calls for the state to come up with a new way to count the number
of manatees within the next three years and review whether all the new
boating speed zones that have been imposed are working. It does not call for
getting rid of any of those zones, however.
Boating
groups praised the commission staff for coming up with a plan they
supported, but environmental activists complained that it was just "a
plan of plans," lacking in concrete goals for how to stop the rising
number of manatee deaths due to boat collisions. Boat-related deaths account
for about 30 percent of all manatee deaths.
The
plan "does a good job of telling you what's wrong, but it does a
terrible job of telling you how we're going to fix it,
" said Pat Rose of the Save the Manatee Club.
While
conceding the plan was not perfect, Commissioner Richard Corbett of
The
final vote on changing them to merely "threatened"
is scheduled to take place in September, in a meeting in
Manatees
are still listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, but federal wildlife officials are considering dropping them to
"threatened."
By
CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published June 14, 2007
At
least two developers explored and later ditched plans for a mall there.
Brokers say this kind of location shopping is common practice among
commercial developers.
But
things changed in 2002, when the Shailendra
Group, an
On
Monday, it secured unanimous approval from the Tampa Bay Regional Planning
Council for a development there that includes 2-million square feet of
stores, 1.7-million square feet of industrial space and 1.7-million square
feet of offices.
The
council's signoff is a necessary precursor to the county's final approval.
The project is tentatively scheduled to go before the
"If
we get the final approval, we would probably start construction within six
months, " said Ron Weaver, the attorney
representing the Shailendra Group.
Weaver
had no new anchor tenants to announce, but the Chelsea Property Group has
signed up to put 120 stores there.
The
Shailendra Group has big dreams.
Expected
to generate more than 11, 000 jobs and $81-million in tax revenue over 20
years, Pasco Town Centre would be the county's single biggest
"employment center." That's planner-speak for an area with special
density allowances targeted at economic development.
At
2-million square feet, the proposed outdoor mall would dwarf even
In
the past, Weaver has said the site would have a bigger pull on Hernando and
Citrus counties than malls farther south.
Pasco
Town Centre, expected to build out in 2020, also includes nearly 2, 000
homes and 640 hotel rooms. The Shailendra Group
is donating $1.7-million to build affordable housing there.
With
that kind of density, expect major road works.
Planners
and developers are working with a price tag of $460-million worth of road
improvements, Weaver said.
Specific
changes so far are still on the drawing board.
Weaver
said a flyover and noise buffers for I-75 at State Road 52 were being
discussed. But Bijan Behzadi,
a state Department of Transportation engineer, said that corner may not have
enough space for a flyover.
What
could emerge, though, is a "loop ramp" in the northwestern corner
of the interchange, Behzadi said. That's the
kind of cloverleaf road that allows drivers to join the interstate without
stopping to make a turn.
That
section of I-75 and SR 52 also would expand to six lanes, Behzadi
said.
Chuin-Wei
(AP)
-- Parts of
The
group warns that development could destroy the 1925
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation on Thursday placed the industrial
waterfront of
It
is the 20th year the trust has sought to save distinctive examples of
architecture from the wrecking ball.
In
''These
buildings represent
Moe
said city planners and developers should try to adapt the warehouses to
residential lofts, much like the trendy
The
Municipal Art Society is particularly upset over the destruction of a Civil
War-era ship repair dock still in use until it was dismantled to make way
for a parking lot for an IKEA store.
Also
on the trust's list are huge swaths of seven East Coast states where the
federal government is trying to spur the construction of power lines to
improve the aging electricity grid.
The
government says local authorities have stymied high-power transmission lines
for so many years that
The
proposed East Coast corridor includes large parts of
It
is unclear where new lines would go up. Opponents fear the construction
could despoil the historic battleground at
Other
areas named to the most endangered list were el Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
National Historic Trail, N.M.; H.H. Richardson House, Brookline, Mass.;
historic structures in Mark Twain National Forest, Mo.; Minidoka Internment
National Monument, Jerome County, Idaho; Philip Simmons' workshop and home,
Charleston, S.C.; and Pinon Canyon, Colo.
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, nonprofit group
founded in 1949. It has compiled a ''most endangered'' list since 1988.
Do
you know when and where your City Council is meeting?
A
Times-Union investigation finds evidence of
By
BETH KORMANIK, The Times-Union
Hours
before a Jacksonville City Council meeting last June, council leaders Kevin
Hyde, Michael Corrigan and finance Chairman Daniel Davis met for breakfast
at an Avondale diner.
Hyde,
a lawyer, described the gathering as a "client breakfast" on his
calendar.
City
Council Public Notification Procedures
PUBLIC
NOTIFICATION
Suppose
two City Council members decide to meet about an issue that affects you.
Unless you have special access to City Hall, you probably wouldn’t know
the meeting happened, let alone what’s discussed.
What
the law says:
What
the council does:
--
Mail room: A paper copy of the meeting notice is placed in a media box
located past two levels of security inside the mail room on the fourth floor
of City Hall.
--List-serv:
A notice also is sent electronically on a city e-mail list-serv
that no one outside of the city can access. A Times-Union request to add a
reporter to the list-serv was denied.
What
the council doesn’t do:
--
Bulletin boards: Several bulletin boards in the City Hall atrium display
meeting notices for other boards and commissions -- but not the council.
--
Web site: Nor are the meetings listed on the councilŐs
Web page.
An
example
Councilman
Richard Clark filed public notice of a Feb. 5 meeting with Councilman Ronnie
Fussell the previous afternoon, a Sunday. City
Hall is closed Sundays. They met at a local Starbucks and discussed the
upcoming leadership election.
What
the council says
Council
President Michael Corrigan: He sees nothing wrong with the method of public
notification. ‘If the public wants to know, they can just as easily call
down and say, 'Is the councilman having a public meeting about this?’
‘But he wondered how far the city should go. ‘Where do you stop? I
don’t think there’s ever satisfaction. If we put public notices on our
Web-based system, someone will say, 'You should
e-mail me.’ It’s always going to be something else.’
Tuesday:
Corrigan introduced sweeping legislation that includes changes in the public
notification process.None of them recalled the
meeting a year later, yet they all insisted they did not talk about city
business. If they had, it would be a violation of
But
this much is known: Three of the most powerful members of the council met.
