Gulf
drilling issue resurfaces
By
CORY REISS
Sun
Washington Bureau
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, plan to introduce
energy legislation today that would allow oil and gas drilling as close as
45 miles from
Late last year, Congress ended a long battle over the same issue by allowing
drilling closer than previously permitted but only as close as 125 miles
until 2022.
That bruising fight roiled the House and Senate, split the
Dorgan and Craig have scheduled a news conference today announce the bill,
whose prospects may be dim.
"This proposal goes back on everything the Congress dealt with last
year - everything we did to create a long-term buffer for Florida,'' Sen.
Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said in a statement. "I will fight this proposal
every step of the way.''
Sen. Bill Nelson, who used hard-line tactics to stall drilling legislation
from the time it began to gain strength in 2005, said he would fight as
well.
Congress probably doesn't have the appetite to revisit the offshore drilling
issue, aides said. Moreover, Democrats are in charge now. Environmental
groups are not breathing too easy, but they aren't on the edge of their
seats either.
"We're not sounding the alarm bells,'' said Mark Ferrulo, director of
Environment Florida, "but we're also not turning the cheek
either....This may be a unifying opportunity for the Florida delegation,
which in some ways could be a silver lining.''
The new legislation pairs changes to energy policy that environmental groups
would support with drilling, which they clearly would not. The measure would
increase fuel efficiency standards for new cars and trucks by 4 percent a
year from 2012 to 2030 and increase the ethanol mandate.
In addition to gutting the drilling deal for the eastern
The bill would allow drilling as close as 45 miles from
State
agrees to swap of submerged lands
By
JOE FOLLICK
Sun
Tallahassee Bureau
The unanimous decision from Crist and the Cabinet ends a four-year effort by
the William C. Saba family to retain ownership of submerged lands near three
small lots they own in
Their contention was that the state's decision to dredge the part of
Longboat Key and to erect seawalls nearby led to the erosion of their land
and put it underwater.
Submerged lands are generally considered to be owned by the state. A 12th
circuit judge ruled in 2005 that the state owned the land and the
But Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole said Tuesday
that the agency agreed that the land belonged to the family and had offered,
pending Cabinet approval, a swap.
The deal gives the
William Hyde, an attorney representing townhouse owners near the property in
question, suggested the state wasn't getting a fair deal since the
Hyde tried to sway the Cabinet members with photos of rare birds on the land
in question, including a roseate spoonbill, a snowy egret and a white ibis
feeding on an oyster bed.
For the last photo, Hyde saved a shot of mating manatees that revealed very
little other than a splashing grey blob in blue water.
"It's obviously a romantic habitat as well,'' Hyde quipped.
Cabinet members at first questioned why the state was willing to fight and
win the battle in court but now seemed ready to reverse that victory with a
proposed land swap.
Sole said it was a matter of "common sense'' and that the addition of
three acres would provide the best deal for the state.
And Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson quickly ended the debate when
he deduced that the submerged land in question was part of the
Any effort to develop the land faces numerous obstacles, including local and
state permits to fill in the submerged land for future construction.
Moratorium
will help Yankeetown recover
By
Times editorial
Published March 14, 2007
After
months of neighbor vs. neighbor warfare in Yankeetown over a proposed
waterfront development, local leaders and citizens are taking steps toward
restoring much-needed peace and sanity.
The
recent elections were a good start by demonstrating to the community, and to
state officials who had been asked to take over operating the town, that the
locals really can be trusted to manage their own affairs.
Next
came a decision by the town's zoning consultant that the developer's
proposal did not measure up to the comprehensive plan and existing zoning
rules.
To
no surprise, the developers did not agree with that decision. Rather than
pack up their drawings and checkbooks and head to some other unsuspecting
town, the developers have sued 17 Yankeetown residents and officials,
claiming they have been the victims of an ongoing conspiracy to torpedo
their plans.
A
former deputy clerk in town chimed in last week by filing a suit of her own,
largely echoing the complaints that town officials violated the Sunshine Law
by talking among themselves about the project and the controversy.
These
are serious allegations, and all sides deserve to be heard. Whether their
plans were legal or even in the best interests of the townspeople, the
developers have their rights as well. They deserve to have their project
evaluated fairly and within the parameters of the town's development rules.
The
citizens certainly are entitled to know whether their leaders followed the
law as they handled the biggest issue ever to erupt in this small
In
the meantime, the council last week took a smart step. The board approved a
one-year moratorium on permitting for commercial developments.
Not
only will this allow time for tempers to cool a bit, it will also give staff
the opportunity to do the necessary work to bring the town's comprehensive
plan and land use codes into compliance. This should allow the town, and
developers, to clarify the rules and thus avoid the sorts of fights that
have torn Yankeetown apart for more than a year.
One
council member noted that this community has been battered enough lately and
it is time "for a breather."
He
is absolutely right
Growing
Pains Unavoidable As County Enforces Urban Limits
Managing
growth is becoming harder in
A
proposal from the city-county planning commission would designate core areas
for more intense growth while keeping large subdivisions out of remote
farmland. Developers complain that the good sites within the longstanding
growth boundaries have already been developed, and that adding densities
there will be expensive and locally unpopular.
Yet
a denser pattern of growth is what most residents said they wanted in a
series of public meetings last year.
The
new map attempts to make that vision a reality. It targets central areas for
higher-density development than has been common in the unincorporated area.
The original urban service district included so much undeveloped land that
it hasn't made a visible difference to the average person, but that's about
to change.
Now
that the area designated for houses and stores is filling up, developers
want to expand the boundaries and continue building on inexpensive land
farther out. They correctly complain that inside the urban boundary,
neighborhood activists fight against higher-density projects and often
convince elected officials to lower the number of houses and apartments
permitted for the site.
The
stage is set for classic battle over whether growth will be seriously
managed in Hillsborough. Pubic hearings on the plan update will be held next
month.
Regulating
growth creates a paradox. If you approach the problem from the viewpoint of
a homebuilder or new home buyer, you'll want lax rules that allow the
lowest-priced houses regardless of long-term costs. If you're a taxpaying
homeowner, you'll want efficient development that improves your community
life, not degrades it with overcrowded schools and traffic jams. Both views
are logical and yet not entirely compatible.
Commissioners
must decide if Hillsborough is to grow efficiently at a higher initial cost
or whether it continues its low-cost growth at a higher public price.
Many
issues will arise in this debate.
Building
codes and utilities may not allow higher densities in some of the designated
high-density areas. The maps will need some adjustments and the county's
codes and fees need to change so that infill projects are easier to win
approval and more affordable to build.
Some
areas, such as Highway 60 in
But
unless the county begins focusing growth, transit will never be able to
serve suburban areas efficiently.
Hillsborough
still has plenty of room to grow. About 51,000 more housing units are
approved just for the southern part of the county.
The
new plan is much more than lines on a map. It pushes the county toward long
overdue investments in transit, requires it to focus resources on where most
people are going to live, and to pay attention to what voters say they want
the region to look like 20 years from now.
Land
Developments Commissioners Warned: 'We're Going To Need Some Help'
By
GARY PINNELL
gpinnell@highlandstoday.com
SEBRING - Twenty percent of
The
possibility is real, county commissioners and staff were reminded Tuesday,
and they may need help dealing with two land developments that comprise more
than 200 of
On
Dec. 5, representatives for the Lykes Brothers farm in Basinger and Blue
Head Ranch south of Lake Placid, each about 100 square miles, met jointly
with the board of county commissioners, the planning and zoning board and
Natural Resources Advisory Committee, and announced they may apply to the
Rural Land Stewardship Program.
“They
have indicated they are going to turn in applications by the end of this
month,” said Janice McCarthy, a
Land
Stewardship
When
a landowner applies for the Rural Land Stewardship Program, the landowner
can develop portions of the property, if environmentally sensitive lands are
preserved.
Highlands
County Administrator Carl Cool, Development Services Director Jim Polatty,
and McCarthy met with St. Lucie County commissioners and staff about Adams
Ranch, a 60,000 acre parcel in St. Lucie County which has also joined the
stewardship project, under the tutelage of WilsonMiller.
“They
think they have preserved that ranch,” Cool told the commissioners.
“What they really did was approve A-2 zoning.” And that allows row
cropping and sod farming, Cool said.
What
St. Lucie residents wanted to preserve was Adams Ranch’s oak hammocks.
Instead, he suggested, the landowners “will be able to clear it from fence
line to fence line.”
In
As
the commissioners and staff began dealing with the giant corporations that
wanted to develop the St. Lucie County land, “They felt outmanned real
quickly,” Cool said. And St. Lucie County has an entire environmental
service staff, which
Eventually,
the county hired an expert, but they confessed to Cool and the others from
“It’s
still confusing to the staff and the commissioners,” Cool said.
“We’re
going to need some help,” Cool warned, and the commissioners nodded,
although they took no action on the informational item.
The
developers will be trying to beat a November 2008 deadline, Cool said.
That’s when the state could vote on the Hometown Democracy constitutional
amendment on the ballot.
“This
will affect the county forever,” Commissioner Guy Maxcy agreed. “Some
big decisions have to be made. We do need to prepare ourselves and get some
experts on board.”
Commissioner
Barbara Stewart suggested that since the commissioners will be going to a
convention other other county commissioners, they should take the
opportunity to ask questions of the St. Lucie and
Other
Business
Ray
Royce said the Lake Placid Growth Management Committee has met about 40
times since June 2005, and plan to wrap up soon and write a 25-page final
report.
Robert
Tracy Gould spoke to the commissioners about the resignation of Gary Lower
from the county planning department. Cool was assigned to talk to Gould
about personnel matters, and County Attorney Ross McBeth was asked by Maxcy
to discuss alleged illegalities.
Developers
file papers this week for two large subdivisions
By
JEFF ADELSON
Sun
staff writer
Developers
behind two projects which would bring more than 2,000 homes to some of the
northern-most areas of
The two projects are unrelated and remain unnamed.
A "Haile Plantation-style" subdivision proposed by
Jacksonville-based LandMar Group would put about 1,000 homes on nearly 1,900
acres near State Road 121 between the road's intersection with U.S. 441 and
County Road 231.
The second project, proposed by a New York-based developer, would surround
Both projects, which require large-scale amendments to
The developers behind both projects have said they do not expect their
projects to have to apply to the state Department of Community Affairs as a
Development of Regional Impact.
Follow these and other developments in The Gainesville Sun and online at
gainesville.com.
Developments
under 1,000 threshold avoid a costly process
By
CINDY SWIRKO
Sun
staff writer
Large residential developments that have become the norm in South Florida
are edging ever more northward into
The tactic: building 999 homes or 995 or 990 - big numbers that nonetheless
stay under 1,000 to avoid having to go through the development of regional
impact, or DRI, process.
It saves the developer money. But it eliminates multi-jurisdictional
planning and review that ultimately could save taxpayers money for new
roads, schools, environmental safeguards and other government services.
"Developers at the table will jokingly smile and know that they kept it
under the threshold. That keeps them from having to go through a full
analysis of the impacts," County Manager Randall Reid said. "In
the last three or four years, it's obvious the growth here is transplants
from
Several large projects have already been approved or are under
consideration.
Oakmont on
The Newberry City Commission in 2006 approved a subdivision with 999
residences in a mix of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments.
A 940-home development is proposed for the city of
The Jacksonville-based LandMar Group is planning a mixed-use development
with just under 1,000 homes on State Road 121 north of
The latest is a proposal to build more than 1,000 homes in northeast
A DRI is a state designation for a development that is so large it affects
traffic, services such as police and fire protection, the environment and
other factors beyond its immediate site - hence a development of regional
impact.
Sub-DRI developments must get approval from the primary government - either
the county commission or city commission. The state will review the project
if a comprehensive plan amendment is needed. DRIs are scrutinized more
broadly and intensely. The cities and county can all have a role in the
planning process. The North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
coordinates city and county reviews and does its own review. Various state
agencies such as the departments of Transportation and Community Affairs
review and comment on the plans.
Thresholds vary depending on the population of a county. Projects that are
slightly above the threshold can apply to the state for a DRI waiver if
developers can prove it will not have a regional impact, said Community
Affairs spokesman Jon Peck. The state can find a DRI to be not in compliance
with state laws. If it is still approved by the local government, the state
can appeal to the governor and Cabinet.
DRIs are more expensive for developers because they must hire more
consultants, attorneys and other professionals to get through the process.
Planning Council Executive Director Scott Koons said it charges a fee of up
to $75,000 for DRI reviews.
Developers also could face higher costs to mitigate their impacts -
improving roads or providing land for a new school, for instance - with a
DRI than through the standard process.
Sub-DRIs also curtail joint planning among various governments that can be
impacted by the project, Koons said.
"Several years ago the reports showed that of all the development in
the state of
Representatives of Oakmont and San Trust could not be reached for
comment.Avery Roberts, who is developing the Alachua project, said it is
under the threshold because the land could not accommodate more residences.
But Roberts added that the DRI process is more costly than running a project
through as a non-DRI.
"We are at 940 units and we just felt that was a good number for that
property. It fairly utilizes that property. I don't know that we could have
fit a whole lot more on there and get the protection we wanted for some
sensitive areas," Roberts said. "There are a lot of costs involved
with the DRI - lawyers, consultants."
Ironwood project developer Rob Simensky of East Gainesville Development
Partners said he does not believe the project will have a regional impact,
so he is requesting a letter from the state exempting the project from the
DRI process.
Simensky added that by the time the project is completed within 10 years,
the county's population will have reached a point where the DRI threshold
will be 2,000 residences.
"Our development is not a development of regional impact," he
said. "It is a local development inside the community and we are going
through the appropriate process to get it approved." Alison Cox,
president of the Builders Association of North Central Florida, said she
believes more big developments by outside companies will be coming because
regulations at the county and state levels are making it more costly for
locals.
The larger companies have the money to get through the regulatory process.
When it comes to DRIs, they sometimes may try to cut costs by doing a
project that is big but just under the threshold, she added.
"It is extremely expensive now just going through the process. It is
very hard for a small developer to carry all of the costs during the time
that it takes to get anything constructed. The little guy can't go out and
make it a financially feasible project," said Cox, who works for Brice
Business Group. "With DRIs, a developer doesn't take a project that is
not financially feasible. It doesn't matter if it's 10 units or 1,000 units,
all of the numbers are going to be looked at. Sometimes it makes more sense
to stay under it. That's just looking at the economics of it."
