Kenric Ward: A loaded question about growth
By TCPalm Staff
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Central Florida is embarking on a seven-county venture called “How Shall We Grow?” The question and its implicit assumption — that we must grow — has major implications for the Treasure Coast.
Wedged between the sprawling metroplexes of Orlando and South Florida, our region is being squeezed like orange juice. Even in the midst of a real-estate market meltdown, planners and developers are mapping our future
...literally.
One of the prophets of the greater new urbanism is Bruce Stephenson, a Rollins College professor who came to Vero Beach last month to speak about “Past Visions, Future Solutions: Solving the Conundrum of Suburban Sprawl.”
Like most academics, the environmental studies instructor is long on vision, and yet painfully myopic. His Ivory Tower in Winter Park apparently stands in a hermetically sealed political vacuum.
While Stephenson identifies the waste and non-sustainability of Florida’s ’50s-style growth, his proposed cure is equally stale. It’s also naive.
Resurrecting the works of John Nolen — an American planner who drew up city designs in the 1920s — Stephenson’s approach is more derivative than original. Indeed, a phalanx of new urban planners makes their living these days going around the country giving the same old lectures.
Stephenson hitches his wagon to Central Florida’s “How Shall We Grow” initiative, touting a vision of “smart,” compact communities connected by new road and rail corridors. In other words: density sprawl.
Today’s planners attempt to reinvent the wheel as they lust for downtown trolleys and mixed-use living arrangements. It seems these avant-garde thinkers were born about a century too late.
But they’re not all wrong. They properly identify the automobile as the single biggest influence on community planning (such as it is). They’re right that the spiraling prices for fuel make suburbia evermore untenable. And they correctly compute the fiscal, social and environmental costs of random, cookie-cooker growth thrown up by the development machine.
Where Stephenson and his colleagues go astray is in thinking they can dismantle the existing order and move everyone into their new nirvana. In actuality, the planners are merely puppets for the same crew that got us into this mess.
“How Shall We Grow” is backed politically and financially by regional chambers of commerce, builders, Realtors and other development drivers who figure Florida needs a fresh marketing approach to stimulate sales. They’ve simply enlisted academics and planners as their salesmen and front men.
Listen to Stephenson & Co. long enough and they’ll have you believing places like Portland, Ore., and Seattle are our utopian models. (This requires you to also believe those cities don’t have sky-high property taxes and their own horrendous traffic jams.) The spiel exudes the planners’ conceit that Florida would be a perfect place, if only people will follow their blueprints.
Converts to this new urban religion are joined by elected officials, who just follow the money. Our public sector, at all levels, is still a government of the developers, for the developers and by the developers.
Most media are on board, too. Editorialists around the state applaud “smart” growth and “new urbanism” as the talisman of “consensus.” Across Indian River County’s northern border, Brevard County’s newspaper opines that the county’s “quality of life depends on plugging into Central Florida’s growth map.”
Pulleeze. By that logic, Martin County would be so much nicer if it would join up with Palm Beach County. (Subscribing to the bigger-is-better theory, the Miami Herald recently called on Palm Beach to collaborate with Broward and Miami-Dade counties to “think — and act — as a region.”)
Perhaps St. Lucie County could just lead its neighbors into a whole new three-county metropolitan complex of our own. Now there’s a nightmare.
Regional synergy is the future, according to Stephenson. He praises the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, another avatar of new urbanism, for doing a “great job.”
Though that’s debatable, the good professor has a strong sense of what we should not do. When asked about Florida Hometown Democracy, he glibly and quickly replies: “It would be a disaster. Florida has enough trouble holding elections. Do we really want more of them?”
The answer speaks volumes about the anti-democratic, pro-corporate impulses of post-modern urban planners. The notion that the people — the unwashed masses — should have any meaningful say in what happens to their communities is completely noxious to university-trained “professionals” and county commissioners holding high-school diplomas.
A paucity of independent-minded elected representatives is the direct byproduct of Florida’s over-controlling growth machine. The “How Shall We Grow” set-up (like those planner-orchestrated charettes that pop up from time to time) is a counterfeit of democracy.
Promiscuous amendments to local comprehensive plans, rubber-stamping of development (which pumped up and pricked the real-estate bubble) and the growing influence of absentee builders are afflictions of a sick political economy. Today’s planners continue to nurse the fevered delusion that growth not only will pay its way, but that it brings prosperity and a better life. If that were true, Miami would be the richest and most livable city on Earth.