No public notice was filed. No written record was kept. The law requires
both when two or more members of a board gather to discuss the public's
business.
And
it was not an isolated occurrence.
The
Times-Union examined the daily calendars of all 19 council members from June
1, 2005, to Dec. 1, 2006. The computer-assisted analysis documented 307
scheduled meetings, excluding committee and full council meetings.
Forty-seven calendar listings dealt with specific items of city business
such as the Cecil Field referendum, city contracts and downtown traffic but
were held without prior public notice and without a written account of the
proceedings.
Another
77 meetings had no notice or minutes but the calendars don't reveal a
purpose. Council members later said the get-togethers were for lunch, prayer
sessions or political events, but in most cases public business was not
discussed.
The
remaining 183 meetings were publicly announced, though written accounts of
the proceedings exist for only one-third of those meetings, the analysis
showed. Ten of the 19 council members kept no notes at all, while others
provided no useful information.
The
Times-Union also uncovered flaws in the way the council provides public
notice for specially called meetings. Regular council and committee meetings
are posted online. There was no council-wide policy for announcing other meetings,
although the council is now considering one.
Notices
generally are e-mailed to a list-serv available
only to city employees - not the public. A hard copy is set aside for the
news media in a mail room, an area not intended for the public.
Other
boards and commissions post meeting notices on publicly accessible bulletin
boards in the City Hall atrium. But council members rarely use it, according
to their aides and observation over several months.
State
Attorney Harry Shorstein, made aware of the
newspaper's findings, said he will bring the matter before a grand jury. The
panel, which meets today, will decide whether to launch an investigation.
And,
after months of denials, Corrigan this week acknowledged
"mistakes" by the council and proposed an ordinance with changes
to ensure compliance with the Sunshine Law. He wants the new rules approved
by the time 10 new members join the council July 1.
'City
Hall west annex'
Every
council member had at least two questionable meetings on their calendars.
About
two-thirds of those meetings involved council leadership - Hyde, Corrigan or
Davis - who gathered so often at The Fox Restaurant in Avondale that Hyde
jokingly dubbed it "City Hall west annex."
The
city's ethics codes forbid holding public meetings at private locations, and
numerous state attorney general opinions also discourage meeting off city
property.
Violations
of the Sunshine Law are a serious matter. Officials can be removed from
office, jailed for up to 60 days and fined up to $500 for intentional
violations. They also could face civil lawsuits. Dozens of officials around
the state have been punished under the law, according to the
"If
the citizens aren't fully knowledgeable about what's going on, they don't
have the ability to hold their government to the highest standards of
accountability," said Sandi Copes, spokeswoman for State Attorney
General Bill McCollum. "A remedy would need to be sought as soon as
possible."
Jacksonville
General Counsel Rick Mullaney worked with
council leaders to draft the new ordinance.
"This
is not optional or some place where a good excuse is good enough," he
said.
Councilwoman
Gwen Yates had the best record of her colleagues, with only two questionable
meetings on her calendar. She also kept written minutes in six of the eight
meetings she called. Yates said she reserves her questions and comments for
meetings the public can attend.
"It's
all in fairness to the constituents and the taxpayers," she said in a
recent interview. "You're making decisions that affect their lives. So
it's only fair they have an opportunity to be a part of the process."
The
public does not always have that opportunity.
Take
the breakfast gathering involving Corrigan, Davis and Hyde.
If
budget and finance issues were discussed, as Corrigan's calendar noted, the
meeting would be subject to the Sunshine Law, said Barbara Petersen, a
lawyer and president of the First Amendment Foundation.
In
separate interviews nearly a year later, all three councilmen denied
discussing city business during the meeting. Yet Corrigan could not explain
why he listed the topic as "finance/budget" on his calendar.
They
each said the meeting came two days before Corrigan and Davis were installed
as council leaders and speculated that the discussion focused on the
ceremony. It also happened two weeks before Mayor John Peyton proposed the
city budget to the council.
"We're
not dumb enough to sit there and discuss matters, nor would we," Hyde
said. "If we wanted to break the sunshine, we would do it in a way that
did not involve eating in a public restaurant with a bunch of people we
know, because we're all there together pretty much every morning."
Hyde's
records make it difficult to verify his claims that he does not mix public
business with private meetings.
The
Times-Union obtained his calendar from the council secretary. It showed five
entries listed as "client meetings," "client breakfasts"
or other "breakfasts."
Those
entries were blacked out in a version provided by his office in response to
an open records request. The public records law allows officials to redact
private information.
However,
other council members' calendars show that Hyde was scheduled to meet with
them at those times. Hyde said no one on the council is a client.
Hyde
acknowledged the get-togethers in an interview. He said "client
breakfast" was meant to indicate that the meeting did not involve city
business.
Mullaney,
the city lawyer, said items involving city business should not be redacted.
"If
somebody turns over something to you in which they have taken out something
that's legitimately a public record, that's a public records
violation," he said.
Reasons
for meetings often were vague on members' calendars.
Councilwoman
Mia Jones listed a "luncheon get together" Oct. 17, when she
really was meeting with Davis and mayoral aide Adam Hollingsworth.
But
the true purpose was a strategy session on how to defeat the controversial
ballot initiative to convert Cecil Field into a Navy jet base,
Neither
considered it a public meeting.
"The
way I looked at it, I didn't see it coming back to the council," Jones
said. "It was in front of the people. The council had already
voted."
Petersen
said the meeting should have been open to the public.
"Just
because an issue has been voted on doesn't mean it won't come back
again," she said. "They need to be very careful when they're doing
this sort of thing. If two members of the council are meeting, provide
notice and take minutes. How hard is it?"
Written
records
Ten
of the 19 council members ignored the requirement to keep a written record
of their meetings, while others kept accounts that were virtually
uninformative. Several members made tape recordings, which do not meet the
legal threshold.
Minutes
do not have to be verbatim transcripts, but the Attorney General's Office
advises officials to provide summaries that accurately reflect the
proceedings.
"Unfortunately,
we do not have minutes nor were any of these sessions recorded,"
Councilwoman Pat Lockett-Felder's aide wrote in response to a Times-Union
request of minutes for the two meetings that she called. Lockett-Felder said
she isn't sure why there were no written record
of the meetings.
So
did many council members, who said the city's attorneys never
advised them that minutes had to be written.
"That's
news to me," Jones said.