Cox added that
The county requires studies for new development to learn how much traffic it
will create. The study is needed to ensure concurrency - the state mandate
that road capacity exist when a project comes on line.
Currently, developers are subject to concurrency if the trips the project
will put on the road are at least 5 percent of the road's capacity, said
county Growth Management Director Rick Drummond.
When concurrency capacity does not exist, the county can ask developers to
pay for road upgrades.
Now, the county is considering lowering that to less than 5 percent.
"One of the things we are realizing is that if we are only accounting
for the 5 percent, who is accounting for the less than 5 percent?"
Drummond said. "After a while, those things add up."
Koons and others said developers with projects just under the DRI thresholds
are a common practice downstate.
And they believe
"It's a trend we've already started experiencing. North Central Florida
has been discovered in the past few years by the development
community," Koons said.
Issues such as hurricanes and limited capacity for new roads that are
hampering development along the coast are "creating much greater
interest in our area. With the larger projects, it is an approach folks will
take to avoid more extensive review if they can move forward under the
threshold."
Cindy Swirko can be reached at
352-374-5024 or swirkoc@ gvillesun.com.
County
backs annexation, votes to delay road decision
Wednesday,
March 14, 2007
Commissioners
voted to make the road eliminations contingent on the land's annexation into
Broward, raising questions about the timing of the two measures.
Legislators
will consider the annexation bill this spring, well before commissioners
cast a final vote on the road removals in the summer.
There
is concern that state agencies will balk at the road removals because the
extensions have been planned for years, and because the size of the proposed
development on the land at issue - at least 2,800 homes - may require the
construction of the roads.
"What
I'm hearing up there (in
Commissioners
last month voted to fold the road removals into the annexation bill, but
that provision was never included in the House and Senate bills.
State
Rep. Adam Hasner,
The
property's triangle shape and location, south of the
County
officials have said providing services to the property would be difficult
and costly.
Also,
residents of several suburban
Martin
Perry, an attorney representing western
Commissioners
will cast the first vote on the road removals through a comprehensive plan
amendment on April 18, with a final vote in either July or August. The state
departments of Community Affairs and Transportation will offer comments
after the first vote, and the state has a final say after the second vote.
The
northwest Broward city of
The
neighboring city of
"We
all realize we have to monitor this on a very close basis," County
Commissioner Burt Aaronson said. "The people out there don't want the
roads at all."
Developer
offers deal it says would preserve
Under
the plan, property owners in the area - including Callery-Judge Groves, GL
Homes and Lion Country Safari - would join EB Developers in creating a new
taxing district that would buy Mecca Farms, said John Markey, chief
operating officer for EB Developers, which owns nearly 1,300 acres in
western
"It's
a plan that would use future development to pay for the public benefit
through bond issuances," Markey said. He declined to discuss the
proposal in detail Tuesday, saying he wanted to meet with all of the
commissioners first.
Commissioners
discussed the proposal during their meeting Tuesday, before unanimously
voting to start the process of reverting Mecca Farms back to a land-use
designation that permits just one home for every 10 acres. The move, which
the commission will discuss again next month, would strip Mecca Farms of
approvals that would have allowed Scripps and the biotech campus planned
around it to rise on the property.
A
judge's order forced county officials to stop work on the Scripps project at
Mecca Farms. Five months later, commissioners voted to move the project to
northern
The
county is now trying to recoup the more than $120 million it pumped into
Mecca Farms, including $60 million to buy it.
County
officials recommended this week that the commission revert the property to
its old land-use classification mainly to end a legal challenge mounted by
several groups that fought to block Scripps from being built at Mecca Farms.
Commissioner
Mary McCarty asked her counterparts to delay a decision on the land-use
change after Markey approached her to discuss the proposal during the
commission's lunch break. She said she feared the change would make the
property less valuable and make it impossible for Markey's proposal to work.
"I'm
not asking that we not do this, I'm asking that we not do this today,"
McCarty said. "I just don't want to say afterward, 'Oh my God, we
screwed up by not thinking of all the issues related to this.''"
But
County Administrator Bob Weisman and other county officials maintained that
the land-use change would not affect the value of
"Whatever
we go on to do, whether it's Mr. Markey's plan or whatever, is going to have
to start off at ground zero again and build up from there," Weisman
said.
Commissioner
Burt Aaronson, who has already met with the developer, said he was told the
county could net as much as $175 million from the deal. He said that the
plan "deserves a hearing."
"I
think it's worth exploration," Aaronson said. "If it does have
merit, the way it was presented, I think the environmental community, I
think maybe we could all end up in partnership on something like this."
But
Commissioner Jess Santamaria said he is skeptical. After discussing the
proposal with EB representatives for about a half hour, Santamaria said he
still doesn't fully understand it. He worries that if a special taxing
district is created, taxpayers will ultimately pay twice for
"My
opinion is that the gimmick or tool they are using is going to enhance the
development of EB," Santamaria said. "We bought it with tax money
and we are going to pay for it with tax money again."
Markey's
plan is the second proposal the county has received for the site. Last
month, a three-person development team submitted a formal bid to build an
amusement park on the land.
Water
restrictions expected this week
Get
used to the color brown: Lawns may dry up as regional water managers prepare
to impose restrictions on use.
By
CURTIS MORGAN, ANI
For
the first time since 2001,
With
the region in a deepening drought and the big water bucket known as Lake
Okeechobee receding daily, water managers on Thursday expect to impose
mandatory restrictions intended to cut water use by at least 15 percent in
Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach counties -- and double that for
sugar growers and rural towns around the lake.
For
residents, it will mean reduced water pressure and less-lush landscaping
because of a three-day-a-week limit on lawn sprinkling, which accounts for
half of suburban water demand. In the past, repeat violators have been
slapped with fines of up to $500.
Mary
Tafoya, who manages an estate on posh
''We
probably only water twice a week anyway, but maybe I'd take out some
impatiens and put in more plants from the cactus family,'' she said.
Nurseries,
farmers, golf courses, car washes, industries and commercial users also will
face an array of reductions -- both mandatory and voluntary -- and some
worry cutbacks could also cut profits.
''If
we can water sod and new plants at least four times a week, it won't really
hurt us. But if it's twice a week, then I would tell you we have a
problem,'' said Duval Rodriguez, who owns
DROUGHT
Since
last fall, much of the region has suffered a near-record dry spell. Though
rainfall has been closer to normal in Miami-Dade and Broward, the last few
weeks have been extremely dry, and the two months ahead are traditionally
the driest of the year.
That
has helped push water levels in the 730-square-mile
''You
can see the situation we're in,'' said district spokesman Randy Smith. ``You
can look at the rainfall totals we've had, the water levels. There are hints
we may be coming into a La Niña period.''
That
weather phenomena, marked by cooler
While
the district's governing board must approve the restrictions, water managers
have already scheduled a news conference to discuss details on Thursday.
''I
think it's pretty safe to say it's a done deal,'' said Nicolas Gutiérrez, a
The
restrictions were still being ''tweaked'' on Tuesday, Smith said, but final
rules should be posted on the district website sometime Thursday. In
addition to sprinkling restrictions, utilities are typically asked to reduce
water pressure -- but not to unsafe levels.
The
district, which manages the water supply in 16 counties stretching from
south of
When
water conservation measures were enacted for nearly a year from late 2000 to
2001, golf courses, landscapers, pool builders and other water-using
industries warned of billions of dollars in lost jobs and business,
prompting the district to overhaul the restrictions.
While
the sugar industry and other growers in the Everglades Agriculture Area are
already reporting crop damage and will be hit with a significant 30 percent
cutback, farmers and nursery operators in Miami-Dade and Broward say they
can live with 15 percent less.
Katie
Edwards, executive director of the Dade County Farm Bureau, said vegetable
growers have largely wrapped up a poor season plagued by pests and diseases
produced by unseasonable heat.
But
most growers and nurseries have already upgraded to more efficient
irrigation systems and routines, she said. ``We really are ahead of the
game. We've been doing our part regardless of the restrictions and
warnings.''
Roger
Brooks is also ready to roll with looming restrictions at his Four B's
Nurseries in Parkland and
''Our
system is very conservative,'' Brooks said. ``If the restrictions are
mandatory, we would have to fill our transportable tanks and hand water all
of the plants.''
HARMFUL
PRACTICES
Some
environmentalists say district and federal water managers have exacerbated
the shortage by mismanaging the lake, aggressively dumping water after
hurricanes left it brimming with polluted runoff -- a practice that
devastated water quality and marine life in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee
rivers.
Jamie
Furgang, senior
''This
is getting the users of water to start recognizing that we can't continually
drain the natural system,'' she said.
County
drops Brooker Creek pumping plan
The
plan to use the preserve to water golf courses is dropped.
By
THERESA BLACKWELL
Published March 14, 2007
Saying
on Tuesday that the project wasn't worth the acrimony it had generated,
County Administrator Steve Spratt said officials will pull their application
to reactivate the wells.
"This
is it," Spratt said. "I intend to withdraw it."
Opponents
were elated.
"I'm
very glad he made the decision," said Matthew Poling, 16, the former
senior executive of the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve. "I don't
think that pumping water from a nature preserve to a golf course is a good
idea."
Public
opposition to the proposal began after Poling and his father, Steve,
discovered a portable pump on one of the wells in the fall of 2005.
As
originally proposed, the county wanted to pump an annual average rate of
415,000 gallons of water a day - or up to 1,008,000 gallons on any one day -
from the Floridan Aquifer beneath the preserve during the dry season.
They
later reduced the requested average to 284,256 gallons per day, but the
proposed peak remained at 1,008,000 gallons per day.
The
effect on the preserve, they said, would be negligible.
But
in the 10 months since the Times first reported the plan, the Friends of
Brooker Creek Preserve, the Sierra Club and the St. Petersburg Audubon
Society sharply criticized the proposal. They feared pumping could adversely
affect wetlands, uplands, plants and wildlife.
Wells
send wrong message
In
December, an advisory group called the Environmental Science Forum voted 9-4
to recommend against reopening three old wells in the preserve to provide
water for East Lake Woodlands golf courses during the dry season.
Pinellas
County Utilities officials had said pumping from the wells would leave more
reclaimed water for homeowners.
But
after the Southwest Florida Water Management District returned the county's
permit application recently, asking for more information, Pinellas County
Utilities Director Pick Talley was ready to give up, too.
"It
was just another program to increase our conservation effort," he said.
Most members of the science forum, a group Spratt created to give advice on
environmental policy questions, said allowing the pumping would send the
wrong message as water conservation becomes more and more critical.
Spratt
told commissioners of his decision during their meeting Tuesday morning.
After
he finished reading from a three-page memo outlining the decision,
commissioners Karen Seel, Bob Stewart and Ken Welch said they supported his
decision, and others present offered no opposition. Commissioners Susan
Latvala and Ronnie Duncan were not at the meeting.
At
times, the controversy over the pumping plan had led environmental advocates
to make stinging charges against Spratt, and Welch took a moment to praise
the administrator Tuesday.
"I
just want to commend you on your conduct during these debates," Welch
said.
Questions
still remain
Later,
Spratt said, commissioners still need to address broader policy questions
about water production and use in the preserve, considering that the
utilities department bought the land for wellfields.
Commissioners
are scheduled to consider the issue in a workshop Thursday on policy toward
the Brooker Creek Preserve.
Talley
agreed.
"The
board needs to consider whether there is going to be any policy set that we
can or cannot use water from the preserve for off-site purposes," he
said.
"As
far as I'm concerned, all land in the Brooker Creek Preserve is the same -
regardless of who bought it - and it should all be preserved," Poling
said.
Environmental
advocate Lorraine Margeson of St. Petersburg says a charter amendment could
help prevent sagas like the pumping initiative.
"It's
one little win in a big heck of a mess," she said. "The only way
to completely satisfy the tax-paying citizens is to legally and forever
preserve the preserve."
Times
staff writer Will Van Sant contributed to this report. Theresa Blackwell can
be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com
or 727 445-4170.
If
you go
Workshop
set
A
County Commission workshop on issues and policies in the Brooker Creek
Preserve will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday in the Commission
Assembly Room on the fifth floor of the County Courthouse, 315 Court St.,
Clearwater. County staff members will first present a detailed summary of
actions related to the preserve. Then commissioners will have some
discussion before the public speaks, most likely in the afternoon.
Two
additional work sessions are planned in April and May.
Cabinet
Approves Land Swap for Home
Photos
of rare birds and mating manatees weren't enough to stop Gov. Charlie Crist
and the Florida Cabinet from agreeing to a land swap that could allow a new
home to be built in ritzy Longboat Key.
The unanimous decision from Crist and the Cabinet ends a four-year effort by
the William C. Saba family to retain full ownership of submerged lands near
three small lots they own in
Their contention was that the state's decision to dredge the part of
Longboat Key and to erect seawalls nearby led to the erosion of their land
and put it underwater.
Submerged lands are generally considered state property. A 12th circuit
judge ruled in 2005 that the state owned the land and the
But Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole said Tuesday
that the agency agreed that the land belonged to the family and had offered,
pending Cabinet approval, a swap.
Board
OKs grant search
By
TERRY WITT
A
year after they first discussed establishing a public land acquisition
program,
Commissioners
instructed their staff to work with The Trust for
The
grant must be filed by May with the Florida Communities Trust (FCT), a grant
program that has awarded $500 million for conservation projects all over the
state.
If
the grant were funded, it could lead to creation of a new park or
preservation of a historically significant parcel of land, or a historically
significant building.
Development
Services Director Gary Maidhof said he had a couple of projects in mind, but
he would have to run them past TPL officials to find out if they would work.
TPL
is a leading member of the Florida Forever Coalition, which exists to
advocate the reauthorization and expansion of Florida Forever, the state’s
land acquisition program.
Other
members of the coalition are Audubon of Florida, Nature Conservancy, 1,000
Friends of Florida, Florida Recreation and Park Association, Florida
Wildlife Federation, Everglades Trust, Alliance of Florida Land Trusts, and
10 other statewide and regional conservation and community organizations.
