Audio | Interview with Broward County Beach Erosion Administrator
This is a tale of two meetings.
Meeting No. 1 was Friday at Leesburg City Hall, and it was to talk about
two big developments south of town and how they might mesh.
The developments, Secret Promise and Renaissance Trails, are to bring
nearly 14,000 homes to the area near the intersection of County Road 470
and Florida's Turnpike. At the moment, it's Beulah Land for bovines and
dump for "biosolids" -- sludge from human waste. But give it a
couple years. The paperwork approving it all will be done by the time
the current housing slump is over and the next boom starts.
What wasn't emphasized at the meeting is that The Villages is creeping
down from the south, and the city of Wildwood is barging in from Sumter
County to the west. By the time this is done, Wildwood will crowd
against Leesburg. Who'd have thunk it?
So, if you erase all the political borders, it's easy to see that some
50,000 homes, which would bring more than 100,000 new residents, are
either on the books of various governments or trying to get there.
Crikey! A whole new city -- far bigger than its creators -- centered
around a turnpike interchange.
Naturally, I figured that the topic of this meeting would center on the
effects of pouring so many people into Lake County. What will that do to
schools? Will the roads in that rural area be overwhelmed? How will the
developments affect the current residents of Leesburg? Will this new
clump of humans want to create a municipality? Is this a logical place
for a new city? How would it benefit those of us who live here now? And
how much more development will it prompt around it?
Instead, the discussion was a perfect illustration of how Lake County
and Florida got into the situation they face now.
Nobody talked about those bigger-picture questions. Instead, the focus
was on details. How far should houses be kept from the nests of nearly
extinct whooping cranes that populate the property? Do we count front
lawns as "foraging area" for them? (This is laughable, but
it's another column.)
The discussion displayed the check-box mentality that has fueled the
boom-and-bust syndrome that has always been part of the Florida
landscape. It is the same obtuse approach that keeps the United States
from being able to find terrorists. We don't scrutinize people and ask
hard questions at airports. Instead, we run down a mindless checklist
while looking for weapons. The same school of thought that results in
80-year-old ladies removing their shoes in airports is about to give
Lake County a new city.
We fail to make a thoughtful examination of the impact of the whole. We
fail to take the responsibility to think. Instead, we look at things
piece by piece, which relieves us of the obligation of evaluating the
impact.
Cranes? Check.
Wetland buffers? Check.
Cheap houses for workers? Double-check.
Good to go.
Leesburg city commissioners have not talked in any serious depth about
the consequences of their approvals and how the people who live here now
and voted them into office might be helped -- or harmed. Not to mention
how the rest of the county would be affected. They're like teenage girls
who wind up pregnant -- no thought to the future or to who will have to
feed, clothe and educate the kid as it grows up.
Which brings me to Meeting No. 2. It's today from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at
Minneola City Hall on U.S. Highway 27.
This is the one where the St. Johns River Water Management staffers will
be trying to get you used to the idea that sooner than you think, you'll
be drinking river water from a 24-inch pipe that could stretch from
Silver Run in Marion County about 70 miles south to Clermont. (Count on
Marion County freaking out.)
They're going to portray this as a really nifty idea, and from their
perspective, it is. They see their job as finding water for everyone who
wants to come here. They know that not much more water can be pumped
from the Floridan Aquifer without drawing salt and brine, so they're
looking for another source. Frankly, there aren't any -- drink surface
water or desalinate sea water. That's about it.
So it's time to talk about the pipeline -- the one that has to be built
so growth can continue. The one that will send your taxes soaring. The
one that has to come from more pure waters in Marion County because
there's no safe or effective way to remove toxic algae from the gunky
waters of the Lake Harris chain, let alone Lake Apopka.
There's nothing else to be done.
. . . Or is there?
No, no, no! Don't say it!
Massive overcrowding of schools didn't slow growth. Jammed roads didn't
even come close. Disappearing wildlife habitat -- hah! That's a
who-cares.
But water. Might the elixir of life be the nexus that finally brings
Lake County -- and Florida -- to question out-of-control growth?
Or will we let clueless cities such as Leesburg keep birthing population
centers until we're drinking something that's a short step removed from
sludge?
Lauren Ritchie can be reached at 352-742-5918 or lritchie@orlandosentinel.com.
Despite
hurdles,
Manatee
and
By
VICTOR HULL
victor.hull@heraldtribune.com
A sharp real estate downturn, spiraling homeowner insurance rates and
rising property taxes couldn't stop
The
Among those fastest growing areas were
Neighboring
Charlotte grew by fewer than 100 people, or just .1 percent last year,
the same rate as the year after Charley -- a pace more comparable to
Florida's rural inland areas and far off the mark in preceding years.
Growth in the Panhandle, slammed by Hurricane Ivan a month after
Charley in 2004, has also dropped.
But those areas were the exception.
In the six years since the 2000 census, Manatee has added nearly
50,000 people, the 84th largest increase among counties nationwide
over that span.
Combined, the two counties have grown more than 18 states did over the
last six years.
"Fundamentally, in terms of climate -- even with the hurricanes,
insurance rates -- (
The state's growth from roughly 17.8 million to 18 million was slower
than the 2.3 percent increase the previous year. But Snaith
said
"It was pretty above average for a couple of years," he
said. "The analogy I make is, you
can't run four-minute miles for every mile in a marathon. You might
sprint for awhile."
The counties posting the biggest gains in
The Census Bureau estimates the population as of July 1, 2006, using
Internal Revenue Service data, as well as birth and death statistics.
In comparison,
Charlotte County Economic Development Director Betty Williams said she
believes the census estimates are on target. While there has been a
substantial amount of commercial and residential construction since
Hurricane Charley, most of it has been rebuilding, rather than
accommodating new growth.
"A lot of buildings were wiped off the face of the map,"
Williams said. "Some businesses are just getting back into their
buildings."
Escambia and
The
And the next census estimates may show a deeper impact on growth from
the real estate slowdown, which began in 2005, and the rise in
insurance and property taxes.
"There could be lag," Snaith
said. "But I don't see it as something that's going to reverse
the trend. I think, for the state as a whole, whatever impacts there
are have been overwhelmingly factored in."
Polk
Opts Out of Transit Authority
By Tom
Palmer
The Ledger
BARTOW —
Commissioners were interested last month in joining the authority,
saying they wanted to be part of a regional transit agency made up of
counties in the
But they said Wednesday they changed their minds after learning more
about the bill, now before the Legislature, that creates the
authority. It involves a wide range of potential transportation
projects, from new toll roads to ferries, and commissioners said it
could commit Polk to spend tax funds on projects that wouldn't benefit
the county.
'It's been my experience if it's in the bill, it's going to happen,''
Commissioner Jack Myers said. '(The language is) in there for a
reason.''
A month ago commissioners had joined other local elected officials
sitting on the Transportation Planning Organization to support Polk's
membership in the authority.
But that was before they had seen the language in the proposed 38-page
bill, said County Manager Mike Herr, who now terms Polk's support for
inclusion a 'misunderstanding.''
However, local advocates for a regional transportation authority said
a regional approach to problems will be necessary in the future.
State Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, said he will respect the commissioners'
decision, but he hopes they will keep their options open for the
future. And he said he will work with the House sponsor of the bill to
make sure Polk has the option to join the authority later.
'My concern about not having Polk County as a part of the Tampa Bay
Transportation Authority is that we stand alone, and if you stand
alone, I think, self-sufficiency breeds inefficiency,' Ross said.
'We would have a lot more efficiency if we are with
Gow Fields, a
'Transportation and transit issues are regionwide
from
Tom Deardorff, the director of the
Transportation Planning Organization, said the decision to back out of
the regional group, now that county officials have learned more about
it, is consistent with the TPO's previous
vote.
The TPO had endorsed membership because of its interest in regional
transit, he said, adding that Polk will continue to work with regional
officials in the
The bill calls for a regional transportation plan to be written by
2009, which could be a problem for Polk, he said.
'We're at a disadvantage because we don't know which way it's going,''
he said.
Wayne Malaney, Polk's transportation
lobbyist, said
Deardorff said
It now seems light rail may come to
Commissioner Bob English wondered whether Polk's lack of participation
in the authority would hurt its chance for rail.
Myers said he didn't think it would, arguing the market will determine
when rail comes to
Myers said if Polk has its own transportation authority — a local
bill establishing one has been filed in the Legislature — it could
get its own money to extend rail.
And he said
'We're better off for now participating at the staff level,'' he said.
That suggestion satisfied English.
'I feel better knowing we can join,'' he said. 'We should strive to
have just one giant authority.''
Wednesday's discussion caps a week of controversy after word surfaced
that state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, had worked to keep
Malaney said
Commissioners came to the defense of Alexander, whose move to keep
Polk County out of the authority has been tied to his support for a
new toll road through areas owned by his family and other large
agribusiness concerns.
'Sen. Alexander has taken an unnecessary beating on this,'' Myers
said, and added that he also rejected the notion that the controversy
had anything to do with differences between the east and west sides of
the county.
He said Ross and Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, who backed the
authority bill, had simply been trying to push legislation they
thought
Ledger Political Editor Bill Rufty
contributed to this article. Tom Palmer can be reached at 863-802-7535
or tom.palmer@theledger.com.
Toll Leasing Plan Debated
By Lloyd
Dunkelberger
Ledger
They want to have the option of leasing toll roads and bridges to
private companies. It could be a lucrative move for both the state and
the industry. The state could use the lease money to build more roads,
while the private companies would reap profits from rising tolls on
the leased facilities.
As an indication of how much money is in play, House analysts
estimated the value of the Sunshine Skyway bridge
across
One industry official told a House committee earlier this year that
But critics say the plan — which has been used in other states —
is a dicey venture could lead to escalating tolls for motorists. The
bill would allow annual toll increases in a state where toll hikes
have been relatively rare on the state road system.
'We're accepting a balloon payment of money upfront but we're going to
tax our residents in terms of tolls,' said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West
Palm Beach. 'At some point, those tolls are going to get to be too
much.'
The proposal as it now stands wouldn't affect the
The leasing plan is part of a bill (HB 7033) that is moving rapidly
through the House. The measure could be up for a final floor vote
today. The Senate doesn't have a similar proposal and some senators
say they would oppose any immediate plans to lease existing toll
facilities to a private company, although they could support allowing
the companies to build new toll roads.
Nonetheless, House leaders say the bill is an innovative way to
respond in a state where gas tax revenues, the primary source of road
construction funds, are declining while the demand for new roads is
rising. A state Department of Transportation plan through 2025,
estimates at least a $53 billion construction shortfall in the major
highway system.
'We've got falling revenue and we have rising costs,' said House
Infrastructure Committee Chairman Mike Davis, R-Naples. 'We must have
more tools.'
In addition to allowing the leasing of existing toll facilities —
subject to legislative approval — the bill would also encourage
private companies to build more toll facilities in partnership with
the state.
Acknowledging there is some risk, House
leaders say they are taking steps to avoid problems that have occurred
in other states that have leased roads and bridges. Critics have
charged leasing deals in
'We've learned from their pain,' said Rep. Gary Aubuchon,
R-Cape Coral.
The bill would limit the leases to 50 years, although, under certain
circumstances, the agreements could be extended to 75 years or beyond.
Toll increases would be limited to annual boosts based on the Consumer
Price Index or similar measure.
The key to the leasing deals is the ability of the private industry to
raise tolls — something the state has been reluctant to do on its
existing road system. For instance, Aubuchon
said the state hasn't increased its toll on the
In testimony before the House Infrastructure Committee in January, an
executive with an international firm that specializes in toll leasing
deals explained the potential in
'You're sitting on a gold mine because you have a lot of toll
roads that are assets that have a
tremendous capability of generating value,' said Carlos Ugarte,
an executive with Cintra, a Spanish
company that was involved in
leasing deals in Chicago and Indiana
.
It all comes down to the company's ability to raise tolls — subject
to the limits of the contract — over the lifetime of the lease.
In the floor debate Wednesday, some Democrats questioned the ability
of companies to raise the tolls under the bill.
'How high is too high or are you just going to let them run away with
the tolls?' Bucher asked.
Bill
proposes more protected land
By Aaron Deslatte
The
bill would instruct state agencies and the South Florida Water
Management District to develop protection plans for reducing
pollution flowing from farms and fields through the lake and into the
Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie river estuaries.
It
designates a corridor of watershed snaking up the Kissimmee River from
Lake Okeechobee to
The
plan is designed to tie in to state and federal government's
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program, which was intended to
restore
Senate
President Ken Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican, said lawmakers were
committed to providing an extra $100 million in this year's budget
specifically for restoration projects on the lake and rivers.
The
cost of those projects could reach $2 billion over the next decade,
and the water management district would match the state's additional
$100 million this year.
The
bill would also prohibit landowners from disposing of sewage sludge
left over from wastewater treatment plants by spreading it over fields
in the new
''In
some places, that makes sense. But in places where you're paying a
couple billion dollars to get phosphorous out of the lake you don't
want to do it,'' said Audubon of Florida lobbyist Eric Draper, who
pushed the language.
Sen.
Burt Saunders, a Naples Republican carrying the bill, presented a
slide show on the Senate floor that featured the Caloosahatchee
estuary that's been damaged by slimy discharges when the lake waters
are too high.
''A
lot more of the river's going to be restored to its natural state,''
Saunders said.
Clean
Oceans Act facing tough opposition
By Paige St. John
A
It
cleared its first committee after hours of debate, signaling a tough
haul ahead.
''This
should be a no-brainer,''
In
past years, Allen's legislation sank because it attempted to require
day cruise ships to haul waste back to port and pay to have it pumped
out. Ship operators contend only the federal government - which allows
sewage dumping - has authority over what takes place in federal
waters.
The
bill in the past also ran aground because it specifically targeted
just one industry - gambling ships. There are 12 such gambling vessels
sailing from
This
year's legislation seeks to skirt such hazards by applying generally
to boats routinely carrying 100 or more passengers, for two hours or
more, in federal waters. It exempts large cruise ships, but for the
first time could include other large touring and fishing boats.
It
requires only that ships report what sewage they carry, and pay
marinas to treat or dispose of it, whether or not they actually pump
off the effluent.
''If
they want to continue to dump and pay the state of
They
won't, pledged former House Speaker Ralph Haben,
lobbying on behalf of the Florida Day Cruise Association.
''We
will not hook up,'' he told members of the House Environmental
Protection committee, giving the bill its first public airing.
A
fellow Brevard lawmaker also offered what Allen declared a hostile
amendment. Rep. Mitch Needelman,
R-Melbourne, sought to require that sewage from gambling ships be
prohibited from being accepted by wastewater treatment plants that discharge
into public water bodies.
In
particular, Needelman said, he has in mind
sewage plants that discharge into Indian River Lagoon.
''Why
add more waste? I've spent $60 million to clean that waterway up,'' Needelman
said. ''There's multiple other places to
take it to,'' he said, citing sewage plants that use spray fields
instead.
''I'm
not against the bill.''
Needelman
had the support of fellow Melbourne Republican Rep. Thad Altman, who
raised his own concerns, including the bill's failure to expressly
stop dumping. He voted in favor of it anyway.
Altman
said reports of how much partially treated sewage is dumped by
gambling boats are exaggerated. If the bill becomes law, he said, ''I
predict these discharge amounts will be dramatically lower.''
An
identical bill to HB 57 is working its way through the Senate. Sen.
Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, is co-sponsor of SB 444, along with Sen.
Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic.
Lobbyists
attack ban on drilling
By Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU CHIEF
Some
of the state's most powerful lobbyists pounced today on a legislative
proposal to enshrine an oil-drilling ban in the Florida Constitution.
''This
is just an academic exercise to make people feel good about this
issue,'' said Associated Industries of Florida President Barney
Bishop. ''This is a superfluous bill.''
Opponents
launched an attack in the House Energy Committee, even though the
measure (HJR 631) is largely symbolic and was not
even scheduled for a vote.
Sponsored
by Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, the bill asks voters to
approve a constitutional amendment next year, or possibly sooner, that
would ban drilling 250 miles off
However,
the measure also says ''to the fullest extent allowed by the laws of
the
Regardless,
Some
congressional proposals would allow drilling as close as 40 miles off
the
''Who
knows? In the next couple of weeks, it might be right here on shore,''
Despite
its lack of teeth, the proposal drew strong opposition from AIF, the
Florida Petroleum Council, and even CF Industries, the Bartow-based
phosphate-mining giant.
David
Mica, director of the Florida Petroleum Council, warned committee
members that
Within
seven years, Mica said, the 30 percent of electricity generated by
natural gas in
''We're
going to be heavily dependent on oil products. The growth is
tremendous,'' Mica said. ''We need to keep moving forward on
conservation and slowing down, but we also need to increase
Wade
Hopping, a lobbyist for the phosphate industry, warned that natural
gas is also crucial for
''Natural
gas is a raw material in the production of anhydrous ammonia, which is
the base material for fertilizer,'' Hopping said. ''When natural gas
is unavailable or costly, the price of fertilizer goes up.''
Freshman
Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, agreed.
''Our
state is very reliant on agriculture,'' he said, calling the proposal
''detrimental and unacceptable.''
But
Branbenburg said the state should focus on
conservation and energy alternatives, and the opponents shouldn't be
concerned about giving voters a chance to express their will.
Any
drilling accident would wipe out
''The
voters of
Traffic
could tie up Callery-Judge homes
By
Mitra
Malek
Thursday,
March 22, 2007
Three
municipalities want to set the record straight on something that will
affect quality of life for tens of thousands of people in central
The
issue at hand is Callery-Judge Grove, a
3,900-acre citrus grove that's six weeks away from learning whether it
can turn its fields into a 10,000-home community with all the bells
and whistles of a mid-sized town.
The
municipalities' struggle has come down to a he-said, she-said of
sorts, but it's rooted in a larger concern that centers on potential
traffic problems, say officials from Royal Palm Beach, West Palm Beach
and Palm Beach Gardens.
The
three say that when the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council last
March blessed Callery-Judge's proposal, it
recommended approval of just the project's first phase, the only
portion of the project where the council had fully analyzed the
traffic impact.
But
the regional planning council says it recommended approval of the
whole project - subject to conditions. One of those conditions was
that Callery-Judge cannot build anything
beyond the project's first phase unless a regional traffic study shows
the roads can handle more vehicles and modifications are in place if
road improvements are needed.
"It's
certainly clear that there was some confusion, or else all people
would know exactly what happened," Royal Palm Beach attorney Trela
White said.
Indeed,
several regional planning council board members asked for
clarification before they voted last March.
The
regional planning council is an advisory board of local officials that
makes recommendations on large projects in four counties.
The
municipal officials said too many unknowns remain for the project's
final two phases.
"If
you've only analyzed phase one, how could you approve the entire
project?" White asked.
"There's
no data to support a land-use change for anything more than phase
one," Royal Palm Beach Engineer Ray Liggins
said.
The
council plans to discuss and clarify its vote at its April meeting.
Regional planning council director Michael Busha
could not be reached for comment.
"We
want to ensure that all of the impacts of the project have been
evaluated," said Talal Benothman,
Callery-Judge
General Manager Nat Roberts said the regional planning council had
access to several traffic studies. A single methodology was never
agreed upon, though, so the regional planning council completed its
own study.
If
commissioners shoot down his proposal, which has been years in the
making, Roberts said that he instead will opt to build just 2,999
homes without the commercial component or other amenities.
County
questions traffic in Briny
Thursday,
March 22, 2007
According
to the consultant's report, Briny Breezes' 5,573 "external daily
trips" - people leaving the park and entering A1A - would more
than double, by 6,070 trips, by the time the 43-acre site is developed
in 2015.The study was done by Kimley-Horn
and Associates in West Palm Beach for Boca Raton-based Ocean Land
Development, which bought the park for $510 million and is set to
close in 2009.
The
county sent a note Friday to Kimley-Horn
and incoming Briny Breezes Mayor Roger Bennett. The municipal
government, which is separate from the resident-owned corporation that
runs the park, underwent a major turnover in this month's elections;
the first meeting of the new board is this afternoon.
The
study, in calculating the increase in traffic, proffered that people
now come into the town from outside. The county's traffic division
wants evidence of that, Director Dan Weisberg said.
"We
were under the assumption that it may only be town residents using
that facility," he said Wednesday.
Also,
in its calculations for traffic related to the proposed time share,
the consultant used as a model a time share at Walt Disney Resorts;
the county wants Kimley-Horn to show
whether that's an appropriate comparison.
And
the consultant's report said 6 percent of the traffic leaving Briny
Breezes continues north on A1A past the
The
county also said it anticipates more traffic heading over the
Ocean
Land Vice President H. Logan Pierson said Wednesday he hadn't seen the
letter from the county. But, he said, "Comments back and forth
are standard. This is not necessarily differences of opinion. It may
just be clarification."
•
Palm
Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, whose district includes Briny
Breezes, has an updated link on her Web page. It has basic facts about
Briny, information about the proposed development, images of the sale
documents and traffic study reports and listings of upcoming meetings
related to the deal. To see the link, go to www.pbcgov.com,
click "county commissioners," click McCarty, then click
"Briny Breezes update" on upper left. Or click www.pbcgov.com/countycommissioners/district4/brinybreezes/BrinyBreezes.htm.
Fees
would add $1,263 per home. A hearing is scheduled for April 25.
By
PATRICK WHITTLE
patrick.whittle@heraldtribune.com
A week after adding more than $7,000 to the cost of building a
2,000-square-foot home here,
A hearing on the proposed fee increases is set for April 25.
The increases would come in the form of three new impact fees designed
to help pay for law enforcement, justice and government facilities.
The new fees would total $1,263 for a single-family home.
The county might also tweak its fees for fire and emergency medical
services. Those fees currently total $301 for a single-family home and
could rise to $322.
Impact fees are one-time taxes charged to help pay for growth.
County leaders say
"It's because of shortcomings in funds. These are general fees
that benefit everyone," said senior county planner Gene Engman.
Builders have opposed the impact fees and are expected to speak at the
April 25 hearings.
But local builders and developers failed last week to persuade the
county to back off the $7,000 impact fee increase.
That increase, which applied to the county's roads, parks and library
impact fees, will be phased in over the next 15 months.
By June 2008, the county's impact fees -- which now total $10,637 for
a 2,000-square-foot home -- could approach $20,000.
Manatee
delays approval of affordable housing
By
FRANK GLUCK
frank.gluck@heraldtribune.com
A by-product of that temporary freeze has been a virtual shutdown on
the approval and construction of more affordable housing, long a
priority for local politicians and would-be homeowners priced out of
the market.
An incentive program to get developers building more affordable homes
has, in some ways, been a great success here.
Proposals for moderately priced homes have jumped tenfold in the 17
months since the program was created. Developers were quick to go
after such enticements as a "fast-track" county review and
impact fee credits. Since the program took effect in October 2005,
developers have submitted plans for more than 1,800 homes that meet
the county's affordable housing or work force housing criteria.
Yet just 13 of those homes have been built, and about 1,300 of them
still await approval, county records show.
The slump in the housing market has played a role. But county
officials and developers say that infrastructure concerns are
primarily to blame.
Including an affordable housing component in a development prompts
county staff to review projects quickly. In recent weeks and months,
however, county concerns about road capacity -- especially in the
fast-growing Parrish area -- have very often stopped these deals dead
in their tracks.
"We consider it a very successful program," said Susie
Dobbs, the county's affordable housing coordinator. "But, because
of market conditions and infrastructure conditions, it's slowed things
getting approved."
Take the example of Cone Ranch, a 1,999-home development proposed at
State Road 62, just east of U.S. 301.
The project offers 300 affordable homes, a fact that developer Reynold
Glanz believed would garner it high praise
and quick approval.
County planners started the review process within weeks of its October
submittal. But the
"We have not been fast-tracked," Glanz
said. "We're not getting what we were told we'd get."
Project approvals don't come unless developers can show that
infrastructure needs, such as roads, are paid for and will be complete
by the time new residents move in.
The commission has granted conditional approval to some projects near
overburdened roads, such as the 800-home
In that case, developer Pat Neal had to contribute $500,000 to help
pay for S.R. 64 improvements and was told that, for now, he could
build only model homes. Construction likely won't start until 2009.
One of the biggest concerns in north Manatee is the adequacy of U.S.
301 and some of the rural roads that feed into it. More than 5,000 new
homes are planned near Parrish.
U.S. 301 and roads such as
"In my opinion, it's the right thing to do -- not allowing
development to take place until the infrastructure is in place or paid
for," he said. "That's the world we live in today.
Widening a section of U.S. 301 from
"Developers are kind of in a bind," said county planner
Scott Pickett, who is reviewing the Cone Ranch plan. "They need
to find some more capacity."
Under the incentive program, developments that include at least 10
percent work force housing, or 25 percent affordable housing, qualify
for a faster approval process.
The maximum home price for a work force home is $201,600. Affordable
housing must top out at $168,000. The median home price in
The commission passed the incentive plan in October 2005.
It was the peak of the housing boom, when home prices were
skyrocketing and far out of reach of many area residents.
Fewer than 100 such homes were proposed in 1994. By the end of 2005,
the number jumped to 1,071. In 2006, developers proposed 1,557.
Driving much of that increase was the fast-track incentive. In a
business where every project delay can significantly raise costs,
developers were eager to get a quicker county review.
The goal was to save developers 12 to 18 months getting a project to a
public hearing.
The housing market and lack of adequate infrastructure in north
Manatee are much of the reason for delays in getting many projects
approved, said Dan Barwick, chairman of deMorgan
Communities.
But Barwick also believes some county
staffers could cooperate more effectively with developers. He refused
to elaborate and chose his words carefully.
"Of late, the through-put from the system is simply not meeting
its targets," he said.
A group of 22 developers, known as the North County Partnership, is
working to develop an infrastructure strategy for north Manatee.
Barwick, a member of that group, said the
group will make a presentation in the next month or two.
That's not to say there's a total freeze on development north of the
The commission recently approved a 228-unit deMorgan
project in Ellenton. About a quarter of the development will be priced
as affordable.
As part of that approval, deMorgan agreed
to kick in $900,000 to improve the intersection of U.S. 301 and
County considers permit halt until
drainage fixed
BY SUSAN LATHAM CARR
STAR-BANNER
"People get harmed every day because of vested property and us
not taking a bold stand," Commissioner Jim Payton said.
By a unanimous vote Tuesday, the commission directed the county
attorney to explore a temporary moratorium on building in the
subdivision so a solution to the drainage problem can be found.
The commission also discussed briefly the possibility of challenging
the rights of older subdivisions to develop outside current
regulations.
For many years, few homes were built, but last year 99 building
permits were issued. The commission is concerned that as development
increases, so will the flooding problems.