The
widespread lack of minutes could show a disregard for the law, Petersen
said. That matters because penalties for intentional violations of the
Sunshine Law are more serious than unintentional violations.
Although
some notes gave descriptions of what took place -
Here
is how Councilman Lad Daniels summed up a May 1, 2006, meeting with
Corrigan
said he was looking into buying tablet-style computers so council members
could take notes during a meeting and immediately file them as minutes.
Off-site
meetings
Some
council members acknowledged discussing city business during private
meetings but don't believe they broke the law.
After
Corrigan named Richard Clark to chair the Audit Committee last July, they
met to discuss its meeting schedule.
Corrigan
and Clark said meetings about "committee procedures" don't need to
be publicly advertised.
But
Copes of the Attorney General's Office and Petersen of the First Amendment
Foundation said the councilmen should have met in public.
"If
they're discussing issues that fall under their responsibilities as officials,
that would be subject to sunshine," Copes said.
Said
Petersen: "A meeting to set an agenda or a meeting schedule could
arguably be public business, [especially] if it's one of the committees that
has great public interest," she said.
"I'd be very careful."
The
locations of many of the scheduled meetings also raised flags.
Mullaney's
office even suggests to council members that they not meet in their private
council offices because of the "chilling effect" it could have on
the public's comfort in attending.
Under
Corrigan's proposal, meetings would be held only in public places such as
conference or meeting rooms.
Even
if the public had full access to City Hall, Hyde said in a recent interview
that people probably do not want to attend most meetings between council
members. He said people elect officials to represent their interests and not
consult them on every issue.
The
argument didn't sit well with Petersen.
"Who
are they to say?" she said.
"It's
not up to a government official to decide, 'They're not going to come, we
don't have to worry about this.' Even if just one person shows up, that's
what the law says they have to do."
beth.kormanik@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4619
By
DOUG SWORD
Thursday,
June 14, 2007
For
more than two years, Lennart J. Lindahl
has co-owned vacation property in
Today,
Lindahl's engineering firm is set to win a place
at the table when the district doles out a $350 million smorgasbord of
consulting work to dozens of companies.
|
|
How
much business will any one company receive? That decision will be up to Wehle's
staff.
Lindahl
is the son of Lennart E. Lindahl,
who served on the district's board for six years until he resigned abruptly
last month, citing his history of life-threatening heart trouble. The father
was still on the board when district executives reviewed the company's
proposals earlier this year, with the name "Lindahl"
displayed inside the spiral-bound volumes.
And
the elder Lindahl has had his own dealings with
the company, Boyle Engineering Corp., which bought out his
District
lawyers say the relationships have passed ethical scrutiny, and Wehle
and the elder Lindahl say they've taken extreme
steps to separate their personal lives from business at the $1.4
billion-a-year district.
Meanwhile,
the son has pledged in writing to give up his stake in the
The
elder Lindahl and others at the district insist
they are honest people who have followed all ethical requirements.
"I
am not sure where you are getting your theories, but in my humble opinion,
they seem to insinuate wrongdoing where there is none," district
General Counsel Sheryl Wood wrote Wednesday in response to questions about
the relationships.
Even
so, newly appointed board Chairman Eric Buermann
has asked an outside law firm to examine the vacation-home issue. That
question arose about a month after an unrelated story in April, in which The
Palm Beach Post reported that a district employee who signed off on a golf
course permit was sharing a home with the consultant on the
And
the Lindahls aren't the only example of public
and private interests meeting in the $350 million engineering initiative.
Of
the 60 companies set to split 104 pieces of the lucrative work, one - Tetra
Tech EC - had new district board member Melissa Meeker on its staff until
this week. Meeker, an environmental consultant from Stuart, said she plans
to abstain from any votes involving the company.
Another
company, TKW Consulting Engineers, gave a job five years ago to Wehle's
youngest daughter. The company is led by Trudi
Williams, a former district chairwoman who is now a state legislator from
If
the board OKs the actions today in
The
district's staff would negotiate contracts with each company before
assigning the work. No company is guaranteed any specific amount.
Boyle
applied for seven slots in the program and got three, dealing with civil
engineering, construction management and full-service engineering. Under
district rules, board members played no role in judging the proposals and
were forbidden to talk to the employees who selected the firms, spokesman
Randy Smith said.
The
elder Lindahl calls potential conflicts the
inevitable result of a successful career in the same fields the district
oversees. State law requires board members to have "significant
experience" in such subjects, including farming, engineering, the
environment or finance.
"What
do you want to have - idiots on the board?" he said. "If you have
competent people who are the kind of people who you would entrust with
handling billions of dollars, then those people have friends, business
associates, family members."
The
real question is whether people act ethically in handling such conflicts, he
said, adding that he has.
"I
sleep at night," he said.
Wehle
said much the same thing in an interview last month. After the board
appointed her to the district's top job in April 2005, she said, she's taken
the extreme step of recusing herself from all
contracts, permits and personnel decisions in the nearly 1,800-employee
agency.
"I
have a tremendous number of friends who work for engineering firms,"
said Wehle, who receives $187,803 a year.
The
younger Lindahl could not be reached for comment
this week.
But
in a June 6 letter to a district-hired law firm, he wrote that he has known Wehle's
husband, John, "since I was a teenager." He said he jumped at the
chance to join John Wehle and district manager
Jack Maloy - another longtime acquaintance - in
ownership of a vacation home in
The
trio bought the vacant land for $24,500 from the younger Lindahl's
parents in January 2005, according to
District
counsel Wood has said that under state ethics rulings, joint ownership of
vacation property poses no conflict as long as it produces no income. But
the younger Lindahl wrote in the June 6 letter
that he will end the issue anyway by selling his share to Maloy
and John Wehle.
"In
my experience, it has always been better to do more than what is
necessary," he wrote.
In
documents submitted to the district, Lindahl
identified himself as the water resources director for LBFH Inc. - the
Meanwhile,
his father has a three-year consulting contract with Boyle through a
separate company he founded, Retaw Advisors LLC.
("Retaw" is "water" spelled
backward.) The deal is intended to allow the elder Lindahl
to assist the "integration" of the companies and requires Boyle to
provide Retaw with office space, according to a
district legal memo.