Commissioners
were wary of committing to any grant project that might involve a
requirement for the county to provide matching funds. Ken Reecy, community
program management for the Florida Communities Trust, said a match of at
least 25 percent from county government would be needed, and he said the
more the county contributed, the higher its score.
However,
Maidhof said the county might be able use land for the grant match in lieu
of dollars in some instances. He also said the cities of Inverness and
Maidhof
was instructed to work with TPL to choose a project that would be
competitive. He said both he and planner Sue Farnsworth have experience
writing these types of grants, although their regular jobs occupy most of
their workday.
However,
Maidhof said he believes the county can come up with a project that ranks
high.
“I’m
very comfortable we can get in the upper third, at least,” he said.
Tomoka
By
DINAH VOYLES PULVER
Staff Writer
Regional
water managers agreed Tuesday to help add another 657 acres to a proposed
corridor of undeveloped, conservation land through the center of Volusia and
Flagler counties.
The
St. Johns River Water Management District's governing board agreed to split
the $8 million cost of buying the land with
The
property is on the western side of Tomoka Farms Road, north of Pioneer
Trail. It joins other conservation land to the south and west that is
jointly owned by the county and Port
The
council is expected to approve the acquisition, because it previously agreed
to give the property a higher priority on its land acquisition wish list.
"We're
thrilled at this partnership," said Doug Weaver, who heads up land
management and acquisition for the county. The Volusia Forever program has
had a "longtime interest" in buying the land, Weaver said.
The
tract, owned by the Joseph Krol family, is not inside the technical
boundaries of the 80,000 acre-Volusia/Flagler Conservation Corridor, but
will become part of the corridor because it borders it to the east.
Home
foreclosures in
BY
MONICA HATCHER
With
The
number of borrowers in
And
more borrowers are facing the possibility of losing their homes. Foreclosure
actions filed against homeowners nearly tripled in Miami-Dade and Broward
counties in January and February, compared to the same two months last year,
reports the clerks of court.
The
defaults suggest mortgage debt is a growing burden on the economy, leaving
some homeowners struggling to make ends meet. The result could be that
homebuyers find it harder to get loans in the future as banks tighten
lending standards.
Also,
foreclosed houses might end up back on a market that already has too many
homes for sale, dragging down prices. And cash-strapped homeowners could
reduce other kinds of spending, such as retail sales.
Per
Gunnar Berglund, a senior economist with Moody's Economy.com, said
''The
While
rising delinquencies and foreclosures still represent a fraction of total
households in the region. And
However,
the pace is quickening.
In
the mortgage bankers' quarterly report, the delinquency rate for subprime
loans in
In
Miami-Dade and Broward counties, 23 percent and 18 percent of all loans are
subprime, respectively; of those, about 6.7 percent are more than 60 days
overdue, according to data from mortgage research firm First American Loan
Performance.
Subprime
loans typically carry interest rates 4 to 6 percent higher than loans issued
to people with good credit. They include adjustable rate mortgages that
offer low teaser rates and ''no doc'' loans, which require no proof of a
borrowers' assets or income.
Consumer
advocates have criticized the loans as exploitative, claiming lenders
relaxed standards and granted the mortgages despite the increased chances
borrowers couldn't pay. But during the real estate boom, a combination of
low interest rates and rapidly rising home values made offering these
mortgages a seemingly safe bet.
And
investors, who buy pools of mortgages on the secondary market, were hungry
for the high yields that came with riskier products, making more funds
available to write new loans. In the wake of rising defaults, however, those
investors are now cutting off their support, leading to a sudden rise in the
price of subprime credit.
Mike
Fratantoni, senior economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the
tightening standards will likely push other would-be subprime buyers out of
the market -- just as prices are becoming more affordable.
''You
might expect that to have more of an impact in the starter home market,''
Fratantoni said. ``In some markets, like
Meanwhile,
the increase in defaults is sending business soaring for professionals
involved in the foreclosure business.
Alan
Rosenthal, who supervises the mortgage litigation practice at Coral
Gables-based Adorno & Yoss, said the firm was seeing a ''huge spike'' in
foreclosure cases initiated by lenders.
''I
don't believe we have seen the full impact of these what I call junk loans
-- the negative amortization loans and all these other weird loans. They are
too new,'' he said. And real estate professionals are gearing up for what
could be the start of a surge of homeowners desperate to sell.
''We're
seeing more and more foreclosed homes in our listing inventory,'' said
Richard Barkett, CEO of the 11,000-member Realtor Association of Greater
Fort Lauderdale.
The
association is conducting classes to educate its members on the foreclosure
process which are proving popular.
''In
the one we had recently, it was standing room only,'' Barkett said.
Study:
121,000 Students By 2015
By Julia
Crouse
The Ledger
|
|
BARTOW
- If
A new report predicts that Polk's student numbers will increase by 34.9
percent in the next eight years, adding an additional 18,415 students.
"Clearly, we're going to continue being in the construction
business," said Bob Williams, the district's assistant superintendent
of facilities and operations.
The projections, compiled by Maryland-based consultants The Grier
Partnership, base the student swell on central
The Grier Partnership last did an enrollment projection for Polk in 2002. It
projected that in the fall of 2006, Polk would have 89,250 students in
kindergarten through 12th grade.
The actual enrollment was 88,473, a difference of 777, or 0.9 percent.
Superintendent Gail McKinzie said the previous accuracy indicates the latest
projection will probably hit the mark with the 35 percent growth over the
next eight years, barring a drastic dip in
The additional students will attend class in new classroom additions, new
schools and portables, Williams said.
"We have plans built in to handle that kind of growth," he said.
"Whether we'll be able to fund everything is questionable."
McKinzie said the toughest part about planning for the growth is making sure
Polk keeps in compliance with the class size amendment, which limits the
number of students in elementary, middle and high school classrooms.
She said parents should get used to the idea that their children will be
regularly rezoned to new schools to accommodate growth.
"Rezoning is going to be more of a fact of life than it has been,"
she said.
The Grier report says that Polk's student enrollment will surpass 100,000
students by the fall of 2010.
Over the past five years, Polk's school enrollment, including
pre-kindergarten, has increased by 9,770 students, or 12.2 percent.
Polk has seen the most growth in its student numbers in the past couple of
years, when it increased by 5.5 percent from 2004 to 88,683 students in
2005. Numbers increased another 3.2 percent to 91,494 on the 60th day of
this school year.
Between 1999 and 2004, percentage growth ranged from 1.5 percent to 2.2
percent.
The enrollment leap of 2005 caught school officials by surprise.
This school year, administrators were prepared for the students and continue
to expect significant growth at a time when many
The Grier report suggests revisiting the data in the next six months to see
if housing permits and construction activity continues to drop off.
Julia Crouse can be reached at julia.crouse@theledger.com
or 863-802-7536.
As
Polk Grows, So Does Wildfire Damage Risk
By Bill
Bair
The Ledger
Seven mobile homes - five occupied and two unoccupied - were destroyed in
the fire east of
"No one remembers losing more than we lost out there," said Polk
County Fire Chief David Cash, who first joined
The cause of the fire has not been determined. "There's still a lot of
interviewing going on," said Gary Zipprer, district manager in the
Florida Division of Forestry's
Zipprer said he could recall only one fire that destroyed two houses, but he
could not recall details.
Some of the homeowners in the area struck by the fire have suggested the
cause could have been a controlled burn Feb. 28 in The Nature Conservancy's
adjacent Tiger Creek Preserve, where the fire appeared to originate.
Zipprer said the investigation will determine that and the results will be
made public.
In 2001, the last severe wildfire season, 217 fires charred 26,440 acres in
The county's worst recorded fire season was in 1981, when 711 fires burned
49,290 acres, but again no homes were destroyed.
A single wildfire that year charred more than 60,000 acres in the Green
Swamp. At the time, officials cut fire lines and let it burn. There were no
homes in the area to protect.
That has changed.
"It's a different world," Zipprer said.
Officials fear fires such as the March 2 blaze could become more common as
people continue to move into the palmettos.
"The sad thing is that this could happen in numerous subdivisions all
over Polk County," Zipprer said of the fire east of Lake Wales.
"You can only keep fires out for so long. People want an outdoor
atmosphere, but there is a price to pay."
The Florida Division of Forestry calls the danger zone the
"Wildfire/Urban Interface" and estimates that a third of the
state's population now live in areas that are less developed and more
susceptible to fire.
In Florida, which has more lightning strikes than any other state, wildfires
are historically a part of the natural scene.
But because of houses, wildfires can no longer be allowed to simply burn
through an area, cleansing the forest floor of dead vegetation on a regular
basis, as was historically the case in Florida.
Without those periodic controlled burns, the fuel loads grow.
So when fires occur, they are worse.
Add 25 mph winds to the mix, as was the case east of Lake Wales earlier this
month, and firefighters are limited in what they can do.
"It was just the perfect storm," Zipprer said.
Zipprer said forestry officials are working to promote "firewise"
communities, stressing the things homeowners can do in advance to protect
themselves.
Many of the suggestions are basic, such as clearing a buffer zone around the
house and removing plants such as palmettos, which secrete resinous oils and
have waxy leaves, which burn easily.
Zipprer and Cash said residents should pay attention now.
Polk County is drying out. As of Tuesday, the county had had 4.28 inches of
rain this year, .9 of an inch below the average 5.18 inches that fall in
January and February alone.
"It's a long way to the (June) rainy season," Zipprer said.
Bill Bair can be reached at bill.bair@theledger.com
or 863-676-7118.
County
May Buy Land From Pinellas
By
JULIA FERRANTE The Tampa Tribune
Published:
Mar 14, 2007
GOWERS
CORNER - For more than two decades, the 12,000-acre Crossbar Ranch well
field in north-central Pasco County has been in the hands of Pinellas
County, although the spoils are doled out by a regional authority providing
drinking water to millions of people.
Now
it appears Pinellas County officials are ready to put the property up for
sale, and Pasco officials would like to preserve it.
Pasco
County Administrator John Gallagher asked commissioners at a Tuesday meeting
in Dade City to authorize a study of the land north of State Road 52 and
east of U.S. 41 and options for buying it. The board unanimously approved
the request, with Commissioner Pat Mulieri absent.
Gallagher
said he informally has inquired about the land and that Pinellas officials
have expressed interest in selling it to Pasco County. He suggested seeking
a grant from The Nature Conservancy or another preservation group to help
with the cost of the property, which is inhabited by wildlife and includes
wetlands.
"They're
more just interested in getting it off their books than being paid a lot of
money," Gallagher said.
Commissioner
Ted Schrader argued it is in Pasco's best interest to preserve the property.
"There's
an endless amount of possibilities out there," Schrader said.
Commissioner
Jack Mariano agreed that Pasco should seek to preserve the land.
Michele
Baker, program administrator for county engineering services, said her
department will conduct a comprehensive study of the land, which sits north
of the 4-G Ranch. The land is near other areas the county has targeted for
preservation.
Also
Tuesday, commissioners approved a resolution expressing opposition to
proposed legislation changing the rules for cable television franchises in
Florida.
Senior
Assistant County Attorney Jane Fagan said the new rules could jeopardize
Pasco's agreements with Bright House Networks and Verizon. Those agreements
are meant to ensure that residents receive service comparable to that of
neighboring counties and that the county has government access channels.
The
agreements with Bright House and Verizon are good for 10 years and include
options to renew, Fagan said. The legislation could void those contracts and
force the county to pay for the local channels and basic service - a
potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The channels also may be
in jeopardy because they regularly repeat content and therefore may be
considered underutilized.
"I
think it's unfair and clearly unconstitutional," County Attorney Robert
Sumner said. "They ought to make these companies comply with franchise
agreements until they are terminated."
Reporter
Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.
Rural
Residents Bemoan Regional Beltway Plans
By
JULIA FERRANTE The Tampa Tribune
Published:
Mar 14, 2007
DADE
CITY - Residents of rural northeast Pasco County say conceptual plans for a
regional beltway would end their tranquil way of life.
Maps
of a proposed beltway from Hernando County to Charlotte County show
potential roads through Trilby and Blanton, two sparsely developed areas
that have been set aside as rural protection areas in Pasco.
"Familiarity
breeds acceptance," Richard Riley of Northeast Pasco Concerned Citizens
told county commissioners at their meeting Tuesday in Dade City. "With
hypothetical roads being published, it is only a matter of time before they
become asphalt. Roads are a catalyst for development."
The
maps are being circulated by state and local officials as alternatives for
easing traffic on major interstates and highways. The state Department of
Transportation is considering several options, including new rail systems,
expanded highways and beltways.
Riley
and his group spent years working with county officials to develop
regulations for their part of the county, characterized by rolling hills,
green pasture and pristine lakes. They now are concerned those efforts will
be destroyed with roads they say are sure to usher in development.
Carol
Cruz of Blanton, another member of the group, told commissioners a beltway
would "invade the privacy on our protected area."
"These
roads belong in large, developed areas - heavily congested areas," she
said. "Why not improve what you've already got?"
Bob
Clifford of the state Department of Transportation said state officials are
investigating all kinds of "intermodal transportation," including
beltways. Major interstates through Pasco won't be able to handle the volume
of traffic expected in the next 50 years, he said, and it is likely the
state won't be able to build roads fast enough.
"The
interstate system we have now will not continue to do what it does now in
the future," Clifford said. "It will be overburdened. &hellip
As we look at it in the future, nothing's off the table."
Studies
show Interstate 75 would need 12 to 14 lanes by 2025 to handle expected
traffic, Clifford said.
"We're
never going to build 12 to 14 lanes on I-75. We're looking at what's the
next interstate system. Those existing corridors are not going to serve us
for the next 50 years."
Commissioner
Ted Schrader said beltways do not fit in with regional goals.
"An
outer beltway is nothing more than a loop around Pasco County,"
Schrader said. "It is not the intermodal system you're talking about. I
think Hernando County is looking for an evacuation route."
Reporter
Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.
Expressway
offices fuel criticism
Jay
Hamburg and Dan Tracy
Sentinel Staff Writers
March 13, 2007
With steel girders reaching more than 55 feet in the air, the new $24.3
million headquarters of the region's toll-road agency is taking shape next
to the busiest stretch of State Road 408.