There is land available to buy for retention ponds but, if the
development continues, it may be more difficult to correct the
problem.
Commission Chairman Stan McClain, who is a builder, said builders must
provide a ditch. He said he has built berms.
But Commissioner Charlie Stone said the water from the ditches winds
up on neighboring property.
There are no retention ponds in the subdivision. Most roads are
unpaved limerock.
"I looked at moratoriums on a temporary basis if you are looking
at a plan to remedy public harm," Wright said.
After the meeting he said the temporary moratorium could be for
"a matter of months."
"It was upheld in
The commission wants to find a solution because, commissioners said,
there are a number of subdivisions in
In the meantime, the petitions for a Municipal Services Taxing Unit
asking Rainbow Park property owners if they would like to agree to tax
themselves for roads and the accompanying drainage will be mailed
Friday, MSTU Director Myra Tedder said.
Commissioner Andy Kesselring suggested at Tuesday's meeting that the
county look for a vested subdivision still in common ownership by the
developer to use as a "test case" to challenge vested rights
of older subdivisions.
"Once vested, they have the right to build it without complying
with current regulations," Wright said after the meeting.
"We are going to look at that to see what ways we can bring those
into compliance or whatever options are available."
Payton said, with vested subdivisions, there should be some disclosure
required so people know what they are buying. But, he added, Wright
said the county cannot make that disclosure.
"I know there are problems out there," Payton said.
"Every commissioner knows it. Everybody in the building business
knows it, but they buy cheap lots."
He said he is beginning to ask himself whether it is reasonable to
expect the buyer to beware.
"That's to assume everybody has the same amount of
knowledge," Payton said. "The courts for years have
overturned inequities."
Susan Latham Carr may be reached
at susan.carr@starbanner.com
or (352) 867-4156.
Where
will our water come from?
Rapid
growth is likely to force expensive deals to have it pumped in from
elsewhere.
Robert
Sargent
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 22, 2007
MINNEOLA -- Governments and utilities racing to keep up with
The St. Johns River Water Management District could stop issuing new
groundwater permits in the next six years or so to avoid serious
environmental damage from growing withdrawals. Experts say the Floridan
Aquifer can't keep up with the huge growth, so utilities must look to
inland river plants, coastal desalinization facilities and other
sources to augment groundwater demands.
Problem is,
Pumping water into
"No one wants to hear that they have to go to a more expensive
water source," said
Water-management officials have been working with local utilities for
years to reduce demands on water pumped from the ground. Many projects
use treated wastewater -- rather than drinking water -- to irrigate
lawns.
However, even more water is needed to keep up with new construction.
One proposal is to run 70 miles of pipeline to distribute water from
the
Another option would pull more than 40 millions gallons from the
Ocklawaha each day, pumping it through 138 miles of pipeline into Lake
and
One proposal would take more than 44 million gallons a day from the
St. Johns River in
Another proposal would pull water from the St. Johns River near DeLand
to serve all of
Water-management officials say the
By comparison, the upper Ocklawaha, which includes the Harris Chain of
Lakes in
Robert Sargent
can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5909.
Water
board watered down -- future hazy
First
envisioned as a provider of alternative sources of drinking water, the
group is stripped of its power.
Ludmilla
Lelis
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 22, 2007
The group's governing board, made up of elected officials from the
county and 13 Volusia cities, voted 11-3 to remake WAV as a
water-planning organization but with no authority to build anything.
Even in its weaker form, the agency's future is tentative, with
Nevertheless, a few board members were optimistic that the new water
authority could still accomplish something.
"Together we can go forward as a team and ultimately wind up
where the old WAV would have taken us," said Ormond Beach
Commissioner Ed Kelley. "Please give us a chance."
As originally envisioned, the water authority was supposed to be the
agency in charge of building and managing plants to convert the
In the four years since its creation, however, the authority never got
into the water-production business.
Instead, it developed a $1.4 million document that studied the water
needs and potential projects; built pipelines that connected water
lines for several utilities; and promoted a water-conservation
program.
"The people of
Backers of the authority had hoped it would guide Volusia into a
future that was less reliant on the underground aquifer, which water
experts warn may eventually get tapped out.
West Volusia officials already know they must find an alternative
source -- likely the
WAV would have built that plant, at a cost of up to $120 million, but
could never get past the bickering over who would pay.
Wednesday's decision means it will be up to the local utilities to
build the
County government officials and some city officials have started
informal talks about its construction but may have to create a
separate water authority to build the plant.
Jim Gross, with the St. Johns River Water Management District, said he
hopes Volusia officials will now concentrate on getting that
alternative water source.
"I have guarded optimism this will allow the local governments to
get past talking about organizational structure and start talking
about water projects," said Gross, a senior project manager with
the district. "Growth is not slowing down and they're going to
need that water."
The water authority began to falter after
Last year, with
On Wednesday, the board approved that change, in part to salvage the
authority rather than scrap it altogether.
However, even the revamped group seemed to be in trouble. New
Port Orange Councilman George Steindoerfer
said of the new authority: "I see absolutely no reason to belong
to it anymore."
The third dissenting vote, Deltona Commissioner William Harvey, said
his city's support for WAV remains steadfast.
The watered-down WAV may not have the backing of
"After four years of nothing but bills, for
Ludmilla
Lelis can be reached at llelis@orlandosentinel.com
or 386-253-0964.
Members
vote to weaken Water Authority
By
SCOTT WYLAND
Staff Writer
The
Water Authority of Volusia mustered the 11 votes needed to dissolve
its power to impose water policies within the county, leaving some
members to ponder the future of the area's finite water supply.
Known
as WAV, the group reduced itself to a planning role on water projects.
In
2003, WAV unified 13 cities and the county into a governing body that
was once applauded statewide as a model of regional teamwork.
Most
members said the group could still work together to ensure the
county's water supply is sustained through the robust growth expected
in coming years. However, most also expressed disappointment.
Edgewater
Councilwoman Judy Lichter said she wore
black to mourn the death of WAV.
"We're
basically like
She
voted for the diluted version of WAV because it's the group's best
chance of surviving the political pressures, she said, adding that WAV
still has potential to do good work.
Three
members voted against the move: Port Orange City Councilman George Steindoerfer,
Deltona City Commissioner William Harvey and Paul deMange,
DeMange
said weakening WAV was shortsighted and could lead to some cities
scrambling for water.
"A
lot of us won't even be here two or three years from now," deMange
said. "We are making severe decisions . . . long-term
decisions."
He
blamed competing interests for WAV's ills
and implored the group to serve the interests of the whole.
"Most
of our problems are made by parochialism and self-interest among some
of us -- and that's a shame,"
Tensions
arose over plans to have residents in east Volusia pay for projects on
the west side -- for instance, a treatment plant on the
Some
cities also worried that WAV might usurp their water systems.
Orange
City Mayor Ted Erwin blamed
"We're
being held hostage by one city," Erwin said.
New
Smyrna Beach Mayor Jim Vandergrifft
announced the city would pull out of WAV. Vandergrifft
said he was following the wishes of the City Commission.
WAV
should now form a working group to explore ways to conserve water,
rather than simply probing for new water sources, DeLand
Mayor Bob Apgar said. "It's time for
us to walk the walk on conservation."
Volusia
County Councilman Jack Hayman said the
biggest problem was how to fund the group's goals. The county has
already spent more than $500,000 on membership fees and project work,
he said.
"
County
official criticizes city’s pace with grant
By
Terry Witt
“The
name of the town is
As
a commissioner, Damato said his top
priority is water quality, and he said septic tanks should be removed
from
City
Manager Andy Houston said the city hasn’t stopped working with the
$11 million grant.
He
said the city has removed nearly all septic tanks within the city
limits, but the next phase would be to extend central sewer to 700
homes along
However,
If
the sewer lines were installed as a single project rather than
piecemeal,
What’s
more, the additional 700 homes would push the city sewer plant beyond
capacity, he said, forcing an expansion.
“It
all comes down to the treatment plant. If we don’t expand, we’ll
be pretty close to a moratorium,” he said.
The
city is studying whether it has enough cash flow to finance an
$11-million expansion of the sewer and water plants and borrow
millions to extend sewer lines to 700 homes outside the city. The
projects would place an additional financial burden on city residents.
He
said he understands the county’s frustration.
“This
has been going on since 2000,” he said.
Town-home
fight may cost residents
Winter
Springs and a developer want sanctions against a homeowners
association for its appeal.
Robert
Perez
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 22, 2007
WINTER SPRINGS -- A homeowners association's unsuccessful appeal of a
proposed town-house development in their subdivision could end up
costing it thousands of dollars.
Winter Springs and developer Keewin Real
Property Co. LLC are looking for sanctions against the Highlands
Homeowners Association and their attorneys, alleging the appeal was
frivolous.
"Our view is that they filed it for improper purposes, simply to
delay the development," said Winter Springs
city attorney Anthony Garganese. "It
cost the taxpayers of Winter Springs a lot of money to defend a
frivolous challenge."
City officials estimate they spent more than $40,000 defending the
change to the city's comprehensive plan amendment that would allow
town houses on about 47 acres along
Keewin also is seeking to recoup its fees
and costs, though an exact amount in unclear. Attempts to reach
attorneys for the developer were not
successful, but the filings before the Florida Division of
Administrative Hearings mirrors the city's complaint.
The association's appeal questioned the proposed development's impact
on traffic and school crowding. But the association and its attorneys
made no effort to determine if those perceived impacts were real, Garganese
said.
"They had 11 months to provide evidence," he said. "But
they didn't provide one scintilla to back up their claims."
In depositions before the Nov. 29 hearing and in testimony,
association officials said that they did not consult with School Board
officials about school crowding and that no traffic studies were done.
A traffic expert who testified for the association conceded the
project would likely generate less traffic than something built under
the original industrial zoning.
Keewin's motion also focuses on an
association newsletter that said the development would become an
affordable-housing project. In a deposition, Helga Schwarz, the
association's secretary, conceded she had nothing to document that
claim beyond her own beliefs.
The association's "lack of inquiry reveals
that its purpose is not legitimate but to harass and injure,"
according to Keewin's motion.
Criticism of the appeal also is coming from some residents of the
"The main thing is that they did not tell the residents,"
said Dorothy Smith, a resident since 1996 of the sprawling collection
of subdivisions. "In all the minutes of meetings in 2006, there
is no mention of any action to file this appeal."
Smith said she has had to fight to get copies of minutes and straight
answers from the association board of directors. The bottom line is
that residents should have been told of the plan to appeal, Smith
said.
"It should have been published and approved at a meeting,"
she said. "I know there are privileges and concerns when it comes
to legal issues, but that's not an excuse to keep all this
a secret."
Schwarz and association president Paige Hinton could not be reached
for comment. The association's attorneys, Clayton & McCulloh,
did not respond to a request for an interview.
Robert Perez can be reached at rperez@orlandosentinel.comor
407-322-1298.
The
region is still adding people but at a slower rate than in previous
years.
Victor
Manuel Ramos
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 22, 2007
The torrid pace of growth in
The net increase in residents in the region fell by more than 20,000
last summer, a Census Bureau report out
today shows.
Such slower growth -- up only 2.8 percent from 2005 to 2006 -- mirrors
a statewide shift but doesn't necessarily signal the start of a
downward spiral, population experts say. Instead, it's more a return
to normal.
The breakneck surge of people moving to
"Before, we had been a black hole of net migration," said Snaith,
director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at UCF.
"People moved in until they died. But in the future, I think we
will see a more complex picture, with some people packing up their
equity and moving to other locations."
All of the region's seven counties added some population between July
2005 and July 2006, according to census.
The counties that already had the most population,
Overall,
Local officials said they were not concerned with the decrease in
growth, partly because the reduced numbers are still above population
increases at the beginning of the decade.
Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno said "property is more
expensive, taxes are more expensive, the insurance rates are more
expensive" -- all contributing to the slight reduction.
But he doesn't think that modest growth would necessarily be a bad
thing in a county that has absorbed many residents from other parts of
"It gives us a reprieve," Bruno said. "The
infrastructure is not keeping up with the demands of the people who
are here."
In Seminole, the slowdown meant about 5,000 fewer people moved into
the county, curtailing development and lowering school enrollment.
But the 1.4 percent growth was much closer to the norm, said Bill
McDermott, economic-development director.
The continued torrid growth in Osceola and Polk counties may have to
do with the availability of more affordable housing, McDermott said.
Seminole's median home price in 2006 was one of the highest in the
region at $271,000, according to the Metro Orlando Economic
Development Commission.
"One complaint I have heard is that companies are having a
difficult time recruiting people to work because they can't find a
place to live in
When
That's still a drop in a bucket in a district that is 22,000 students
over capacity.
"This has been a very difficult year to make enrollment
projections," Simpson said. "It's hard to know if this year
has been an anomaly."
In Osceola, district enrollment didn't grow as fast as projected, only
gaining about 1,800 students this school year for a total of 51,072.
That influx still translates into a greater need for services, said
Bill Collins, assistant superintendent for business and fiscal
services.
William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in
If it's any indication, home builders say they are optimistic that
their sales were on the up and up last month, though they complain
about the combined effect of taxes, insurance and impact fees.
"Several of the production builders were telling me they have
seen an increase in activity," said Carmen Dominguez, president
of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando. "Traffic is
increasing, and contracts are being signed."
Robert Perez, Etan
Horowitz and Claudia Zequeira of the
Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Victor Manuel Ramos can be
reached at vramos@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6186.
Brevard
grows at slower pace
BY JAMES DEAN
Brevard
added 5,719 residents from July 2005 to July 2006 for a total
population of 534,359, a 1.1-percent increase over that time. The
county had grown by at least 8,500 residents each year since 2000,
peaking with 13,342-person surge in 2003-04.
The
slower growth rate isn't surprising at the tail end of a housing boom,
said Michael Slotkin, an economics
professor at Florida Tech.
"It's
just more expensive to live here now," he said. "The cost of
housing has gone up, the cost of insurance has gone up, property tax
bills have gone up, and some people are just frightened of the
hurricanes."
Since
2000, Brevard's population has grown nearly 12 percent, or 56,488
residents. It was the state's 10th-largest county as of last summer.
During
the same period, the state grew by more than 2 million residents, or
nearly 13 percent, to about 18 million. It added 322,000 residents in
2005-06. That's not as many as the previous two years, but its nearly
2 percent growth rate has been fairly consistent since 2000.
The
Census Bureau identified
The
Census numbers aren't the first indication of slower growth in
Brevard.
The
county's median home price peaked at $248,700 in August 2005 and is
down to $202,500, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.
And Brevard Public Schools reported more than 1,000 fewer students
this month than in October 2005.
John
and Diane Bale, retirees who moved to Suntree
from
"You
knew sooner or later it had to reach a peak," 56-year-old Diane
Bale said while walking her dogs in
But
with more baby boomers retiring and moving to
Contact
Dean at 242-3617 or jdean@floridatoday.com.
Thursday,
March 22, 2007
After
years as one of the nation's fastest-growing counties,
Experts
point to soaring housing costs and taxes as brakes on a trend that has
seen the county's numbers jump by five figures at a time in recent
years.
For
a county that has seen its population climb by more than 12 percent
since 2000, data showing a 0.7 percent yearly increase may seem a
precipitous drop, but it means the county still gained an estimated
9,057 new residents between July 2005 and July 2006.
That's
8,946 more than neighboring
Experts
say one year does not make a trend, and they expect the county's
population to continue to grow.
"I
wouldn't read anything sinister into it," said Greg Vaday
of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. "These are
issues
Like
other growth watchers, Vaday points to the
arrival of The Scripps Research Institute and the anticipated swell in
biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses as future population
lures.
St.
Lucie County Commission Chairman Chris Craft said Treasure Coast
officials have learned from mistakes in the mammoth counties to the
south and are trying to design more attractive and sustainable
neighborhoods than the ones some residents are fleeing.
"Hopefully,
we've paid attention to the good and the bad and learned something
from it," Craft said. "Our growth has come so fast. We're
still playing catch-up."
St.
Lucie County residents and officials say there's a reason for the
migration that is not depicted in charts of recent housing slowdowns
and price decreases.
"There's
this sense of possibility in St. Lucie County," said County
Commissioner Paula Lewis, who has lived in Port St. Lucie since 1989.
"We have a lot of room. Things can still happen here."
The
Census Bureau reaches its estimates through a combination of vital
statistics, tax and Medicare records; numbers submitted by
group-living centers, including nursing homes, prisons and
dormitories; and international migration data.
The
bureau does not produce estimates of illegal immigration.
As
a result, those looking at local immigration trends say the true
numbers of undocumented residents are unlikely to be reflected in the
bureau's figures.
"I
would guess that the undocumented may not show up in those numbers at
all," said Tim Steigenga, a political
science and sociology professor at
He
added that the tightening of borders and recent mass deportations have
likely slowed the growth of undocumented residents.
The
Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the
Using
building permits and electricity customer lists, the bureau estimated
that
The
UF bureau estimates that
The
bureau adjusts its projections each year, Cody said. "We need
another year or so to see if there is a trend."
In
the meantime, he sees no cause for alarm in the latest census
estimates for
"I
would take their estimate as a flag to watch," Cody said.
"We've gotten so used to growth, we see one little dip and say,
'Oh, no!' But if you compare this growth rate to
Plan
to Limit Residents' Committee Involvement Fails
By Tom
Palmer
The Ledger
BARTOW — Efforts by County Commissioner Sam Johnson to force people
who serve on more than one county committee to quit and make room for
someone else fizzled Wednesday.
Instead, commissioners agreed they would continue to appoint whomever
they felt was qualified and was willing to serve.
Johnson proposed a resolution based on an impression he had that
relatively few of the county's residents were being chosen to serve on
32 committees to which commissioners make appointments.
'My effort was an attempt to gain broad representation in a county of
more than 500,000 residents,' he said. 'The easiest thing to do is to
pick the first person to comethrough the
door.'
Commissioner Jack Myers said restrictions weren't necessary. 'I don't
know that I want to handcuff myself,' he said.
Commissioner Jean Reed said each commissioner should be free to
appoint whomever they think is the best person to fill the position.
Despite Johnson's assertion that there was a problem with people
holding multiple committee posts, a county staff analysis showed that
was the exception rather than the rule.
Ryan was not present at Wednesday's meeting, but in an e-mail to
commissioners she questioned the rationale for the change.
'Benefitting from the free services of
knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated lay volunteers should be a
goal of the county,' she wrote.
Ryan said earlier this week she agreed the county needs to attract
more applicants. She said the Water Policy Committee didn't have a
quorum for months while commissioners tried to find someone to
volunteer to fill vacancies on the panel.
Ryan suggested in the e-mail that if commissioners were interested in
getting broader participation on county committees, they ought to do
more to advertise vacancies by posting the information on the county's
Web site.
Reed pushed that proposal, adding that a simple application form
should be included on the Web site so commissioners know a little
about the background of the applicant.
The amended resolution commissioners passed formalized a previous
unwritten policy that limited committee members to two consecutive
terms.
Broward's
soaring costs have many leaving home
BY
LISA ARTHUR, TIM HENDERSON AND ROBERTO
A
steady influx of people relocating from throughout the nation fueled
Broward's population growth for years, making it one of the country's
fastest-growing counties.
But
that trend reversed itself last year, according to a census report
released today. It found about 18,000 more people left Broward than
moved in from other states.
The
new numbers confirm what many living in
''Housing
costs are out of whack, and there isn't an acceptable balance between
cost of living and incomes here right now,'' said Bill Leonard, senior
planner for
To
be sure, Broward and Miami-Dade County, which has been experiencing a
net loss in domestic migration for decades, are still growing --
albeit slowly. But increases are being driven by newborns and foreign
immigrants -- not newcomers from other states, according to census
estimates.
That's
a change for Broward, but experts say it's likely a temporary hiccup.
''I
don't see this being a permanent tanking of
His
prediction: ``Either salaries here will become more consistent with
housing costs, or the housing cost structure will collapse, correct
and we'll go back to where things are sustainable on what people earn
here.''
LOWER
NET GAIN
Statewide,
the new census report shows that a net gain in people moving from
other states is lower than last year's. From 2004 to 2005, the state
had a net gain of 262,000; from 2005 to 2006, it was less than
166,000. But more than half of the decrease comes from net losses in
Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and
The
history of domestic net losses in Miami-Dade, hovering around 30,000
each year since 2001, has been attributed to the county's status as a
gateway for immigrants. The same demographic story may become more
pronounced in Broward, too.
''We've
long understood Miami-Dade and Broward are points of entry, but they
are also flow-through counties, with lots of immigrants moving on
after getting their feet on the ground here,'' Ogburn
said. ``What is international migration one year can be domestic
migration the next.''
LONG-TERM
TREND?
But
he and others stress that it's premature to assume any long-term trend
in Broward, though more and more anecdotal evidence that the county is
becoming less attractive has emerged over the past two years.
Consider:
•
Many Broward businesses and local governments have raised concerns
about housing costs driving out experienced workers and making it
difficult to attract new workers to
•
Broward school officials have reported a decline in enrollment in
recent years. This in a district that only a decade ago had kids
sitting on floors for lack of desks and could not bring in portable
classrooms fast enough to accommodate the flood of new students.
''It's
an economic shift,'' said Jill Young, a demographer with Broward
schools, which had about 10,000 fewer students in an annual October
head count than it did two years earlier. ``People are sill coming
here, but can they afford to come with children? I know we don't see a
lot of kids coming out of all the new townhomes
and condos.''
PROPERTY
TAX CRISIS
Keeping
South Florida attractive to newcomers may depend on how the Florida
Legislature resolves the state's property tax crisis, says Tony Villamil,
an economist with the Coral Gables-based Washington Economics Group
and chairman of the Beacon Council's Economic Roundtable.
He
said the property tax structure not only affects the homeowner's
pocketbook, but also discourages affordable-housing construction.
County assessors widely interpret
''When
you do that, it means you have to build up and do luxury instead of
doing affordable or smaller apartment buildings to make an after-tax
profit,'' Villamil said.
A
simple change in state law to tax on actual use and income a rental
property generates, for instance, would encourage developers to build
affordable apartments and condos.
''There
certainly is a demand out there for more affordable and reasonably
priced real estate,'' Villamil said
Nervous
condo buyers want out
BY
MATTHEW HAGGMAN
In
January, the developers of condo project 2 Midtown announced they
would build 455 units instead of 459.
That's
all it took for buyers Barry and Rachel Craemer
to declare their contract void a week later and demand their $117,000
deposit back. The buyers for 47 units have sent such letters, and the
builder is determined not to let any of them out.
In
a cool housing market already overflowing with condos, what were once
hot properties are now hot potatoes that many don't want in their
hands. Buyers seeking to get out of contracts are pouncing on changes
in developers' plans, including those related to higher insurance
costs. Some are even combing through documents for blown deadlines,
which developers blame on hurricane delays.
The
tension is rising as closing day approaches for the roughly 25,000 new
condos expected this year and next. And the spats between buyers and
developers will help decide one of the biggest questions in the
troubled housing market -- how many condo sales will actually close.
If the spats continue, they would signal a rocky time to come, with
unsold units and falling prices.
'This
may be the beginning of the `interesting period,' '' said real-estate
analyst Michael Cannon. ``We will see it evolve through 2008.''
So
far, there have not been widespread defaults or much litigation, and
by most accounts, buyers are going to the closing table, however
reluctantly. Still, there is evidence of growing unease.
Attorney
Gary Saul, who represents developers for 2 Midtown and other projects,
said that six months ago he didn't receive any letters from buyers
wanting out. Now they're coming from 10 percent of the buyers in
buildings, sometimes as much as 20 percent.
Michael
Schlesinger, a lawyer who has sued developers, said buyers started to
call him in December, wanting out. He has signed 12 clients.
''Now
I am getting three calls a week,'' he said.
And
developer Gregg Covin, who plans to start
closing next month for his 200-unit Ten Museum Park on
''The
scary thing is, people who have flaked on me tell me they have like
five other contracts in other buildings under construction,'' Covin
said.
`THESE
ARE FLIPPERS'
''These
are not people who have been wronged,'' Saul said. ``These are
flippers who wouldn't be saying anything if the market was going
well.''
To
which Rachel Craemer replied: ``Who
are they to decide? The person who makes the determination should be
the buyer, not the seller.''
Both
parties have plenty to lose. Condo buyers risk
losing typical deposits of 20 percent, instead of 10 percent for new
single-family homes, said real-estate analyst Lew
Goodkin.
''That
is prompting some folks to look at every possible technicality rather
than walking away,'' he said.
Goodkin
predicts that disputes will increase as closings approach for
buildings sold in 2005 and 2006, because prices were higher and buyers
have more at stake.
Developers
in turn are worried that if they give one buyer a break, they will
lose the building. With their support, legislation is pending in
'If
I am a developer and you come to me with your lawyer and I let you
out, the first thing that lawyer does is tell everyone else in the
building, `I can get you out, too,' '' said
Insurance
is a particularly sensitive area of dispute. Developers gave buyers
projections for monthly maintenance costs when they signed contracts.
But skyrocketing insurance premiums have pushed maintenance fees far
beyond projections, prompting buyers to say their contracts are no
longer valid and they shouldn't have to close.
CHANGES
IN COST
Developers
argue that they can't be held accountable for what is not in their
control. State Sen. Mike Fasano, a New
Port Richey Republican, has introduced an amendment saying that such
changes in cost do not count as a breach of contract.
Back
at 2 Midtown, buyer Susan Linnell of
''I
couldn't get any information out of them,'' said Linnell,
a real-estate agent. ``The whole thing started to have a really bad
feeling.''
Calls
to Midtown Group, the builder of 2 Midtown, were not immediately
returned.
The
Craemers, who are from
Vision
sought for downtown Boca
Councilman
Peter Baronoff reminded the nine members
Wednesday night of the common cause they should focus on.
"You
are asked to make your opinion be known, to be open-minded," Baronoff
said. "You are charged with a great responsibility, to see
downtown as a place not just for the short term but long term."
Ideally,
by 2010, city officials have said, they would like to have a
pedestrian-friendly environment, with attractive landscaping and a walkable
corridor, that would generate the least
possible traffic and not disturb the city's historic buildings.
Although
it is not in the committee's power to approve or disapprove of any
particular plan, members will be asked to discuss every idea or proposal
introduced and make recommendations in favor or against.
Already they acknowledge it will be challenging.
"I
lived through the fiasco of
Adding
to the pressure of shaping the city, the group will have to deal with
eager developers who may be getting ready to present their own plans.
Just
last month Tom Crocker of Crocker Partners LLC revealed his version of
the "spine" corridor and renovated downtown. Two decades ago
he developed Mizner Park, and now he's
proposing to bring a hotel, shops, offices and residences to and area
bordered by Northeast Second Street and Palmetto Park Road and Mizner
Boulevard and Federal Highway.