New-urbanism snake oil dispensed from old bottles won’t fix what ails Florida. If our communities are to survive, the people must wrest control from the public-private cartels that externalize costs for the profit of a few. Billions of tax dollars for rail lines? New toll roads to link new towns? Energy-guzzling desalination plants and empty rivers to slake a voracious thirst? No thanks.
Discerning taxpayers will see far-flung clustering schemes for what they really are — developer tools to bust up rural zoning, pave over more land and facilitate still more growth.
Contrary to what the “experts” claim, growth is a political decision, not an inevitability. For growth-beleaguered Floridians, the question is not “How shall we grow?” but shall we grow at all?
Ken.Ward@scripps.com
7 COUNTIES,
7 MILLION PEOPLE
THE PITCH: “Central Florida has all of the components necessary to be one of the world’s greatest and most admired places.” So gushes a Web site advertising “smart, quality growth” for a seven-county region anchored by Orlando. Plans to house 7 million people — more than doubling the area’s population by 2050 — are touted on Myregion.org.
THE REACTION: Thus far, so-called “growth-management” proponents such as Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham and 1000 Friends of Florida (funded by St. Joe Co. and other development interests) haven’t said a word about this. They’ve been too busy bad-mouthing Florida Hometown Democracy, which would give voters a direct say in growth-related decisions.
Special Election Offers Lessons For Future
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 1, 2008
Darryl Rouson, an attorney and former president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP, won last week's Democratic primary to replace state Rep. Frank Peterman, who was appointed secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice, in House District 55.
In the general election on April 15, he will face write-in candidate Calvester Benjamin-Anderson.
That's right. Another election must be held because of a write-in candidate.
Write-in candidates are an unintended consequence of election-law reforms. Here's why: Florida law allows anyone to vote in a primary if the other major party offers no candidate and there are no write-ins. No Republican ran in the race for District 55, which serves a largely minority constituency in parts of Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and Hillsborough counties. But the presence of a write-in candidate kept it a closed primary, thus the April 15 general election.
This is silly and costly. To become a write-in candidate, one simply needs to fill out a form, identify a treasurer and a campaign account. There are no fees to pay and no petitions to get signed. You don't even have to campaign. You're nothing but a spoiler.
The law should be changed to require open primaries when no major-party candidates qualify for the ballot.
The costly, time-consuming loophole for write-ins should be closed.
Greed for land gift is not in public's interest
Published Monday, March 31, 2008 6:54 PM
Altruism shouldn't come with an ulterior motive. But that is the case in the tiny east Pasco municipality of San Antonio where a candidate for Pasco County commission is offering to donate 1.86 acres to the city.
This supposed gift has more strings attached than a marionette and city officials are correct to proceed cautiously to ensure the local government isn't used as a puppet for someone's private gain.
At issue is land known as Lake Emily, a parcel near San Antonio City Hall that is a dry basin now, but fills with water during heavy rainfall. As Times staff writer Chuin-Wei Yap detailed, John Nicolette, a Tampa firefighter, east Pasco rancher and candidate for the District 1 Pasco commission seat, purchased the land for $3,000 in 2003 from a private partnership that included his brother-in-law.
Nicolette later offered to donate the land to San Antonio, a city commissioner said, and Nicolette put the suggestion in writing in a 2006 application to rezone the land. Changing the land-use designation to residential increases its value, and increases the size of the tax write-off for the donor.
The City Commission shouldn't have to consider rezoning a sometimes lake into a home-building site in order to obtain the property for public use. The city leaders should be allowed to accept the land — if they choose to — and then use it as they see fit.
Instead, Nicolette has argued:
• The land should be preserved for public use;
• The city could sell the land to adjoining land owners and use the cash for city parks;
• The city needed to rezone the land to protect itself from potential litigation under the state's Bert Harris Act.
This last doozy of an argument included the absurd explanation that Nicolette wouldn't want to see the city harmed from his grave. The city needed to approve the rezoning, Nicolette said at a public meeting, because "if I pass away and my wife decides to sell it, and she sells it to somebody, I believe, through legal individuals I have talked to, this will put the city in a situation where they could become liable.''
If he'd just deed the land to the city, no questions asked, his widow won't have the opportunity to sell the land. Likewise, a potential future buyer won't have cause to sue the city. Nor, would the land be available for development, which, Nicolette has said, is what he is seeking to avoid in the first place.
Frankly, all his stated objectives can be obtained by simply giving away the land. If the land isn't rezoned, it can't be developed.
If Nicolette wants a tax write-off, he should pay for an up-to-date appraisal and use that figure. Or, he could use $3,000, adjusted for inflation, since that was his original investment.