But while the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority sees the new
81,000-square-foot building with its three-story atrium as a symbol of
progress and the future, motorists such as Kevin Mueller see it as evidence
of the embattled agency's extravagance.
"It sticks out like a sore thumb -- like a castle on the hill,"
said Mueller, an Orlando software engineer who has watched construction
progress as he slows to pay the 75-cent toll on his commute. "I don't
know if they need it or not. I just thought it sends the wrong signal."
The new building is four times the size of the agency's current
headquarters. And while it will be open to the public, it will be mostly
office and meeting space for use by expressway employees and their
contractors.
The building's size and cost, and the authority's decision to provide office
space for its contractors, make the headquarters seem like a mistake to the
authority's newest board member.
"If I were looking at this from a pure business decision, I wouldn't
have done it," said Harvey Massey, who was appointed to the authority
by Gov. Charlie Crist in February.
Old plans, new controversy
The building plans aren't new: The authority has been moving for years
toward replacing its old, cramped headquarters, now tucked discreetly
beneath S.R. 408 in downtown Orlando.
But location and timing have conspired to make the new building a tough sell
for those who pay to drive on the region's toll roads.
The new headquarters, looming over the north side of S.R. 408 just east of
Conway Road, is being built at a spot where it can't be missed by the
125,000 drivers who use the toll road every day.
And it's coming at a time when the authority, which could increase tolls
this year, is still working to overcome a series of scandals and
controversies that have seen its chairman resign amid an ongoing criminal
investigation and financial audit.
The building, which should open during the spring of 2008, will be a money
saver in the long run by allowing agency officials to consolidate operations
and forgo paying rent for contractors the agency houses in leased space,
said Executive Director Mike Snyder.
Snyder said the authority has outgrown its old headquarters after 35 years.
The roughly 17,000-square-foot building cannot be expanded because it is
hemmed in by the ongoing expansion of S.R. 408.
An authority description of the new building touts its style, noting its
"articulated masses of precast concrete, brick and glass," the
"clerestory glass at third floor lobbies" and the way in which
expressway shapes are recalled "in the lighting feature and
medallions."
But Snyder said of the new building, "It's not extravagant."
Massey disagrees. The Winter Park philanthropist and head of a large
pest-control company contends the new headquarters is too big and too
expensive.
Massey said new buildings can be constructed for $180 to $200 a square foot,
not the $300 per square foot the authority is paying for the total project.
Fred Cosat, an Orlando construction-management consultant with 30 years of
experience, said $225 is a fairly common price for new Class A office space,
among the better private accommodations in the current Central Florida
market.
Beyond the price, Massey questions why the authority wants to provide space
for the contractors who work for the agency. "They ought to be
responsible for their own housing," he said.
Snyder said the authority gets a break on the price it pays for the
contractors -- more than 100 toll takers and E-Pass electronic toll
administrators -- by taking care of the space. Putting them in the same
building, Snyder said, will make the authority more efficient, too.
"It's much easier to go up and down the steps to get something done, to
make decisions," Snyder said.
Size of building grew
Authority officials got serious about a new office in 2002, when Snyder was
a board member. He became executive director in 2004 when his predecessor
resigned.
The planned building's size and expense have grown steadily in the years
since.
A study commissioned by the board and completed in May 2003 recommended a
35,000-square-foot building costing $8.1 million. The two-story structure
would house as many as 150 of the toll-taking and E-pass contract employees.
The report also said board members could add on a 2,600-square-foot
board-meeting room, plus another 15,600 square feet serving the 40 or so
people in administration. Those changes, the study said, would bring the
total cost to $11.3 million for more than 53,000 square feet of space. The
building likely would be three stories at that size.
At the behest of the board, the building plans went from 35,000 square feet
to 46,000 square feet to more than 80,000 square feet in less than a year,
from August 2004 to July 2005. The extra space was added to accommodate some
current contractors and to prepare for additional contract and expressway
employees expected in the future.
Meanwhile, the fees paid to the engineering firm designing the building,
longtime consultant PBS&J of Tampa, grew from more than $440,0000 to
nearly $1.8 million.
Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, who joined the board in 2001 and became the
chairman earlier this year, said he thinks the building he voted for
repeatedly is justifiable.
But he doesn't rule out any options in the future. "It's an age-old
question: lease or buy," he said. "It's all worth talking about. I
based my decision making on the available information. But if there is new
information, that could change things."
Massey is leaning toward selling the building, then leasing it back,
figuring it would be cheaper than trying to maintain it over the years.
"We are not in the real-estate business," Massey said. "We
are in the highway-construction and highway-maintenance business."
The new building is going up as the toll-road agency tries to restore public
confidence. It is under investigation by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's
Office and the Orange County comptroller. Both are looking into issues of
record keeping and possible improper spending, including $107,500 that was
paid to Advantage Consultants, which is run by toll critic Doug Guetzloe.
Mary Brooks, spokesman for the authority, noted that the cost of the new
headquarters is just 2 percent of the five-year $1.2 billion work plan of
the agency. Other projects in the work plan include maintenance, expansions,
tollbooth updating and new interchanges to the 100-mile system.
"We believe that what matters most to our customers in the end is not
the type of building housing this agency, but the quality, availability and
ease with which they can travel the 100 miles of roads we provide to get
them where they need to go," Brooks wrote in an e-mail to the Orlando
Sentinel.
Jay Hamburg can be reached at
407-420-5673 or jhamburg at orlandosentinel.com. Dan Tracy can be reached at
407-420-5444 or dtracy@orlandosentinel.com.
Ocean
Mall deal foiled as voters approve limits
Both
amendments were placed on the ballot in response to residents' outrage at
the city's December deal with Catalfumo.
Dawn
Pardo, the Public Beach Coalition's chairwoman, said the group asked every
Singer Island registered voter to vote in favor of the amendments.
The
coalition also developed ties with old-guard black leaders to limit
redevelopment on the city's public beach.
"They
underestimated us from the beginning," Pardo said. "This is what
happens when you (anger) 3,000 voters."
On
Dec. 18, the city council voted 4-1 to allow the Palm Beach Gardens builder
a 50-year lease on the land containing the Ocean Mall. Catalfumo's plans
were to raze the 33-year-old mall and build a 28-story Marriott condo/hotel
and 60,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
Meanwhile,
Catalfumo's attempts to work through mainland churches didn't go far enough
to beat the coalition's efforts. Catalfumo said Tuesday night that he plans
to challenge the election in court.
"You
can't change height restrictions by ballot," Catalfumo said.
"There is no downside to this. I'm never going away."
Singer
Island residents opposed Catalfumo's project and formed the Public Beach
Coalition to launch a petition drive to get enough signatures to overturn
the deal. However, after the coalition collected more than 3,000 signatures,
City Clerk Carrie Ward rejected most of them, claiming the group gathered
them improperly.
Both
sides filed suit in civil court. In February, Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley
sided with the coalition, agreeing that the amendments could appear on the
March ballot because the signatures were valid.
During
the court case, evidence revealed that Catalfumo hired private investigators
with former ties to the CIA to monitor the coalition's activities. One of
the investigators even used a false name to sign the petition in an attempt
to show that the group failed to monitor who signed the petitions, as
required by the city's charter.
But
the evidence wasn't enough to persuade Kelley to rule in the city's favor.
Riviera
Beach has appealed Kelley's ruling to the 4th District Court of Appeal.
Control
of water site may change
The
Cross Bar Ranch could revert to Pasco if a deal can be cut with Pinellas
County.
By
DAVID DECAMP
Published March 14, 2007
Pinellas
officials have started early talks about selling the 12,000-acre Cross Bar
Ranch to Pasco County.
Once
a key battleground in the regional water wars, the central Pasco ranch
provided millions of gallons of drinking water a day for Pinellas County.
But with Tampa Bay Water's efforts in recent years to develop other water
sources, pumping at the ranch has been reduced, and the property has
flourished as a wildlife refuge.
Now
that Tampa Bay Water has brought stability to the region's water supply,
Pinellas is interested in returning the property to Pasco hands, said Pick
Talley, Pinellas utilities director. Tampa Bay Water would still oversee the
17 wells on site.
Pasco
County Administrator John Gallagher got the nod from commissioners on
Tuesday to continue discussing options.
"We're
starting from ground zero right now," Talley said. "We don't have
any plan or any goal."
Pinellas
purchased the land in chunks. In 1976, it bought 8,000 acres for $600 an
acre, Talley said. A 1989 purchase added another 4,500 acres at $1,800 an
acre.
That's
a combined $12.9-million before factoring inflation and the rising value of
Pasco land over intervening years.
"We
have no idea what the property is worth today," Talley said.
Gallagher
said state preservation money is sewn up, so early talks have focused on
using money from nonprofit conservation groups, including the Nature
Conservancy, to help broker a deal.
Besides
serving as a well field, Cross Bar functions as a wildlife refuge, notably
for the threatened Florida scrub jay. It attracts bird watchers and
students. An educational center opened in 2003.
Pasco
County Commissioner Ted Schrader, a Tampa Bay Water board member, said the
property is full of potential.
"I
think it would be in our bests interests and Pasco's interests to control
it," Schrader said.
David
DeCamp can be reached at (727) 869-6232 or "ddecamp@sptimes.com.
Wiregrass
Hearing Postponed
By
KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune
Published:
Mar 13, 2007
WESLEY
CHAPEL - The developers of Wiregrass Ranch will have to wait another month
to get on the agenda for the board of county commissioners.
County
officials were scheduled to take up the 5,000-acre project at the heart of
Pasco's most rapidly growing community today. That hearing has been delayed
until April 10 so the developers and commissioners can talk more about
potential traffic problems.
The
two sides will take another pass later this month at resolving Wiregrass
Ranch's potential impact on future traffic patterns in southeast Pasco and
northeast Hillsborough counties.
No
date has been set for that meeting.
Wiregrass'
southwest corner sits at the junction of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs
Boulevard, about a mile north of New Tampa.
The
Porter family envisions a development that will unite Wesley Chapel's
disparate neighborhoods with a downtown surrounded by three high-end Pulte
Homes communities.
At
the county's urging, Pulte agreed last year to add more public roads to
Wiregrass' internal network to take pressure off S.R. 56 and other major
roads. So far, though, county officials remain skeptical.
Traffic
concerns derailed discussions between commissioners and Wiregrass officials
in January.
At
the time, Wiregrass officials pitched their project as a boon for the
region, providing $1 billion in taxes over 20 years.
Commissioners,
however, worry the project might be a boondoggle if its residents - upward
of 35,000 people, according to the developers - overwhelm the roads linking
Wesley Chapel and New Tampa.
Reporter
Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
City
appeals for help with riverfront
Titusville to
apply for state designation
BY JESSICA RAYNOR
FLORIDA TODAY
The
city is counting on being designated a Waterfronts Florida Partnership
Community to help decide what will happen to Marina Park.
The
city council decided Tuesday to apply for the program, which would provide
administrative support to craft a plan for the future of the city's north
waterfront, from Space View Park to the 22-acre Marina Park.
Once
designated, the city would get $25,000 each year in a two-year cycle. It
will also form a waterfront committee, made of residents and city officials.
The
deadline for applications is March 21.
Councilman
Jim Tulley said the program would not be someone from the outside telling
the city what do with the waterfront.
"They're
trying to help us through tools available to them," Tulley said.
The
council also resolved to keep the park for public and recreation.
The
city will be notified by May 31 if it is selected. A plan for the waterfront
could be complete within a year of the designation.
The
2000 parks referendum set aside $1.4 million for the park improvements,
including upgraded ball fields for the Titusville Little League, which has
since disbanded. Since then, there have been conflicting ideas and plans for
the city-operated, county-owned park.
Residents
have said they want to keep Marina Park reserved for public, recreational
use, but they want the city to decide what "public" means.
"Does
being public mean the city can do business there?" said Joan Wheeler,
who did not get a response from the council.
Bea
Polk of Titusville, said the council should pass an ordinance declaring that
the land cannot be used for commercial interests -- instead of a resolution
that "means nothing."
"You're
not going to do that because everything you do is about making money,"
she said.
Supercenter
ushers in commercial development of Deltona
By
SARA KIESLER
Staff Writer
DELTONA
-- Volusia County's largest city may soon be dropping its "bedroom
community" moniker.
As
a Wal-Mart Supercenter opens today at the corner of State Road 415 and
Howland Boulevard, other planned changes to Deltona's east side wait
quietly.
Among
the growing developments are hopes for a big box home improvement store on a
30-acre parcel of land known as the "Leahy property." Deltona is
still changing the zoning of that land from low density residential to
commercial.
There
is also a new Publix and Ace Hardware -- both already opened -- Fifth Third
Bank and, possibly, a funeral home being built at nearby Courtland and Fort
Smith boulevards.
Deltona
officials said they hope to bring high quality business to the area, with
special assessment districts that will house a combination of offices and
retail stores, as well as adding flare to the young city with public art,
street landscaping and strict development requirements like Wal-Mart's $1
million landscaping project.
"We
see that we can provide shopping and cut down on driving into other cities
to shop," said Greg Stubbs, planning and development services director.
"Obviously, it will offer a better quality life for the residents of
Deltona."
However,
not everyone is excited to see the changes. With its streets filled with
housing, Deltona's main opportunity to grow lies along S.R. 415 -- where
Osteen residents and others have come to enjoy a rural life style.
The
city has been meeting with county officials and listening to fears of Osteen
residents for more than a year to shape a plan for roughly 4,000 acres east
of State Road 415. In that plan, city officials hope clustered housing,
industrial complexes and the environment can coexist peacefully.
Barbara
Evans and her husband live less than a mile from the new Wal-Mart, but
there's no way she could battle the cars and trucks flying by to walk to it.
Not
that she wants to. Evans said she is so worried about the dangers of
increasing traffic that growth like Wal-Mart and other planned developments
near her home are bringing she plans to stand outside her home tomorrow with
a sign demanding motorists slow down.
"I've
almost got T-boned three or four times coming out of my driveway,"
Evans said. The 55-year-old, whose house has been in her husband's family
for about 60 years, said she also questions why a traffic light is at the
entrance to the store on Howland, but not at the corner of S.R. 415.