The
city is moving things along as well. Last week the council approved
hiring Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Urban Planning Services to
meet with downtown stakeholders for a better understanding of the area's
potential. The results will be compiled in a report expected to be
released by April.
"We
are in a place now where I think we can learn from the past 20 years
and see what works or doesn't work," said Bruce Retzsch,
an architect on the committee.
Realtor
Michelle Bellisari, vice chairman of the
committee, reminded everyone that not just buildings and traffic are
at stake.
"Our
demographics have changed over the years," Bellisari
said "We need to be sensitive to all of the people living and
working here."
Learning
ag in classrooms
By
Ira Mikell, Mayo Free Press Reporter
Instilling
a love towards, an appreciation for, and a zeal for learning about
agriculture in school children is what Ag Literacy Day is all about.
Since 2004, Agriculture in the Classroom, Inc., a non-profit
educational organization, has been organizing and promoting this
annual event in March.
According to Lisa Gaskalla, Executive
Director of the organization, local businesses and individuals who are
associated with agriculture read a book about agriculture to
elementary students. "Florida Agriculture Literacy Day is a day
in March when hundreds of farmers, ranchers, growers, FFA students,
agriculture industry representatives, and educators go into thousands
of elementary school classrooms around the state and read a designated
children's book about agriculture," Gaskalla
said. She further stated that it helps students to learn about a
variety of topics such as how food goes from the farm to the table,
what life is like on a farm, and about plant life in a fun, easy way.
On Monday, March 12, Mayo Rotarians, Lafayette Farm Bureau, Lafayette
County Extension, and Lafayette FFA members read "Oh Say Can You
Seed?" to elementary students at Lafayette Elementary and
After each individual finished reading the book, he or she donated it
along with additional materials to the teacher for future use. A total
of 43 copies of "Oh Say Can You Seed?" was
delivered to LES and LCA, according to Jana Hart, a member of Mayo
Rotary.
Members of Lafayette FFA who participated were Brandon Adams, Kelsey
Barrington, Nathan Broughton, Lauren Dickenson, Mary-Thomas Hart,
Shelby Hart, Blake Hendrick, Brittany
Hickman, Emily Koon, Emily Land, Lacey
Moore, Ellen Lashley, Lilli
Prine, Michaela Smith, Katie Sullivan, and
John Levi Vann.
Others who volunteered their time to read were Carlton Black, B. Z. Cashman,
Pippy Cashman,
Mary Beth Hamlin, Jana Hart, Mitzi Hendricks, John Hewett,
Lindsey Jackson, Sue Kerby, Brenda Land,
Steve Land, Chris and Kelly Lyons, Donna Moore, Chan Perry, Herbert
Perry, Matt Peterson, Bill Primm, Keith
Shiver, Linda Smith, Chris Vann, and Rich Wisdahl.
Preliminary
plans for restoration of Sea Gull Cottage move forward
Architect
Jacqueline Albarran proposed preserving
the important eastern and western facades of the 1884 building and
adding a two-story addition to the north side.
"If
you do an addition to a landmark building, you must reflect what's
there but show the differences," Albarran
said.
The
two-story Victorian-style building is the oldest residence in the town
and was oil and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler's home from 1893 to 1902
while he built his
The
cottage will remain on the grounds of the Royal Poinciana Chapel, only
a few hundred yards from the museum, where it was moved in 1984. It
had been at The Breakers since 1913.
The
chapel wanted the landmark moved to make room for classrooms and
meeting rooms and, in February 2006, town voters approved placing the
cottage in Bradley Park.
Now, the cottage's interior will be renovated and new classrooms installed in the addition. The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach has pledged $500,000, and an anonymous donor has given the chapel $500,000 for the restoration. The foundation has established a $100,000 maintenance endowment, and the chapel has begun a $7 million campaign that includes work on the chapel and an endowment for maintenance of both the church and cottage
Constitutional amendment to ban drilling near shore goes to votersBy SARA LUBBES TALLAHASSEE - Facing renewed efforts in Congress to put oil rigs closer than ever to Florida’s Gulf Coast, a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers wants voters to weigh in on just where the rigs should be.
Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, and Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, are pushing a bill that would allow voters to amend the state constitution to ban oil drilling closer than 250 miles from Florida’s Gulf shores.
‘‘Let the people decide,’’ Brandenburg said. ‘‘They’re smart folks and they can make that decision.’’
But the proposal would largely be symbolic, because any federal law would likely override a state-level ban.
Still, advocates said such an amendment would make it clear to Congress once and for all that Floridians don’t want to worry about oil spills as they sunbathe at the beach.
After passing a compromise law last year to allow drilling 125 miles off the Gulf Coast, U.S. senators from Idaho and North Dakota are now pushing a bill to put the rigs as close as 45 miles.
‘‘It is necessary for us to send a statement,’’ Bennett said.
Last year, a resolution saying that Floridians and its lawmakers ‘‘don’t approve of oil or gas drilling in our waters’’ failed to win support.
Bennett and Bradenburg’s bill got a cool reception Wednesday from some members of the House Energy Committee, which would have to approve it before it would head to the entire House for debate.
‘‘Our Constitution has been messed with so much,’’ said Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, who sits on the committee. ‘‘To use it to make a statement makes a mockery of it.’’
There is also no guarantee Floridians would vote to oppose the drilling. Bradenburg said the risk of the amendment failing ‘‘is non-existent.’’
But a May 2006 Quinnipiac University poll shows 51 percent of residents supported Gulf drilling operations, mostly because of high gas prices. Seven percent were undecided.
To amend the Constitution, 60 percent of voters would have to endorse the drilling ban. Anti-drilling advocates face tough opposition from the oil industry, whose lobbyists argued Wednesday that Florida visitors would not worry about oil rigs as long as they can’t see them from the shore.
‘‘They’re not going to be fearful of going to the beach,’’ said Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida. ‘‘People don’t care about those kind of things.’’
Mark Ferrulo, director of Environment Florida, said he’d support the amendment, but says it would be a tough fight to get approved.
‘‘There’s a lot of very deep pockets that oppose this measure,’’ he said. ‘‘We could win on the ballot but it wouldn’t be a slam dunk by any means.’’
Lawmakers want Fla. vote on drill ban
TALLAHASSEE -- Facing renewed efforts in Congress to put oil rigs closer than ever to Florida's Gulf coast, a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers wants voters to weigh in on just where the rigs should be.Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, and Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, are pushing a bill that would allow voters to amend the state constitution to ban oil drilling closer than 250 miles from Florida's Gulf shores.
"Let the people decide," Brandenburg said. "They're smart folks and they can make that decision."
But the proposal would largely be symbolic, because any federal law would likely override a state-level ban.
Still, advocates said such an amendment would make it clear to Congress once and for all that Floridians don't want to worry about oil spills as they sunbathe at the beach.
After a compromise law was passed last year to allow drilling 125 miles off the Gulf coast, senators from Idaho and North Dakota are now pushing a bill to put the rigs as close as 45 miles.
"It is necessary for us to send a statement," Bennett said.
Last year, a resolution saying that Floridians and its lawmakers "don't approve of oil or gas drilling in our waters" failed to win support.
Bennett and Brandenburg's bill got a cool reception Wednesday from some members of the House Energy Committee.
"Our constitution has been messed with so much," said Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, who sits on the committee. "To use it to make a statement makes a mockery of it."
There is also no guarantee Floridians would vote to oppose the drilling. Brandenburg said the risk of the amendment failing "is non-existent."
But a May 2006 Quinnipiac University poll shows 51 percent of residents supported Gulf drilling operations, mostly because of high gas prices. Seven percent were undecided.
To amend the constitution, 60 percent of voters would have to endorse the drilling ban.
"They're not going to be fearful of going to the beach," said Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida. "People don't care about those kind of things."
Mark Ferrulo, director of Environment Florida, said he'd support the amendment, but says it would be a tough fight to get approved. "There's a lot of very deep pockets that oppose this measure," he said.
Growth top issue facing Hernando
By MICHAEL D. BATESmbates@hernandotoday.com
BROOKSVILLE — By the year 2025, the county estimates nine new housing developments, totaling 10,000 new homes, will be built on the eastside, near Interstate 75 and State Road 50.
The demand for schools, parks, water and sewer services to accommodate those new homes will be enormous.
A quick look around the county will show that commercial and residential growth has exploded in Hernando County. Even the city of Brooksville, a late entry in the development parade, has suddenly become an attractive target for new stores and subdivisions.
It is no wonder that a survey conducted by Hernando Today showed that local community and government leaders agreed that growth is the most important issue facing Hernando County today.
The survey, which asked people to rank the top nine issues, was sent out in advance of today’s Hernando County Community Summit, an all-day event being held today at the Silverthorn Country Club.
The bi-annual summit brings together representatives from government, schools, business and the community to help determine and prioritize the county’s major issues and future challenges.
Survey respondents who identified growth as the top issue said there is a greater need for comprehensive planning, or developing a policy that the county can use to guide development and land uses.
The key is to promote quality industrial growth and provide a mixture of land uses in appropriate locations throughout the county.
Survey respondents identified education as the second most important issue facing the county. Of special concern was the quality of instruction, teacher shortage and school overcrowding.
The remaining seven issues identified as top priorities, ranked in descending order of importance, were: Business development, transportation, economic problems, crime-law enforcement, quality of life, social problems and emergency response.
One question that may come up today is whether Hernando County is growing too fast.
A few members of a 25-member citizens committee on capital improvements recently raised that issue and said maybe its time to “slow down” development and give roads and other infrastructure a chance to catch up.
Civic activist Janey Baldwin said growth is the top issue because it determines future needs for roads, parks, schools and other infrastructure needs.
If done responsibly, growth can benefit the county by luring higher-paying industry and diversified jobs, she said.
The eastside of the county, she said, is a sleeping giant that is primed for growth. Currently, residents there have to travel long distances to Brooksville or Dade City to shop because of the lack of stores, she said.
But Baldwin said she would like to see more action taken.
“We’ve had a lot of talk about growth but I haven’t seen too much this year,” she said.
Baldwin said transportation must also be addressed.
“When businesses come to an area and they do their demographics, transportation is a number one big thing,” she said. “Are the roads in good shape? Is (the business) near a highway? Do they have a railroad?”
In his responses, local engineer Alan Garman said more must be done to shorten the process for obtaining building permits.
Nicholas Nicholson, president of Nicholson Engineering Associates Inc., said he has been trying to get the county to relax its restrictions against taller buildings and denser developments in Hernando County to make way for more workforce housing, which will be debated at today’s summit.
Condominium and townhouse living has become popular in other areas and is an ideal way to provide more open space and reduce infrastructure costs he said.
By having more people clustered in a closer proximity, it cuts down the need for scattered sheriff’s substations and fire stations, he said.
“We’re lagging behind the curve, Nicholson said. “If we’re pushing workforce housing, we need to change our regulations.”
Nicholson picked education as a top priority because “everything starts with our children.”
He proposes more partnerships between schools and businesses to allow students to learn new skills they can apply to their future careers and possibly keep them in Hernando County, he said.
The public is invited to the summit, which will take place from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today at Silverthorn Country Club, 4550 Golf Club Lane, Brooksville.
Hernando Today will report on the outcome of today’s summit in Friday’s newspaper.
Reporter Michael D. Bates can be contacted at 352-544-5290.
Meeting seeks to head off water problems
By TONY MARREROlmarrero@hernandotoday.com
BROOKSVILLE — Those who don’t learn from the water woes of other regions could likely be doomed to experience those same problems.
That’s the philosophy behind the 2007 Water Supply Summit slated for Friday in Ocala, according to officials with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud, a co-sponsor of the event.
The one-day summit will bring together water managers, scientists and government officials from the six counties that make up the water district’s northern region: Hernando, Citrus, Lake, Sumter, Levy and Marion.
There also will be officials from neighboring St. John’s River and Suwanee River water management districts, which are co-sponsors of the event.
The goal is to head off the water shortage problems that have plagued the district’s southern counties, said Michael Molligan, communications director for Swiftmud.
In general, the northern counties in the district have enough water to meet the needs “for the foreseeable future,” Molligan said during a visit to Hernando Today’s offices this week.
But as development and populations increase, that could change without taking a proactive approach, he said.
“We don’t want to see the problems that are happening down south happen up here,” Molligan said. “We need to jump out ahead of the game. We’re hoping this is just the start of something.”
The event, to be held at the Hilton Ocala Hotel, will kick off with an overview of the hydrology and geology of the region and a discussion of the area’s water supply sources and projected use rates.
In Hernando County, for example, the pull on the public water supply is expected to hit 44 million gallons per day, according to Swiftmud projections. That’s nearly double the use rate in 2004.
There will be a discussion on water-conserving rate structures that some local governments have instituted. In such rate structures, the price for water increases with consumption.
There also will be talks on reclaimed water and the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program, which promotes guidelines for landscaping that uses less water and fertilizer.
The summit will culminate with an hour-long panel titled “Conservation Efforts — Lessons Learned” featuring officials from Pinellas, Sarasota, Polk and Volusia counties who will discuss the measures they took to deal with water issues in their respective areas.
Hernando County administrator Gary Kuhl and deputy administrator Larry Jennings are slated to attend as the county has a serious stake in the issue.
In November, Swiftmud officials told the county that it was pumping more water than allowed under its current permits for the West Hernando and Spring Hill water systems.
The county currently uses roughly 190 gallons per person each day. The current Swiftmud permit allows for around 160 gallons per person.
The county is in the process of combining the two systems under one permit and asking for a maximum of 36.6 million gallons per day, or 167 gallons per person.
Swiftmud is reviewing that application.
Reporter Tony Marrero can be contacted at 352-544-5286.
Lake County OK with
Villages' water bid
County won't challenge 3.3 billion gallon permit request in exchange for $250,000 to fund a water sources study. Advisers' report never heard
County won't challenge 3.3 billion gallon permit request in exchange for $250,000 to fund a water sources study. Advisers' report never heard
OCALA - Lake County will not oppose The Villages' request for a 3.3
billion-gallon-a year water use permit from the Southwest Florida
Water Management District.
In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, Lake County Commissioners approved an agreement in which The Villages will give $250,000 toward an alternative water sources study, as well as share information. In exchange, the county will not challenge The Villages' request for a permit.
Neither Trey Arnett, water resource engineer for The Villages, nor Gary Lester, Villages community relations vice president, could be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Lake County Commissioners Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart voted against the agreement.
"Some people are looking at this as a really good thing because we have their commitment to work with us," Renick said by telephone. "I don't feel that positive about it. I think there were real problems with withdrawals in the permit that we won't be able to address, so that's where we stand."
The Villages currently can use almost 15 million gallons of water a day, or 5.4 billion gallons a year. If the permit is approved, The Villages will be able to draw another 9 million gallons a day, or about 3 billion gallons a year.
The Lake County Water Supply Planning Alliance, a consortium of the 14 Lake municipalities and the county, voted Monday night to recommend the County Commission approve the agreement with The Villages.
The Alliance's mission is to plan for use of water resources, to look for new water supplies and alternative water supplies, and to resolve conflicts among its members.
Renick said the County Commission's decision was made without hearing a report by Water Resource Associates, the consultant hired by the alliance and the city of Leesburg to evaluate the permit and compare it to other permitting practices by the water district.
WRA's draft report said The Villages' Impact Management Plan is required to be developed after the permit is issued and will be worked out between The Villages and the water district with no third-party input. Generally, the Impact Management Plan is completed before a permit is issued.
Commissioner Debbie Stivender voted for the agreement. She said she took the alliance's recommendation.
"The majority of what was in the permit didn't really deal with Lake County," Stivender said. "The majority was in Marion and Sumter."
Asked why the commission would vote without hearing the consultant's report, she said the chairman did not ask for the presentation.
"The staff did that," Stivender said. "Our county attorney was part of this settlement negations for the document so we felt comfortable with that."
Renick said the vote means that Lake will not be asking for an administrative hearing about the permit, which the county had been scheduled to hold on March 23. She said if other counties wished to do so, they should apply by that date.
The water district board is scheduled to vote on The Villages' permit on March 27.
Susan Latham Carr may be reached at (352) 867-4156 or susan.carr@starbanner.com
In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, Lake County Commissioners approved an agreement in which The Villages will give $250,000 toward an alternative water sources study, as well as share information. In exchange, the county will not challenge The Villages' request for a permit.
Neither Trey Arnett, water resource engineer for The Villages, nor Gary Lester, Villages community relations vice president, could be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Lake County Commissioners Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart voted against the agreement.
"Some people are looking at this as a really good thing because we have their commitment to work with us," Renick said by telephone. "I don't feel that positive about it. I think there were real problems with withdrawals in the permit that we won't be able to address, so that's where we stand."
The Villages currently can use almost 15 million gallons of water a day, or 5.4 billion gallons a year. If the permit is approved, The Villages will be able to draw another 9 million gallons a day, or about 3 billion gallons a year.
The Lake County Water Supply Planning Alliance, a consortium of the 14 Lake municipalities and the county, voted Monday night to recommend the County Commission approve the agreement with The Villages.
The Alliance's mission is to plan for use of water resources, to look for new water supplies and alternative water supplies, and to resolve conflicts among its members.
Renick said the County Commission's decision was made without hearing a report by Water Resource Associates, the consultant hired by the alliance and the city of Leesburg to evaluate the permit and compare it to other permitting practices by the water district.
WRA's draft report said The Villages' Impact Management Plan is required to be developed after the permit is issued and will be worked out between The Villages and the water district with no third-party input. Generally, the Impact Management Plan is completed before a permit is issued.
Commissioner Debbie Stivender voted for the agreement. She said she took the alliance's recommendation.
"The majority of what was in the permit didn't really deal with Lake County," Stivender said. "The majority was in Marion and Sumter."
Asked why the commission would vote without hearing the consultant's report, she said the chairman did not ask for the presentation.
"The staff did that," Stivender said. "Our county attorney was part of this settlement negations for the document so we felt comfortable with that."
Renick said the vote means that Lake will not be asking for an administrative hearing about the permit, which the county had been scheduled to hold on March 23. She said if other counties wished to do so, they should apply by that date.
The water district board is scheduled to vote on The Villages' permit on March 27.
Susan Latham Carr may be reached at (352) 867-4156 or susan.carr@starbanner.com
Census Shows Area Growth Slowing
Published: Mar 22, 2007
Pasco County again grew the fastest of any county in the Tampa Bay area last year, but its growth hit a speed bump, a pattern reflected throughout the region, according to a U.S. Census report released today.
Since 2000, Pasco's population has grown by more than 30 percent, as developers have rushed to turn agricultural land into housing developments and shopping centers for the burgeoning bedroom communities north of Tampa. From 2005 to 2006, however, the growth slowed, from 5.4 percent to 4.7 percent.
Hillsborough and Hernando counties, which also have seen steady population increases since 2000, experienced slower growth between 2005 and 2006 as well, while Polk County's growth increased slightly.
Densely populated Pinellas County, which has seen almost no net growth since 2000, lost nearly 2,400 residents last year - a 0.3 percent decrease.
Don't read too much into those numbers, though, observers say.
"I don't think there's enough data yet to get any kind of trend. Our estimates show a little less growth than last year but still more than years past," said Scott Cody, a demographer at the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic & Business Research.
"It's still pretty fast."
The region's population growth would need to slow at least one more year for researchers to begin asking whether a trend is developing, he said.
Nonetheless, the Census Bureau's estimates add muscle to recent reports of flagging home construction and new home sales.
Marvin Rose, a real estate analyst based in Pinellas County, attributes the area's real estate boom and subsequent slump to having too many speculators and investors in the market. Even though people bought new houses in the growing communities of Hillsborough and Pasco counties, it doesn't mean they moved in, he said.
"It happened in the cheapest subdivisions in Brandon, and it happened in some of the wealthiest communities in the Bay area," Rose said. "It happened all over Pasco County."
Ted Schrader, a Pasco County commissioner and developer, pointed to the abundance of "for sale" and "for rent" signs in the neighborhoods of growing central Pasco as evidence of that trend.
The recent slowdown offers at least one positive for area leaders, Schrader said: the luxury of time in preparing for additional growth.
"It allows us the ability - the privilege - to be able to plan accordingly, using smart growth philosophies and trying to design densities in certain areas rather than the sprawl we've encountered in the past 10 years," he said. "Obviously, everyone recognizes we're woefully behind in the transportation needs."
The region's need for increased transportation, schools and other public facilities can be seen in its growth since the 2000 census report.
•Hillsborough grew by almost 16 percent between 2000 and 2006. Last year's growth rate of 2.3 percent marked its lowest in four years and was down from 2.9 percent the previous year.
•Hernando, the region's smallest county, has added about 7,000 people a year since 2000. Like Pasco, Hernando saw its growth slow in 2006 after peaking in 2005.
•Overall, the Tampa metro region, which includes Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, has added 300,000 residents since the 2000 census.
•Polk County's one-year growth went from 3.5 percent to 3.6 percent and has increased every year since 2000. The county hit 561,606 residents in the summer, up 16 percent since the 2000 census.
Flagler County, between Daytona Beach and Melbourne, remained Florida's - and the nation's - growth pacesetter. The county grew 66 percent since 2000 and by more than 9 percent between 2005 and 2006 - from about 50,000 to 83,000 residents, according to census estimates.
Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com. Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
Priced Out Of Paradise
Published: Mar 22, 2007
Chris and Barbara Loulousis bought their two-bedroom Clearwater Beach vacation condo 28 years ago for $76,900. Their yearly property tax, they say, was just more than $1,200. Now it tops $8,200.
Without homestead exemption, which shields permanent residents from high tax increases, their taxes are likely to rise further. The Chicago-area couple are second-home owners who say they no longer can afford to keep their seasonal getaway.
"It's not fair to stick it to us just because we don't have homestead," said Chris Loulousis, 73. "Some people who live here full time pay $1,400 a year for the same unit we have."
A recent two-part plan by the Florida House Republican leadership promised the Loulousises relief. One part would cut every homeowner's taxes by an average of 20 percent. The second part, a constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot, would eliminate property taxes, but only for those who claim their home as their primary residence and have a homestead exemption.
For some homeowners, the amendment could mean saving thousands of dollars each year. But owners of second homes - rental property owners, vacation-home owners and snowbirds such as the Loulousises - would continue paying.
If property values go up, as some economists predict will happen under this proposal, second-home owners would pay higher taxes, experts say, drastically altering Florida's historically strong second-home market. It also could become a drag on the rest of the residential real estate market, as competing states such as Tennessee, Georgia and North and South Carolina lure second-home owners with cheaper taxes and home prices.
"Some people will just get out of town," said Elliot Eisenberg, housing policy economist at the National Association of Home Builders. "Florida is nice, but every place has something nice. Other states will probably see this change as a marketing tool."
Lawrence Yun, an economist with the National Association of Realtors, foresees a more drastic scenario.
"Florida is at the top of the second-home market," he said. "But if this passes, that part of the market will never be the same."
Not The Deal It Used To Be
It's unclear how many of Florida's homeowners have second homes because no one collects those specific data. Anecdotally, real estate industry officials say the state is one of the top second-home markets in the nation. Information from local property appraisers offers some perspective. In Pinellas County, 26 percent of single-family homes have no homestead exemption, about the same as in Hillsborough County, where 25 percent have no exemption. In each county, that translates to more than 80,000 homes.
Homestead exemption prevents the taxes on people's primary residences from increasing more than 3 percent a year. It also reduces the taxable value by $25,000. Without the exemption, people such as the Loulousises who own second homes are finding it more difficult to afford the Florida lifestyle because their homes are taxed at higher and higher values.
Historically, people looking to purchase weekend or seasonal getaway homes were lured to Florida by sunshine, beaches and relatively low home prices. But sales prices, taxes and homeowners insurance have gone up, and some people are deciding Florida is no longer the deal it used to be, Yun said.
Chuck Houseman, a real estate agent near Myrtle Beach, S.C., said his state's second-home market is growing. The state has beaches like Florida, and the tax issue could persuade some second-home buyers to give South Carolina a second look.
"People in Ohio and Pennsylvania have a shorter drive to come here than to Florida," Houseman said.
Florida's hot weather and unpredictable hurricane season are helping states such as Tennessee attract more second-home residents, said Ramay Winchester, director of Retire Tennessee, a pilot program of the state's Department of Economic and Community Development.
The property tax issue could help Tennessee lure even more residents, Winchester said, and "a lot of people from Florida have been calling with questions about retiring in Tennessee."
Florida's amendment hasn't made it to the ballot yet, and Barry and Becky Skeens, who own a second home in St. Pete Beach, are looking into relocating.
The Skeens bought their 1,200-square-foot condo three years ago, thinking they were staking a claim on a future retirement home before Florida's home prices rose out of their reach.
Their property taxes have gone from $3,500 to $5,000. The Skeens, who live in St. Louis, plan to retire to Florida and claim homestead in about seven years, but they worry taxes will be too high by then.
"The taxes are absolutely a factor, and we've already started looking at homes in other states," Becky Skeens said. "We're considering Texas."
It's not just the property tax payments that turn her off, Skeens said. It's an issue of fairness. "Here I am paying more property taxes than full-time residents, but I don't get the benefits since I'm not always there."
'What A Dumb Policy'
Eisenberg, the economist from the National Association of Home Builders, said home prices in Florida would probably rise shortly after the amendment passed because homebuyers who would save on property taxes could afford to pay more for houses.
"The price increase would absorb the savings," Eisenberg said. "The only people better off by this law would be people who already have homes and plan to stay put, or people who plan to sell and move to another state where prices are cheaper."
Eisenberg points to Washington, D.C., as an example. In the early 1990s, the government offered a $5,000 break on federal taxes for buyers who purchased in the district.
At first, buyers thought it was a great incentive, "but all that happened was sellers tacked on $5,000 more to the cost of the house."
"What a dumb policy, and your policy is very similar," Eisenberg said.
Florida homeowners give the amendment mixed reviews.
Richard Cope, who lives on Clearwater Beach and used to own a real estate company, said he is partly excited about the possibility of ditching his $31,000-a-year tax bill.
The Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office values Cope's home at $4 million. Without homestead exemption, Cope's property taxes would be nearly $90,000, according to property appraiser records. Cope said his neighbor pays close to that amount in taxes on his home.
"The two houses are identical," Cope said. "It's not right to have one set of people paying one set of taxes and another set paying more."
Kevin and Dorris Barry, who live in the same Clearwater condominium building as Chris and Barbra Loulousis, paid $6,180 in taxes in 2006, more than $2,000 less than the Loulousises paid.
The Barrys bought their unit in 2004 and have homestead exemption. They think their property taxes are too high but are thankful they locked in when they did.