Even
so, the district's lawyers advised the elder Lindahl
in February that he could stay on the board while Boyle pursued a contract
with the district. Among other reasons, they said the elder Lindahl
doesn't stand to profit from Boyle's success, and his son doesn't own more
than 5 percent of the company.
The
lawyers said Lindahl would have to abstain from
any vote affecting the company. He said he was prepared to do so - but then
"my ticker took care of that."
The
elder Lindahl said he sought the legal opinion
to resolve all questions.
"As
you can see from that opinion, it was a lot of due diligence and was not
taken lightly," he said.
By
MITRA
MALEK
Thursday,
June 14, 2007
A
"deadline" passed; meanwhile, county and state planners are still
working toward a resolution on the sector plan.
That's
arguably better than a judge deciding the fate of a crucial growth blueprint
for
|
|
County
commissioners adopted the sector plan in August 2005, but the state still
hasn't signed off on it.
As
things stand, the Florida Department of Community Affairs is reviewing the
county's latest revision of the sector plan - its sixth submission so far.
The county and state must let an administrative law judge know by July 16
whether they have reached a settlement.
If
they haven't, they can ask for more time - that's most likely what the
county would want. There's also a chance the state will say it has reached
the end of its negotiating rope, leaving a resolution to the judge.
That
almost happened several months ago, when county planners were scrambling to
get direction from county commissioners on changes to the plan.
At
that time, county planners stressed a May 1 deadline, the date by which they
had to let the judge know where they stood on a settlement. A sense of
urgency had surrounded the date because state planners hadn't seen enough
movement from the county to continue negotiations, county officials said.
But
on April 18, county commissioners voted to make some changes to the sector
plan. That was followed by an April 24 settlement conference followed
between county and state planners. That's when the state asked for the sixth
revised submission of the plan.
Meanwhile,
"We
want to have a seat at the table," said Alex Hansen,
The
city doesn't have specific concerns with the plan but wants to make sure
potential impacts on its residents are evaluated, Hansen said.
Royal
Palm Beach does have a concern: traffic.
"We
want to know that the county is properly planning for it," said
Assistant Village Manager Ray Liggins.
"What we realized with Callery was that
they were not necessarily looking at all the impacts."
The
trio of municipalities conducted a study showing Callery-Judge
Grove's recent proposal for a 10,000-home "town" would trigger a
staggering $1 billion in road improvements. Commissioners shot down the
project on May 15.
Under
commissioners' April 18 revisions, 12,931 homes could be built on several
large lots within the 85-square-mile sector plan area: 5,909 homes on GL
Homes' Indian Trail Groves; 4,708 homes on 3,923-acre Callery-Judge
Grove; 1,546 homes on EB Developers' property next to Indian Trail Groves;
and 768 homes on Lion Country Safari.
The
sector plan calls for a unit per 1.25 acres, or
1.2 units per acre if developers meet clustering and open space
requirements.
Council
OKs Project Recommendations
By
Tom
Palmer
BARTOW
-
Clear Springs is an 18,069-acre parcel inside and
adjacent to Bartow that stretches from the east side of the
The proposal is to develop the property over the next
20 years into a mix of residential, industrial, commercial and agricultural
uses.
Those uses will include 11,108 homes and apartments, 5
million square feet of research facilities and 21 million square feet of
industrial.
The recommendations approved Wednesday outlined issues
ranging from environmental protection and water supplies to compatibility
with the rest of the city that should be addressed during the evaluation of
the project by local officials.
The council's recommendations will be forwarded to
Bartow and state planning officials as part of an alternative planning
procedure called an "optional sector plan."
That process requires a developer to submit an overall
plan, rather than breaking the project into phases, such as occurs under the
traditional development of regional impact process, which is the way most
large developments are reviewed.
"You need to know what the big picture is; what it
will look like at buildout," said Georgianne
Ratliff, senior vice president at WilsonMiller,
a
Much of the property was mined for phosphate before
Clear Springs purchased it in 1999.
The issues laid out in the council's recommendations
include:
Documenting the condition of the property in the
aftermath of mining, including its suitability for development, sinkhole
potential and hydrology.
Investigating the quantity and quality of the site's
water resources.
Formulating a plan to provide land for schools and
parks on the site, including dealing with policies against locating schools
on mined land.
Ensuring there is range of housing types to provide
housing for employees of businesses that locate at Clear Springs.
Evaluating the development's fiscal impact.
Developing a plan to document the transportation
impacts and how the development's proposed road system fits with other
planned roads and affects wildlife corridors along the
Addressing potential conflicts with
Coming up with a proper "urban form" that
will make Clear Springs consistent with other parts of Bartow, which
contains a number of historic buildings, and will be consistent with
environmental features such as rivers, lakes and creeks on the property.
"This is the beginning of the process," said
Pat Steed, the planning council's executive director.
Bartow City Commissioner Pat Huff, a member of the
planning council, said he likes what he has seen so far.
"I personally think it's a good idea," Huff
said, adding he thinks proposals for reservoirs on the property may help the
development's and Bartow's
water supply prospects.
Clear Springs' Ratliff said more public meetings will
be planned as the project progresses.
Clear Springs officials also plan to seek annexation
into Bartow of the southwestern 6,000 acres in hopes of consolidating the
review under one government agency. No date has been set for that action,
they said.
Tom Palmer can be reached at 863-802-7535 or tom.palmer@theledger.com.
Read more views on the environment at http://environment.theledger.com and
more views on county government at http://county.theledger.com
BY
CHRISTOPHER O'DONNELL
PARRISH
-- Future commercial development in the
The petition showcases buildings such as the new Manatee County Rural Health
building on U.S. 301 that residents say reflects the rural character of
Parrish. It also highlighted Ellenton Commons, which includes Butterfield's
Restaurant and Leslie Wells Realty, as an example of strip malls residents
do not want in Parrish.
The signatures were collected by a group of longtime Parrish residents,
including Joe Whidden and the Rev. William
"Brother Bud" Gillett.
"We want to have a better and more beautiful Parrish with the finest
and most beautiful buildings," Gillett told commissioners.
The group met after hearing about Parrish Plantation, which includes almost
140,000 square feet of office and retail development at the southeast corner
of U.S. 301 and State Road 62. Commissioners approved the project in May.
Guidelines for both commercial and residential development in the Parrish
area already are stricter than the county standard. Passed by the county in
2005, the North Central Overlay mandates that developers build farther back
from the road and include more landscaping.