There
is a plan to widen the state road to five lanes, and no light is planned
until then because it would make traffic more dangerous and less efficient,
said Chris Cairns, a traffic engineer with the state Department of
Transportation.
But
Deltona and Volusia County officials hope to get the widening finished
sooner than the currently projected 2016. The DOT actually has about $36
million now available specifically for a segment of the state road that
stretches from Forth Smith Boulevard to just beyond the Seminole County
line, said Becky Mendez, Deltona planning manager.
"We
want them to go ahead and do that, not sit on that money," Mendez said.
"Construction costs aren't getting any cheaper."
Stubbs
added that if the state does not allow any more traffic added to S.R. 415,
it may stifle Deltona's plans for economic development.
But
to Evans, keeping businesses from buying out her neighbors' property and
halting the growth would be the answer to her prayers.
"A
lot of those old people here could live good and better somewhere
else," she said, "but they got blood, sweat and babies born on
this land. Let them die on it."
DELTONA
WAL-MART SUPERCENTER
Deltona's
first 24-hour, 7-days-a-week Wal-Mart Supercenter opens today at 101 Howland
Blvd. Also opening today are new Supercenters in Marco Island and Port St.
Lucie.
Some
key facts about the Deltona store:
·
Store opening: 8 a.m., following grand opening ceremony at 7:30 a.m.
·
Store manager: Ron Smigla.
·
The store will employ about 450 workers ("associates" in company
parlance), out of 2,000 applications received.
·
Size: 206,610 square feet, slightly larger than the 185,000-square-foot
national average for a Supercenter.
·
The new store offers a full line of groceries, including frozen foods, meat
and dairy products, fresh produce, a bakery and a delicatessen.
·
General merchandise departments include apparel and accessories, jewelry,
health and beauty aids, a full line of electronics and a lawn and garden
center.
·
Other features include a Tire & Lube Express, a vision center, liquor
store, Subway restaurant, SmartStyle hair salon, Regal nail salon, one-hour
photo lab, SunTrust Bank branch, a pharmacy and a Wal-Mart Connect Center.
·
Check out lanes: 29 full-service, eight express and four self-check.
·
Wal-Mart Supercenters are also located in Orange City, DeLand, Palm Coast,
Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach and Port Orange. Also on the drawing boards are
additional Supercenters in Daytona Beach and Port Orange.
Source:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
--
Joe Crews
Planners
draw a line in the sand
By
MICHAEL D. BATES
mbates@hernandotoday.com
BROOKSVILLE — Planning and zoning commissioners Monday drew a line in the
sand along Spring Hill Drive and called it Pinehurst Drive.
By rejecting attorney Joe Mason’s rezoning request, they made it clear
that any commercial development west of Pinehurst — just west of SunTrust
Bank — would be out of synch with the rest of the area.
Mason’s assertions to the contrary fell on deaf ears.
Mason
is representing a local woman, Sylvia Vazquez, who sought permission to
rezone almost one acre on the north side of Spring Hill Drive, west of
Pinehurst Drive, to commercial.
As
yet, no tenant had been announced.
Most
of the commercial development along that part of Spring Hill Drive is east
of Pinehurst. That includes the Spring Hill Plaza, the oldest shopping
center on the county’s westside.
Expanding
that commercial classification westward, “is a logical extension of the
existing commercial,” Mason said numerous times during the meeting.
Planning
Chairman Anthony Palmieri didn’t see it that way.
“I
don’t think that anything west of Pinehurst should be commercial,”
Palmieri said.
Mason
didn’t completely lose the battle.
Planning
commissioners said they would be more amenable to rezoning that parcel to
office professional, which is more restrictive than the commercial category.
After
consulting with his client, Mason said he would return in one month with
another plan for the planning department to consider.
Efforts
to expand the commercial zoning along that part of Spring Hill Drive have
proven contentious. It came to a head a few years ago when Walgreens finally
worked out an acceptable plan to build a drug store adjacent to the SunTrust
Bank near Pinehurst.
As
it is now, the main obstacle is forming a plan to alleviate traffic
congestion so near a residential area.
Planning
members and county commissioners finally agreed to grant the rezoning after
Walgreens agreed to share a common entrance with the bank and redirect
traffic to allow for easier traffic flow.
That
Walgreens is under construction and scheduled to open soon.
This
latest request is for a commercial building just east of Sylvia Avenue, the
first street west of Pinehurst.
Because
the site is outside the commercial area it is inconsistent with the
surrounding residential land uses, according to planning staffers who are
recommending the project be denied.
They
said Monday they would have to look at a revised plan for an
office-professional zoning category before issuing another recommendation.
Reporter
Michael D. Bates can be contacted at 352-544-5290.
3
Dozen Citizens Get Behind Transit Planning Wheel
By
NEIL JOHNSON The Tampa Tribune
Published:
Mar 14, 2007
TAMPA
- Placing her finger on a map of southern Hillsborough County, Uta Kuhn
traced a line north from her home in Sun City Center.
There
needs to be a way to get to the airport, she said.
Kuhn
was one of about three dozen people at a public workshop on mass transit
Tuesday held by the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Discussion
focused on where people live, work, shop and play and what potential routes
a mass transit system could follow to link those locations.
Ultimately,
the ideas offered at two workshops at the Florida State Fairgrounds will be
folded into corridor options for the planning organization board when it
meets in June.
The
proposals will look at transit planning for 2030.
A
link to Tampa International Airport was a common theme.
"We
have to look at it regionally. If we connect all the airports, we'll be a
step ahead," said Dena Gross Leavengood, co-founder of Tomorrow
Matters, a citizens advocacy group.
The
workshop didn't consider what form of transit would use the corridors. The
goal was to find what parts of the county citizens think should be
connected, said Beth Alden, planning organization team leader.
Maps
with the results of the two workshops will be on the agency's Web site in
May, she said.
Hillsborough
County and the Tampa Bay area are showing signs of struggling transportation
that Bill McCloud saw before he left Chicago.
"People
are staying in traffic longer and longer," he said.
Suggestions
included:
•Using
an express transit corridor from New Tampa to downtown to avoid widening
roads.
•Connecting
Pinellas County to Westchase, downtown, Ybor City and the University of
South Florida's Tampa campus using TIA as a central hub.
Beverly
Cartee of Seffner appreciated the difficulty of planning for a comprehensive
transit system.
"When
you're living in a 1,000-square-mile county with no rhyme or reason, it's
hard," she said. "At least people are talking about it."
Reporter
Neil Johnson can be reached at (352) 544-5214
New
landfill put on back burner
Commissioners
are told it may cost less to haul excess garbage to Osceola County.
By
CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published March 14, 2007
DADE
CITY - It may cost Pasco nearly $20 a ton less to haul its trash to other
counties than to dispose of it locally, County Administrator John Gallagher
said Tuesday.
As
Pasco grapples with its growing trash problem, Gallagher is negotiating what
commissioners called an interim solution that could buy up to 17 years'
worth of space to dump garbage in Osceola County.
As
it is now, Pasco collects more than 150 tons of excess trash a day beyond
what the county's garbage incinerator can handle. Without adding another
burner, the Shady Hills incinerator cannot keep pace with growth.
Gallagher
has not finished his negotiations, but told commissioners that the Osceola
option could cost $39 a ton for roughly the first four years, which would
then ratchet up to "$40-something" and "$50-something" a
ton beyond that time frame.
Gallagher
told the Pasco Times it costs the county $56.70 a ton to dispose of its
trash in Shady Hills. He said he is meeting with Osceola officials next week
to pursue the deal.
If
it pans out, the Osceola option could scuttle the plans for a private-sector
solution that has raised the ire of neighbors.
Largo's
Angelo's Aggregate Materials wants to build the first privately held dump in
Pasco to accept raw household garbage and other trash, also called a Class 1
landfill.
The
state Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing Angelo's proposal
for a garbage pit just outside Dade City, but the company would also need
the county's blessing.
With
Pasco already mulling new recycling efforts and out-of-county garbage
options, including under used landfills in Polk County, Commissioner Ted
Schrader on Tuesday described Angelo's proposal as "moot."
But
seven residents took the floor of the commission meeting anyway, warning of
potential environmental consequences and questioning the county's cost
estimates. One of them even threw "environmental racism" into
their gamut of arguments.
"Race
is the most significant variable associated with the location of hazardous
waste sites," said Nulankeyas Ahbleza Cook, who was wearing his Native
American regalia.
About
a quarter of Dade City's population is African American.
Other
speakers, like Carl Roth, said Angelo's had no experience operating Class 1
landfills. He warned of sinkhole risks and the threat to drinking water.
Roth
also questioned the county's numbers, including Gallagher's Osceola figures.
He said the county's figures don't include the money Pasco makes by
generating electricity at the incinerator.
Roth
said this means the county pays less per ton than $56.70, and wanted
officials to make its costs clear in their search for alternative solutions.
Roth
favors expanding the Shady Hills incinerator or using Hillsborough's
incinerator capacity.
Adding
a burner at Shady Hills would bump up the incinerator's capacity by 600 tons
a day but cost $110-million, officials said.
In
2004, a county consultant said expanding and operating the incinerator would
cost as much as $353-million over 20 years.
Gallagher
said his staff is also preparing to make recommendations on the county's
curbside recycling program in about two months. He is meeting with trash
haulers to explore the rates they are allowed to charge and the equipment
they would use.
He
said a key recommendation would be whether to make the recycling program
mandatory or leave it voluntary.
A
recent pilot program in Meadow Pointe showed residents want curbside
recycling of newspapers, and were twice as likely to recycle if they
received plastic bins instead of the blue bags the county currently uses.
After
the meeting, some residents questioned why commissioners seemed reluctant to
veto Angelo's proposal now.
Commissioners
had told them earlier that a full slate of options is expected to be laid
out in coming months.
"All
this is premature - I hope everybody recognizes that," commission
Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand told the protesters.
Chuin-Wei
Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at
813909-4613 or "cyap@sptimes.com.
Panel
OKs Contested Development
By Tom
Palmer
The Ledger
BARTOW - Developers finally came up with a proposal Tuesday for a disputed
piece of land along Gib-Galloway Road that the majority of the Polk County
Planning Commission liked.
But a group of homeowners led by James and Erin Abercrombie said they'll
appeal, throwing the project's fate to the County Commission.
Donnie Tyler wanted to build a 27-lot subdivision on 15 acres next to the
Abercrombies. In his motion that was approved by a 4-3 vote, Commissioner
Augie Fragala slightly scaled back the subdivision by softening restrictions
county planners had recommended. Just how much was hard to determine until
Tyler submits a revised site plan.
County planners had proposed increasing minimum lot sizes to 40,000 square
feet - nearly an acre - but Fragala dropped the limit to 14,000 square feet.
Tyler had proposed lots as small as 11,500 square feet.
Commissioner Sue Nelson said she was concerned about compatibility.
Commissioner John Ryan said he was concerned about traffic safety.
But Fragala said he thought the buffering and other conditions would take
care of the incompatibility issues and Commission Chairman John Webb said
even though the land immediately adjacent to the site was sparsely
developed, that area of the county was densely populated.
The section of Gib-Galloway Road, a two-lane road that winds through rural
and suburban land north of Lakeland, has been the venue for one of the most
hotly-contested neighborhood zoning disputes in recent Polk County history.
It has pitted the Abercrombies against a succession of influential local
developers.
The Abercrombies gained some protection as the result of a favorable 2004
court ruling after the couple sued the County Commission for overturning the
Planning Commission's 2002 denial of an earlier project next to them.
At the time of that ruling, the late Senior Judge Randolph Bentley had
concluded county commissioners had ignored key provisions of their own
growth plan when they voted in 2002 to overturn the Planning Commission's
denial of a 30-lot subdivision in a 13-acre citrus grove.
Florida Leisure Communities, which submitted the original development plan
for the site, abandoned their plans and sold the property to Sam Fasson
Properties of Kathleen in 2006.
Fasson, a developer, tried unsuccessfully last June to get Planning
Commission approval for a 27-lot subdivision on an expanded parcel
comprising nearly 15 acres.
County planners, who had originally scheduled the case for January's
meeting, delayed action to allow more time to review Bentley's ruling and to
come up with a staff recommendation that was consistent with it.
That review led planners to conclude that Fasson's proposal was incompatible
with adjacent land uses. They recommended scaling back the proposal to a
10-lot to 12-lot subdivision.
County planners also recommended a list of 22 conditions including tree
protection, a privacy fence or wall, traffic studies, sidewalks, street
lighting and construction of a tot lot.
Lawyer Steve Watson, representing Fasson, argued the staff recommendation
was incorrect.
He said the proposed subdivision, which had less density than what was
proposed in the 2002 case, has the largest lots of any subdivision in the
area.
"This is, in effect, infill development," Watson said.
He argued there was no reason to reject the project based on traffic
conditions on Gib-Galloway Road, either, because the road meets county
traffic standards even though it, like many other county roads, is narrower
than county standards specify.
But James Abercrombie questioned the need for the develop- ment, citing
widespread vacancies in new developments in the area.
"What's the urgency?" he asked.
Erin Abercrombie acknowledged the property could be developed, but said the
density is not comparable.
"It's not fair, it's not fair," she said.
The Abercrombies weren't alone in their opposition.
Neighbor Dan Taylor complained about the condition of Gib-Galloway Road and
about having to spend years listening to construction noise and the loud
music and other noise coming from a new subdivision.
Neighbor Jerry Weeks complained the schools are over capacity and that the
development intrudes into a still-rural area.
"It's an unsupportable proposition," he said.
Green
Buildings On The Horizon
By
DAVE SIMANOFF The Tampa Tribune
Published:
Mar 14, 2007
Green,
for lack of a better word, is good.
Developers,
business owners and government organizations across the Tampa Bay area are
starting to embrace the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
initiative, an international push to construct offices, homes, schools and
hotels that conserve power and water, minimize their impact on the
environment, and create healthy places for people to live and work.
Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED for short, isn't a set of
guidelines. It's a rigid set of requirements that architects, engineers and
contractors must adopt when they design, build and equip a building. Once
the building is complete, it must be reviewed by an independent consultant
before the U.S. Green Building Council will certify it as a LEED-compliant
building.