The prospect of shedding the tax completely brings on a nervous chuckle for Kevin Barry: "I'd have extra cash."
Even so, he said, he feels bad for others in his building, such as the Loulousises, who wouldn't get the relief.
"It almost sounds ridiculous."
Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804 or sbehnken@tampatrib.com.
Elgin homeowners wait in limbo
By CHANDRA BROADWATER
Published March 22, 2007
SPRING HILL - The more they think about it, the more Barbara and Jay Bogner like the idea of moving away from noisy and hectic Elgin Boulevard traffic.
But several weeks after county commissioners voted to raze the couple's home - and 33 others on the north side of the road to make way for an expansion - the homeowners are still wary of their financial future.
They've lived in their home for 19 years, and almost have it paid off.
"Leaving this road and starting somewhere else makes us feel good, it really does," Jay Bogner said. "It's just that we don't know what the county's going to offer us, when they will do that and how much our taxes will go up when we move."
Since the Feb. 27 decision, the county has been busy working with property owners willing to sell, said Hernando Public Works director Charles Mixson. So far, that includes a handful of homeowners hoping to get the process over with as soon as possible.
Others are still trying to figure out what they want to do. And some, like the Bogners, now have eminent domain attorneys.
"We're offering very reasonable prices and the people should be very happy," Mixson said. "Hopefully, everyone decides to work with us, but if not, we'll have to start condemnation and go forward from there."
The $10-million project runs along a 0.8-mile stretch from Mariner Boulevard east to Lauren Drive and Sand Ridge Boulevard.
Impact and mitigation fees will be used to purchase the Elgin Boulevard property. Although the project has been in planning stages for the past five years, groundwork before the widening is expected to take at least another three.
While commissioners said it was a difficult decision - the case marks the first time Hernando homes could be bulldozed under eminent domain - they said the busy road has become unsafe for motorists and property owners.
Commissioners also promised the Bogners and other homeowners frequent contact and updates from the county as the process continues. Along with current market value for their homes, some people could be compensated for recent improvements made as well.
Barbara Bogner said she received a letter from the county last week clarifying whether she and her husband owned their home or rented.
She said her lawyer has told her it will probably be late summer before they get word on an appraisal.
"We've been out looking at homes, but we're basically in limbo right now," Barbara Bogner said. "There's not much we can do until we know how much the county will offer us."
Chandra Broadwater can be reached at cbroadwater@sptimes.com or 352 848-1432.
Fast Facts:
Protecting property owners
Florida law protects property owners more than most residents realize, according to Assistant County Attorney Kent Weissinger.
The state Constitution goes beyond the federal Constitution by calling for full compensation, not only just compensation, of property owners who face condemnation.
That means the condemning authority - in the Elgin Boulevard case, Hernando County
- must not only pay fair market value to homeowners, but also the property owner's attorney's fees and property appraisal for the owner, in addition to whatever other fees the county may accrue.
Because of this, most cases end up settled out of court. In some cases, homeowners may also get paid more for their homes so that the usually much higher costs of court can be avoided
1,225-acre project proposed for Baker
Developer Jackson-Shaw wants to build the industrial park, which could
bring 4,100 jobs.
The 1,225-acre industrial park on the eastern edge of Baker County could also bring 4,100 jobs to area residents, and construction could start in less than three years.
The project, which has rail access, would have more than 6 million square feet of industrial space, 300,000 square feet of commercial space, and 200 hotel rooms if it proceeded as planned.
The park would provide a strong economic development opportunity for Baker County, which until now has primarily received proposals to develop residential projects. A large portion of the rural county's residents now commute to surrounding counties to work.
It would also continue the westward shift of major business development for the region, a transition that began with the cementing of Cecil Commerce Center as an industrial park.
Economic development officials have already lured a large distributor to the former military base and have prospects that would invest hundreds of millions of dollars there.
Representatives from developer Jackson-Shaw met with Baker County staff and the chairman of the county commission on Tuesday to discuss the project.
Thomas Jones, regional development partner for Jackson-Shaw in Jacksonville, said he had called most of the Baker county commissioners to inform them of the plans but had not yet contacted several of the organizations that will be essential in making the park a success, including Cornerstone, the economic development arm of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce that helps recruit businesses to the area.
Baker county manager Joe Cone said the project was well received, though some technical issues regarding transportation, water, and sewer access will need to be worked out.
The business park would require the developer to build a new interchange on I-10, which sits just south of the property. Cone said that staff also made clear to Jackson-Shaw representatives the county wouldn't cover any costs for road improvements. Jackson-Shaw would pay 100 percent of their water and sewer costs, Cone said.
Jones said Jackson-Shaw would probably spend about $90 million on land and improvements to the site before construction for the tenants could begin. Jones estimated the cost of construction at full build-out to be about $360 million.
Jackson-Shaw would act as master developer for the site, and other builders or tenants could handle the actual construction of buildings themselves.
The developer will need to get approvals from several state and county agencies before being able to proceed.
"It seems to be top notch," said Mark Hartley, who is chairman of the county commission. "I liked it because it seems to bring quality employment to the county."
Hartley said he and other commission members would want to ensure the project didn't have a negative environmental impact. The developer plans to designate about 470 acres for parks and wetlands conservation.
Jones said Jackson-Shaw hopes to break ground on the project in two and a half years. Their biggest hurdle will be garnering approval from the state department of transportation for the interchange.
Jackson-Shaw has the land for the project under contract contingent on the interchange being approved. Jones declined to give a purchase price but said it was in excess of $15 million.
Although Cecil Commerce Center, which has more than 8,000 developable acres, would be a competitor for businesses, Jones said he believes the center could be nearly full before his project is ready to take tenants.
"We believe the I-10 corridor is an excellent viaduct for commercial development," he said. "I think we're the first duck on the pond out here."
(904) 359-4689
Land purchase creates a rift
By RITA FARLOW
Published March 22, 2007
LARGO - Signs at the entrances of the Palm Hill Country Club mobile home park in Largo tell those passing by that the 55-and-older park is resident-owned.
Turns out, that's not exactly so. And a dispute over whether the residents should buy the park is causing a deep rift among some residents, some of whom fear they'll be priced out of their homes.
Residents of Palm Hill, one of Pinellas' largest mobile home parks, own their homes and all improvements, like the streets, sewer lines, pools and clubhouses through a cooperative. But the land the park sits on belongs to the John S. Taylor family of Largo, which leases the land to residents.
Now, the cooperative's board has proposed buying the land from the Taylor family for $76-million, an idea that neighbors on either side of the issue complain has led to verbal attacks and scare tactics.
Residents on both sides have said that they feel it's in their best interest to own the land, but a group has emerged to contest the sale, arguing that the price is too high and doesn't take into account that the residents already own the improvements.
"That covers all the buildings that we already own, so they're giving everyone a false appraisal," Melvin Filcox said. "The Taylors get rich, the lawyers get rich, the bank gets rich, and the residents of Palm Hill pay."
But Andrew Rodnite, attorney for the Taylors, said the appraisal is based on the terms of the current lease, which allows for the highest and best use of the property. In other words, the appraisal is based on the amount the land could fetch if it were undeveloped.
* * *
Bob and Mary. Ed and Louise. Dave and Gloria.
The small, personalized signs on each residence identify who lives inside and helps contribute to the tight-knit, small-town feel of the park, which is a mixture of single- and double-wide modular and mobile homes that covers 165 acres.
Just under two years ago the park made news when separate funnel clouds called "gustnados" sliced through Largo, damaging 50 mobile homes. Damage in the Palm Hill park alone amounted to $437,705.
Construction on the park began in 1969. It now has 1,096 units, and roughly 1,500 residents. The residents formed a cooperative in the early 1980s to protect their interests in case the land ever became available for purchase.
In 1986, the cooperative paid $17-million to buy all of the park's improvements, but the purchase did not include the land.
In 1995, the cooperative signed a new land lease with the Taylors. Under the provisions of that contract, the land lease payment was agreed upon as 8 percent of the land's value at that time of $7.85-million.
The lease provides that the land will be reappraised every 15 years to determine the fair market value.
And it's that lease arrangement - due for reappraisal in 2010 - that is driving the cooperative's pitch that its time to buy the land. Its leaders contend it will be cheaper for residents than what lease fees will be after the reappraisal.
On county tax rolls - where real estate values are traditionally lower than the market rate - the Taylors land, without the improvements, is currently appraised at $52.8-million. The best case scenario for residents: The reappraised value in 2010 would match the current county appraisal, raising the cost of the lease per unit to $321 a month, up from $64 a month.
Joe Gaynor, the attorney for the park's board of directors, cautions that the land's value will not likely decrease or even remain stagnant.
If the 2010 appraisal matched the Taylor's recent appraisal of $81-million, the residents could pay as much as $493 per month beginning in 2010, Gaynor said.
In contrast, the $76-million purchase price would require each resident pay $399 per month.
Homeowners have until April 3 to cast their votes on whether to buy the property. As of Monday, 535 residents had turned in their votes, with 454 voting yes and 81 voting no. Seventy-five percent of the park's 1,096 units must vote in favor of the sale to move forward.
Jean Halvorsen, former city commissioner and 34-year resident of the park, said residents have wanted to buy the property for many years. "To me, its the only way to go. I think $76-million is a fair price and I don't believe that the market is starting to die down, not with this type of land."
Fast Facts:
The Taylor family
The Taylors are one of Pinellas County's oldest families, having settled in the area in 1835 and helped build the first Free School in the 1850s. The family ran a citrus packing house in Largo on West Bay Drive and its members have a long history of being active in local and state government, including a former Largo mayor and four generations of state legislators. Largo named Taylor Park for the family in 1958.
Panther found dead in I-4
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — State wildlife officials say a male panther was found dead on Interstate 4 near Walt Disney World on today.
In recent years, panthers have rebounded from the brink of extinction, from roughly 30 to about 100, mostly on the southwestern edge of the Everglades.
The panther was wearing a radio collar. Officials say it was probably hit by a vehicle.
The panther is the second to be killed along the I-4 corridor in the past year. The last animal was found about a year ago.
The monthlong pilot program has Gators for a Sustainable Campus passing out 100 compact fluorescent light bulbs donated by GRU to students living off campus in GRU's service area.
"We think that the more students learn about the bulbs and their benefits, the more likely they are to use them," said Brendan Moore, president of Gators for a Sustainable Campus.
Each executive board member of Gators for a Sustainable Campus is distributing a bulb to 10 different people.
Moore said that they want to ensure that the recipients live off campus and will install the energy-saving light bulbs.
"If the pilot program is successful it will expand into a longer lasting program that will involve more students," Moore said.
Sophia Costabal, a marketing intern at GRU, said the utility decided to partner with UF students because the City Commission gave it the task of educating customers about the importance of energy conservation.
"It is important because not only do compact fluorescent light bulbs conserve energy but they also help in saving our customers money on their electric bills," Costabal said.
In return for the free bulbs, the students will fill out a pledge card promising to install the bulb at home and to replace all future bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. The pledge card is then submitted to GRU and entered into its system.
Moore said he has replaced all of the light bulbs in his apartment with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
"It is easy and saves you money so there is no reason not to use them," he said. "It makes sense both financially and environmentally."
The swirl-shaped compact fluorescent light bulbs cost about $2 to $3, but they last about five years, 10 times longer than standard incandescent light bulbs, according to the Energy Star Web site, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs can save consumers $30 over the life of each bulb.
Beth Murdock, a graduate student in accounting, was a recipient of one of the free bulbs.
"I was skeptical at first because I had never heard of these bulbs before and they look funny, but I am excited to see if I notice a difference in my utilities bill," she said
Pasadena Hills Residents Give Growth Input
Published: Mar 21, 2007
DADE CITY - Residents of Pasadena Hills want to preserve its rural charm and sweeping vistas, but they'd also like a Starbucks.
Those conflicting desires, the result of a community discussion last month, were something planners hoped to resolve when they gathered residents again Tuesday to imagine how the area will look in 50 years.
"Most of us won't be here, but it's nice to lay the groundwork," said Margie Repole, a former winter visitor from New York who lives year-round outside Zephyrhills.
About 150 people clustered around tables at Pasco High School to hash it out at the latest session.
Several land-use lawyers and other development types sat on the fringes, gleaning clues about the challenges future developments may face.
Pasadena Hills wraps around the southern tail of Brooksville Ridge. It's where the flatness of west and central Pasco gives way to rolling hills around Zephyrhills and Dade City.
More than a century ago, the community thrived on surrounding citrus groves. Much of that prosperity vanished after a fatal freeze in 1895.
Lately, the hills have felt the squeeze of growth sprawling north from New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.
Pasadena Hills is bounded on the southwest by Curley Road and State Road 54 and on the northeast by Clinton Avenue and U.S. 301. The area straddles Handcart Road, which the county has set as the eastern boundary of cookie-cutter suburbia.
Atop the ridge at the heart of Pasadena Hills sit orange groves owned by the Evans family.
Last year, county officials turned down proposals by the Evanses and others in the area to convert their groves into subdivisions.
Commissioner Ted Schrader told Tuesday's gathering that the county rejected those changes because they were "piecemeal."
"The residential market has slowed, giving us a chance to create a plan everyone can buy into," Schrader told the crowd. "When it's all said and done, we're going to have a plan everyone can be proud they participated in."
Professional planners will spend today and Thursday turning residents' ideas into a vision of Pasadena Hills in 2057.
That will call for resolving conflicting ideas, but the process also will incorporate ideas on which people are united, such as avoiding anything that looks like U.S. 19 through west Pasco.
"I would like to see intelligent design of the roads," said Charles McEndree of Zephyrhills. "Development is going to come to these wide-open spaces around us whether we like it or not."
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
County grants land use appeal
Slow-growth activists complain that developers skirt laws by appealing.
By ZAC ANDERSON
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- When the county enacted a set of land use laws in
2004, they were touted as a way to control growth in rural areas and
along the coast, pushing it toward the urban core.But the rules were far from simple, and they allowed developers an out -- they could appeal to the County Commission if denied by planners.
And that's what they've done, in droves.
On Tuesday, the commission granted its ninth appeal in as many tries, disappointing slow-growth activists who have been galvanized by the issue.
"If we continue to waive the ordinance there's no guarantee we'll have enough potable water, enough infrastructure, enough evacuation time in a storm," said Sue Reske, chairperson of the Greater Charlotte Harbor Group of the Sierra Club.
Tuesday's decision allowed developer Jay Fertig of Burnt Store Land Group LLC to transfer development rights, or "density units," from a property on the Cape Haze peninsula to his Burnt Store land.
County planners had opposed the density transfer, citing concerns over flooding.
But Fertig's attorney, Rob Berntsson, argued that the rules are vague, sometimes flawed and often open to interpretation.
"No ordinance can cover every circumstance," Berntsson said.
Berntsson and his experts convinced three of the five commissioners to exempt Fertig from the development rule, which was delaying his 80-home project in Burnt Store.
Several commissioners expressed frustration with the review system.
"This has been an absolute circus," said Commissioner Tom D'Aprile before voting to approve Fertig's appeal. "I'm torn."
Commissioner Adam Cummings said he agreed with Berntsson's arguments but thought Fertig's plan is against the rules as they currently are written.
"I think we're doing this the wrong way and I'm not willing to keep granting appeals," Cummings said. "If the process isn't producing the results you want, fix the process."
The issue likely won't go away soon.
More than 100 people showed up at a workshop on the ordinance last week to protest the string of appeals.
Reske and other slow-growth advocates said they would continue to oppose exceptions to the rules.
"We hope commissioners look at every new case with fresh eyes," Reske said.
South Florida marine life faces peril with 'the wrong' beach
The sand shortage is the lastest problem with a beach-rebuilding program that harms water quality and marine life, environmentalists say.
BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com
To survive constant assault from winds, waves and tides, beach sand has to be akin to Goldliock's porridge -- just right.
But it's been wrong too often in Florida's beach-building program, environmentalists and other critics contend. Now, they fear the pressure of South Florida's sand shortage could only worsen water quality problems that harm marine life, from tiny burrowing beach crabs to centuries-old corals.
''It's a simple fact that most of the offshore sand is not very durable in the beach zone,'' said Harold Wanless, chair of geological science at the University of Miami who has studied renourishment for years.
Grains too small float off to settle as silt on reefs Too big, they roll away with waves instead of sticking around. Too soft, they mush into mud. Too hard, they are tough on nesting turtles and human feet.
Since the 1970s, when regular renourishment efforts started, several studies have documented damage to corals, sponges and fish, including off Miami-Dade and Broward -- typically from water clouded by dredge scoops or from rebuilt beaches oozing what Wanless described as a ``time release of fine grain sand.''
Nesting turtles can turn away from bad rebuilds and burrowing mole crabs, known as ''sand fleas'' to anglers who dig them for bait, can be buried altogether.
''If you put the wrong sand down, the things that live in the beach just die,'' said Terry Gibson, an assistant editor with Florida Sportsman magazine who wrote a 2005 investigative series critical of dredging.
He has seen it happen twice within the last few years alone. First, inland sand poured on a stretch of St. Lucie County beach proved so cement-like that thousands of tons had to be scraped up and trucked away. Another job at Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach caked a popular snorkeling reef in suffocating silt, he said.
Regulators, engineering and dredging firms and the influential Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association, which lobbies for beach funds for counties, insist the widespread ripple effects of the past have been sharply reduced with better sand standards and reef monitoring.
''Clearly, there is no argument there are short-term impacts,'' said Debbie Flack, government affairs director for the association. ``Yes, we've gotten better. No, it's not perfect. We still need to work at it.''
Flack points out that the St. Lucie debacle often cited by critics wasn't a beach widening but an emergency dune repair -- and the state did order the bad sand removed. But she acknowledged environmental oversight suffered during the unprecedented sand-pumping of the last two years to repair the storm-battered coast.
''We rushed projects and as sand sources become more limited, we may be accepting sand quality that isn't acceptable,'' she said. ``Those are issues we need to study and make better.''
With the Legislature declaring beach building in the public interest, regulators must strike a ''delicate balance'' between the environmental and economic considerations, said Paden Woodruff, who supervises beach management for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
''You have to balance the cost of not protecting these areas and the billions of dollars of private property, public property and public infrastructure that is protected by the shoreline,'' he said. ``The economics will always be there.''
But Gibson and T.J. Marshall of the South Florida chapter of The Surfrider Foundation, a group that monitors beach projects, said the program has only encouraged decades of coastal building that has put more people and property at risk.
Both advocate sharply increased ''bypassing'' efforts, meaning mining of sand that builds naturally in some spots for use in erosion hot spots -- a step embraced by regulators.
Marshall said the state has dredged itself into an unsustainable and expensive hole of creating unnaturally wide beaches that begin to erode as soon as they're completed.
''They want to have these beaches that are two football fields wide and those beaches don't exist in Florida,'' Marshall said. ``A natural beach is only 30 to 40 yards wide at maximum.''
THE BEACH
South Florida running out of sand
BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com
INSPECTION: ''When we run out of sand for our beaches, the
beaches are going to go bye-bye,'' says Steve Higgins, Broward’s
beach erosion administrator. Higgins is looking over boulders at
John U. Lloyd State Park in Hollywood.
For decades, South Florida's beaches have received periodic infusions of fresh sand pumped from offshore to maintain their bountiful curves.
Now, the supply of sunken sand off Miami-Dade and Broward is tapped out.
''For practical purposes,'' said Miami-Dade environmental director Carlos Espinosa, ``we are out of sand.''
The shortage has federal, state and local agencies and consultants searching for stuff alluring enough to spread on such fabled bikini strips as Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. The hunt ranges from ancient beaches now buried inland to unexplored depths to islands of the Bahamas and Caribbean.
It also has major implications for Florida's beach program, which regularly ''renourishes'' a constantly eroding coast with dredge pumps and pipelines.
Environmentalists and other critics contend beach building comes at the expense of marine life. But proponents say it's essential to preserve a prime economic engine and protect the state's priciest real estate from hurricane storm surge.
''When we run out of sand for our beaches, the beaches are going to go bye-bye and that's a serious thing,'' said Steve Higgins, beach erosion administrator for Broward.
Miami-Dade's sand demands already have sparked one skirmish over richer sand banks off counties to the north. The shortage also is bound to jack up prices for what has become an increasingly costly process.
Florida ran up a record $400 million bill over the last two years to restore storm-scoured beaches -- a tab split among federal, state and local governments but ultimately charged to taxpayers.
It cost $45 million to rebuild 6.8 miles of South Broward beaches last year with sand dredged from offshore. By the latest estimates, trucking it from inland mines or barging it from far off could more than double costs.
Nobody envisions Miami Beach disappearing to the dune line, but the sand shortage has delayed for more than a year plans to fill a number of persistent erosion ''hot spots'' -- from 63rd to 84th streets, as well as at 27th, 44th and 55th streets.
It also could push back Broward's plan to replenish the thinning stretch from northern Fort Lauderdale to Pompano Beach.
Waterfront hotels, condos and homes aren't considered at immediate risk, but the safety margin narrows along with that protective buffer of beachfront.
''The beach is as good as one storm,'' said Espinosa, whose Department of Environmental Resource Management runs Miami-Dade's renourishment program. ``We've been very fortunate. We've had a number of storms, but we didn't really get a direct blow.''
THE NARROW LIP
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection classifies more than 40 percent of the state's 825 miles of beachfront as ''critically eroded,'' including much of the East Coast.
But a geological feature hidden under the waves separates South Florida from the rest of the state.
Miami-Dade and Broward sit on the narrowest lip of the continental shelf, a shallow underwater ridge bordering the peninsula. It's only about a mile and half wide until southern Palm Beach County, when it begins to broaden to 10, 20 and more than 50 miles farther north.
The result is slim pickings off South Florida for dredgers, which slurp sand from ''borrow sites'' in 60 to 90 feet of water and don't have gear to go much deeper -- even if there were some undiscovered Sahara beneath the deep blue.
After decades as the state's busiest and biggest sand pumper, Miami-Dade is down to one small site the county wants to keep as an emergency reserve, Espinosa said.
Broward, said Higgins, has perhaps a million cubic yards at one northern site, enough for a major project, but it's mixed with rubble difficult and expensive to screen out.
The search for a suitable substitute has proved complicated.
In the Sunshine State, there are endless buckets of sand offshore and on, but much of it isn't up to snuff for beach use. There are state and county standards for everything from grain size to color. Sand too hard or dark, for instance, might discourage sea turtles from nesting or raise the temperature around buried eggs.
So far, replacement sands come with problems or high prices. Last year, Miami-Dade and the state spent $3.2 million just to haul sand for three small projects from inland quarries 100 miles away near the Lake Wales Ridge, Florida's beachfront several million years ago.
Hauling that sand for a major renourishment effort would be a logistical nightmare and staggeringly expensive, with one preliminary bid roughly double the dredging costs.
''You're talking millions of cubic yards,'' Espinosa said. ``It's just not feasible. You would have trucks lined up on Collins Avenue back to back.''
There also is sand off counties to the north, where the continental shelf widens past the three-mile state limit into federal waters.
''There is probably going to be a lot of demand for that federal sand if it turns out to be good sand,'' Higgins said.
But it's likely to be zealously guarded for local projects. Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed scooping sand for Miami Beach from the St. Lucie Shoal, a ridge about five miles offshore that is popular with anglers and helps protect a stretch of coast occupied by a nuclear plant.
The plan quickly drew heavy flack, notably from state Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, who vowed to fight moving a single grain ''until the bitter end,'' according to The Palm Beach Post.
The Corps, which oversees and bankrolls many of Florida's beach-building projects, dropped the idea. Miami-Dade then asked about dipping into Palm Beach sand, but much of it proved of poor quality, and that county has its own plans for the good stuff.
Charlie Stevens, Corps project manager for Miami Beach, said those rejections don't necessarily eliminate other sites in federal waters, but clearly any ''sand grabs'' will face fights. The first skirmishes have already produced a bill before the Legislature that would ensure county commissions are informed and consulted anytime somebody eyes sand off their shore.
Paden Woodruff, administrator of the Florida Deparment of Environmental Protection's beach management section, said the state is considering ways to address the shortage.
New techniques could allow dredgers to tap additional sand now hard to reach, he said, perhaps by developing ways to process ''marginal'' sand or to work closer to sand-surrounded reefs protected by wide buffer zones.
IMPORTANT GRAINS
The state is assembling an inventory of offshore supplies -- and if any good deep-sea deposits are pinpointed, dredge companies could adapt gear to tackle them.
''Certainly if there was demand, it would be a no-brainer,'' Woodruff said.
For now, however, importing sand appears the most promising option for South Florida.
''It could be the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, places like that that would be willing to sell the sand,'' Espinosa said.
But that option also remains uncertain. Under a clause in federal law, inserted primarily to protect the American dredging industry, the Corps must rule out all domestic sources as too costly or environmentally damaging before signing off on foreign grains.
Stevens expects to finish an initial report on options for Miami Beach -- the first project affected -- later this month. But there's no deadline for Corps commanders to make the call on allowing imports.
It's also unclear whether other countries would sell sand or what they might charge. The Bahamas, for example, has been cool to past proposals.
''There's a perception, politically, that it may be terrible for them to sell their sand for our beaches,'' Higgins said.
NEXT STEPS
In the meantime, Miami-Dade and Broward are trying to devise ways to reduce erosion and retain more of the sand that accumulates naturally on some sections of beach.
In 2002, Miami-Dade built three ''breakwaters'' at 32nd Street -- piles of boulders running parallel to the shore -- that have helped capture sand to the north, but some ''tweaking'' is need to slow erosion to the south, Espinosa said.
Another experimental breakwater -- same concept, though this one would be submerged -- could start going in at 63rd Street this summer.
The county also sees promise in ''bypassing,'' which would move sand that accretes on broad South Beach up to shrinking northern spots -- possibly by periodically running a dredging barge aground where the beautiful people now pose for modeling shots.
Broward has installed a series of jetties to reduce losses at John U. Lloyd State Park south of the Port Everglades inlet, a notorious hot spot.
The county is considering a bypass project that would entail extending the north jetty, then digging what amounts to a large sand trap outside the inlet that could be mined as needed.
Broward is also experimenting with recycled ground glass as a sand substitute.
''There will never be enough of it to build a beach or anything, but it could be a supplemental type of material and we may need it,'' Higgins said. ``The money is getting harder to come by. . . . It's crunch time, pretty much.''
WATER RESTRICTIONS
Thursday, tighten the faucet
BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com
Starting Thursday, cars may start to look less shiny and gardens less green.
Water restrictions kick in across South Florida at 12:01 a.m., limiting suburban sprinklers and outside water use to three days a week in Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and eastern Palm Beach counties.