But strong opposition from some business owners in Parrish meant that the
According to the petition, the new guidelines would not apply to existing
businesses.
The residents have asked the Parrish Civic Association to work with the
county on their behalf.
"I think this is significant," said Ben Jordan, the association's
president. "This is the first time they have had any people in Parrish
speak up about what they want."
Whidden said he is optimistic that
commissioners, who in the past have complained that Parrish residents were
divided about what they want, will act on the petition.
"I don't think there has been a consensus in the past," Whidden
said. "Some officials thought that the people of Parrish wanted to be
left alone."
Marion
Building Department to cut 15 positions
Official:
Slowdown in home construction causing the layoffs.
In total, the Building Department will eliminate 15 positions, 11 of them
inspectors, and cut staff to 82. Three of the eliminated positions already
were vacant.
Building director John O'Connor attributed the moves to the slowdown in
residential construction. The department is funded through the money it
generates in fees for licenses, permits and inspections.
The number of permits for new home construction issued in May was 12 percent
greater than the number issued in April. Still the May figure was down 68
percent from the 596 permits issued in May 2006.
"It is very difficult to cut jobs," O'Connor said in a news
release. "But we are committed to being appropriately sized for the
amount of work we have to service. With the current level of building
activity in
"We are still performing a high volume of inspections each day, but the
construction which generates the most inspections - new homes - has been
trending down since last November," he went on to say.
The staff reduction will cut $200,000 from the department's budget in the
last three months of the 2006-07 fiscal year.
O'Connor said the department has added about five to 10 new positions
annually during the residential housing boom of recent years.
"Now that the construction has slacked off, we just can't keep people
on staff," he said.
Building Department spokeswoman Tracy Gale said department administrators
hope the positions can be restaffed if
construction activity picks up again significantly. She said each employee
let go will stay on the payroll through June 29, and the county will work to
assist them in finding them new jobs.
Gale said the county still sees a heavy volume of permit applications and
inspection requests for room additions, roofing jobs, sheds and spa
installations. But she said those jobs require one or two inspections, while
construction of one new home usually requires 10.
In neighboring
Ocala City Manager Paul Nugent said the city's building department has no
layoffs planned at this time. Because the vast majority of home construction
during the last few years' residential boom occurred in unincorporated
Christopher Curry may be reached at chris.curry@starbanner.com or (352)
867-4115.
11
inspectors
1 investigator
1 customer service representative
2 plans examiners
Source: Marion County
Building Department
Other
local manifestations
of the downturn:
Hanson Roof Tile will soon stop manufacturing and convert to a distribution
center. The jobs of nearly 60 employees are at risk.
Pulte Homes, developer of Fore Ranch, has cut its local work force by 16
people - a 15.7 percent drop - bringing the total to 86.
Biomass
plant gets city's OK
By Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
The
city of
On
Wednesday, city commissioners approved a 30-year contract with Green Power
Systems for a 35-megawatt plant that would produce electricity by heating
garbage to produce a gas that's then used as a fuel source.
The
technology is new. Only one similar plant exists; it's in
But
city officials pitched the contract as a risk-free deal.
"If
energy isn't produced, if the project doesn't perform as expected, we won't
have any expectations of purchase," said David Byrne, the city's
director of energy services.
The
agreements drew kudos from environmental activists, including one
"I
think you're going in the right direction," Jim Walker said. "And
you should be recognized when you're being innovative."
The
plant is expected to be up and running by October 2010.
The
next step for the plant is to get the garbage it needs to work from
"We
have to get the waste stream," said Paige Carter-Smith, a consultant
working for Green Power Systems. "It's just a matter of getting the
garbage."
Fill
work at lake protects water supply
Boaters'
illegal bypass channel dropped level of Lake Washington
BY RICK NEALE
Like
a reverse heart operation, barge crews are clogging and blocking a bypass
artery around the Lake Washington weir to protect the water supply of
150,000 people across central
Workers
are filling in an 800-foot channel carved by renegade boaters through the
lake's uninhabited northwestern outskirts. The breached embankment leaked so
much water -- up to 300 cubic feet per second -- that
a mandatory emergency was nearly declared last April.
The
St. Johns River Water Management District is dumping roughly 4,500 cubic
yards of sand in total -- about five barge-loads a day -- to fill the
breach.
The
4,632-acre reservoir serves as the primary source of drinking water for
roughly 52,000 households and businesses in Melbourne, Indialantic,
Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne
Beach, Palm Shores, Melbourne Village, West Melbourne and some
unincorporated areas.
Rarely
if ever are the alligator-inhabited wilds surrounding the
"Airboats
came through and made a path, and the boats followed the path. And when
there was high water, it wasn't a problem," said Ralph Brown, project
manager. "But when the water level fell, the boats
prop-dredged the channel."
Enlarged
by erosion, the marshy channel grew to 40 feet across at its widest point.
Depth hit 5 feet in spots, he said.
"(Water)
was ripping through here," he described.
Last
spring, this aquatic hemorrhage dropped the lake level to a mere 11.57 feet
above mean sea level. A water emergency is automatically declared at the
11-foot threshold, slapping restrictions on washing cars, filling swimming
pools and other aqua-activities.
As
of Tuesday, lake depth stood at 12.84 feet, according to water district
records.
Brown
said 1 foot to 1.5 feet of muck and topsoil eventually will be hauled atop
the bypass channel, letting the site re-vegetate and blend in with the
surrounding marsh.
At
the breezeless concrete weir earlier this week, turkey buzzards picked apart
a pair of fish carcasses on the shell-dotted riverbank. Hundreds of
orange-winged butterflies fluttered around the bypass channel, congregating
in clusters atop freshly dumped sand.
Just
downstream from the dam, the
The
sand-transporting barge is visible from
Each
voyage to the weir takes about two hours.
"The
gators have been following us. I don't know if that's a good or a bad
omen," joked Thomas White, a Beyel Brothers
Marine Towing captain who pilots the barge. "They're not even scared of
us anymore."
Contact
Neale at 242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com.
Jay
Hamburg and Sarah Langbein
Sentinel Staff Writers
June 14, 2007
Kim Spencer would love to be among the nearly 5 percent of Americans who use
public transportation or the 11 percent who carpool to work.