Experts
say LEED is growing in popularity because developers and owners recognize
the benefits to the environment - and to their wallets. Although a LEED-compliant
building might cost more to design and construct than a traditional
building, operating costs are generally much lower.
"If
something's good for the environment - that, frankly, for a lot of years,
didn't sell very well," said Joshua Bomstein, business development
manager for Clearwater-based Creative Contractors Inc. and vice president of
the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.
"People
wanted to do the right thing for the environment, but not it if cost more
and took longer," Bomstein said.
Today,
builders and owners recognize the "triple bottom line" of
environmentally friendly, energy-saving buildings: Besides the obvious
environmental advantages, "it's good for people who work and live in
the buildings, plus they're good for the owner's pocketbook."
While
every LEED-compliant building is different, experts at the Green Building
Council say LEED adds up to 7 percent to the cost of designing and
constructing a structure. However, they say that in many cases the increase
is minimal, adding just 2 percent or less to the cost. The council's
research shows that LEED can lower a building's energy bill by an average of
36 percent, and water bills by an average of 30 percent.
Local
Examples Increasing
Examples
of LEED are taking shape on both sides of the Bay:
•Dunedin's
new community center, built by Creative Contractors, is built to LEED
specifications and will be submitted to the Green Building Council for
certification.
•The
Sandpearl Resort, under construction in Clearwater Beach, promises to be the
state's first LEED-compliant hotel. The luxury resort, which includes hotel
condominiums, is expected to open this summer.
•Contractor
Skanska USA has started work on an HCC SouthShore Center, a LEED-compliant
57,000-square-foot building in Ruskin.
•Walker
Brand Communications, a Tampa-based advertising firm, is planning a LEED-compliant
8,400-square-foot headquarters.
•Several
LEED-compliant public schools are in the works for Hillsborough, Pinellas
and Pasco counties.
According
to the U.S. Green Building Council, there are 14 LEED-compliant commercial
and public buildings under consideration or under construction in the Tampa
Bay area. Combined, those buildings represent 1.1 million square feet of
space.
Until
recently, people in the Bay area could only find one example of LEED
construction: the 6,000-square-foot Happy Feet Plus store in Clearwater.
Happy
Feet Plus sells specialty shoes, such as Birkenstocks, at a handful of
locations across the Bay area. Co-founder Jane Strong said her business
wanted a building to serve as an example for other businesses and reflect
the founders' environmentally-friendly philosophy.
The
Happy Feet Plus store in Clearwater uses an energy-efficient lighting
system. Its 5,000-gallon cistern collects rainwater that is used to help
water plants and flush toilets.
Strong
said her energy bills are one-third of what it would cost for a traditional
building.
"We
did this more as an example than a reason to save money," she said.
"But we especially do save."
For
a major developer such as Crescent Resources LLC, the big question about
LEED is whether tenants are willing to pay more for rent to offset the
higher construction costs.
High
rental prices can deter tenants, and prices for building materials have
already risen sharply over the past few years, said Whit Duncan, senior vice
president.
However,
"we feel that there will be a time in the future when Corporate America
would prefer to be in a green building," he said.
In
Ruskin, HCC's $15.9 million SouthShore Center is expected to open early next
year. HCC predicts it will spend about 24 percent less on energy costs for
the LEED-compliant building than it would cost for a traditional building.
Energy-saving
features will include a rooftop basin to collect water, heating systems
built into the floor, and a design that brings as much natural light as
possible into the building.
Barbara
Lawson, HCC's chief financial officer and vice president of administration,
said the college was interested not just in saving money, but also in being
"good environmental stewards and citizens."
In
Clearwater, JMC Communities predicts its investment in energy-saving design
and equipment at Sandpearl Resort will pay off within five years.
Sandpearl
will feature a 200-suite hotel, costing about $80 million, as well as 50
hotel condos. Chief Executive Michael Cheezem said meeting LEED standards
has added about $3 million to the cost of construction and design.
The
Sandpearl's air conditioning will used chilled water instead of Freon, and
the hotel's heat recovery exhaust system will capture heated air and reuse
it. A sophisticated power-management system will adjust a room's temperature
or shut off the air-conditioning system if a guest leaves an outside door
open.
Trade-Offs
Necessary
Cheezem
said following LEED specifications meant making a few trade-offs. For
example, he said, the toilets selected for the resort are very efficient but
not his designers' first choice "decorwise." Also, it was
difficult to find a shower head that was both efficient and stylish, he
said.
However,
Cheezem said LEED standards won't compromise the luxury experience at the
Sandpearl.
"I
think people are much more aware of these issues than they ever have been,
both from a resource conservation point-of-view and a global climate point
of view," he said. "I think, because of that, people are more
likely to want to support an enterprise that builds in an environmentally
conscious way."
County
draws up war plan to root out invading plant
By
CINDY SWIRKO
Sun
staff writer
OK, so it's not the nuclear radiation-created giant ants, bees or Japanese
moths and monsters of the B-movies.
But an alien invader that could terrorize the environment and the wallets of
farmers is spreading menace in
It's cogongrass, and the county may bring out chemicals and fire to stop it.
"It is actually from
Chances are you've seen cogongrass on open roadsides and under power line
rights of way. It grows several feet tall, flowers with a feathery plume and
grows so thick it is difficult to walk through. On breezy days it waves like
wheat.
It was introduced intentionally from the
But cogongrass has little forage value. Meanwhile, it spreads like crazy. It
is an economic pest for farmers and foresters who must remove it from their
land. It is an environmental pest that crowds out native plant species,
which is also bad for native animals that depend on the plants. It is also a
fire hazard.
Now it threatens some of our most cherished open spaces, such as
Bird wants the county to begin a cogongrass counterattack, starting with an
April 4 meeting for farmers, environmentalists, homeowners, park staff and
others with a cogongrass interest.
Some relatively easy and cheap weapons include educating homeowners to the
trouble with cogongrass so they can remove it from their property. Bird said
county public works crews can make sure they remove traces of it from
equipment to prevent spreading.
But the big guns, herbicides and prescribed burning, could be needed, Bird
said.
"It's on private property, it's on farm land and it's on county
property, so we are all going to have to figure out how to work
together," Bird said.
Linda Conway Duever, who oversees a
"We have a lot of entities involved," Duever said. "We have
relatively light infestations around the edges of
Bird said he may request money for eradication as the county develops its
coming budget. Some commissioners expressed support for the effort.
"I'm glad we're getting started on this," Commissioner Mike Byerly
said. "This is clearly one of those 'ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure' situations."
Cindy Swirko can be reached at
352-374-5024 or swirkoc@ gvillesun.com.
FIRST OF THREE PARTS
A FLORIDA REAL ESTATE SOAP OPERA
A widow says she was 'hoodwinked' by developers who paid $445,000 for her underwater land -- then sold it back to the state for $7.2 million
BY SCOTT HIAASEN
shiaasen@MiamiHerald.com
Like a phantom limb, it dangles from the shoreline off Gables-by-the-Sea: a winding six-acre strip of turtle grass and mud four feet below the surface of Biscayne Bay.
Fifty years ago, planners drew a wishful frame of home lots over the bay bottom and called this deceptively pricey patch of real estate Coral Bay.
It also has a mordant nickname: ``Gables Under the Sea.''
After 20 years in the plat books, the 18 underwater lots were corraled in a state preserve and shielded from development. The longtime owners wrote them off as worthless.
But a pair of would-be developers and a clever lawyer saw fortune in the mushy marl. They bought the fanciful lots and sold them last summer -- at a $6.7 million profit.
The buyers? Florida taxpayers.
How the state came to spend millions for this chunk of bay -- 70 years after surrendering it to begin with -- is a Florida real estate soap opera.
There's the woman scorned: an 81-year-old Georgia widow who says she was ''hoodwinked'' when she sold her submerged property for $445,000.
There's the millionaire with a dark past: a developer once convicted of stock fraud who trolls the Gulf Stream in his 50-foot yacht. His team sold the watery lots back to the state for $7.2 million.
There's an audacious lawsuit and tricky Tallahassee politics. Jousting lawyers, big-name lobbyists, a county-biologist-turned-land-speculator and a cameo from a former governor.
It's the old swampland-for-sale story turned inside out -- and a new lesson in how to get rich in real estate: Don't build a thing.
Biscayne Bay was once regarded not as something to be protected, but as something to be peddled and paved. Decades ago, the state sold huge swaths of it to developers with fantastic plans to dredge up islands and causeways all the way down to Key Largo.
That's how the Coral Bay property went into private ownership -- part of it sold in 1936, the rest in 1957.
But, though platted and zoned -- and therefore vested with development rights -- the 18 lots were still underwater, and the state eventually grew protective of the bay. In 1968, then-Gov. Claude Kirk refused to issue new dredge or fill permits.
Two years later, a Hialeah businessman named Edward Santa Maria took over the lots from his sister. The price: ''Love & Affection Between Sister & Brother & No Cash,'' according to the 1970 deed.
He hoped to build waterfront homes -- but it soon became clear that the state wouldn't allow it. ''My husband was a dreamer. I loved him dearly, but he was a dreamer,'' said his widow, Laura Santa Maria, 81.
By 1974, Edward's dream was snuffed out for good. The state created the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, preventing development in the area.
Still, Edward didn't give up. He dutifully paid the meager taxes on his underwater acreage. (The lots were valued for tax purposes at about $1,600 apiece in 2003, with a total tax bill that year of $806.44.) He once offered Coral Gables half of his property if he could build on the rest, but the city didn't bite.
In his final years, cancer tethered Edward to an oxygen tank. Convinced that the lots would someday pay off for his wife, he placed them in a trust benefiting her, said Tom Flood, the Santa Marias' son-in-law.
Laura Santa Maria never shared her husband's optimism. ''I didn't think we could sell it at all, to tell you the truth,'' she said. ``Why would anybody want it?''
But just before her husband died on Aug. 27, 2001, two people called, asking about the property: Warren Sands and Bob Robinson.
`OUT OF HEAVEN'
They agreed to buy the lots for $445,000, with a modest $5,000 deposit.
''Out of heaven falls $400,000,'' said Flood, who was a trustee overseeing the property. ``We're thinking, OK, that's a good deal.''
The contract they signed in May 2002 gave Sands and Robinson two years to obtain permits to fill in the bay and build. The developers submitted their plans to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in August 2002.
Calling the area a prime manatee habitat and citing the decades-old protections enacted by the Legislature, the DEP rejected their permits in May 2003. But the deal didn't die; Sands and Robinson bought the underwater property anyway. The sale closed in July 2004.
The Santa Maria family's lawyer, Ed Livingston, said the developers' lawyer told him they were going to file a lawsuit to overturn the DEP ruling after buying the lots.
Instead, Sands and Robinson filed a different kind of suit. In a ''takings'' claim, they argued that the state's environmental rules wrongly erased their property rights. By refusing to allow homes on the submerged lots, they argued, the state had effectively condemned the property.
The suit aimed to force the state to buy the 18 bay-bottom lots -- and Sands and Robinson wanted them priced as though they had already been turned into waterfront mansions: $21 million in all, records show.
Sands, Robinson and their lawyer declined to comment for this report.
A SURPRISE
Laura Santa Maria and her family never heard about the lawsuit. Suing the state had never occurred to them. Nine years earlier, a lawyer told Edward Santa Maria that such a claim would probably fail, because he took over the property after the state's building limits were in place.
In short, they were told, they should have known better than to buy the bottom of the bay.
''No one recommended suing the state. No one ever thought about that,'' said Flood, a Palmetto Bay mortgage company executive.
There was more that the family didn't know:
Months before buying the lots, Sands and Robinson had already begun to negotiate their resale to the state.
And by the time the Santa Marias sold their underwater property, a state appraisal had already determined that it was worth $7.2 million.
''Somebody found an angle,'' Flood said. ``Somebody saw an angle that we didn't see.''
State buys time for ridge of rare species
Much of Lake Wales Ridge has fallen to developers. Florida tries to save the rest.
Kelly GriffithSentinel Staff Writer
March 11, 2007
LAKE WALES RIDGE -- It might not look like much, but there's nowhere else on Earth like it.
The sandy strip of land jutting at most about 300 feet above sea level and running 150 miles down the middle of the state was once the only bit of dry ground poking up through a shallow prehistoric ocean. What grew there 2 million or 3 million years ago -- and still grows today -- wasn't pretty: a sparse, sandy habitat covered with underbrush.
Scrub: Even the name sounds ugly, preservationists admit. But for dozens of species, it's food, shelter -- and survival.
Indeed, the scrubby Lake Wales Ridge, extending from Lake County south to Highlands County, is home to one of the highest concentrations of threatened and endangered species in the world -- 33 plant and 36 wildlife species are listed -- and is the only habitat just like it on the planet.
But over the years, more than 85 percent of it has been plowed under for citrus groves and paved over for housing developments. Now, in an effort to protect what's left, the state has added 11,000 acres in south Polk County to its list of lands targeted for conservation, called Florida Forever.
"We are really pleased," said Jeff Spence, director of Environmental Affairs for Polk County.
Saving the 11,000 acres near Lake Wales, he said, would prevent further degradation of parts bordering U.S. Highway 27 and two miles of lake frontage on Crooked Lake, a state-designated "outstanding" water body. The area includes what has been termed "one of the best remaining unprotected" scrub habitats, and 13 other natural communities, including cypress swamps, flatwoods, sandhill, freshwater marshes and seepage slopes, which are bogs where diverse plant life thrives.
The property is owned by several hundred landowners, but the largest parcel of about 4,000 acres has an asking price of $8,000 per acre.
That's more than 37 percent higher than the $5,820-per-acre price paid about six years ago when Polk County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District split the cost of buying 1,267 acres on Lakeland's Lake Hancock. They are now in the process of building an observation deck into Lake Hancock and expect to start on an Environmental Education Center soon.
Putting the Crooked Lake West property on the Florida Forever list is only the first step. Next is putting together purchasing partnerships that may include county, state, federal and private groups. For instance, The Nature Conservancy, a private, nonprofit organization, recently took the lead in adding more than 3,100 acres near Avon Park, and 5,529 acres in Osceola County, to the Florida Forever list.