Regional water managers ordered the cutbacks in response to a drought that has dropped water levels in the Everglades and canals and, most critically, Lake Okeechobee. The big lake, main source of water for nearby towns and farms and a backup for the Everglades and coastal cities, stood at 10.765 feet on Tuesday -- about four feet below average.
Randy Smith, a spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, which manages the water supply for 16 counties, said it's going to take months of rain to replenish the system and the next two, April and May, tend to be the driest annually.
''This is 14 months in the making to where we are right now,'' he said. ``It's not going to be an immediate fix.''
The shortage is severe enough that water managers are considering making many restrictions year-round.
Residents with home addresses ending in odd numbers can water only between 4 and 8 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Those with even-number addresses can water between the same hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On allowed watering days, homeowners also may wash cars, boats and other equipment within those hours and from 5 to 7 p.m.
Restrictions extend beyond homeowners. Golf courses, nurseries and other thirsty businesses are being order to cut back 15 percent from Key West to Palm Beach and double that in the farm fields southeast of the lake. For complete rules, see www.sfwmd.gov, click on the Water Shortage Alert and then scroll down to Water Shortage Info.
Local code-enforcers or police are being asked to enforce the rules and repeat residential violators face fines from $50 to $500. Large users could face civil fines of up to $10,000 a day for violations.
Restrictions on tap: Drought puts kink in sprinklers
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Learn to conserve or be prepared to pay.
That's the choice for millions of South Florida residents beginning Thursday, when communities from Tequesta to the Keys enter their first region-wide drought restrictions in nearly six years.
The rules will force residents to check the calendar before turning on their sprinklers, and in most cases will limit lawn watering to just 12 hours a week.
Don't expect lots of time to comply. The South Florida Water Management District - eager to see conservation take hold before the hottest months of spring begin - is pressing for no more than a two-week grace period before cities and counties hit violators' wallets. And some might not wait even that long.
Fines can add up quickly, although local governments typically plan to let first-time offenders off with a warning. After that, penalties can start at $25 to $50 per violation, reaching as much as $500 or more for repeat scofflaws.
Boca Raton might even shut off customers' water for flagrant repeats, said Lisa Wilson-Davis of the city's utilities department.
"I don't want to go to that extent," she said, although the city is serious about seeking compliance. The city also is asking people to conserve inside the house, even though the rules don't require it.
"The water management district is telling us we've got to reduce our use by 15 percent," Wilson-Davis said. "The only way we can do that is if our customers reduce their water use 15 percent."
One advantage for Boca Raton's residents: The city already restricts lawn-watering to the same three days a week, so the new rules will merely require people to scale back the hours when they water. Three-days-a-week watering also is in effect already in the town of Palm Beach.
In other locales, the rules will force some adjustments.
"There are so many different restrictions," said Carisse LeJeune, an assistant to Boynton Beach City Manager Kurt Bressner. Their city is spreading the word via newsletter, public-access television, radio and the Web. Before fining residents, she said, "we want to give them the benefit of the doubt."
Besides enforcing the new limits, communities such as Wellington may have to reconsider some of their persnickety qualify-of-life regulations - for instance, requirements that residents keep their lawns green and wash their homes' exteriors.
The village offered a reprieve from those rules during the last drought, in 2001.
"I'm not sure we'll be citing people for having brown grass in an era of water restrictions," Village Manager Charlie Lynn said.
Other agencies, including Palm Beach County's code enforcement office, plan to meet with water managers Monday before settling on an enforcement strategy.
Even more complicated restrictions will face car washes, golf courses, plant nurseries and other businesses that depend on water, as well as homeowners' associations that irrigate multiple addresses at once.
People might notice lower water pressure in their showers. And if you go out to eat, don't count on a glass of water waiting for you - the district is asking restaurants to serve water only on request.
Water district conservation officer Bruce Adams said he thinks most people will cooperate.
"From the calls we're getting, people are jumping on this," he said.
Adams and other experts said most lawns don't need water three days a week. He suggests watering only when the grass shows signs of stress, such as curling blades or a blue-gray tinge.
Other ways to help: Keep your grass tall, at least 3.5 inches for St. Augustine.
Don't fertilize. When you run the sprinklers, apply at least three-quarters of an inch of water, which you can measure using empty tuna cans.
Saving trees a necessity and not an eccentricity
St. Petersburg TIMES EDITORIAL
Published March 21, 2007
Land developers may choose to call Tarpon Springs "eccentric" because of its tough tree ordinance, but the city's determination to protect its tree canopy is laudable.
Last summer the Tarpon Springs City Commission approved some new rules to protect trees. Commissioners were concerned that as Tarpon Springs became more densely developed, its thinning tree canopy might disappear. A community that valued its historical ambience had to value the tree canopy, too, some officials contended, so they created new rules requiring permits before trees could be cut down and specifying in great detail how trees must be protected during building construction.
Now, the new rules have accomplished just what was intended. The city has found what it contends was the illegal destruction of trees and has levied stiff fines to punish the alleged lawbreakers and send a message to other developers.
After a resident complained about downed trees, city inspectors checked out property owned by Daniel J. Comeau at 727 Bayshore Drive and said they found that 55 trees had been illegally cut down.
Comeau said the site had been cleared without his permission, but the city levied a fine of $245,000 for the destruction. The penalty was substantial because the tree ordinance allows levying fines that total four times the permit fee and the cost of a replacement tree.
Credit City Commissioner Peter Dalacos for bringing scrutiny to the second case. Dalacos noticed that a lot of trees were gone from the Meres Boulevard site where Calista Cay townhomes are being developed. The city claimed 45 trees had been cut down without a permit.
Developer Frank Burkett faces a fine of more than $92,000, but he says it is all a mistake and he will fight the fine before the city's Code Enforcement Board.
Burkett said he didn't have such problems with a recent project in Dunedin, but that "Tarpon Springs is a bit more eccentric." Burkett also argued that under his project's landscaping plan, 140 trees being cut down for the townhome project will be replaced with 148.
It's not the same. Replacement trees have to grow for many years to create the shady canopy provided by mature trees. That is one of the reasons to have a tree ordinance that will protect mature or valuable specimens while also requiring replacement trees for those cut down with city approval. The goal is to increase the city's inventory of trees over time.
Tarpon Springs officials talked tough when they passed their tree ordinance last year. It will be up to the city's Code Enforcement Board to make sure the ordinance is properly implemented and that confirmed violators don't wiggle out of appropriate penalties.
With concern about pollution and global warming growing worldwide, every community ought to be taking strong action to protect trees.
Booker Creek reserve is rezoned at last
By TIMES WIRES
Published March 21, 2007
EAST LAKE
Pinellas County commissioners took care of some long overdue housekeeping Tuesday regarding the Brooker Creek Preserve. Commissioners voted to rezone about 418 acres in the preserve from agricultural residential to a preservation and conservation designation. The newly rezoned area is on the east and west sides of East Lake Road north of Trinity Boulevard and bordering the Pinellas/Pasco County line. County officials said the area was never under threat of being developed; it was more of a money issue. The rezoning had been on the county's to-do list since Pinellas bought some of the property in 2003 with a $4-million grant from the Florida Community Trust. In order to be considered again for the state money, the county had to show that the acres were designated properly.
CLEARWATER
Wetlands Developer Submits New Proposal
Published: Mar 21, 2007
PORT RICHEY - A developer who owns wetlands near Wigwam Creek is trying again to have almost 10 acres annexed into the city and rezoned so he can build luxury homes.
This time, David Boger of Ski Lakes LLC is taking a different tack.
After angering area residents and city and county officials, he has backed off his request to change the land-use designation to a "planned unit development," which would have allowed a condominium and retail complex.
Boger's attorney, Steve Booth, said the developer wanted to build only eight single-family homes but had to ask for the more intensive zoning because of "setback issues."
Boger's new application is for R-2 zoning, which city Building Official Ed Winch says allows only one- and two-family homes.
"Each lot has got to be 9,500 square feet," Winch said, and the maximum number of units per acre would be about five. "It is more in line with what they [the development company] said. If they had specified the number of units to begin with, I don't think there would have been such opposition," Winch said.
He said the new request is "probably an appropriate use" for the land, one of the few unspoiled areas west of the city. But Winch said the package needed to be approved by staff, a utilities and safety review committee, and the Planning and Zoning Board before moving on to another city council review.
Booth, Boger and Linda Wright, an additional agent listed on the annexation application, could not be reached for comment.
The site has 7.66 upland acres at the western end of Limit Drive, less than a mile from its intersection with U.S. 19, along Port Richey's southern edge. It is home to bald eagles, egrets and osprey.
Nearby residents and city and county officials feared that Boger's original application would lead to overdevelopment of the environmentally sensitive land within sight of the Gulf of Mexico.
County commissioners weighed in against the request last month.
About a week later, the city council appeared poised to do the same before Booth abruptly withdrew the original application
Lauren RitchieRivers likely to help slake area's thirst
An Ocklawaha River pipeline is among the plans, but foes urge conservation.
Robert Sargent and Ramsey CampbellSentinel Staff Writers
March 21, 2007
With the region's enormous growth already outpacing precious underground-water supplies, local governments will be forced to pump an additional 70 billion gallons each year by 2025 from lakes, rivers and other alternate sources to keep up with the incredible demand.
Already, regional water managers are considering a slew of alternatives as the Floridan Aquifer gets closer to reaching its limit -- everything from removing salt from seawater to pulling water from the St. Johns River.
And today, water-management officials will unveil a new proposal: a 24-inch pipeline running 70 miles from the Ocklawaha River in Marion County to Clermont to provide about 12 million gallons a day to Orlando's thirsty suburbs at a cost of about $204 million.
Another option is to share that supply with Orange County -- pulling a total of about 40 million gallons a day through about 138 miles of pipeline. The cost: $462 million.
The idea of draining water from rivers doesn't sit well with environmentalist Nadine Foley of Umatilla. Foley said any water taken from the rivers for drinking, particularly in dry years, needs to be balanced by protecting waterways and wetlands. She said Florida needs to be more proactive about conservation.
"We use an astonishing amount of water for landscaping," she said.
As part of ongoing efforts to devise an escape plan for growing groundwater withdrawals, St. Johns River Water Management District officials will discuss ideas in Minneola with elected officials from across Lake County. Other meetings to discuss water-supply issues have been scheduled in Orlando.
"We saw a shortfall of groundwater on the horizon," said Barbara Vergara, the district's director of water-supply management.
Experts say Central Florida's projected demands through 2025 will exceed groundwater availability by up to 200 million gallons a day. So the water-management district is urging local governments to work together on alternatives.
Treated-wastewater use to rise
About 60 different projects are designed to lessen demand on groundwater. Many will provide treated wastewater for irrigating lawns -- a few will use surface-water bodies for irrigation.
Proposed treatment plans include desalination and possibly tapping major inland rivers such as the Ocklawaha, St. Johns and the Withlacoochee -- a search for alternative water sources that has become urgent with predictions that Central Florida will be home to nearly 5 million people by 2025.
For decades the area has relied mostly on the underground aquifer -- an inexpensive, easy way to provide drinking water -- for a population that now tops 3 million spread across seven counties.
Experts say water withdrawals are expected to almost double as the region continues to grow. But digging more wells just won't cut it.
Water-management officials fearing serious environmental impacts could stop issuing new permits for groundwater withdrawals within six years. So local governments likely will be forced to collectively invest hundreds of millions of dollars for alternative water projects that other parts of the state such as Tampa and South Florida already depend on.
What it means to residents is that Metro Orlando's days of cheap water are almost over. And accommodating more growth, through the costly treatment of surface water to make it good enough to sip, is going to cost plenty.
"Everybody is complaining about their taxes right now -- wait till they see what water will cost them in the future," Lake County Commissioner Elaine Renick said.
But even as the St. Johns takes steps in hopes of curbing the aquifer spigot, Lake County commissioners Tuesday agreed to settle with The Villages over the retirement mega-community's proposal to boost water consumption an average of 3 billion gallons a year, topping an increase Orange County Utilities received last year. The development will spend as much as $250,000 to help research alternative water resources, under the agreement.
Still, the idea of using surface water to slake a thirsty populace has taken hold in some counties. In Seminole, for instance, permitting has started on new water-treatment plant in the northwest part of the county that will take water from the St. Johns River to augment the county's current reclaimed-water system and eventually provide drinking water.
In the first phase, up to 10 million gallons of river water will be drawn daily to supplement the county's reclaimed-water system. Plans call for construction to begin on the $55 million project in September and be completed by May 2009.
The second phase would expand the plant to make river water safe to drink. Plans call for drawing up to 25 million gallons per day to augment the potable-water system. The county is looking to create regional partnerships to finance and benefit from the $250 million project.
The water-management district also is looking at a concept to use a plant there to serve customers in Seminole, Orange and Lake counties -- a massive project connected by 106 miles of pipeline. That option could cost as much as half a billion dollars, district officials said.
Volusia looks to St. Johns River
In Volusia, utility officials expect the first alternative-water project needed would be a plant of up to $120 million to convert the St. Johns River into drinking water, according to the Water Authority of Volusia. The facility could be built near DeLand.
The plant is needed to supply future water demands for the growing cities of west Volusia. The west Volusia utilities must have this plant in operation by 2018 because of concern that groundwater pumping could affect the manatees that depend on the winter refuge at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City.
In Osceola, two utilities have undertaken projects to protect the limited drinking-water supply by treating lake and creek water for irrigation and industrial use.
The Toho Water Authority recently built a $6.5 million system to pump millions of gallons of water daily out of Shingle Creek, while St. Cloud is working on a similar project to pump water out of East Lake Tohopekaliga.
Six Central Florida water suppliers and two water-management districts have been in talks for years about building a system to purify water from Taylor Creek Reservoir off of the St. Johns River in east Orange and Osceola counties.
Meanwhile, the South Florida Water Management District is eyeing the Kissimmee River basin for future drinking-water supplies. In the next few months, district officials will undertake a study to figure out what role the district would play and which utilities might be involved. The basin could provide water to utilities in Osceola, Polk and even Orange counties, district spokesman Bill Graf said.
"The hurdle we're trying to clear is to rapidly develop a regional surface-water source that could meet a lot of the drinking-water needs well into the future," Graf said.
Ludmilla Lelis, Amy L. Edwards, Daphne Sashin and Robert Perez of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Robert Sargent can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5909. Ramsey Campbell can be reached at rcampbell@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5923
Will threat of sludge for lunch slow growth?
Published March 21, 2007Orange OKs big-box rules; residents stew
David DamronSentinel Staff Writer
March 21, 2007
Orange County commissioners on Tuesday adopted new rules for big-box stores designed to make them better-looking and safer. But they watered down required buffers for homes and schools.
The result angered residents and activists, but it might have prevented a threatened lengthy legal challenge by retailers.
A citizens task force had crafted much-stricter recommendations during the past year, from buffers away from neighborhoods to mandatory parking-lot security guards to minimize the crime, noise and traffic problems that observers say come with the huge stores.
And while the fight prompted Wal-Mart to drop plans for a proposed supercenter at John Young and Central Florida parkways as a concession, Orange County commissioners still rejected the toughest proposals that came from the task force, critics said.
"They have stripped it out completely," said Christopher Draco, a co-chairman of the task force and president of the Crystal Glenn Homeowners Association. "I'm very disappointed with the result."
However, representatives from The Home Depot, Costco and Wal-Mart said the new rules were tough, yet fair to residents and business interests.
"They are reasonable overall," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Michelle Azel said of the rules applying to stores bigger than 75,000 square feet. "It will certainly present some challenges."
At a hearing earlier this month, industry lawyers warned that many of the task-force proposals for large buffers around the stores would face a legal fight. Hearing that, county leaders directed legal staffers to revise the recommendations and present an alternate ordinance.
But what emerged didn't have "any teeth," homeowners groups complained.
"They chopped it up a whole lot," said Barbara Watson, a local resident and member of Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now, or WARN. "They didn't listen to the voice of the people who elected them."
Wal-Mart attorney Hal Kantor countered that the new rules requiring more security, landscaping, shopping-cart control and other measures would still cost millions of dollars.
"Wal-Mart feels it has long, gnarly teeth," Kantor said.
After the agenda was reshuffled, dozens of residents and activists weathered a two-hour delay to be heard at the hearing.
The crowd of about 100 included some who raised signs during the three-hour discussion. One placard pleaded with county leaders to side with families over big corporations.
More than a dozen local Wal-Mart store managers held up a handful of massive poster boards that nearly lined the back wall. About 3,000 postcards were stapled to them, responses to mailers the company recently sent out soliciting support.
The task force and a county land-planning panel recommended putting 1,500 feet between a new store and residential areas, and 1,000 feet between stores and schools.
They also suggested that no big-box retailer be allowed to build another store within 10 miles of one of its own.
All those proposals were jettisoned.
Commissioners Linda Stewart and Teresa Jacobs both pushed compromises of 750-foot buffers for nearby neighborhoods, but those failed.
The commission instead agreed on County Mayor Rich Crotty's alternative of a 200-foot buffer.
The entire board also agreed to keep the recommended requirement of security guards around-the-clock for stores open 24 hours.
Other, less-controversial, new requirements include:
Install shopping-cart-retention plans to keep carts on the lot.
Erect 8-foot-high walls between stores and residences, and preserve more unpaved areas around stores.
Storefronts must look like multiple retail outlets, and each one must install additional windows on the street side.
But most commissioners rejected attempts by Stewart and Jacobs to require a public hearing for every new big-box store, even in heavily commercial areas.
"We did a lot of compromising," Stewart said.
David Damron can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311.
Don't touch wildlife, experts warn
Fawn thriving at refuge should have been watched first, they say
She
had big brown eyes and was as cute as they come, but she couldn't stay at
the Flagler Humane Society.
She was unadoptable.
Why? She was a deer.
The 5-pound, 2-ounce fawn was
estimated to be no more than three days old because the umbilical cord was
still attached.
A resident of a gated community in The
Hammock brought the animal to the humane society because he thought she had
been abandoned. The unidentified resident told shelter employees he found
the fawn wandering around his yard and crying for its mother, something
wildlife rehabilitators say is unlikely.
They believe the mother probably had
gone out to graze and sleep.
"The fawn was in good
shape," said Lora Smith, a local rehabilitator who contacted the
Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Christmas that specializes in deer and
native wildlife rehabilitation.
"I think of the mother coming
back in the evening and the baby is gone," Smith said.
Ron and Carol Hardee, who operate the
Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, said it's unlikely the mother abandoned the
newborn.
"The maternal instinct is
extremely strong in these animals," Carol Hardee said. "It would
take a lot for her not to come back."
Typically the mother and baby would
only be together at sunrise and sunset.
"She will lick the baby all over
to hide the scent and then leave it," Hardee said. "She only
returns to nurse."
The Hardees said they nurture
approximately 25 fawns a year, duties they would rather leave to the mother.
It's not uncommon for homeowners to
misinterpret a solitary deer -- especially a young fawn -- as being in
distress, they say. The Hardees said they frequently receive calls from
concerned people asking what they should do for an animal they believe has
been abandoned.
"We tell them to quietly watch
and see if the mother returns at sunset," Carol Hardee said.
She said it's very important to stay
inside and watch unobtrusively through binoculars.
She also encourages people to call if
they see flies around the animal.
"A healthy baby won't have flies
buzzing around it," she said.
Ron Hardee said the center's goal is
to get the animals ready to fend for themselves in the wild. While the most
recently acquired doe, now named Candy, is at the refuge, she will be
pampered a little bit.
Since recent evenings have been cold
and because of her tender age, Candy was brought inside to sleep on a
heating pad.
"She is being spoiled
rotten," Ron Hardee said.
But the spoiling won't continue for
long. The fawn is not a pet and the Hardees know a few weeks from now they
will be releasing her.
"We will keep her on the bottle
for (another six) weeks and start taking her off it the (seventh)
week," Ron Hardee said. They hope to release the deer at the end of
June.
Some may think they can raise these
animals on their own but the Hardees, and the state of Florida, say no. Not
only is it against the law to interfere with wildlife without a specific
license and permit, it can be harmful.
"It is deadly to the deer and
dangerous for people." Ron Hardee said. "When the males get to be
a year or two they will have the natural instinct to spar."
Since Candy no longer has a family
group to herd with, she will be introduced to other deer around her age.
"We try to release two to three
at a time. In the wild females stay together for life," Ron Hardee
said. "I always like to mix them in groups that are close in age. The
idea is to get them wild."
By BROOKE ELLIS
Delray historic guidelines voted down
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
DELRAY BEACH — A long-awaited vote to approve design guidelines for the city's five historic districts failed before the city commission Tuesday, putting the controversial issue into the hands of a new commission and a new mayor.
The commission approved the first reading of the guidelines earlier this month and was expected to follow suit in crowded chambers on Tuesday, but the board said there were too many unanswered questions.
"Clearly we got off track," Commissioner Jon Levinson said. "This was not done as quickly as it should've been."
The commission voted 3-1, denying the guidelines. Mayor Jeff Perlman voted in favor and Vice Mayor Rita Ellis was absent from Tuesday's meeting.
Ellis, the city's newly elected mayor, will replace Perlman on March 29, along with newly elected Commissioners Gary Eliopoulos, who will fill Ellis' current seat, and Nelson McDuffie, who will replace Levinson. Tuesday was Perlman and Levinson's last commission meeting.
"Although it pains me on my last meeting not to put this issue to bed, I leave office knowing we are leaving the community in good hands to continue with this process to finalize it," Levinson said.
Perlman said before the meeting that the guidelines weren't perfect. The Planning and Zoning Board and the Community Redevelopment Agency, both city advisory boards, voted against the guidelines, as did the Historic Preservation Board. But the Historic Preservation board reversed its decision at a later meeting.
The mayor said though some of the guidelines still need work, he wanted to get them "on the books" and get rules in place. Those against the guidelines have argued that the guidelines are difficult to understand, and some city board members have agreed, including Perlman.
"It's a shame that the average homeowner would have a hard time grasping it," he said. "I do, and I've looked at this thing a hundred times."
Those struggling to protect their homes and others fighting to protect their property rights have packed commission chambers for more than a year now, making the subject of preservation one of the most important issues in the last two city elections.
Before the commission votes on the guidelines again, Commissioner Fred Fetzer suggested asking local architects to review the guidelines and suggest some tweaks. They were created by REG Architects Inc. of West Palm Beach. The city paid the firm $115,000 for its work the past 10 months.
The new guidelines include creating a survey area for property owners who want to renovate or rebuild in a historic district. City staff would look at the four houses across the street from the property in question, as well as one home on either side and one house directly behind it. The renovations or new construction would be compatible with those surrounding seven homes.
That's one of the more controversial guidelines, and one that has upset property owners wishing to build on or sell their land.
Developer Craig Valvo said the guidelines will deter investment in the Marina District especially. He said that property owners along the Intracoastal in the Marina District should not have to follow the guidelines because they are not historic homes.
"They're the most expensive properties in the city. What can be built on those properties is being significantly limited," Valvo said. "I've heard several people talking to lawyers and preparing for lawsuits."
Commissioners also voted to approve zoning changes on an estimated 8 acres in the Sherwood Park and Lakeview neighborhoods, where Christ the King Monastery now sits. The developer intends to build 23 single-family homes on the property and a new monastery for the eight elderly nuns.
Historic trust looks to the future
By KATE McCARDELL
Jackson County Floridan
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Meetings of the Chipola Historic Trust
are in full swing for the season and members are working to keep Jackson
County in touch with its rich history.
The group held its monthly meeting Monday to discuss ideas on how to keep the county's past alive in the hearts and minds of its residents, and also how to catch the interest of visitors who pass through.
"Ninety-nine, 44, 100 percent of the people around here aren't aware of this history here in their own backyard," said trust president Claude Reese.
He and other historic trust members might be able to gain public interest through the Bellamy Bridge.
Reese wants to have the bridge relocated to Citizen's Lodge Park, to possibly serve as a pier at the small lake on the park grounds.
According to Reese, Bellamy Bridge was built in 1914, and is the last open-truss bridge standing in Jackson County.
The group discussed the feasibility of moving the bridge in sections, possibly by way of an air lift using a helicopter. They decided that they will look into the idea further.
An easier task of their's might be establishing an I-10 loop that would bring more motorists closer to the historic district of Marianna.
The loop would begin off I-10 at Pennsylvania Avenue and run through the downtown area back toward the I10 ramps off Highway. 71.
"We're trying to get stand-alone signage off I-10 that'll redirect traffic through downtown," said Chuck Sims, Mainstreet Marianna's executive director and a member of the historic trust.
Sims said that, in order to get approval from DOT to establish the loop, criteria must be met.
This includes confirming that the Marianna Historic District is registered as a historic district with the state of Florida. Sims said that he does know that the district is nationally registered, so it's likely it's registered within the state as well.
The loop must also be approved by Marianna City Commission.
If the loop is approved by both the commission and the traffic operations department of the DOT, four to six historic district signs would be placed at the I10 ramps, as well as at SR 231.
"DOT will put the signs there, but from there, we would have to continue strategically placing signs along the loop in order to help the traveling public find the district. And we would have to pay for all of the signs in between," said Sims.
The trust also discussed other ideas at the meeting, including a logo for the trust. The group hopes to use an illustration of "Mary and Anna." The image of teh two ladies appears on old Citizen's Bank checks and the trust is currently looking for one.
Sweet Promise Has Bitter Reality
Published: Mar 21, 2007
At a gas station 175 miles north of Tampa, there's something motorists won't find anywhere else in the state.
A retail pump dispensing ethanol.
The lone outlet says a lot about Florida's aspirations for alternative fuel and the promises surrounding ethanol. For all the hype about how good ethanol can be, it has problems that must be overcome before it can be sold for mainstream use.
Billed as an environmentally friendly substitute for gasoline, ethanol is an alternative that many think can help wean America off imported oil. It's cleaner-burning, generates more money for farmers and could be a boon to the economy. It even costs 30 cents less on average at the pump. But consumers end up paying much more for it. It's heavily subsidized by taxpayers, contains less energy than gasoline and can lead to higher food prices.
Despite the pitfalls and doubts, ethanol is making great progress as an alternative fuel, as the government tries to replace 20 percent of U.S. petroleum consumption with ethanol by 2017, an ambitious goal that can't be met without better technology.
If ethanol producers can't meet the government's mandate, the consequences for consumers could be costly, said Al Mannato, a fuels expert for the American Petroleum Institute.
"The marketplace will use as much ethanol as economically makes sense. Mandates beyond that are uneconomic," Mannato said. "You could have ethanol costing a whole lot of money - $3, $4 or $5 per gallon to produce."
The United States produced nearly 5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, a figure that's expected to double in less than two years.