Despite $3-a-gallon gasoline and a couple of valiant efforts, the Seminole
County woman just can't seem to fit a carpool into her busy life, which
stretches from home in Winter Springs to her job near Orlando's tourist
strip.
"My main concern is getting to and from work each day in the time frame
I have to do it in," said Spencer, who works at Lockheed Martin and
often needs to make stops for errands after work.
So, instead, she is part of the 77 percent of Americans and 80 percent of
Floridians who commute alone in cars or trucks, according to a study
released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The figures show that in
The notion that soaring gas prices would have so little
impact on commuting habits surprises some transportation experts.
"If you asked us five years ago what we thought of $3-a-gallon gas,
we'd all be saying that everyone would be walking," said Alan Pisarski,
a Virginia-based consultant who has studied commuter behavior for the
Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences.
Pisarski said commuters have gradually
acclimated themselves to the increasing prices and seem to be taking more
pains to save gas. Instead of making several trips between home, work,
store, school and extra activities for the kids, they try to get them all
done in one fell swoop.
With suburbs still spreading across the nation, it's often hard for workers
to find buses or trains to bring them within walking distance of their job.
And with neighbors heading off to work in different directions, it's not
easy to organize car pools.
"In many cases, there's not that many other
options," Pisarski said.
Spencer's employer offers its workers seven Lynx vans for morning and
evening commutes.
"I tried to get on one, but they're all full," Spencer said.
Even so, Spencer, like many commuters, needs access to quick transportation
for doctors' appointments or other errands.
The Lynx bus agency has 56 van pools in service, and there are 12 groups on
the waiting list for one, spokesman Matthew Friedman said. The agency's van
program, which depends on funding from supporting partners, is expected to
roll out 15 more by early August.
Although Lynx ridership has
been growing steadily during the past six years, only 1.7 percent of
commuters in the
The greater
Although a high price at the pump may not change the way most people
commute, it could affect the way they choose their next home, condo or
apartment, said Steven Polzin, an analyst at the
Center for Urban Transportation Research at the
"People will think twice about living two counties away from
work," said Polzin, who analyzed the census
data to get figures for
Although workers cannot change the way they commute, Polzin
said, families with two or more cars might change the way they use their
cars. "There will be the question of: "Am
I going to use the big SUV, or am I going to use the smaller sedan?'"
The highest use of public transportation was in
In
With no better options than driving alone to work, Spencer has honed her
commuting skills.
She has tested various routes and times for her trip and knows the side
streets in case congestion threatens to stall her 35-minute trip.
"You have the 6:30 [a.m.] crowd, and you have to go 85 or 90 [mph] with
them," she said. "The 7 o'clock crowd, they're not so rushed. I
like the 7 o'clock crowd."
But at 7 a.m., it's nearly certain that she'll get stuck in traffic.
So she usually hits the road at 6:30 a.m., and as cars go zipping past her
on State Road 417, it reminds her that there ought to be a better
alternative.
"I don't feel really safe out here," she said.
Jay Hamburg can be reached at jhamburg@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5673.
Sarah Langbein can be reached at 407-420-5020 or
slangbein@orlandosentinel.com.
.
It's
Time For Action On
The
Published:
June 13, 2007
The
Army Corps of Engineers' recent approval of a wetlands fill permit for the
It
took the corps less than two years to give its consent for the destruction of
54 acres of wetlands on the mall site. A similar permit sought by
In
the meantime, the county has spent more than $4 million on design, legal and
other costs without any assurances that the project, which was envisioned 20
years ago, ever will get the green light.
Taxpayers
shouldn't be exposed to any more uncertainty. County officials need to enlist
the help of U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis,
We
long have opposed the
The
Southwest Florida Water Management District gave its approval four years ago,
but the Army Corps still is reviewing the county's application. These costly
delays aren't entirely the federal agency's fault. The consulting firm hired
by the county to design the project failed to follow federal guidelines,
including seeking an Army Corps permit at the start, among other obstacles the
county has faced.
Project
cost estimates also continue to increase. The original price for building the
8-mile-long connector was estimated at $25 million. Then it jumped to $70
million. Now it's pegged at more than $100 million, and some activists who
oppose the project say it will cost much more than that.
County
officials, with the help of federal representatives, owe it to taxpayers to
push strongly for an answer to their permit application. The Army Corps, which
has had plenty of time, needs to give them one. Taxpayers should not continue
to be forced to invest in what may end up being a losing cause.
By
A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 13, 2007
Pasco
Commissioner Pat Mulieri admits she is not a fan
of connecting neighborhoods. Her voting record certainly illustrates it. Over
the year she agreed with neighbors' objecting to linking Longleaf to the
neighborhoods to the west and five years ago she and a board majority approved
the rezoning for Penners' Acres, a 300-house,
200-home development on the north side of State Road 54 in Land O'Lakes,
without requiring a connection to the Twin Lakes neighborhood next door.
Mulieri
proclaimed this stance again recently from the commission dais in touting the
opening of a new grocery store on U.S. 41 at the western edge of Connerton.
Then, she proceeded to compliment the staff on the benefits of connecting the
commercial center's southern parking lot to the access road into the
neighboring residential development called the
You're
not alone if you're scratching your head over the convoluted logic. It's a
common paradox. People want easy access and convenient transportation routes,
as long as other motorists don't drive by their house to use them. Times staff
writer Chuin-Wei Yap illustrated the phenomenon in
his Lane Ranger column Sunday.
But
Mulieri and her commission mates should be beyond
the NIMBY thinking that saturates the protests when the county attempts to
follow its policy requiring neighborhood streets to connect.
Linking
neighborhoods is a basic element to improved traffic flow. The grid pattern
helps keep local traffic off main thoroughfares and allows major arterial
routes to serve their intended purposes. In central
The
benefits of a grid system were touted again last week as consultants previewed
for commissioners the long-term plan for the Pasadena Hills region of east
Commissioner
Ted Schrader said initial public input was positive, including comments that
property owners wished somebody had laid out a grid system for the area 50
years ago instead of in 2007. More important, current and future commissions
will have to show a little backbone when the residents come objecting to a
through street connecting their neighborhood to the one going in next door.
It's
of little use to promote a street grid system if commissioners favor political
expediency by disconnecting the connectivity when the opportunities arise.
Published:
Jun 13, 2007
WESLEY
CHAPEL - State wildlife officials on Tuesday granted the developer of
The
revised permit lets the Richard E. Jacobs Group move as many as 40 tortoises,
up from the 10 originally cleared for relocation.