Once deals are reached between purchasing partners and landowners, the governor and Cabinet must still sign off.
"Now, the next step is negotiating," said Yasmin Wallas, Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman. She said the state could try to buy conservation easements, a less-expensive method of saving land that pays landowners for giving perpetual conservation rights to the state while retaining the right to use the land in its current condition.
In June 2005, the state spent $1.2 million, or about $1,380 per acre, for a conservation easement on 870 acres of the Lake Wales Ridge that borders the Avon Park Air Force Range.
However the ridge land is saved, conservationists say it's time.
"The habitat and the birds are in trouble, and the more it can be protected before it gets converted into who knows what, the better," said David Pashley, vice president for conservation programs for the Virginia-based American Bird Conservancy, which listed the ridge as the nation's ninth-most-threatened bird habitat in a study last month.
Pashley admits that scrub habitat doesn't evoke enthusiasm like land with beautiful vistas and pretty flowers.
"Scrub habitat has a bad rap. Even saying it -- scrub -- is even degrading," he said. "But if you want to see a Florida scrub-jay, there's nowhere else in the world to do that."
Besides the endangered scrub-jay, a small blue bird that lives in families and only in scrub, the land provides habitat for the also-endangered red-cockaded woodpecker; the swallow-tailed kite; endangered reptiles such as the eastern indigo snake and gopher tortoise; plus sand skinks, whooping cranes and unique plants such as scrub morning glory, scrub blazing star and showy dawnflower.
There's another benefit to preservation, Pashley said: an increase in eco-tourists, who come to see endangered birds.
"I don't know if anyone has done a study [on Florida bird-watching economics], but when someone comes to Florida for bird-watching, they buy a plane ticket, rent a car, stay in a hotel room, eat in restaurants," he said.
Nationally, studies suggest he's right. Bird-watching and wildlife viewing by an estimated 66 million people helps fuel a $43 billion business in the United States, generating 466,000 jobs and resulting in trip-related expenses of $8.5 billion, according to a 2006 study by the Outdoor Industry Foundation.
And, hoping to draw those tourists, the state has designated 38 miles of State Road 17 as Ridge Scenic Highway for its views, rolling hills and acres of citrus. The segment runs from Haines City to Frostproof.
Kelly Griffith can be reached at kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-5908.
Crooked Lake has 'Forever' in its future
As part of the Lake Wales Ridge, the area along U.S. 27 is targeted for preservation.
Kelly GriffithSentinel Staff Writer
March 11, 2007
Heavily traveled U.S. Highway 27 might not seem like a nature preserve, but officials say the thoroughfare's slice through south Polk County is one of the reasons to save 11,000 acres on both sides of the road near Crooked Lake.
The highway, after all, pulls in the people -- and developers.
The acreage, which has more than 100 owners, recently was added to the Florida Forever list of land-buying priorities, targeted as one of the top conservation areas officials hope to preserve. It is mostly west of U.S. 27, south of Highland Park, sandwiched between Lake Buffum and Crooked Lake, which would have two miles of shoreline preserved under the plan.
U.S. 27, hardly a pristine wilderness area, isn't insignificant in the picture, officials say.
"Since the project is located along U.S. 27, it falls into an area that is starting to see an increase in development," said Gaye Sharpe, natural areas manager in the county's Natural Resources Division.
"On the Lake Wales Ridge, scrub and sandhill soils are well-drained and very suitable for conversion to houses, and in the past there was conversion from the native habitat to citrus, pasture or development such as homes."
Stopping development on the ridge, which stretches 150 miles down the middle of the state from Lake to Highlands County, is vital to dozens of endangered species that make homes there, conservationists say.
While buying the land is still a long way from reality with deals still needed to be brokered, the area has the attention of national officials as well as local and state authorities. The national spotlight could mean a lot in terms of getting the area noticed by birdwatchers and other outdoor enthusiasts near and far, experts say.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service targeted 12 sites, including the Crooked Lake land, for its planned 19,630-acre Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, which would be its first refuge set aside for the preservation of plants.
Thirty-one rare plants can be found within the project's boundaries, 22 of them federally listed as endangered or threatened, according to the agency.
"The Crooked Lake project is important from a conservation standpoint to protect portions of the Lake Wales Ridge, and it will allow for protection of several habitats including the scrub, which contains many rare and unique species," Sharpe said.
"Also within the project is a community known as cutthroat seeps, which sometimes develops next to scrub as the rainwater seeps from the scrub soils, and this community is also important to protect for conservation purposes."
Conservationists admit protecting the area isn't easy. Not only has development or agriculture already destroyed 80 percent of the original scrubland, but prices for land are continuing to climb, and managing the land itself requires continual maintenance, such as fire management to help preserve the scrub habitat.
"This is made difficult by the fragmented nature of the landscape, particularly the number of roads that crisscross the countryside," said a report by the Virginia-based American Bird Conservancy, which calls the ridge the ninth-most-threatened bird habitat in the nation.
The report added: "The worst types of change are conversion to agriculture, which tends to be at least partially reversible, and conversion to urban conditions, which tends to be permanent."
An osprey hawk perches atop a tree overlooking Crooked Lake within the Lake Wales Ridge area.
Kelly Griffith can be reached at kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-5908.
Residents: Rent hike a move to get them off Seabird Island
PORT ORANGE -- Residents who have fought to
stay in a waterfront mobile home park where dolphins and cormorants are common
sights now face a new battle: steep rent increases.
Seabird Island tenants, most of them 55 and older, received notice that
their space rents would essentially double June 1.
Tenants say this is the latest tactic to drive them out so the park's
owners can build condominiums on the 10-acre site that abuts the Halifax River
near the Dunlawton Avenue bridge.
This strategy could work, given that many residents are retirees on fixed
incomes who can't afford the hefty increases, said Laila Aen, 71, who has
lived at Seabird Island for 11 years.
"It has scared so many people here that are old," Aen said.
"They are just so afraid."
Retirees at many mobile home parks across the state face an uncertain
future as condo developers seek dwindling waterfront property. Seabird
residents own their mobile homes but rent a total of 104 spaces. They have
been in limbo since the late Robert Davis, the park's founder, showed interest
in converting the site into a condo complex.
Ginger Hodkoski and Linda Davis inherited the park after their father died
in August. They couldn't be reached for comment.
They brought in developer Gus Spreng last year to oversee Seabird Island.
In South Daytona, Spreng is evicting more than 100 people at the Blue Villa
mobile home park. The city there has agreed to buy the land from him for $2.4
million to use as a drainage site. Spreng also couldn't be reached for
comment.
Monthly rents for homes in Seabird's inner section will rise to $490 from
$285 in June. Tenants on the shoreline will see their rents jump to $650 from
$310 -- a 110 percent spike.
"Nobody gets a 110 percent increase in one year," Aen said.
"It's unheard of."
Seabird Island's owners are allowed to raise rents once a year by whatever
amount they want, said Mike Cochran, who oversees the state Division of Land
Sales, Condominiums and Mobile Homes.
However, the owners must give tenants 90 days' notice and justify the
increase, Cochran said.
Residents each received a letter Feb. 16 stating the rent increases set for
June were based on a survey of rents charged at other mobile home parks.
But Aen said she inquired about rents at a dozen parks in the area and
found the rates were in the $300 to $400 range. Although these aren't
waterfront parks, some offer amenities that Seabird lacks, such as swimming
pools, she said.
Richard Fahlbusch, a Seabird resident and activist, said the tenants will
challenge the rent increases. He sent a letter to Spreng and the park's owners
requesting that they meet with a neighborhood committee this week to discuss
the rent increases, but they declined, Fahlbusch said.
Spreng asked that they meet the week of March 26, Fahlbusch said.
The problem is that, by law, tenants who wish to challenge a rent increase
must meet with landlords no later than 30 days after receiving the notice, he
said. So if they wait until March 26, they'll miss the deadline.
Fahlbusch said he foresees the dispute heading to mediation before June.
The park's owners must be careful to act in good faith, Cochran said.
"If the owners don't cooperate, the state could investigate."
Last week, the owners talked with city officials about how they might build
condos on the island and keep with the city's codes and vision for the area,
said Donna Steinebach, assistant to the city manager. "It's all been kind
of 'what if, what if.' "
Whatever goes in there should enhance the area's economy and aesthetics,
Steinebach said, and should offer public access to the water.
Aen said the owners hired Spreng to push out tenants, whom they view as a
hindrance.
Spreng discourages people from buying mobile homes on the island, she said.
He has posted a warning sign saying the site would be rezoned and tenants
could be evicted.
And buyers must sign a statement agreeing to accept the minimum payment by
law -- $1,375 -- if they are kicked out.
"It's all scare tactics," Aen said.
As a native New Yorker, Aen said she has a fighting spirit and won't quit
quietly.
"They are going to have to pull me out of here," she said.
"This is my home. I'm going to stay here to the end."
Farms may face tighter water limits
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Growers in parts of the Treasure Coast are facing even tighter limits on irrigation as South Florida's drought deepens.
Water managers are scheduled to vote this week on imposing mandatory 30 percent cuts on water use by growers and communities that draw from Lake Okeechobee or the St. Lucie Canal.
That would double the 15 percent cutbacks they ordered in November for those areas, which include parts of Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties, as well as the Glades region south of the lake.
The board of the South Florida Water Management District also will consider declaring a water shortage for Martin and St. Lucie county growers who rely on the C-23, C-24 and C-25 canals.
And the board will vote on the first mandatory watering restrictions in nearly five years for millions of coastal residents from Palm Beach County to the Keys. They would be limited to three days a week for watering their lawns and landscaping, and violators would face warnings or fines.
All the votes are scheduled for Thursday at the district's headquarters in suburban West Palm Beach.
The cutbacks come as water levels continue to drop in the region's main reservoirs, the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee, amid a lingering dry season that followed an unusually hurricane-free summer.
The mandatory lawn-watering restrictions for the coast would be South Florida's first since the last drought ended, in 2002. But district spokesman Randy Smith noted that parts of Southwest Florida are under similar limits year-round. In any case, he said, three days a week of watering is more than most people's lawns need at this time of year.
"Having to cut back a little bit on the watering of our yards, no big deal," Smith said. "The sky's not falling by any means."
But Barbara Miedema, spokeswoman for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, said farmers are increasingly worried that the drought could stretch into a multiyear economic calamity.
By late April, she said, the lake might be unable to supply more than half the water that growers usually require at that time of year. And what if the coming rainy season, which officially starts June 1, is dry as well?
"It's kind of nerve-racking," Miedema said. "We could be in really bad shape next year, and it's next year's crop that could really be impacted."
Role in deal elicits surprise from foes, friends of Sansbury
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 11, 2007
John Sansbury is a wheeler-dealer. Friends and foes agree on that.
It was his particular brand of glibness that catapulted him, at age 26, to the top job in Palm Beach County government. The feat even caught the attention of The National Enquirer, which anointed him in a 1975 headline as "The Youngest County Administrator in the U.S."
His devilish personality endeared him to the county's power elite and his young, hard-partying staff. For his 10th anniversary in the job, county commissioners named a road after him. A year later, commissioners had enough of the fast-talking manager.
Then-Commissioner Ken Adams, who sealed Sansbury's fate, never doubted Sansbury's ability.
"Give John a telephone and an hour and he could get almost anything accomplished," he said in 1986, shortly before Sansbury left government to become a real estate entrepreneur.
Friends and foes voiced varying degrees of surprise as word spread last week that Sansbury, now 57, was implicated in the criminal case filed against former West Palm Beach City Commissioner Jim Exline. Sansbury, prosecutors allege, funneled a $50,000 payment to Exline in 2004 through a Clematis Street jewelry store for his help getting city approval for a subdivision.
Exline never told city staff he was getting paid, prosecutors said. He also failed to report the money on his 2004 tax return. And when he came clean with federal investigators in June, Exline agreed to wear an FBI wire to tape his conversations with Sansbury, according to a source familiar with the case.
Exline, who resigned from the commission in January, is expected to plead guilty to a tax-evasion count on March 19. Sansbury has not been charged. He declined comment for this story. "Talk to my lawyers," he said pleasantly when reached at home. Attorneys Douglas Duncan and David Roth, both specialists in criminal law, didn't return repeated phone calls.
His friends say Sansbury is too careful to intentionally break the law.
"John was a wheeler-dealer, and he never made a secret about that," said Dennis Koehler, a former county commissioner who has known him more than 30 years. "But he was always careful to avoid conflicts, and I always thought of John as a very ethical guy."
"John prides himself in being aboveboard, so I'm sure he's discouraged that his name is being bandied about," agreed Assistant County Administrator Vince Bonvento. Like Koehler, Bonvento has known Sansbury since they, along with County Commissioner Karen Marcus, were part of a group of Young Turks who ran county government as the "Kiddie Car Gang."
Like others, Bonvento said Sansbury has a wild streak. "He's a risk-taker," he said.
That mentality made him an innovative administrator at a time when the county was experiencing breakneck growth. It also got him in trouble with his bosses.
And, after he left county government, he became a poster child for those who believed top county employees used the inside information and contacts they gleaned while working for the public to cut lucrative deals once they went into business.
"Every single person who ever left county government has maximized every relationship they ever had," said Andre Fladell, a south county political broker.
And Sansbury, many said, did it better than most.
Exline votes furthered interests
While a city commissioner, Exline hung his shingle as a real estate agent at Sansbury's brokerage. During that time, Exline voted on annexation and other issues that helped increase the value of Sansbury's land. Two days before making the $50,000 payment in 2004, Sansbury also gave Exline the entire $36,400 commission from property on Evernia Street they brokered.
Sansbury didn't always have that kind of money to throw around.
He grew up on the hardscrabble dirt roads of Westgate, a still impoverished neighborhood north of Palm Beach International Airport. His father died when he was young, leaving his mother to raise three kids. Most of his friends didn't graduate from high school, but all three Sansbury kids graduated from college.
Sansbury never forgot his humble beginnings, friends say. The memory drove him to succeed. He recently served on the Westgate Community Redevelopment Agency, which is rebuilding the community.
The relationships he built served him well. When he left county government, he immediately teamed up with other former county employees. Many, like Sansbury, became potent forces in land development.