Subsidies May Top $8 Billion
Much of the cost of that production is borne by taxpayers, a criticism that has long hounded the U.S. ethanol industry.
The industry received between $5.1 billion and $6.8 billion in government money last year, a range that will soon grow to between $6.3 billion and $8.7 billion annually, according to a study by the Global Subsidies Initiative, a Geneva-based group that advocates subsidy reform.
"Most of the subsidies are not phased out based on production levels," the study's author, Doug Koplow, said in an interview. "The more you produce, the more subsidies you get."
The biggest federal subsidy is a 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit for producers. Without it, ethanol cannot compete with gasoline.
Altogether, subsidies for ethanol are expected to grow to between $1.06 and $1.45 a gallon, Koplow said.
The government is spending too much money on ethanol and not enough on other energy alternatives, Koplow said.
"It's not the only way to address the problems of energy security," he said. "I would like to see policies that integrate the role that efficiency can play."
Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, dismissed suggestions to reduce or eliminate subsidies for ethanol. Total government support for ethanol pales in comparison to the subsidies enjoyed by the oil industry, he said.
"When ethanol is a superior product, a cleaner-burning product, a product better for the country, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to discontinue support," Jennings said.
The entire energy sector is heavily subsidized, from electricity to gasoline, he said.
"That's because we have made a decision in the United States to have an energy policy that helps subsidize the cost of that for consumers," Jennings said.
E85 Costs More
Ethanol's cost is another disadvantage for consumers.
Ethanol will cost consumers more at the pump because it doesn't have as much punch as gasoline.
Ethanol has 30 percent less energy content than gasoline, which is why E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, is priced about 30 cents a gallon lower.
But the cost of driving on E85 is still higher, because it takes 1.4 gallons of E85 to match the energy content of a gallon of gasoline, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
"If you're using E85, you're getting 25 percent less fuel economy with the same volume of product," said API's Mannato.
Consumer Reports, a watchdog publication, found that driving on E85 is more expensive than gasoline after running a battery of tests on Chevrolet's 2007 "flexible-fuel" Tahoe.
The sport utility vehicle's mileage dropped from 14 miles per gallon to 10 mpg on E85, the magazine found.
But for some consumers, E85's environmental benefits may justify the higher cost.
The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition says E85 reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming, by about 36 percent compared with gasoline.
Because ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline, E85 will only work in flexible-fuel vehicles. But flex-fuel vehicles represent just 3 percent of the vehicles on the road today.
"E85 is going to be a niche type of fuel because of the fact that only a few vehicles can use it," Mannato said.
In addition, E85 is available at just 1,000 of the nation's 180,000 gas stations, Mannato said.
There's only one place in Florida where E85 is available to the general public - in Tallahassee at a gas station operated by Inland Food Stores.
Ethanol Has Potential In Florida
The buzz about ethanol has spread to the Sunshine State, far from the Corn Belt and the scores of ethanol plants that make up the industry.
Proposals to make ethanol from citrus peels and sugar cane have surfaced in Florida, where lawmakers are pondering legislation that would encourage a 10 percent ethanol blend in gasoline sold in the state by providing tax incentives to retailers and producers.
Also, researchers at the University of Florida are working on methods to make ethanol from grass, trees, bark and brushwood - resources that grow quickly and in abundance in Florida.
"We are sitting on huge quantities of biomass on private forest lands," said University of Florida economist Janaki Alavalapati. "Right now, there's no market for that kind of biomass for forest landowners."
Florida's resources may be needed because the government's goal for ethanol cannot be achieved with corn alone.
Commercial production of cellulosic ethanol - ethanol made from biomass such as switch grass - will be required to meet the federal government's 35 billion-gallon-a-year mandate by 2017.
The problem is, the industry can't yet make cellulosic ethanol in a cost-effective manner.
It costs at least twice as much to produce cellulosic ethanol than it does to make corn ethanol. That's because the cellulose in plants is more difficult to convert into the sugar needed to make ethanol.
"By 2012 or 2015, we need to have cellulosic ethanol up and running," said Jennings. "It has to be, because there are limits on how much corn we can and should use to make ethanol."
Consumers already feel the pinch at the grocery store. Ethanol production has led to higher prices for ordinary supermarket items, because the fuel is made primarily from corn, a major ingredient in most foods. The price of corn has risen from about $2 a bushel to more than $4 because of demand from ethanol producers.
Cellulosic ethanol won't cut into the nation's food supply because it is made from nonfood plant materials.
Making ethanol from sugar cane, which is grown in abundance in Florida, is possible but not practical for the state's sugar producers. Tariffs and quotas keep U.S. sugar prices high, which means producers can get more money by selling sugar cane for sugar than as a feedstock for fuel.
A study by the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida found that their growers would earn less than half as much if they used their sugar for ethanol production.
"We're not discounting the ability to get into ethanol at some point," said Barbara Miedema, spokeswoman for the cooperative. "But it's not in the near future for us right now."
By using more ethanol, U.S. fuel supplies can be extended to meet rising demand.
But the transition to ethanol is just beginning.
Mannato, the API fuels expert, said the industry's future and its ability to meet the government's lofty expectations are in the hands of scientists and researchers.
"We don't currently have the technology to economically make 35 billion gallons of any kind of alternative fuel," Mannato said.
Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.
Official may hold key to rail
Volusia councilwoman questions funding
In
the ongoing struggle to help take commuters off congested Interstate 4 and
put them on commuter trains, Volusia County Councilwoman Joie Alexander may
be the swing vote.
Reached Tuesday to discuss the 61-mile
rail that has been in the works since the early 1990s, Alexander said she
wants to support the project in an upcoming council vote. But as of today,
she believes there are too many unanswered questions -- such as the need for
a dedicated funding source and the location of a DeBary station.
"I do know we need mass
transportation, but if somebody were to say which way would I would go
today, uh!" Alexander said. "What I have to do is work out the
heartburn I feel when I look at the dollars."
Volusia County's estimated financial
commitment over 30 years has increased from $99 million to $138 million,
largely due to the addition of a DeLand phase expected to be completed in
2013, said Deputy County Manager Matt Greeson.
The DeLand stop -- a "must"
for council members -- was agreed upon Friday at a meeting among officials
of the four counties, Orlando, and state department of transportation that
have partnered to get the rail up and running, Greeson said.
The first leg of the commuter rail
system will run between DeBary and Orlando, with 10 stations and a scheduled
completion date of late 2009. A planning consultant has been hired to help
decide whether the DeBary site will be placed at Fort Florida Road or Saxon
Boulevard, both of which intersect with U.S. 17-92, and what kind of tax
revenue can be generated at each site.
West Volusia council members Pat
Northey and Andy Kelley, as well as County Chairman Frank Bruno, have spoken
publicly in favor of the rail, while East Volusia representatives Carl
Persis, Jack Hayman and Art Giles have mostly sided against it.
At Thursday's County Council meeting,
Persis asked for a voter referendum to confirm county residents' support
because he said the rail will primarily benefit other counties.
"This commuter rail is for
Seminole, Orange and Osceola (counties); we're nothing, our ridership is
nothing," Persis said at the meeting. "If the people in Volusia
County want to tax themselves to pay for it then fine."
But even Northey, who points to the
30,000 county residents who are "looking for relief from being I-4
hostages" as a reason the rail is needed, says the council won't vote
until issues like liability are resolved. County lawyers are concerned that
the member governments will be liable for accidents beyond their $200
million insurance policy.
Time does not allow for Persis'
requested referendum, said Bruno, because the state, which is paying 25
percent of the cost, wants an agreement from the partners by the end of
April. However, Volusia County has received an OK to take up the vote May 3.
The county will pay about $2.5 million
annually for the first seven years because the Department of Transportation
agreed to foot the bill until a funding source is found, but that amount
jumps to more than $4 million each year after 2017, Greeson said.
Bruno agrees that Alexander is the
swing vote, adding he wants all council members' questions answered before
the vote.
But Bruno is convinced that at the end
of the day, the council will "look at the big picture" and make
the dream of a statewide commuter rail that much closer to reality.
"This is so important to the
state of Florida," Bruno said. "If this fails now, we're never
going to have this opportunity again."
House Construction Up; Permits Down
Published: Mar 21, 2007
WASHINGTON - National housing starts rebounded in February from a nine-year low but were counterbalanced by a further decline in building permits as housing continued to present a mixed picture for the nation's economy.
On one hand, the increase in home construction could ease concern that the U.S. real-estate slump will worsen and threaten the economic expansion. On the other hand, some analysts see the drop in building permits as a worrisome signal of problems to come for the troubled housing industry.
Builders broke ground on residential units at an annual rate of 1.525 million last month, up 9 percent from January and more than economists forecast, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
But building permits for future residential units fell 2.5 percent in February to an annual rate of 1.532 million, from 1.571 million a month earlier. Permits to build single-family homes fell to the lowest since December 1997.
"We aren't getting any worse, but we aren't getting much better, either," said Brian Jones, an economist at Citigroup Global Markets in New York. "The quicker we get the inventory problem behind us, that sets a platform for an improvement in the latter half of the year."
Locally, the decline in building permits was evident by comparing January 2006 with this past January, the latest available month compiled by Metrostudy, a Houston-based housing research firm.
That drop was especially true in permits for single-family homes in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. By contrast, January permits for multifamily units rose significantly in Pasco County.
Hillsborough showed 701 residential permits in January; 394 were single-family and 307 were multifamily, Metrostudy said. That compares with January 2006, when there were 1,268 permits. Of those, 774 were single-family and 494 multifamily.
In Pasco, there were 499 residential permits in January, compared with 576 for January 2006. The major difference came in a large drop for single-family permits and a significant increase in permits for multifamily construction, such as town houses and apartment buildings. Pasco's January permit applications numbered 132 for single-family and 367 for multifamily. That compares with January 2006, when 547 permits were for single-family units and 29 were for multifamily.
Nationally, the rising numbers of housing starts in February eased speculation that climbing defaults on subprime mortgages would put additional homes on the market, leading builders to halt more projects and fire workers. However, swings in the monthly figures don't convey stability desired by Federal Reserve policy-makers, who are expected to keep interest rates unchanged today.
Speculation that the housing recession will deepen has mounted in the past month as delinquencies and foreclosures on subprime loans increased. Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest mortgage provider, tightened standards. Also, the Fed has warned lenders to be sure borrowers can repay debts.
Nationally, construction of single-family homes rose 10 percent last month to a rate of 1.22 million, Tuesday's report showed. Work on multifamily homes increased 4.1 percent to an annual rate of 305,000.
West, South Post Gains
The gain in housing starts was led by a 26 percent jump in the West and an 18 percent rise in the South. Starts in the Northeast fell 30 percent, and those in the Midwest fell 14 percent. The regional differences point to the weather's influence. Snowstorms in the Midwest and Northeast thwarted builders, while large areas in the South and West were drier than average, economists said.
Rising defaults by subprime borrowers with poor or limited credit histories may slow the housing recovery. Loose lending standards in the real-estate boom allowed those borrowers to take on more debt than they could afford, economists said.
Price Drops Mean Problems
"If prices go down, we will have problems - problems in the sense of spillover to other areas," former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said last week.
As subprime borrower defaults lead to more foreclosures and cancellations, homes will go back on the market, adding to inventories and depressing prices further, economists said. The median price of new and previously owned homes fell in January from a year ago. February's report on existing home sales is due Friday, and figures for new homes are due next week.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Tribune reporter Shannon Behnken contributed to this report.
Storms didn't put a damper on building growth Floridians kept right on building in the wake of several intense hurricane seasons, according to University of Florida research that shows the number of households for permanent residents increased by an estimated 15 percent between 2000 and 2006."What I take away from the study is 'business as usual'," said Scott Cody, a demographer at UF's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. "Hurricanes came, hurricanes went. I don't see any major impact."
Amy Baker, coordinator of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said earlier this month that the storms actually caused a building fervor that stimulated growth.
"What the hurricanes did for us is made our housing boom persist longer and remain stronger," Baker told The Associated Press. "Even if we hadn't had the hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, we still would have had a housing boom in Florida."
The state was hit by four hurricanes in 2004 and two in 2005.
The largest percentage of growth over the six-year period UF examined happened in the northeast section of the state in Flagler County, which saw a 76 percent increase in households. Alachua County, by comparison, had 13.3 percent growth of households in the period measured, ranking it as the 34th-fastest-growing among the state's 67 counties.
The UF study tried to determine the number of housing units occupied by permanent residents, excluding vacant homes and those occupied by seasonal residents. To calculate the numbers, researchers examined census data, electricity usage and building permits.
In the state overall, the number of housing units occupied by permanent residents increased by 952,938 over the six-year period, bringing the total to about 7.3 million, according to the report.
The largest total number of households added came in Miami-Dade County with 69,844 new households. Cody said it's not surprising that Miami-Dade would have the largest absolute growth due to its large population.
Cody prepared the report with Stan Smith, an economics professor and director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. The numbers are used as part of the state's formula for sharing revenue across counties and communities. The bureau has just begun gathering data for 2007, and Cody said he's interested to see whether the growth trends apparent in the 2006 data hold up.
"We may see something change for this next year," he said, "but we don't have the data yet."
Jack Stripling can be reached at 352-374-5064 or Jack.Stripling@gvillesun.com.
Legislators could get help from
big-box retailers Efforts to squeeze the most out of Florida's $250 million home mitigation
program have officials and lawmakers sizing up some of the state's biggest
merchants.
They not only have store promotions that can spread the word about the
importance of storm shutters and roof ties, but warehouses of materials,
armies of affiliated contractors and on-the-spot financing.
''When you look at the big-box retailers, they have a universe of
contractors that could go a long way in our home-hardening effort,'' said
Tami Torres, staff director for the mitigation program now run by Florida's
Department of Financial Services.
The Legislature last year created a state program offering free
inspections and matching grants of up to $5,000 for work to shore up homes
against hurricane damage.
It has taken the state's program, working through a private nonprofit
organization, nearly a full year to train 358 contractors to complete work
paid for by the state. Most of those contractors have taken on so much work
they can't accept new contracts, Torres said Tuesday.
The free home inspections - offered through 17 pilot county programs -
have stopped while the state re-bids the work. Torres said they should
resume statewide in April.
A House bill goes further by setting aside $10 million to fund
three-year, no-interest loans up to $5,000 each to complete mitigation work
identified in those home inspections.
''Lots of folks out there, including Home Depot, are interested in
providing a $5,000 mitigation card,'' said Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa, who
produced the bill.
State officials and lawmakers are actively talking with retailers.
Torres is asking Home Depot and Lowe's, for instance, to encourage their
store contractors to sign up for the state's mitigation program.
The two home-improvement retailers are also discussing alternatives to
the state reimbursing homeowners and contractors for mitigation work -
including issuing eligible Floridians store gift cards and rebate checks.
Both Lowe's and Home Depot have also told the state they are able to give
qualifying homeowners a sales-tax break on mitigation materials if lawmakers
authorize it, Torres said.
And retailers such as Ace Hardware and Sears are discussing their ability
to offer financing. Under the proposed House bill, the state would make
interest payments on behalf of approved consumers.
The House Jobs and Entrepreneurship Council on Tuesday approved
Traviesa's bill.
''Anything we can do to encourage people to mitigate saves money in the
end,'' said committee member Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola.
There is not yet matching legislation in the Senate.
''The devil's always in the details of that stuff. I wouldn't object to
seeing stuff like that,'' said Senate Banking and Insurance Chairman Bill
Posey, R-Rockledge. His committee is still working on its own version of a
mitigation bill.
For more information on the state's program, go to mysafefloridahome.org.
Manatee County reviews new Wal-Mart expansion plans
STAFF REPORT
"I think we're cramming too much in this shopping center," Commissioner Joe McClash said. "I mean this is one of the worst intersections in the county."
Wal-Mart wants to expand the size of its existing 113,400-square-foot store on the site by 21,713 square feet to provide it with a new facade and to add a grocery store.
The discussion Tuesday was part of a land use preview, during which commissioners got their first look at the expansion plans. A vote to approve or deny the plans will come at a later date.
A traffic study that would show the impact of the expansion has not yet been completed. But the store sits on a 30-acre site along University Parkway, which is already considered overwhelmed by traffic.
"We just can't add any more traffic there," said Commissioner Donna Hayes.
The proposed expansion follows a failed bid by the company to relocate to a vacant site northwest of University Parkway and Honore Avenue.
That plan fell through after receiving strong opposition from the county.
Critics blast halt in dirt mining
Charlotte commissioners get an earful over a proposed moratorium.
By ZAC ANDERSON
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- A potential moratorium on new mines Tuesday had the
industry out in force for the second time in as many days.After hearing an earful from mine operators, county commissioners who had been criticizing the industry for bringing too many dump trucks and dust clouds to the area began backpedaling away from the moratorium idea.
"Do I want to put anybody out of business? Hell no," said commissioner Tom D'Aprile, who initially raised the issue.
There are 22 excavation and earth-moving mines already operating in Charlotte County, many more than in surrounding counties.
But what had concerned D'Aprile were the 22 additional mining permits submitted in recent months.
He asked the county's planning staff to look into the issue, and they came up with a proposed year-long moratorium while the county works to strengthen the permitting process.
Mine operators spoke about the negative impact the moratorium could have on the local and regional economy, which is fueled by a construction industry that relies on fill dirt from mining.
"What you do here has a regional impact and would have a devastating effect on the construction industry," said Joe Bonness, president of Coral Rock, a rock-mining operation with 1,800 acres in east Charlotte County.
And it wasn't just miners at Tuesday's meeting, which followed a meeting Monday in which the Planning and Zoning Board voted against the moratorium.
A state Department of Transportation engineer spoke about the shortage of road materials, and a representative for the Southwest Florida Water Management District said some of the mines are needed to create irrigation reservoirs for farmers.
Rock miners asked to be treated differently than dirt miners, and farmers asked to be considered separately as well.
The proposed moratorium will come before the commission for a second public hearing and formal vote April 2, but commissioners said they hoped mine operators and county staffers can reach a compromise.
Sarasota County gives Bee Ridge Park developer a year
By DOUG SWORD
SARASOTA COUNTY -- After six years of delays, the developer of the Bee Ridge
Park of Commerce was given one more year to complete the much-criticized
project.There are still hurdles, including environmental fines from the state and county totalling $280,000, but developer Howard Horton hopes to get construction under way soon.
First approved in July 2001, the 58-acre development ran into several problems, including constructing part of a lake on a neighbor's property, bulldozing wetlands and killing trees.
The state has levied fines over the wetlands issues and Sarasota County is requiring the developer to spend $60,000 planting 200 trees to make up for those that were killed.
Despite the difficulties, county commissioners voted 4-1 to give the developer another year to finish the project, which would be northeast of the intersection of Interstate 75 and Bee Ridge and could include medical offices and a bank.
If Horton hadn't won the extension, he would have had to start over on the long process of winning various planning permits.
"We'd be back at square one," said William Dooley, the attorney for the developers.
"I think all along this has been a mismanaged project," said Commissioner Jon Thaxton.
Commissioners made it clear that this would be the last extension granted on the project.
"If this thing doesn't come in exactly as described from here on, it's DOA," Thaxton said.
Generally, developers have two years to begin "substantial activity" on a project after winning approvals.
While the county argued that there had been next to no activity, developers said they were being slighted because officials weren't counting the $2 million construction of Mauna Loa Boulevard as "substantial activity."
Venice council meets for informal goal-setting
By PAUL QUINLAN
VENICE -- Trimming the city's budget in preparation for state tax reforms
and exploring major changes to the city's land development codes emerged as
dominant themes in the City Council's annual strategic planning workshop
this week.City Manager Marty Black led the council and the city's department heads and charter officers through two daylong meetings at the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice.
There, the council mapped out a rough agenda for the coming years, ranking their priorities in informal votes and brainstorming with city staff.
Among the 7 "2020 Goals" the council considered, "Managed/Controlled Growth" and "Financially Sound City with High Performance Organization" ranked at the top. "Affordable and Workforce Housing" came in at number three.
Of the 16 critical issues and major projects considered, the top five included addressing the state tax reforms now under consideration, addressing the housing slowdown, airport development, transportation improvements, affordable and workforce housing and exploring a rewriting of the city's land development codes.
Although no decisions merged from the meeting -- the priorities will be ratified in a later council vote -- the council agreed to consider redrafting the city's planning codes to make them "form-based."
Form-based planning codes shape urban development by emphasizing the physical shape, structure and form of buildings and public spaces, rather than their use, such as commercial or residential. Form-based codes encourage mixed-use, new urbanist development aimed at promoting aesthetics, walkability and residential living in downtown urban areas.
An actual rewriting of the codes could be a long way off, given the consulting expense and time required to make such a fundamental change.
"There seem to be a lot of advantages to the form-based code," said Councilman John Moore. "But I'll be honest with you, I don't think I'm smart enough to figure it out."
Both Don O'Connell, who owns a majority of the apartments in the city's apartment district, and Betty Intagliata, president of the Venice Area Historical Society, have long encouraged the council to explore form-based planning.
The discussions included some annual housekeeping matters, such as tweaking the flow and organization of City Council meetings and re-wording the city's mission and core values statements.
Study authors say state must prepare for population boom
Officials Ponder Future For Pasadena Hills
Published: Mar 20, 2007
Pasadena Hills is where the flatness of west and central Pasco gives way to rolling hills around Zephyrhills and Dade City.
More than a century ago, the area was home to a community that thrived on the surrounding citrus groves. Much of that prosperity vanished after a fatal freeze in the winter of 1895.
At 6 this evening, residents will gather at Pasco High School to help county planners create a long-term strategy for Pasadena Hills' future.
"This area's under a lot of pressure from development," said Matthew Armstrong, a long-range planner in the county's Growth Management division.
Pasadena Hills is bounded on the southwest by Curley Road and State Road 54 and on the northeast by Clinton Avenue and U.S. 301. The area straddles Handcart Road, which the county has set as the eastern boundary of suburban-style growth.
Last year, county officials turned down several land-use changes that would have opened the door to development.
Many landowners have agreed to hold off on further attempts to convert their property until the county can construct a plan, Armstrong said.
This evening's event, known as a charette, will let hundreds of residents superimpose their ideas over current aerial photos.
Planners will spend the following days working from those ideas to build a plan with an eye on the year 2057, Armstrong said. A final vision will be released on Thursday.
"Within the planning horizon for this project, Pasco could be about a million people," Armstrong said.
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
County Kills Plan To Phase Growth Without Hearing From Public
Tampa Tribune Editorial Published: Mar 20, 2007
Hillsborough County commissioners, in a surprise vote at a workshop last week, killed a proposal to encourage higher density growth in selected parts of the unincorporated county.
Because of last week's action, the public will get no chance to tell commissioners what they think of a proposal to concentrate high-density growth on roads and corridors suitable for mass transit.
Homebuilders lobbied hard against the proposal, which would have divided the county into high, medium and low levels of development. They said the map was filled with inconsistencies and that limiting the supply of developable land would raise home prices. They worry that Hillsborough's developable area has few large tracts left, and rightfully complain that when they try to build smaller, high-density projects in suitably zoned areas, neighbors object and politicians roll over.
Never was there a better time for leaders in this county to engage the community on a vision for growth that would preserve our quality of life and meet the needs of the 400,000 people expected to move here over the next 20 years.
Perhaps the map was confusing, but it presented an opportunity to engage citizens in the tough choices we face.
Do we want high rises near the city? If so, are we willing to stand strong when next-door neighbors object? Or do we want to push development farther out, into rural lands where taxpayers would have to spend millions to lay water and sewage lines, roads and provide police and fire services?
Rather than debate and clarify the vision, commissioners took us back to square one, directionless and voiceless.
The commission's own policy approved two years ago requires a system for focusing growth. Commissioners asked the city-county planning commission staff to develop a system that would help minimize suburban sprawl, encourage transit and cut down on the public costs of growth.
The planners held a series of public meetings throughout the county and compiled some 3,000 comments. They found a consensus view that compact growth was needed in select areas to put people closer to jobs, bus lines, major highways and other infrastructure.
Using money provided by the county commission, the planners hired a consultant to draw the map, with its three tiers of growth. The appointed city-county planning commission approved the map in January and sent it to elected officials for debate, fine-tuning and possible submission to the state Department of Community Affairs for approval.
The map would have changed no zonings or land-use designations. It would have only guided where the county should offer incentives for more units per acre than currently allowed. However, several commissioners misinterpreted the map as a requirement that growth go near neighborhoods that don't want it.
Good questions were raised about the map's lines and how much the incentives might cost, but before any of these issues could be discussed, Commissioner Ken Hagan made a motion to scrap the proposal, along with a package of "livable cities" amenities. Commissioners Jim Norman, Kevin White, Brian Blair and Al Higginbotham agreed.
Commissioners Mark Sharpe and Rose Ferlita voted no, although both had questions about the map. Ferlita complained after the meeting that "people did not have the opportunity to weigh in. We chopped them off."
Among those feeling cut off was Mariella Smith, a community activist from Ruskin. She said in an e-mail: "In an appallingly arrogant move, the commissioners ripped out whole chapters from the citizens' three-year planning project, at a meeting with no public notice and no public comment, weeks before the public hearing."
While the new map is gone, the challenge remains.
Commissioners have an obligation to find practical ways for encouraging compact, top-quality growth along major highways and around commercial centers.
This task will be easier once they agree to talk about it.
A toast, to days gone by and taverns torn down
By BEN MONTGOMERY
Published March 20, 2007
SEFFNER - Let us raise a glass to the Eleven Mile Tavern, days away from destruction, the latest sacrifice to cars and asphalt in this ever-expanding area.
Here's to 1885, the year these boards were nailed together on a patch 11 miles from Plant City, 11 miles from Tampa. This place was all woods and dirt roads then. The Pony Express watered up outside.
Here's to the building's past lives, the feed sacks and postage stamps and drip coffee, to the ham and potato salad, to Santa Claus on Christmas morning.
Here's to the couples who met by the pool tables and the enemies made on bar stools.
Here's to the bullets buried in the boards, and the spit in the soil.
And here's to the ghosts.
To Bobby Mayhew, who ran this bar long and hard and is still trying to get what it's worth from the state, which is widening the road out front. To those who came before him, Harold Young and his wife, Mary Alice, may God rest their souls.
Here's to the last last call a few weeks ago when more than a hundred people ate ribs and hamburgers and said farewell before the bulldozer comes and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard swells. Here's to those who stuck around until the last keg ran dry, and then some. Here's to the grown men who cried.
As More Schools Go Up, So Does Cost To Build Them
Published: Mar 20, 2007
LAND O' LAKES - Three years ago Pasco County appeared well positioned as school officials prepared to open more than 20 new schools over a 10-year period.
The officials had persuaded Pasco voters to approve a 1-cent sales tax increase to help pay for school construction, repairs and renovations.