Jacobs
asked for the change last week after its first round of relocation work on
June 2 turned up clutches of eggs and a number of newly hatched tortoises
along with the adults the company originally had planned to move.
As
with the previous 10 animals - a mix of adults and juveniles - the remainder
of the site's tortoises will be moved to the Alston tract, 250 acres Jacobs
has preserved along the
Jacobs
set aside the Alston tract to make up for more than 50 acres of wetlands the
company will destroy to build its 1.3-million-square-foot regional mall.
Jacobs
spokeswoman Deanne Roberts said Tuesday afternoon that the company was
uncertain when it would resume relocation work.
"We're
waiting for a signed permit," Roberts said.
The
state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is meeting this week to
consider listing the gopher tortoise as a threatened species.
The
new listing will force developers to move tortoises rather than implementing
the widely used "pay and pave" option that for 15 years let builders
bury tortoises in exchange for contributing to the state's land-acquisition
program.
Reporter
Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com
or (813) 948-4201.
![]()
June
13, 2007
Our
view: Saving our
They
include manatees and gopher tortoises, which walk a tightrope between survival
and a downward spiral that could lead to the point of no return.
That
makes it critical the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which
is holding hearings today and Thursday in
On
manatees, the commission should reverse its preliminary decision last year to
change the manatees' status from endangered to the less-serious threatened.
The
commission took the action based on population surveys that indicated manatees
are increasing -- proof that strong protection measures are working and should
stay in place.
We
are deeply concerned the plan would result in fewer slow-speed boat zones and
heighten the risk that more of the mammals would fall victim to boat strikes
-- already a major cause of their death.
A
status change also could ramp up boat dock construction and other development
that would increase pollution in places such as the Indian River Lagoon, home
to one of the state's largest manatee populations.
Soaring
development already is tainting the water and killing sea grasses manatees
depend on for food in places like the estuary.
The
lagoon also is suffering from chemical pollution that scientists believe is
causing cancer and other serious ailments in dolphins and marine life.
Manatees could be struck next.
Furthermore,
manatees reproduce slowly, with females not maturing until they are 5 years
old, and males not until age 9. Their gestation period is 13 months, and
periods between calving can be as long as five years.
Because
manatees care for their young for two years, when a mother is killed, the calf
also is likely to die.
As
a result, research shows even small reductions in local herds -- such as the
herds along the
For
those reasons, we urge the commission to not change the manatees' status.
Meanwhile,
the commission should ban the practice that allows developers to entomb
threatened gopher tortoises while building new subdivisions, businesses and
roads.
Over
the past century, about 90 percent of
That's
a red flag for
With
75,000 gophers crushed and suffocated by construction annually statewide
--1,000 in
The
commission should approve a plan that would allow killing only in very limited
circumstances and create incentives to encourage relocation of the reptiles.
By
DAVID DECAMP
Published June 13, 2007
Tax
cut - what tax cut?
Thanks
to
While
other counties and cities face blunt budget carving,
Their
estimate is $162-million could be received, an increase over the $154-million
in property taxes this year to cover services like policing and libraries.
If
that happens, they can thank recent builders and buyers.
It
makes the latest projection in a series of uncertain proposals for next year
more palatable in a county with a budget of $1.1-billion in 2007.
"It's
certainly doable, " Schrader said. "I
think it shows the proactiveness of the Board of
County Commissioners of cutting the millage
rate."
The
county's tax rate has dropped by a third since 2001, although building and
rising property values actually have boosted revenue. Expansive property taxes
across
Legislation
unveiled Tuesday actually would reduce property taxes for the general fund by
$5-million below what's possible under the current system, county officials
said. That's because
That
complexity frustrated city officials in
"We're
a little worried, " said City Manager Steve Spina
of Zephyrhills, which faces a 5 percent slash to taxes this year. "But
I'm not exactly sure what they're doing. That's the problem."
But
the bigger worry is a future wound. Increased homestead exemptions, if a
constitutional amendment passes, could cause a $24-million cut to
Schrader
said it would be "devastating."
"I'm
not sure where you begin to cut that, " he
said.
During
a conference call Tuesday afternoon, city managers in
The
deepest hit was
The
city officials ended 30 minutes of discussion still looking for answers,
starting in New Port Richey.
The
funding formula based on growth and tax revenue would mandate no percentage
cut there, according to legislative reports. By comparison, neighboring Port
Richey would be hit by a 7 percent rollback off existing taxes.
One
difference is that New Port Richey has a citywide redevelopment area that
draws almost half its $6-million property taxes. Those collections are not
supposed to be part of the Legislature's calculations of mandated cuts, said
Greg Giordano, an aide to state Sen. Mike Fasano,
R-New Port Richey.
The
Legislature's projections would produce a $130, 000 cut in New Port Richey,
which had a $63-million budget this year.
In
Port Richey, City Manager Jerry Calhoun estimated the cut will be $170, 000.
The city's budget this year: $12.4-million.
"We
haven't even attempted to come up with their science, "
New Port Richey budget director Rick Snyder said. "We were as
surprised to see this as anyone."
Like
other governments preparing for starker cuts, New Port Richey officials
already were planning to collect $460, 000 less in property tax revenue for
next year, which would be deeper than lawmakers demand.
Calhoun
said Port Richey was planning to cut deeper than the lawmakers propose, too.
Park improvements likely will be put off, for example.
"The
state is mandating it, but we were going to do it anyway,
" Calhoun said. "We were one of the fortunate ones, so I
figured out a way to do that so we won't have to cut services."
In
The
city would face a 7 percent slice in its property tax revenues. Much of that
could be absorbed by leaving jobs vacant and other relatively painless
measures, City Manager Harold Sample said.
"The
real thing that everybody's concerned about is for them to put into play these
super - and they're calling them super - exemptions,
" he said.
Times
staff writers Molly Moorhead and Camille Spencer and correspondent Mindy
Rubenstein contributed to this report. David DeCamp
can be reached at 727 869-6232 or ddecamp@sptimes.com.
Dunnellon
septic tank ban advances; builder complains
City
Council looks into legality of code change to require water hookup for new
development.