Some have been targets of criminal probes.
Richard Ellington, who grew up with Sansbury and was county attorney when Sansbury was county administrator, served four months in prison in 2004 after being convicted for his role in a corruption scandal at the county's Housing Finance Authority. At the time, Sansbury was also a county commission appointee to the authority's board.
Former West Palm Beach City Commissioner Ray Liberti, a former county planning and zoning director, is serving 18 months in federal prison for taking $66,000 in payoffs and a fancy watch during an FBI sting.
Lawyer William Boose III, a former county planning director, is under investigation for allegedly helping then-County Commissioner Tony Masilotti conceal his profit from a government land deal.
Boose was Sansbury's first business partner when he left the county administrator job - and it immediately raised eyebrows. As county administrator, Sansbury had recommended the commission buy downtown land that Boose partially owned for a courthouse. The county appraised the site for $974,000, but he estimated it would cost the county $1.3 million to $1.6 million. A consultant later recommended a different site.
Like Boose, Sansbury fell on hard times during the real estate collapse of the early 1990s. His ex-wife in 1993 took him to court for being $13,600 behind in child support payments. The IRS slapped him with two liens - one for $15,000 and another for $29,000 - for taxes that ultimately were repaid.
Headline-grabbing deals
Through it all, Sansbury kept on making deals as a developer, through his membership on countless private and public boards and as a member of the Port of Palm Beach Commission.
"His range was deep - from agriculture to the economic council," Fladell said.
Many of his deals snared headlines.
In 1991, the Florida Ethics Commission reprimanded him for steering a $3,000 port catering job to the Crazy Horse Tavern, which he partially owned. The now-defunct bar off Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard was the unofficial headquarters of the Kiddie Car Gang.
He again came under scrutiny in 1995 when he was trying to develop a maritime museum on Peanut Island with businessman John Grant. As a port commissioner, he persuaded fellow commissioners to give the museum a long-term $100 annual lease. He convinced West Palm Beach to give the museum land in Curry Park for $10 a year.
A $400,000 county grant to convert a waterfront building into a school became controversial when a county economic development board asked for an investigation. The board was upset Sansbury hadn't mentioned that his company managed the building. The county attorney found Sansbury hadn't violated ethics laws.
After snaring $1.4 million in state and county grants and 7 acres of public land, he and Grant had a falling out. Sansbury quit the museum board and was replaced by Liberti.
Ultimately, his dual roles proved too much. After serving on the port commission from 1988 to 1992, he was defeated by lawyer George Mastics, who claimed Sansbury's multiple conflicts of interests had rendered him ineffective. By then, Sansbury had to abstain from voting on anything involving the Catalfumo Cos., which leases port property, because he represented the development giant in real estate deals.
In typical fashion, Sansbury took it in stride.
"I have political baggage - some deserved, some not - but I'm not ashamed of anything I've done and I'm not bitter," he said. To prove it, he again sought election in 2000. He was soundly defeated.
No longer on Westgate board
He stepped down from his three-year post on the Westgate CRA in August because he didn't want to be again accused of having conflicts of interest. Sansbury owns property in the redevelopment area and didn't want to become fodder for yet another probe, said Koehler, who serves on the board.
For the past several months, Sansbury hasn't gone out much. On Sept. 25, while in Orlando for a Republican fund-raiser featuring President Bush and then-gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Crist, he lost sight in his right eye.
Forced to undergo at least five operations for a detached retina, he is confined to a special chair, ordered to keep his head down, sleep on his face and stay out of the sunlight in hope the retina will reattach. He also experienced problems with his left eye.
Koehler said his former drinking buddy didn't seem depressed when he talked to him several weeks ago. "John's a pretty upbeat guy," he said.
For years, Sansbury has worn the gold diamond ring he got when he stepped down as county administrator. The ring, featuring the county's insignia, was to be a gift from the county until the government's financial watchdog balked. To end the controversy, he paid for the ring with $344 county employees had given him as a going-away present.
Over the years, Sansbury has made it clear that he can weather any storm. And, he has made it equally clear, he's not going anywhere.
"I was born, raised and will pass away in Palm Beach County. I have no desire to ever leave this county."
Vote on water restrictions coming
By Robert P. King
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Water managers have had enough of asking people politely to reduce their lawn-sprinkling.
This week, they'll vote on making it mandatory.
The restrictions would give residents from Palm Beach County to the Keys only three days a week to water their lawns and landscaping. Violators would face warnings or fines.
The board of the South Florida Water Management District also is scheduled to vote on tightening the mandatory irrigation restrictions already in place for growers in the Glades and parts of Martin, St. Lucie, Lee and Okeechobee counties.
The actions are set for Thursday at the district's headquarters in suburban West Palm Beach.
The cutbacks come as water levels continue to drop in the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee, the region's main reservoirs, amid a lingering dry season that followed an unusually hurricane-free summer.
The mandatory restrictions for the coast would be South Florida's first since the last drought ended, in 2002. But district spokesman Randy Smith noted that parts of Southwest Florida are under similar limits year-round.
In any case, he said, three days a week of watering is more than most people's lawns need at this time of year.
"Having to cut back a little bit on the watering of our yards, no big deal," Smith said. "The sky's not falling by any means."
But Barbara Miedema, spokeswoman for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, said farmers are increasingly worried that the drought could stretch into a multi-year economic calamity.
By late April, she said, the lake might be unable to supply more than half the water that growers usually require at that time of year. And what if the coming rainy season is dry as well?
"It's kind of nerve-racking," Miedema said. "We could be in really bad shape next year, and it's next year's crop that could really be impacted."
In November, the district imposed mandatory 15 percent cuts for growers and cities that draw directly from the lake, the St. Lucie Canal and the Caloosahatchee River. The new restrictions for those bodies would increase the cuts to 30 percent.
Until now, the district has merely been urging conservation by the 4 million residents in coastal Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, but the three-day-a-week watering limits would be mandatory. The cities and counties would enforce them, most likely with the assistance of residents complaining about their scofflaw neighbors.
In the last drought, the violators included Donald Trump, who faced a $9,500 fine for excessive watering at his golf course near West Palm Beach.
Watering would be banned altogether from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on all days, Smith said. Most communities already prohibit sprinkling during those hours, when most of the water evaporates instead of helping the plants.
Lake, restored marshes will spare waterfowl on river basin
After a decade of delay, federal officials finally expect to have enough cash on hand to wrap up a $250 million restoration of the St. Johns River's headwater marshes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to move ahead this year with an up to $15 million project to create a new canal, levees and the long-awaited Lake Lawton recreation area by 2009. It culminates a 20-year restoration of the river's upper basin to its pre-farm glory. And after hunters dogged the corps, the federal agency pledged to spare any ducks along the project's fringes.
"This is the last major component to complete that project," said Pete Milam, a manager at the corps. "So it's a fairly important milestone that we're reaching with the construction of Three Forks."
Corps officials promise the Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area will absorb hurricane flooding in Palm Bay, cleanse drinking water for Melbourne, Cocoa and several other cities, keep farm fertilizers from Indian River Lagoon, and foster big bass - big time.
The last installment to the upper basin project scores a major victory for local duck hunters. They had mixed feelings at first, because the corps planned to create Lake Lawton by temporarily draining a nearby marsh known as Mary A. Hunters worried that would destroy the marsh that packed enough quacks this season to fill a bag limit within hours. They've watched other areas left drained too long clog with willows and cattails, forcing ducks out.
"We never wanted to stop the project. We just wanted to make sure as much of that pristine marsh was preserved as possible," said Jeff Kraynik, a hunting guide from Palm Bay.
Eventually, the watchdogs won. Corps officials notified the St. Johns River Water Management District recently that the marsh could be saved. The federal agency had previously said it might need to be drained to access the larger 21-square mile restoration area with heavy equipment.
The project includes filling the long-awaited Lake Lawton, a 7,000-acre lake park, delayed for a decade because of funding shortages and increase to its scope.
The corps plans to award a contract for the work in May. Construction is expected to take about 18 months. Workers will replace old farm levees and build channels to carry water to the 13,737-acre Three Forks Marsh, where Lake Lawton will be flooded. Workers will build several new levees and a new 4-mile canal about 15 feet deep and 100 feet wide at Mary A's western edge.
The corps had planned to finish Three Forks and Lawton by 1998. Dignitaries gathered there that year under a pavilion to honor Thomas Lawton, naming the site after him. The Indialantic man had helped raise awareness about drainage activities destroying the St. Johns.
Corps officials had to redesign the project and further study environmental impacts, however, as more farmland became available to expand the restoration. Then, federal funding shortages because of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as hurricane disaster response, led to further delays.
Meanwhile, the 2004 hurricanes swept out willows and cattails from Mary A marsh, opening up ideal duck habitat. This was the first season waterfowl had returned en mass, hunters said.
Ken Meehan, a bird hunter from Melbourne, distrusts officials' promises to go easy on Mary A. He's heard similar pledges before about other areas of the upper basin, which ultimately overgrew with willows and cattails when projects stalled.
"They keep draining everything. I don't know where all the birds went," Meehan said.
This day along the upper basin, he sped his airboat toward a phalanx of black coots and other ducks in Mary A marsh. Their webbed feet pattered across the water's glassy, coffee-brown surface as the fowl flapped their wings in frenzied unison.
The marsh has bristled with rebirth since hurricanes cleared its overgrowth. Airboaters must duck to avoid ducks they spook into takeoff.
But the benefits of restoring the marsh go far beyond the ecological cornucopia officials say it creates for wildlife. The marshes act as kidneys that store and cleanse water supplies for Melbourne, Cocoa and other cities along the 310-mile St. Johns, which spills out in Jacksonville.
Farmers irrigated the river's 2,000-square-mile upper basin in the 1930s and 1940s, channeling much of it into the Indian River Lagoon. That freshwater influx dilutes the lagoon's salt content, though, killing seagrass and triggering excess algae and more frequent fish kills. So in 1988, the district began building levees and plugging canals to mimic the river's pre-farm flow and steer the fresh water west.
But all the corps' dredges and $250 million couldn't put the pristine marsh Jack Horschel remembers back together again. The 83-year-old hunted a seemingly limitless supply of birds and frogs before man started fiddling with the upper basin.
"The water in the marsh used to be as clear as Silver Springs," Horschel said, standing on the levee at the edge of Three Forks Conservation Area. "It ain't so now. It's a black-tea water. Hell, they just sterilized it."
He has hope, though, he'll soon see something wilder and more conducive to ducks.
"I think they're going in the right direction," Horschel said. "We're sorry we let it happen, to go this far before we did anything about it."
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Information from: Florida Today, http://www.floridatoday.com
County to consider trash options
Ideas include dumping Pasco's excess garbage in other counties and creating a local landfill.
By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published March 11, 2007
DADE CITY - When Carl Roth gets up to speak at the County Commission podium on Tuesday, he will lay out, among other things, what he calls a business-driven argument against a proposed garbage pit in east Pasco.
"We're business people. We're not just whining that we don't want this in our back yard," said Roth, a retired executive with IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. "We're looking at this in a dollars-and-sense way."
Saying he did not want to give his opponents a "five-day head start," Roth declined Friday to elaborate on his specific case against the proposal by Angelo's Aggregate Materials for the first privately held dump in Pasco to accept raw household garbage and other trash, also called a Class 1 landfill.
But Roth may not need to elaborate.
Pasco is already poised to secure alternative solutions to its trash problem.
Commissioner Ted Schrader said he considered the Angelo's proposal a "non-issue" now, since the commission moved two weeks ago to start negotiations with another county to use its landfill.
County Administrator John Gallagher is now working to get a good price with Osceola County to buy space for up to 15 years' worth of Pasco's rubbish.
The county is also exploring contracts at underused landfills in Polk County, Schrader said.
"The need for a solid waste disposal site in east Pasco is obviously diminished," he said. "I suspect once we see what kind of relationship we have with Osceola, we could go much longer with them. ... If we can do that, that's going to extend the life of the Shady Hills facility."
Pasco's incinerator on 700 acres in Shady Hills currently can't burn trash fast enough. The search for a place to dump the county's roughly 150 tons - and growing - of excess trash a day led to the Angelo's proposal.
But the Angelo's proposal, currently under review at the state Department of Environmental Protection, also ignited a firestorm of opposition among residents.
This is where Roth and others like Cynthia Baker emerged as the leaders of an outcry from citizens that Roth suggested could number in the thousands.
The landfill company and east Pasco landowners linked to the proposed deal have sought to allay neighborhood concerns.
Angelo's planned to have a tent at today's Mercedes-Benz-sponsored Steeplechase at the Little Everglades Ranch, inviting residents to join company officials.
On March 27, Charles Waller, a Dade City lawyer who has joined Angelo's in the deal, plans to reach out to his neighborhood with a landfill project team on hand.
"I just wanted to invite neighbors and explain what's going on," he said.
John Arnold, the Angelo's engineer in charge of the project, said his company's proposal is initially for 92 acres, but both he and Waller said the property they're submitting for the county's land-use approval is more than 1,000 acres.
He said Roth's appearance at the commission is premature, given that Angelo's hasn't even reached a formal hearing for its proposal.
The dump's potential size alarms residents. They think the plan is to truck in waste from outside Pasco - perhaps even from outside the state - even though Angelo's has volunteered to the county that it would take only in-county trash.
That's not good enough for Schrader.
"What happens if they were to sell the facility to (another) company?" he said Friday. "Because of antitrust laws, we can't ban the new company from bringing in trash from other parts of the country. The company could challenge the conditions, and we could lose in court. Now we've opened ourselves up to bringing in solid waste from up and down the eastern seaboard."
Still, the Osceola deal isn't a silver bullet: What if Gallagher returns from Osceola with an unacceptable price?
"Let's hope that doesn't happen," Schrader said with a laugh.
Angelo's needs a conditional land-use amendment to properly designate the 1,000-acre property for the landfill it seeks.
Schrader, Arnold and commission Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand all said Pasco has to think through a long-term solution for its trash problem, regardless of the Osceola or Angelo's options.
"We need to plan for the future," Hildebrand said. "We need to look at recycling programs, the cost to add (an incinerator) burner, and (whether) we continue to contract outside of the county."
Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at (813) 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.