They figured the Penny for Pasco proceeds, combined with other money, would cover the costs as the county launched an aggressive building campaign designed to alleviate school crowding.
Just as the new revenue started to flow, though, construction costs began a dramatic climb, reaching heights school officials in Pasco and elsewhere had not anticipated when they launched long-term building campaigns.
Middle schools that cost $12.7 million to build at the beginning of the decade suddenly cost $25.4 million - briefly. Then the price leaped to $40.3 million.
School districts with substantial construction and renovation plans found themselves figuring and refiguring their budgets as the cost of material and labor soared.
"We had high hopes for taking those dollars further than we've been able to," said Ray Gadd, an assistant superintendent in Pasco County. "With Penny for Pasco, we had a plan lined up, and construction costs caused us to rethink our plans."
Pasco officials hoped Penny for Pasco proceeds would pay for 8 ˝ of the schools in the district's 10-year plan, said Olga Swinson, chief finance officer for the Pasco school district.
Instead, the sales tax money will pay for slightly more than three schools, and additional money will need to take up the slack, Swinson said.
"I don't think anyone anticipated construction costs to be what they are," Swinson said.
Like Pasco, the Hillsborough County school district has been forced to deal with high construction costs, said Cathy Valdes, chief facilities officer for the district.
"The more prices have gone up - and the last two years it's been astronomical - the more you reduce the number of projects you can do," Valdes said.
Hillsborough has had a building binge in recent years, including one year in which it opened a dozen new schools.
Valdes said those days probably are behind the district, though construction hasn't stopped. She expects Hillsborough to build four to five new schools a year during the next five years, possibly fewer if student population growth continues to slow.
One of Hillsborough's cost-saving strategies was to add classroom wings to existing schools rather than build new campuses, Valdes said.
The district also worked to devote any available space in schools to student learning, she said. Some planning areas, for example, were eliminated.
As time passed and school districts saw no relief from the escalation of construction costs, it became harder to reduce projects and trim the necessities.
"We've cut just about everything we can cut," Valdes said.
Pinellas County doesn't experience growth the way Pasco and Hillsborough do. But that school district also has felt the sting of construction prices because of renovation and rebuilding projects at older schools, district spokeswoman Andrea Zahn said.
"In the five-year plan, the cost of materials has skyrocketed," she said.
The trend isn't unique to the Tampa Bay area or even Florida. Rising construction costs have haunted school districts throughout the nation.
Prices began to creep upward in 2000 after remaining relatively stable through the late 1990s. The biggest escalation, though, came in the past few years.
In 1995, the national median cost per square foot for a high school was $104.17, according to an annual report by School Planning & Management magazine.
Four years later, in 1999, there was little change, with the price inching up to $105. By 2006, though, the price had jumped to $151.52 per square foot.
Middle schools and elementary schools showed similar trends.
The median cost for middle schools in 1995 was $100 per square foot, increasing to $150 in 2006.
Elementary schools cost $93.33 per square foot in 1995 and $148.15 in 2006.
Construction industry insiders tell local school officials that prices are beginning to stabilize and a drop is possible. Gadd isn't ready to cheer just yet.
"We keep hearing it is going to get better," he said, "but we haven't seen any hard evidence."
Multiple Causes For Increases
A host of reasons led to the upward tilt in construction prices.
Rising commodity prices in copper, tin, lead, nickel and zinc "have caused ripples in the material manufacturing chain, increasing the costs of many materials and creating some shortages," according to a November report by Skanska USA Building Inc., a major builder of schools in the Tampa Bay area.
The past year produced "the 'perfect storm' in the construction industry with volatile oil prices, commodity pricing that has reached new heights, competition from an overheated Chinese economy, terrorism and a loss of confidence in a positive resolution to conflicts in the Middle East," the Skanska report states.
Most people can identify with one rising construction expense: the price of gasoline, Gadd said.
"Just as the cost of gas has cut into people's budgets, those very same things have cut into our costs and what we have available to build schools," Gadd said.
Two recent high school construction projects in Pasco County illustrate how quickly prices can climb. Sunlake High School, under construction west of Land O' Lakes and set to open in August, is a $45 million project.
Sunlake essentially is a duplicate of Wiregrass Ranch High, which opened two months ago in Wesley Chapel and cost $39.9 million.
Gadd recently told a group of Pasco residents that another high school projected to be built in three years in northwest Pasco could cost as much as $58 million.
Gadd said these aren't extravagant schools.
"I don't know how you get any cheaper with our schools," Gadd said. "It's concrete and steel."
Still, the district looks for ways to cut costs. One of its latest dollar-saving methods is three-story schools. By building up rather than out, the district can save money on land if not construction, Gadd said.
Hoping For More Funding
Pasco still plans to build all the schools it needs, though funding sources might change, Swinson said.
The district is hoping the Legislature will approve additional construction dollars for school districts, something that happened last year.
Meanwhile, the construction costs forced Pasco to borrow money more quickly than planned. The district always expected it would issue bonds in anticipation of money to be collected over the 10-year life of Penny for Pasco.
The district originally thought that bond issue would happen next year, Swinson said. But a few weeks ago the Pasco County School Board moved up the schedule and approved an $88.6 million bond issue pledging Penny for Pasco money.
Within the next two or three months, the board plans an additional bond issue for $131 million that is tied to anticipated revenue from the district's capital projects portion of the property tax. That bond issue wasn't supposed to happen for two years.
In addition to the possibility that construction prices might stabilize, school districts have another reason for hope. This school year Pasco and Hillsborough saw slowing of the student-population growth that has dogged the districts.
Enrollment continued to grow but less than it has in recent years. Right now the districts still are catching up, but slower growth could mean some planned construction projects won't be needed.
In the meantime, school districts must manage construction dollars more wisely than ever, Valdes said.
"It's really down to the absolute necessities," she said. "The essentials."
Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.
CLIMBING COSTS
School districts in the Tampa Bay area have seen their construction budgets strained as the price to build and renovate schools has skyrocketed. Here's a sampling of Pasco County projects that shows what school districts have faced. Total cost includes design, construction and furniture and equipment.
| Year | Elementary Schools | Total cost | Per square foot |
| 2000-01 | Chasco | $8.7 million | $102.59 |
| 2001-02 | Trinity | $9.8 million | $116.40 |
| 2002-03 | Wesley Chapel | $10.2 million | $116.65 |
| 2003-04 | Pine View | $10.2 million | $116.87 |
| 2005-06 | Longleaf | $12 million | $126.09 |
| 2006-07 | Oakstead | $15.7 million | $145.55 |
| Year | Middle Schools | Total cost | Per square foot |
| 2000-01 | Chasco | $12.7 million | $84.67 |
| 2001-02 | Centennial | $13.4 million | $121.69 |
| 2006-07 | Paul R. Smith | $25.4 million | $146.50 |
| 2007-08 | Charles S. Rushe | $40.3 million | $202.77 |
| Year | High Schools | Total cost | Per square foot |
| 2000-01 | J.W. Mitchell | $25.2 million | $114.45 |
| 2006-07 | Wiregrass Ranch | $39.9 million | $161.16 |
| 2007-08 | Sunlake | $45 million | $182.10 |
Source: Pasco County school district
Exline pleads to tax charge
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
WEST PALM BEACH — City Commissioner Jim Exline, under financial pressure in October 2004, turned to his friend, developer and former County Administrator John Sansbury.
They worked out a deal: Sansbury would provide $50,000 to Exline, an urban planner, for "past and future real estate services," according to prosecutors. That included work with city staff - without them knowing Exline was on Sansbury's payroll - to help subdivide a Sansbury property off Okeechobee Boulevard, making it more valuable. To hide the income from Exline's estranged wife, Exline told Sansbury to make out the $50,000 check to Provident Jewelry & Loan, a downtown shop run by another pal of Exline.
A composed Exline, 42, acknowledged those facts and tendered a guilty plea to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra on Monday. The judge convicted Exline of willfully failing to report income, a single felony count. Exline, who served seven years as city commissioner, faces as much as three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is banned from public office and cannot even vote. He remains free on $50,000 bond, with sentencing scheduled for June 8.
At Monday's 25-minute hearing, prosecutors chronicled their case against him.
Exline had his real estate sales shingle hanging at Sansbury Realty, his friend's brokerage, for several years. In October 2004, after orchestrating the sale of a commercial building at 512 Evernia Street, Exline went to pick up a $36,400 real estate commission check from Sansbury and told the broker of his money problems.
Exline's February 2005 divorce filing listed $97,600 in unpaid credit card balances.
Instead of splitting the commission, Sansbury allowed Exline to take the entire amount from the property sale on Oct. 5, 2004. Two days later, Sansbury wrote checks for the additional $50,000.
First, he wrote a check from Sansbury Realty to himself, prosecutors said. Then, he made out a personal check for $50,000 to Provident Jewelry & Loan, 331 Clematis St. Provident then cashed the check from Sansbury and paid Exline the $50,000.
Sansbury owned several acres of land off the south side of Okeechobee Boulevard near Jog Road. With Exline pushing as a city commissioner, Sansbury received approval to annex the property into the city in early 2004, in hope of winning quicker approvals for projects the developer planned. Once it was annexed, he wanted Exline's help further subdividing part of it.
Exline, a former employee of the city's planning department, worked on the approvals process for Sansbury, meeting with staffers in the department where he once worked. The department's approval came on May 11, 2005, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Reinhart said. "The work provided was not worth the $50,000," Reinhart added.
On his 2004 tax return, Exline listed about $33,500 income from his city commission job; $11,000 from his land use consulting company, Urban Land Consulting, and a loss of $8,100 from a tanning salon he owned, Tan Lines of Jupiter. In all, he falsely listed his adjusted income gross income as $39,671, knowing that he should have reported $94,984, Reinhart said. He appeared to owe about $4,900 in taxes when he really owed more than twice that.
Exline ultimately paid $15,500 in back taxes and penalties before turning himself in to prosecutors focusing on city officials last year.
In the federal courthouse on Monday, Exline appeared with only his attorney. He joshed before the hearing about having put on weight - not from stress, but from eating at a just-opened Rotelli's restaurant franchise he owns with a brother-in-law. Neither Exline nor his attorney, Robert Gershman, would comment after the hearing.
"We're happy," prosecutor Reinhart said.
Exline resigned Jan. 19. At the time, he said he was in trouble with the IRS. Six months earlier, he had paid back taxes on the $50,000, then approached prosecutors. He went to the U.S. Attorney's Office days after a corruption case was filed against former City Commissioner Ray Liberti. As part of his negotiated plea, Exline agreed to cooperate with investigators.
According to one source familiar with the case, Exline wore a wire while meeting with Sansbury. Sansbury has not been charged. But he has hired a prominent criminal defense attorney, Douglas Duncan. Neither Sansbury nor Duncan would comment.
Robert Samuels, president of Provident Jewelry & Loan, denied doing anything improper in channeling the payment to the commissioner. "Neither I nor anyone associated with Provident Jewelry knowingly assisted Mr. Exline in violating any laws," he said. Samuels has not been charged.
Exline is the third Palm Beach County politician to plead guilty to criminal charges in the past 10 months. Liberti is serving an 18-month sentence. Former County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, scheduled for sentencing in June, faces up to five years in prison and nearly $10 million in penalties and property forfeitures.
Exline's disclosure of his behind-the-scenes planning and zoning work for Sansbury exacerbated public concern that pay-to-play is the name of the game for developers seeking project approvals in West Palm Beach. That public perception was highlighted in a January report issued by a state grand jury empaneled after disclosure of Liberti's business ties to Republic Properties, a developer hired to manage construction of the new city hall. The company has since been fired.
Palm trees survive as plot details uncovered
By JODIE TILLMAN
Published March 20, 2007
HUDSON - No digging, no crime.
That's what the Pasco County Sheriff's Office concluded about a mysterious plan to take nearly 200 palm trees planted on the public right of way along Clark Street and Old Dixie Highway.
The trees were never removed. Case closed.
But a five-page investigative report by Detective Anthony Bossone finally shed some light on the strange proposal, which became public last month after Palmscapes By Design of Lakeland notified clearinghouse Sunshine State One-Call with a work order to remove the trees.
The investigation eventually led authorities back to a Port Richey company called Island Design Landscaping. That company's owner, John Gomez, is a "tree locator," meaning he gets paid to find trees for other companies to dig up so they can sell them to people who want to plant them elsewhere.
The Lakeland company told authorities that Gomez had offered it the job to remove the Hudson trees when a deal he was working on cleared.
The problem, of course, is that no one had the authority to sell the trees. Those palms were planted in the public right of way as a beautification project nearly a decade ago. Community volunteers organized the effort, paying to bring in the trees with money raised through the Hudson Seafest.
Detectives questioned Gomez about the tree removal plan. He told them that an acquaintance named Thomas Keeble told him that he had been soliciting Pasco County to remove the trees. County officials have said they were not involved in any deal to remove the trees.
Gomez said he had Keeble's business card that had an out-of-service phone number.
The detective found a 2004 police record of a Thomas Keeble who listed Gomez's business as his employer. But presented with a photograph of that Keeble, Gomez denied knowing him. He said it was a different Thomas Keeble who told him about the deal, the report says.
The detective concluded in his report that he'd seen no evidence to suggest that there was a different Thomas Keeble.
Gomez told the Pasco Times on Monday that Keeble called him after seeing a sign on his truck that says he buys trees.
"He just called me up," Gomez said. Told that detectives were unable to find him, he said, "Of course he's real. That's their problem."
The twisted tale came as a surprise to Hudson resident Al Meyer, who had contacted the county last month when he heard about the work order to remove the trees.
"They might've started digging" if the work order had not come to light, he said. "At least our trees are safe."
Jodie Tillman can be reached at (727) 869-6247 or jtillman@sptimes.com.
Minneola says the developer is not fulfilling obligations
Roxanne
Brown
Staff Writer
MINNEOLA -
Minneola City Council members say they're being forced to make a decision on
whether to revoke a KB Home Developer Agreement they thought was a done deal.
The ordinance to scrap the development plan comes after KB Home failed to
return the signed agreement including the negotiated items that got the
developer the preliminary approval in July 2006.
The developer wanted to build 500 homes on 206 acres. The council will
consider the agreement during the first of two public hearnings this evening.
"I presume they are walking away, so our commission said enough is
enough; let's just cancel the deal," said Mayor Dave Yeager. "They
have some payment arrangements they have to meet and as it stands now, it
seems they will not be meeting them."
Back in July, KB agreed to contribute $360,000 to
Minneola's reserves to clear the way for its mixed-use development east of
U.S. Highway 27.
After a heated and split discussion, the Minneola City Council voted 3-2 to
lay down the welcome mat for KB Homes, after KB also agreed to double the
impact fees originally proposed.
The developer agreed to contribute $60,000 to the city's parks and recreation
account, $100,000 to the general operating account, $100,000 to the fire and
emergency medical services account and $100,000 to the sheriff's patrol and
public safety account. The money would have helped the city serve residents in
500 dwellings - a mixture of single-family homes and town houses - slated to
go up south of Southern Breeze Road off U.S. 27.
"The short of it is that although KB Homes was approved by the city, they
were supposed to have retuned the signed agreement and they didn't,"
Gerken said.
Gerken said he understood that KB had internal policy problems handed down by
their corporate office in California. Numerous attempts to corporate offices
failed.
The July discussion also touched on a new road that would help ease the city's
east-west traffic. The developer agreed to complete the road before starting
construction on the homes.
Yeager said the council can either just consent to move the item to a second
reading or can choose to discuss it further.
"I'd like to save it actually, because we need that road, but it doesn't
look like it's going to happen," Yeager said. "It was a big
deal."
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall on U.S. Highway 27.
Plan to close County Line Road uncorks anger
By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published March 20, 2007
LUTZ - As officials pointed fingers at each other, one message was clear Monday: County Line Road is still open.
Residents were infuriated when they learned last week that a 1,500-foot stretch of County Line Road, between N Dale Mabry Highway and Deer Lake Road, was to be blocked for three months, starting Monday.
The closure was meant to help Target Corp. rebuild the road as part of its ongoing construction of a new store just to the north in Pasco County.
It was the last straw for residents already angered by the project's disruption to their neighborhood.
County Line Road has also been a popular shortcut for Wesley Chapel and New Tampa commuters to get to Dale Mabry Highway and the Veterans Expressway.
On Monday, Hillsborough officials said the road won't be closed after all.
The developer still has not paid the $350 fee or given a seven-day advance public notice to get a permit to close the road, said John Newton, who heads Hillsborough's transportation maintenance division.
Newton acknowledged the public had been told of the road closing last week. He blamed it on Hillsborough's communications department.
"I don't know why they would do that, because they know the developers haven't paid the fee," Newton said.
Steve Valdez, Hillsborough's communications director, did not reply to a call for comment Monday.
Even if the developers pay the fee today, a Hillsborough County commissioner said the county's permitting officials are still going to re-examine the closure request.
"Transportation permitting has gotten the message loud and clear," Rose Ferlita said. "I don't care if they pay the fee. Until we know (the closure) is what we want to do, the permit is on hold."
On Thursday, Hillsborough officials briefed more than 60 neighbors on Target's construction plans.
"These people are just livid," said Gary Boggess, who lives on Deer Lake Road. "County Line Road is our only access out of here. It's only two lanes, and it doesn't look like there's any way to widen it."
The residents had already been chafing at the months-long construction of the 174,000-square-foot SuperTarget, which borders $600,000 homes that used to boast of a pastoral setting.
The closure plan involved asking motorists using that stretch of County Line Road to detour to Lutz Lake Fern Road or northward to the U.S. 41 apex instead. Only residents would have been allowed to enter, Newton said.
Residents want Pasco and Hillsborough to re-evaluate the project's entire road plan.
A Target spokesperson did not respond to a request for an interview Monday.
Pasco officials said the road closure is a Hillsborough matter.
Hillsborough officials estimate County Line Road now carries more than 13,100 vehicles a day, and the Target's opening will swell that to 14,370.
Times staff writers Bill Coats and Mike Brassfield contributed to this report. Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at (813) 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com
Water Authority to vote on its future
Territorial infighting may doom partnership
DAYTONA
BEACH -- Barring a last minute miracle, the Water Authority of Volusia is
widely expected to sink this week.
Once heralded statewide as a shining
example of regional cooperation, the group of 13 cities and the county has
been divided by territorial concerns over its members biggest moneymakers,
their water utilities.
Founded to unify water management in the
county and develop other sources of water besides groundwater, the group never
really got off the ground and could not agree on how to share costs.
Members are set to vote Wednesday on
amending the interlocal agreement to weaken the authority to a water planning
organization. In recent meetings, long-time public officials who worked for
decades to create the stronger organization, such as Orange City Mayor Ted
Erwin, have expressed deep disappointment.
Holly Hill Mayor Roland Via, however,
said he sees the vote as a positive transition.
"We were creating a new layer of
bureaucracy that would cause the cities not to have control over important
water issues," said Via.
One of the most divisive issues has been
east side elected officials who say it isn't fair for their taxpayers to help
pay for a plant to convert St. Johns River water to drinking water. Their
arguments make it appear the county's east and west side water come from
separate sources, when actually all of the county's drinking water comes from
the same underground supply, according to regional water management officials.
The cities of Port Orange, Daytona
Beach, New Smyrna Beach and Deltona all have wells or planned well fields
within a few miles of each other in the center of the county, just east of
DeLand. Some authority members believed the plant would benefit everyone
because it would help stretch the overall water supply.
Constrained by limits the St. Johns
River Water Management District has put on water pumping, most utilities have
been advised to look for alternative sources of fresh water. But the west side
cities are under more pressure because of limits the district has imposed on
pumping around Blue Spring and nearby wetlands.
The county, DeLand, Orange City and
Deltona are talking about forming their own group to build the plant. But
Sanford also is trying to gauge Volusia interest in a partnership to build a
plant.
Personalities also have played a
divisive role. From his hiring in 2004, Daytona Beach City Manager Jim
Chisholm questioned the structure and organization of the authority. In his
former job in Desoto County, Chisholm had questioned the benefit of a regional
water group to his county. When he was passed over for a job as Hernando
County manager, the St. Petersburg Times said he had been "a lightning
rod for contentious water disputes" in Desoto.
Lately the authority board has been
mired in more minute details, such as debate about board chairman Jack Hayman
calling a meeting of the authority's managers advisory committee and meeting
privately last year with Chisholm and the respective utility managers.
If the amended agreement is approved
Wednesday, members will no longer be required to seek other sources of water
through the authority but will have the ability to use the authority to
collaborate on special projects.
If the amendment isn't approved, one of
two things could happen. Either the authority would remain as it is and the
board would have to decide how to settle its ongoing disputes with the cities
of Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach. Or, by a supermajority of 11 votes, the
members could vote to terminate the organization.
Bowen Aims to Be Agriculture Chief
TALLAHASSEE - State Rep. Marty Bowen of Haines City became the first person
to formally announce her candidacy for a 2010 statewide election by opening a
campaign account to run for agriculture commissioner.
Bowen, a Republican who is currently the House Majority Leader, has
represented a portion of Polk County since 2000.Her announcement comes as
little surprise. With term limits ending her time in the House next year,
Bowen has long talked about her goal of supporting the state's agricultural
interests statewide.
"There are so few people here who are truly familiar with the workings of
agriculture and can represent agriculture and make sure that their interests
are at least watched over, that was one of my main reasons for running"
for the House, she said Monday.
Bowen's family has lived in Polk County for more than 100 years, and she is a
third-generation member of the citrus growing family.
The official title of the job is commissioner of the Florida Department of
Agriculture and Consumer Services. Charles Bronson, a Republican from Brevard
County, was appointed to the job by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001 and has won two
statewide elections. He will leave in 2010 because of term limits.
Bowen, if elected, would not be the first female agriculture commissioner.
Terry Rhodes served as interim director in 2001 after Bob Crawford, a Democrat
from Polk County, resigned.
Bowen is married to a Tallahassee businessman, Brian Barnard, but she said the
personal enticement of securing a job in the state's capital was a secondary
incentive to pursuing election.
"The interest for the office has been there long before I ever met
Brian," she said.
Since she will be leaving office next year, Bowen's early announcement may be
a move to generate support and interest from the agricultural community before
she is left without a public position for the two years before the 2010
election.
Developers of resort put lakefront land up for sale
The nearly 10-acre parcel on Lake Bryan, planned for Krystle Towers, is listed for $22 million.
Jack SnyderSentinel Staff Writer
March 20, 2007
When they first started planning the Krystle Towers resort on Lake Bryan near Walt Disney World, the developers thought it would total about 200 hotel rooms.
But the developer's planning team, which included Adache Group Architects, came up with a twin-tower concept totaling 412 rooms.
So the developers, now that they have county approval for the project, are trying to sell the 9.92 acres of lakefront off County Road 535.
"It ended up a lot larger than we originally anticipated," said Lorenzo Fragala, managing partner of Lake Bryan Development LLC, a New Jersey-based company.
The CoStar Group, a national real-estate information network, said the property is listed with Marcus & Millichap for $22 million.
Fragala said the original plan wasn't to get the project designed and approved, only to then flip the property.
"Not at all," he said. "It's gotten pretty big, and we have a lot of other stuff going on."
Fragala said the owners are open to either a joint venture or a sale.
The developer said Orange County has approved the 800,000-square-foot project as currently designed.
The Orlando area has seen an explosion in the number of condo-hotel projects in recent years. Estimates of the number of rooms proposed or under construction range as high as 15,000.
The Krystle Towers project could have company nearby on Lake Bryan: Hospitality Development Group recently announced plans to build Palazzo del Lago, which would include an InterContinental Hotel.
Adache Group Architects also is the designer of that condo-hotel project.
Jack Snyder can be reached at 407-420-5094 or jsnyder@orlandosentinel.com.
Today's Letters: In a housing glut, don't okay more
St. Petersburg Times LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published March 19, 2007
Perhaps this is too simplistic, but I would think that with the virtually stalled housing market, skyrocketing insurance premiums, rapidly increasing property taxes and a serious lack of water, our government leaders would remove their heads from where the sun doesn't shine and see the light of day.
People who want to sell homes can't, which means there is a glut of homes on the market. People looking to buy homes are afraid to do so because of the taxes and insurance. Others who went for the "flip that home" method of making a few quick bucks are now stuck with empty homes they can't sell. As a result of all those empty homes that people can't sell, there is a glut on the rental market. We are running out of water and the insurance companies are either raping us or just dropping us.
So, what do our local politicians do? Why, they consider the approval of even more homes that may not sell, causing the housing glut to become even worse. How about all of the water we don't have that will have to be used to water new lawns and golf courses, not to mention the routine household uses of water? I have to ask myself: Are our local leaders just plain stupid, or is it possible that somewhere along the line their pockets are being lined by the big banking and building interests?
Florida is dying a slow death thanks to incompetence and greed.
As for the homestead exemption, it should be revised so that the exemption applies to the second $25,000 of assessed value. This way folks who are living in mobile homes would pay a fair share of the costs of running the government. Someone has to do something - and fast - before Florida becomes one vast wasteland of empty, unsold homes.
L. Marcus, Brooksville
County's eastside ready for growth
By MICHAEL D. BATESmbates@hernandotoday.com
RIDGE MANOR — A key component of the development puzzle along Interstate 75 and State Road 50 was pieced together Wednesday when county commissioners approved a new master plan outlining commercial growth and new roadway improvements.
The plan could also play a part in reviving the Sunrise residential project, a proposed 4,800-home development of regional impact (DRI) that has been stalled.
Wednesday’s 4-1 approval paves the way for commercial development on six outparcels on the south side of S.R. 50 and Sherman Hills Boulevard.
“It’s another step in getting things ready for the growth that’s going to take place out there,” said Realtor Gary Schraut, representing Beth & Wendy Corp., a Tampa-based investment firm. “This needed to be worked out before the Sunrise DRI was (discussed).”
With the master plan in place, Schraut said the developers will market the outpacels to prospective tenants. But perhaps the most important thing to come from this will be a realignment of Sherman Hills Boulevard.
“This is going to be one of the most important intersections in the county,” Schraut said.
The six lots are adjacent to the existing Winn-Dixie-anchored Sunrise Plaza and would be accessed from S.R. 50 by an existing driveway.
The plan calls for that driveway to be extended as a frontage road and would connect with the future extension of Sherman Hills Boulevard.
The Florida Department of Transportation and the county want to pull Sherman Hills Boulevard to the east so it aligns with the main entrance of Sunrise Plaza.
Plaza representatives are concerned they would lose a median cut on Sherman Hills Boulevard, which people have used for years to enter the shopping center.
But transportation officials believe it would be too dangerous to leave that median open and then have another median cut 600 feet to the east.