BY
LORA E. IDE
SPECIAL
TO THE STAR-BANNER
DUNNELLON
- City Council voted unanimously Monday to move forward with a change to the
city code that would ban installation of septic tanks for new homes along the
During
Monday's meeting, a letter protesting the proposal was read into the record
from attorney Clark Stillwell, who represents Gerald Dodd, developer of
Rainbow River Ranch LLC.
"Under
the city's land development code, if you are in the agricultural district, it
[the code] clearly indicates that in the agriculture district you are not
required to do central water and central wastewater," Stillwell said
during an interview Tuesday. "The comprehensive plan makes the same
statement. The city wants to change the land development code and not its
[comprehensive] plan. State statutes require that those land development codes
be consistent with the plan. To the extent that they are inconsistent, that's
not appropriate, and the plan controls."
City
Attorney Ted Schatt asked Monday to be given time
to research whether the proposed change could
potentially leave the city open to litigation.
Council
Chairman Dan Rutkowski said the issue would come
up during a June 20 workshop; he asked Schatt to
give an opinion at that time. A final vote on the ordinance will come at a
future meeting.
In
a related matter, council went into closed session Monday with its attorney to
consider another settlement proposal by Rainbow River Ranch LLC, developer of
a 250-acre property north of County Road 484 and east of the
Stillwell
said the latest terms offered to resolve the issue, which concerns a revoked
tree permit, were that "the existing permit would be good for six months,
and then it would be rescinded. We would pay the $900 under protest [as
ordered by the code enforcement board], which we have already done, and they
have accepted under protest.
"Everybody
else would pay their own costs. And finally, all the litigation would be
dismissed. And I think we put in there a proviso also that under the permit
that would remain for six months, that before we exercised any further tree
removal with that permit, we would mark the trees and notify the city, giving
the city the right to protect those trees."
Rutkowski
said the proposal had not been accepted Monday and litigation would continue.
Last
fall, after environmentalists across the state protested tree removal by
Rainbow River Ranch LLC along the banks of the
Dodd
sued over the revoked permit and complained that he had not been afforded
"due process" when the vote was taken to revoke the permit. This led
to council members asking the city's Code Enforcement Board to consider the
issue in a quasi-judicial proceeding that took place in late March and April.
That
board, whose chairman is Curt Bond, sided with the developer after hearing
from tree experts from both sides.
On
Monday, council voted to remove Bond as chairman of the board.
"He
does not seem to understand development," said Councilman Ken
Chesterfield. "He has stated publicly he thinks this means when roads go
in. He offers poor leadership skills, and he does not apply code."
"The
City Council has disregarded every ordinance we have," Bond said Tuesday.
"The city can't afford the litigation that's going on right now over how
they [council] suspended the tree-cutting permit. According to every legal
person I've talked to, revoking that permit was absolutely incorrect. They
[council] did it against every statute and every legal approach."
Bond
said he was a volunteer on the Code Enforcement Board for eight years, serving
as chairman the past four. Since council members recently voted to give
themselves the right to appoint chairmen for volunteer boards, Bond said he
had no idea who might fill the position.
In
addition to the hearing on septic tank installation along the
"To
the extent that they are inconsistent, that's not appropriate, and the plan
controls."
The
council considered but did not accept a settlement proposal by developer
Rainbow River Ranch LLC.
By
STEVE BOUSQUET and PAUL SWIDER
Published June 13, 2007
The
3-1 vote allows the developer to triple the size of an existing, 30-slip
docking facility at Waterside at Coquina Key North.
Attorney
General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson joined Crist
in approving the project.
"This
is the people's water, the people's property," Sink protested. "To
me, it's like a ripoff to the people of
Sink
noted that the lessee must pay a lease fee of $8,600 plus 6 percent of the
annual income to the state. By Sink's calculations, the developer can make a
$6-million profit over the five-year term of the lease. "Private
profiteering," she called it. "To me, it's not good economics."
The
project was defended by Mike Sole, Crist's
secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, who noted that after
the five-year lease expires, the governor and Cabinet have the option to renew
it, cancel it or change the terms.
The
lease fees and other terms are already part of state law, Sole said, and the
DEP plans to issue an intent to permit
construction.
Ways
to finagle
Sink
wondered what would happen if the state did not renew the lease. Those who
bought the $65,000 slips would be left with nothing. She also said the 6
percent could be manipulated by selling a package that priced the condo higher
and the slip lower.
"There's
all sorts of ways you could finagle this," she said.
The
developers said they expect to keep renewing the submerged land lease.
"The
state has not not
renewed any," said Alex Walker, a partner with Prospect-Marathon Coquina
LLC. "Banks finance them. It's common knowledge in
Added
value
The
developer paid $110-million more than a year ago for the 1,000-unit apartment,
then invested another $45-million converting it to
a 912-unit condo. The condos sell for $170,000 to $650,000,
Sole
said the project's value is enhanced by the developer's willingness to spend
$300,000 for a new public boat ramp at Sutherland Bayou in
Neighbors
are split
Some
environmentalists object.
"I
see nothing wrong with a business making a profit," said neighbor Laurie
Macdonald. "But at the expense of the public interest? I don't like
that."
Macdonald,
who lives in Driftwood and works as Florida director of Defenders of Wildlife,
said she fears the project will harm the ecosystem of Big Bayou and threaten
animals that live there, despite assurances by the DEP and the developer that
they've done all they can to make the slips environmentally benign. She also
said the slips would add boat traffic to an otherwise tranquil bay.
"We
all have boat slips, why shouldn't they?" said another Driftwood
resident, Jopie Helsen,
who operates Sailor's Wharf, a boat maintenance yard in
The
condo slips, for boats 26 feet or shorter, will address a growing need for
slips in
The
project has no fueling station and no sewage pumpout.
The slips will be built away from sea grasses and tall enough to allow
sunlight to shine through to the bottom.
They
accompany another 211 slips the developer rebuilt on the project's other half
at the southern end of the island.
Crist
said he voted for the project because he believes it is good for the
taxpayers. "It's free enterprise," Crist
said.
McCollum,
while voting yes, also voiced concerns about whether the deal made financial
sense. "The 6 percent is probably not high enough for the state, in this
day and age," McCollum said. "We could be getting more, and I don't
think it would deter development."
[Last
modified June 13, 2007, 00:44:28]
Commissioners
say the quiet road will one day be major
By
FRANK GLUCK
By
JOHN DAVIS