In the next several weeks, the property owners will work out a road plan that passes muster with County Engineer Charles Mixson.
“There’s no formal written agreement but we’ve all come to an understanding,” Schraut said. “The only thing missing is to put it to paper.”
Mixson said he would like to see something in writing that clarifies the intentions of all the partners and resolves timing issues.
“It would be nice to have everyone on the same page,” said Mixson, regarding the alignment of that intersection.
The downturn in the housing market forced the Sunrise property owners to postpone their development plans.
Sunrise is planned for 1,385 acres and is part of the planned development district along I-75 and S.R. 50. When built out, the community would have 4,800 homes, 75 motel rooms, 365,000 square feet of retail, 50,000 square feet of office space, a golf course and clubhouse.
With Wednesday’s approval of a master plan on six lots encompassing eight acres in that planned development district, Schraut believes the project can roll forward, especially once the real estate market stabilizes.
At the request of the Sunrise developer, commissioners postponed debate on the Sunrise DRI until 9 a.m., Monday, May 7.
Attorney Joseph Tew, representing the property owners, said recently that should give the developer and planning staffers time to work out infrastructure issues and other concerns posed by the county planning department.
“We have no intentions of postponing again,” Tew said. “We’re under great pressure to get this going.”
Reporter Michael D. Bates can be contacted at 352-544-5290.
Billion-dollar delay
By DAVID DECAMP
Published March 19, 2007
Costs are rising. Money is short. So Pasco County officials are planning to postpone road projects in 22 locations, estimated to cost $950-million. Officials blame rising costs for asphalt and other materials, and a shortage of road money - even if transportation impact fees on new construction double as proposed. Previously, most of these projects were going to be done by 2011. The county had begun early planning on the others to build them in case they became a higher priority. Now county officials are planing to delay all of these projects past 2012, unless more money is found or the County Commission decides to bump something else. Michele Baker, engineering program administrator for the county, said these projects were pushed back because they are needed less than other projects in the works.
David DeCamp, Times Staff Writer
Delayed projects, listed by previous construction date
|
Map Number |
Location | Description | Cost | Previous project year |
| 1. | Frazee Hill Road (14th Street to U.S. 301) | Build two-lane road | $2.7-million | 2007 |
| 2. | Hudson Avenue | Stormwater drainage | $1.4-million | 2007 |
| 3. | Kitten Trail | Stormwater improvements | $1.1-million | 2007 |
| 4. | Gunn Highway (State Road 54 to Mullins Way) | Design studies | $279,000 | 2008 |
| 2. | Hudson Avenue at U.S. 19 | New turn lanes | $291,000 | 2008 |
| 5. | Collier Parkway (Hale Road going north) | Construct two-lane road extension | $34.7-million | 2009 |
| 5. | Collier Parkway (south end to Hale Road) | Add two lanes | $14.7-million | 2010 |
| 6. | Curley Road (State Road 54 to Wells Road) | New four-lane road | $57.7-million | 2010 |
| 7. | Clinton Avenue (west of Fort King Road to east of U.S. 301) | Reconstruct and add two lanes | $28.3-million | 2012 |
| 6. | Curley Road (Elam Road to Clinton Avenue) | Construct four-lane road and bridge | $82.4-million | 2012 |
| 8. | Decubellis Road (Starkey Boulevard to Town Center) | Widen by two lanes | $15.7-million | 2012 |
| 9. | Ehren Cutoff Road at U.S. 41 | Intersection improvements | Undetermined | 2012 |
| 10. | Kossik Road | Build new road | $18-million | 2012 |
| 11. | Moon Lake Road | Reconstruct and widen up to six lanes | $102.4-million | 2012 |
| 12. | Ridge Road extension (Suncoast Parkway to U.S. 41) | Extend new road | $111.7-million | 2012 |
|
Long-term projects without funding decided
|
|
Map Number |
Location | Description | Cost | Previous project year |
| 13. | Blanton Road at Lake Iola Road | Intersection improvements | $4.6-million | 2013 |
| 4. | Gunn Highway (Mullins Way to county line) | Widen and improve intersection | $35.1-million | 2013 |
| 14. | Morris Bridge Road at Chancey Road | Add turn lanes | $1.6-million | 2013 |
| 15. | Powerline Road (Long to Frazee Hill roads) | Construct two-lane road | $12.2-million | 2013 |
| 16. | Starkey Boulevard (River Crossing Boulevard to Decubellis Road) | Add two lanes and widen bridge | $14.6-million | 2013 |
| 17. | County Road 578/County Line Road (East to Shady Hills roads) | Reconstruct two to four lanes | $3.2-million | 2014 |
| 18. | Little Road (County Road 54 to Dusty Lane) | New lanes and drainage | $25-million | 2014 |
| 19. | Zephyrhills Bypass extension (Eiland Boulevard to U.S. 301) | Add two lanes | $24.3-million | 2014 |
| 20. | Chancey Parkway (Fox Ridge to Morris Bridge roads) | Add two lanes and bridge | $52-million | 2015 |
| 5. | Collier Parkway (extension to Ehren Cutoff) | Extension | $62.6-million | 2015 |
| 18. | Little Road (Trinity Boulevard to County Road 54) | Two new lanes | $18.9-million | 2015 |
| 21. | Little Road (Fivay Road to U.S. 19) | Two new lanes | $38.7-million | 2016 |
| 22. | Old Pasco Road (north of Quail Hollow Boulevard to overpass) | Reconstruct as four-lane road | $59.7-million | 2016 |
| 22. | Old Pasco Road (Foamflower Boulevard to Quail Hollow Boulevard) | Reconstruct as four-lane road | $25.9-million | 2016 |
| 22. | Old Pasco Road (north of overpass to State Road 52) | Widen to four lanes | $88.6-million | 2018 |
| 17. | County Road 578/County Line Road (Shady Hills Road to Suncoast Parkway) | Construct four-lane road | $12.9-million | 2022 |
| 17. | County Road 578/County Line Road (Suncoast Parkway to U.S. 41) | Widening (details undecided) | year uncertain | |
|
|
When his comment baffled some commissioners, City Manager Ann Toney-Deal explained it.
"If you are standing in the tent all you see is this camel's small nose, but just on the other side is this whole big animal that nobody sees," she said waving her arms while explaining.
Cloud said the landfill plan almost got past city officials who appeared before the Polk County Commission on March 7 to object and asked for an extension until April 4 on the hearing for approval of the proposed Clay Cut construction and debris landfill on Bannon Island Road.
Cloud also asked the City Commission for permission to retain an expert witness on landfills with a cost not to exceed $10,000. The city will be retaining the firm of GAI of Orlando.
"We can't take a chance here," Cloud said. "This thing has slipped under the radar. If it wasn't for your city manager staying on top of things, we might not have known about this."
The site for the proposed landfill is on the site of a sand mine that was permitted in 1998. In 2001, the owners asked to be allowed to put clean construction debris in the mine hole, Cloud said.
Cloud said plans for the landfill are not well thought out.
"The conditions proposed are woefully inadequate," Cloud said. "There is no provision for closure, there are no height requirements. This area will back up next to the city's industrial and business park. This is not something that is appropriate to be there."
Cloud said most C&D landfills have at least 40 restrictions on them. The Clay Cut landfill only has 10.
He said he is also suspicious of the way the land-use regulations for the land keeps changing.
In 1998, it was zoned as agricultural-rural residential. In 2001 it was changed to residential-low density and in 2003 it was changed back to agricultural-rural residential, Cloud said.
"This thing ought to be under more scrutiny," Cloud said.
He also said that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit is only good for 34 of the 120 acres of the property.
"They have not even done a proper survey of the land," Cloud said.
Commissioners unanimously approved hiring an expert witness.
City Manager Ann Toney-Deal said people in the area are unhappy about the proposal and have signed petitions to keep the landfill out.
"A landfill isn't something they want in their backyard," she said.
The County Commission will hear the issue at its April 4 meeting.
Amber Smith can be reached at amber.smith@theledger.com or 863-422-6800.
Our view: It's melting
Florida Today Editorial
Warmest winter on record
more evidence of global warming's growing threat
There's more fuel to throw on the global warming fire:
This winter has been the warmest on record worldwide, with temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere during January and February 1.3 degrees above average for the period since record keeping began in 1880.
The news from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration comes on the heels of last month's major international study on global warming, which cited overwhelming evidence that it's caused by humans and rapidly growing in severity.
It also follows the trend of the 10 warmest years on record occurring since 1995.
While the White House continues to ignore the danger -- and with it more powerful hurricanes jacked up on rising sea surface temperatures -- Gov. Charlie Crist is not.
Calling it "one of the most important issues that we face this century," Crist wants the Legislature to spend $70 million to spur the development and use of alternative fuels.
It's a needed first step that should be approved, followed by a tough policy that would require Florida to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.
Here's why:
If global warming emissions from Florida and three other Southern states were considered coming from one nation, they would rank 7th in the world, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy reports.
It's past time that Florida address this serious threat, which more than 20 other states have already done.
Palm Bay has plan for future
water need PALM BAY - The utilities department has a plan for the next four years that
includes expansion of city sewer and water service throughout the city and
increased water conservation and reuse. And the plan includes consideration of a city-run water park and aquarium,
as well as an educational nature center. "We're at least going to look into it," utilities director Jason
Yarborough said. The plan also proposes increasing fees to reflect the cost to provide
utilities and mandatory water hookup for homes and businesses in the city. "Our mission is to provide superior drinking water and advanced
treatment and disposal of wastewater through an effective utility system,
reflecting responsible environmental stewardship," Yarborough said. He said the plan "makes it crystal clear what we have to do in coming
years." To provide enough water for the next 14 years to serve a population of
250,000, additional wells are proposed at the Troutman Boulevard plant and new
south regional plant. Water treatment plants would be expanded from the current 14 million
gallons per day to 30 million, while wastewater capacity would increase from 4
million to 15 million gallons and reclaimed water from 1.2 million to 10
million gallons. City Manager Lee Feldman said planning began a year ago with Lyle Sumek
Associates and was approved Thursday by the council. "The strategic plan thoroughly outlines the department's approach to
providing quality service to the citizens of Palm Bay," he said. As part of the plan, the department is seeking national certification. To
become certified through the American Public Works Association and the
American Water Works Association and to be registered with the environmental
management standard, the department must adopt management requirements to
protect the environment by reducing pollution. A comprehensive customer service manual is being developed and a computer
software maintenance management program will be purchased. Contact Jump at 409-1423 or ljump@floridatoday.com
BY LINDA JUMP
FLORIDA TODAY
A $100-million vanishing act
A Florida couple is gone as investigators try to unravel a giant real estate scheme.
By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published March 19, 2007
NORTH MIAMI BEACH - Near the hand-painted statues and gilded gold lions, a small bronze sign remains posted above the doorbell.
"WOLF RESIDENCE," it says, in bold block letters.
But Natalia and Victor Wolf no longer live in this five-bedroom South Florida mansion.
They slipped out late one October night, leaving behind ransacked rooms filled with baby bottles and designer furniture. They took their infant daughter, Emily, with them.
Now someone has changed the locks. Unfinished white molding stretches halfway across the gray stucco house.
And the Wolfs are still at the center of a giant real estate fraud investigation that started in Citrus County and could stretch halfway across the world.
For nearly five months, FBI detectives have been investigating Sky Development Group, a company founded by Victor Wolf and registered in state filings to his wife, Natalia.
Allegations include claims that the company forged deeds and sold more than $1-million worth of property it didn't own in Citrus Springs, took millions of dollars for land without turning over the property to the buyers, closed land deals using a fake title company, and took money for new homes it never built or never finished.
Up to $100-million may be at stake.
But investigators are tight-lipped about their progress. An FBI spokeswoman said this week she could only confirm that the investigation is ongoing.
Detectives from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and the North Miami Beach Police Department said they have turned over their files to the FBI and offered to assist however they can.
They know Natalia Wolf used her passport to enter Germany in October. No charges have been filed and no arrests have been made in the case.
When - or if - anyone connected to the apparent scam will be indicted is unclear.
Victims seek relief
While detectives continue their investigation, many victims are heading to court for help.
Late last month, Peter Mazzarino - the man who first reported problems with Sky Development Group to police - filed a lawsuit against the company.
It's one of more than 40 lawsuits against the developer and its affiliates pending in Citrus, Miami-Dade and Orange counties.
"We're just kind of getting back to a normal life, just kind of waiting to see what happens," said Mazzarino, a 50-year-old locksmith who lives in Coral Springs. "I haven't heard anything from anyone. At this point, it looks like we're on our own."
Files from the FBI's investigation are not public yet, but court records provide a glimpse of how deals with Sky were done:
- State corporate filings list Natalia Wolf as the registered agent for 20 companies. One of them is All Title and Trust, a company that several lawsuits say Sky Development designated to close land deals.
One suit, filed by Camilo Guzman in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in November, includes a copy of instructions for wiring money to All Title and Trust's bank account at a Sunny Isles Beach Wachovia. The suit claims Natalia Wolf instructed Guzman to pay $138,876 to that account for a piece of commercial property in Citrus Springs. But after Guzman paid, the suit claims a deed for the purchase was never recorded.
No record of All Title and Trust exists in the files of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which licenses all title companies in the state.
- One of Sky Development's former associates has sued. Irina Zitser, a notary whose signature is on many of the company's property transactions, filed a lawsuit in January in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The suit claims Natalia Wolf promised in September to pay her $57,500 for property they purchased together in Citrus Springs.
Shortly afterward, Natalia Wolf "fled the country to avoid criminal prosecution for her actions and for allegedly defrauding numerous other individuals out of millions of dollars arising from similar real estate transactions," the suit says.
- One of the state's largest title insurance underwriters, the Attorney's Title Insurance Fund, filed a lawsuit in November claiming Sky Development Group had committed title fraud.
The suit alleges that Sky Development group and its managers "engaged in a plan, scheme, artifice and unlawful conspiracy" in violation of Florida's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.
It also provides more details about the company's sales practices. Sky marketed lots in Citrus Springs "largely to Russian, Latin and Asian immigrants through, among other things, phone solicitations and the Internet," the suit says. Most of the lots sold for about $30,000 each, according to the complaint.
- Several lawsuits are pending involving property owned by companies registered to Natalia Wolf, including a North Miami Beach condominium and the Eastern Shores home where she and Victor Wolf lived. In a foreclosure lawsuit, lender AG Group Investments claimed a company registered to Natalia Wolf, All Realty Alliance Corp., forged signatures on mortgage documents and violated a mortgage agreement by selling the house in May 2006.
Home was for sale
Meanwhile, the house is empty.
Fallen palm fronds cover the grass. Home improvements are unfinished. Neighbors say a "For Sale" sign was removed from the front lawn earlier this month, but no one has moved in.
A courier has taped a note to Natalia Wolf on the front door.
"Please call," it says.
Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 352 860-7309.
Flood of concerns
Rainbow Park residents worry construction will soak their homes
Rainbow Park residents worry construction will soak their homes
OCALA - Until recently, the quiet, rolling hills of the Rainbow Park
subdivision stood largely undeveloped with many of its limestone roads north
of State Road 40 infrequently traveled.
But like so many older, vested subdivisions in Marion County, Rainbow Park has been rediscovered, and there has been a sudden flurry of new home construction.
What that new construction has done, though, is awakened a problem county engineers say is only going to get worse unless a solution is found. There is no drainage system in the 4,500-platted-lot subdivision. So, as new homes are being built, roads and property are flooding.
"Our concern is that, if we don't do something about the drainage pretty soon, that we are going to get houses built in areas where we really need to construct some drainage retention areas," Deputy County Engineer John Goodknight said.
Goodknight recently brought the problem to the attention of the Marion County Commission, which has begun to look for solutions.
The commission has directed the Municipal Service Taxing Unit Department to petition Rainbow Park property owners to determine whether they would be willing to tax themselves to build roads and drainage. If they are unwilling to do that, the county may consider imposing a stormwater assessment - the first ever in the county - to pay to fix the drainage.
THE PROBLEM
Euvargain Amparo is glad the commission is looking for solutions. He knows firsthand about the area's flooding.
Amparo bought his house off Southwest 140th Avenue in 1998, and he has seen it flood twice, the worst during the 2004 hurricanes.
"It flooded almost four to five feet," Amparo said by telephone from his Lake City home. He still owns the Rainbow Park house, where he has built up the driveway to prevent water from entering the house.
"We are all going to have problems if they don't do any draining or something," Amparo said. "All the drains from the septic - not enough drain field. Any floods come, the water is not going to have anywhere to go."
Ronnie Hoffman, too, has a problem with flooding on the lot of her new home off Southwest 144th Court. She said that, when it rains, water from the new house to the north flows onto her property.
"The sod actually floats over to my lot," Hoffman said. "I wonder if there's any damage being done to my drinking water. We have to keep changing filters."
She has paid to have a concrete apron built around her house to keep the water at bay.
"I didn't have any flooding before that house was built," Hoffman said.
But Scott Armstrong of Armstrong Homes, who built the house next to Hoffman's, said he built up the lot before beginning construction because Hoffman's property used to drain onto it.
How that situation will be resolved is yet to be seen, but it does point to problems neighbors could face as the area develops.
BUYER BEWARE
Even though there is no drainage and the area floods, the county continues to issue building permits and certificates of occupancy for new houses.
According to county Storm Water Engineer Tracy Straub, the study area selected for inclusion on flood zone maps stopped at Southwest 140th Avenue.
The small portion of Rainbow Park that is east of Southwest 140th Avenue was included in the study area, but the much larger portion that lies west of Southwest 140th Avenue was not. As a result, there is no official documentation listing it as a flood area.
"I have nothing in there to say I can't allow you to build on your property," Straub said. "Until I have something that's hard evidence - you can't do this - I have got nothing to stand on."
That is why the county has to issue building permits, and that is why it is now taking steps to correct the situation, she said.
In the meantime, lots and houses are being sold and built.
"The builders are not innocent," Straub said. "They are selling those lots, and selling those homes to individuals."
FIXING THE PROBLEM
Goodknight said Rainbow Park was platted in 1960 before any ordinances were written requiring developers to install drainage or paved roads. He said the subdivision's topography is shaped like small bowls, with water flowing to the low spots, and there are no retention ponds.
"Ten to 20 percent of the land area ought to be set aside for drainage retention," Goodknight said. "Somebody is going to have to buy it." He estimates that about 200 acres of land are needed for retention areas.
To fix the drainage problem would cost roughly $25 million, which is about $6,000 for each of the 4,500 lots.
Goodknight said it would be easier to address the problem now, while much of the subdivision's 2,000 acres are still undeveloped, rather than trying to go back and fix it after more homes have been built.
MSTU Director Myra Tedder said she could fix both the roads and drainage for about $6,500 a lot, the cost to be paid by the property owners through an MSTU assessment.
County Commissioner Charlie Stone said he hopes the property owners will vote to pay for roads and drainage. But if they don't?
"Our plan 'B' is to go back out there an improve the drainage, and the property owners are going to have to pay an assessment for drainage," Stone said. "Why not pay a little more and get a nice road to drive on?"
Susan Latham Carr may be reached at susan.carr@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4156.
But like so many older, vested subdivisions in Marion County, Rainbow Park has been rediscovered, and there has been a sudden flurry of new home construction.
What that new construction has done, though, is awakened a problem county engineers say is only going to get worse unless a solution is found. There is no drainage system in the 4,500-platted-lot subdivision. So, as new homes are being built, roads and property are flooding.
"Our concern is that, if we don't do something about the drainage pretty soon, that we are going to get houses built in areas where we really need to construct some drainage retention areas," Deputy County Engineer John Goodknight said.
Goodknight recently brought the problem to the attention of the Marion County Commission, which has begun to look for solutions.
The commission has directed the Municipal Service Taxing Unit Department to petition Rainbow Park property owners to determine whether they would be willing to tax themselves to build roads and drainage. If they are unwilling to do that, the county may consider imposing a stormwater assessment - the first ever in the county - to pay to fix the drainage.
THE PROBLEM
Euvargain Amparo is glad the commission is looking for solutions. He knows firsthand about the area's flooding.
Amparo bought his house off Southwest 140th Avenue in 1998, and he has seen it flood twice, the worst during the 2004 hurricanes.
"It flooded almost four to five feet," Amparo said by telephone from his Lake City home. He still owns the Rainbow Park house, where he has built up the driveway to prevent water from entering the house.
"We are all going to have problems if they don't do any draining or something," Amparo said. "All the drains from the septic - not enough drain field. Any floods come, the water is not going to have anywhere to go."
Ronnie Hoffman, too, has a problem with flooding on the lot of her new home off Southwest 144th Court. She said that, when it rains, water from the new house to the north flows onto her property.
"The sod actually floats over to my lot," Hoffman said. "I wonder if there's any damage being done to my drinking water. We have to keep changing filters."
She has paid to have a concrete apron built around her house to keep the water at bay.
"I didn't have any flooding before that house was built," Hoffman said.
But Scott Armstrong of Armstrong Homes, who built the house next to Hoffman's, said he built up the lot before beginning construction because Hoffman's property used to drain onto it.
How that situation will be resolved is yet to be seen, but it does point to problems neighbors could face as the area develops.
BUYER BEWARE
Even though there is no drainage and the area floods, the county continues to issue building permits and certificates of occupancy for new houses.
According to county Storm Water Engineer Tracy Straub, the study area selected for inclusion on flood zone maps stopped at Southwest 140th Avenue.
The small portion of Rainbow Park that is east of Southwest 140th Avenue was included in the study area, but the much larger portion that lies west of Southwest 140th Avenue was not. As a result, there is no official documentation listing it as a flood area.
"I have nothing in there to say I can't allow you to build on your property," Straub said. "Until I have something that's hard evidence - you can't do this - I have got nothing to stand on."
That is why the county has to issue building permits, and that is why it is now taking steps to correct the situation, she said.
In the meantime, lots and houses are being sold and built.
"The builders are not innocent," Straub said. "They are selling those lots, and selling those homes to individuals."
FIXING THE PROBLEM
Goodknight said Rainbow Park was platted in 1960 before any ordinances were written requiring developers to install drainage or paved roads. He said the subdivision's topography is shaped like small bowls, with water flowing to the low spots, and there are no retention ponds.
"Ten to 20 percent of the land area ought to be set aside for drainage retention," Goodknight said. "Somebody is going to have to buy it." He estimates that about 200 acres of land are needed for retention areas.
To fix the drainage problem would cost roughly $25 million, which is about $6,000 for each of the 4,500 lots.
Goodknight said it would be easier to address the problem now, while much of the subdivision's 2,000 acres are still undeveloped, rather than trying to go back and fix it after more homes have been built.
MSTU Director Myra Tedder said she could fix both the roads and drainage for about $6,500 a lot, the cost to be paid by the property owners through an MSTU assessment.
County Commissioner Charlie Stone said he hopes the property owners will vote to pay for roads and drainage. But if they don't?
"Our plan 'B' is to go back out there an improve the drainage, and the property owners are going to have to pay an assessment for drainage," Stone said. "Why not pay a little more and get a nice road to drive on?"
Susan Latham Carr may be reached at susan.carr@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4156.
Register to learn friendly landscaping
By TIMES WIRES
Published March 19, 2007
SPRING HILL
Friday is the deadline to register for the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Grow Smart Workshop, which will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon March 29 at SNPJ Hall, 13383 County Line Road. The workshop will be presented by the Hernando County Cooperative Extension Service Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Hernando County Utilities Department. The cost is $10 per person. A limited number of reservations remain. Hernando County Utilities customers who prepay and attend the workshop will be eligible for a $10 rebate (one rebate per account). To register, stop by the extension service at 19490 Oliver St. in Brooksville. For information, call 540-4368, ext. 35139.
County OKs Expansion Of Shops At Wiregrass
Published: Mar 19, 2007
WESLEY CHAPEL - JCPenney may not be the lone tenant of the Shops at Wiregrass for much longer.
County officials last week approved plans for a minor expansion of the plaza at the northeast corner of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.
The expansion will add three new buildings and about 50,000 square feet to the site that now houses JCPenney.
Two of the new buildings will abut JCPenney's eastern wall. The third will sit farther to the east across the first few yards of what will become the open-air plaza's semi-circular main street.
JCPenney and its neighboring buildings will form the southwest corner of a future 800,000-square-foot "lifestyle center" planned by Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises and The Goodman Co. of West Palm Beach.
Dillard's is the only other announced anchor of the plaza. The third anchor remains unconfirmed.
It's unclear, however, when construction might begin on the new retail spaces.
The Shops at Wiregrass is part of the Porter family's plan to convert their 5,000-acre ranch at the heart of Wesley Chapel into a city-sized development that could bring 35,000 new residents to central Pasco.
The overall Wiregrass Ranch project remains bound in red tape awaiting final approval by county commissioners.
JCPenney, which opened in 2005, was part of a deal Wiregrass officials struck with the county and state to begin limited development of the site while the larger project worked its way through regional approvals.
That deal limited commercial construction at the Shops at Wiregrass site to 172,000 square feet. Combined with the existing store, the new construction will stay under that threshold.
Wiregrass officials have been moving dirt on the acres north and east of JCPenney under a limited county-issued site-development permit. It's unclear, however, when crews will begin construction of the new buildings.
County Administrator John Gallagher and the DRC told Wiregrass attorney Joel Tew last week the developers can't open their new stores until they've extended S.R. 56 east from its current dead end at Bruce B. Downs to the eastern edge of the future shopping center.
Pulte Home Corp., which plans to build three residential communities at Wiregrass, is responsible for extending S.R. 56 from Bruce B. Downs to Meadow Pointe Boulevard.
Tew said that work, which has been delayed several times, won't start until the overall Wiregrass Ranch project clears the county's approval process.
That process continues to drag out as county officials fret that Wiregrass' future traffic will cripple the road network linking southeast Pasco and northeast Hillsborough counties.
Commissioners took a stab at the issues in January, negotiating with Wiregrass officials in a two-hour public workshop. That workshop bogged down quickly in talk about Wiregrass' traffic projections versus the millions in tax revenue it could produce to solve future traffic problems.
A second round of talks was supposed to have been set for February or early March but never materialized.
A March 13 hearing on the overall Wiregrass project was put off until next month.
Tew said last week that he has tried repeatedly to set up a second workshop only to get rebuffed by county officials.
Tew said he expects the next hearing - April 10 in Dade City - to be the day Wiregrass gets its up-or-down vote.
Without another workshop between now and then, however, the April 10 hearing isn't a sure thing either, said Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, chairwoman of the five-member board.
"We need to have more information, and we need to have the road network better defined before I can cast an educated vote," Hildebrand said. "We've got to have an eye-to-eye discussion one way or another."
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