Mostly, Nicolette should stop trying to manipulate the government for personal gain. An individual seeking elected office should put the public's interests ahead of his own.
Brandon area residents gear up to fight bypass plan
By Catherine E. Shoichet and Mike Brassfield, Times Staff Writers
Published Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:25 PM
BRANDON — The bright green line stretched across the projection screen, from Manatee County into Hillsborough.
Planning consultants described it as a freight rail corridor. But to many of the southeast Hillsborough residents at a community group meeting Thursday night, it looked familiar.
"There it is," several audience members whispered as the slide went up. "We've been fighting that route since the '80s," said Mariella Smith of Ruskin.
The line was one of four on a slide showing possible connections between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. It's one of several options representatives of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority said they are considering.
Supporters have called it the beltway and the bypass. Opponents call it the "green swath of death." Last year, they fought to have it removed from county transportation plans.
On Thursday, they prepared for battle again.
The authority, created by the Legislature last year, is in the early stages of creating a regional transportation plan. Thursday, it presented the corridors it is considering to United Citizens Action Network, a South Hillsborough activist group.
"How do we balance what's good for the region with what you think is good for the Brandon area?" said John Bradley, a senior planner with Gannett Fleming who is consulting with TBARTA on the plan.
The new regional transportation agency has the power to build toll roads, although the officials in charge have been more focused on mass transit.
Planners Thursday urged residents to submit comments to the authority, stressed that decisions about the corridors have not been made, and pledged to hold more public meetings.
Afterward, Balm resident Marcella O'Steen handed out copies of newspaper articles about the bypass. "It's the same route. Somebody is very, very determined," she said. "But so are we."
Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2454.
West Palm sets up $1 million program to stall foreclosures
By GEORGE BENNETT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
WEST PALM BEACH — With a growing number of homeowners having trouble keeping up with their mortgage payments, the city on Monday announced a $1 million program to try to forestall foreclosures.
Working with private lenders and credit counselors, the city will try to help homeowners renegotiate loans to avoid foreclosure. For some qualified homeowners, the city will offer up to $10,000 in emergency assistance to pay arrearages. In some cases, the new Foreclosure Assistance Center will try to help set up "short sale" arrangements when a home is worth less than its mortgage.
Participants will be required to enroll in a yearlong education and counseling program.
The assistance is available only to city residents.
"This is a bold and creative step. ... It's one of the first of its kind that we know of in the country," said John Settles, a Maryland-based mortgage banker who attended a news conference announcing the city's program.
The city will use about $650,000 from a developer-financed city trust fund and about $350,000 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mayor Lois Frankel said. The city money comes from fees developers pay to buy greater development rights in the city.
Nearly 2,000 homes in the city are in "pre-foreclosure," city officials said.
The number of homeowners facing foreclosure has skyrocketed as low-interest adjustable-rate mortgages convert to fixed mortgages at higher interest rates, said Jessica Cecere, president of Consumer Credit Counseling of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
Cecere's nonprofit organization counseled 736 homeowners in February - more than a fivefold increase over February 2007, when 144 homeowners received foreclosure counseling.
Homeownership is the American dream, Frankel said, but "for too many people, the American dream is turning into a nightmare. ... We believe not enough is being done."
Aside from helping at-risk homeowners, Frankel said, the program will benefit others because a rash of foreclosures in a neighborhood can harm property values.
Emelda Johnson, the city's director of Housing and Community Development, said the assistance of up to $10,000 would be available to homeowners with steady jobs or income streams who have fallen behind on mortgage payments because of "some catastrophic occurrence."
Recipients would have to agree to a repayment plan, she said. At a news conference announcing the program, three homeowners showed up.
The Foreclosure Assistance Center, 464 Fern St., will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The phone number is (561) 822-1575, and the city recommends calling for an appointment.
Becoming a model for growth governance
Published Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
You know you're doing something right when others want to follow your lead. Sarasota County is gaining that sort of reputation in, of all things, how it handles growth.
In the Palm Beach Post this week, editorial writer Sally Swartz suggested Sarasota would serve as a good example for Martin County.
"Environmental activists, Jupiter Island benefactors and controlled-growth advocates have worked to keep Martin County a green and pleasant place to live. But Sarasota County ... rapidly is becoming an even more compelling role model for citizens initiatives to control growth," she wrote.
We can thank none other than ourselves for this new reputation.
We, the people, have methodically acted on our fears that unbridled population growth would, at some point, ruin this area we love.
First, we voted to increase our taxes to buy environmentally sensitive land. This has protected some of the most vulnerable areas, which can now be enjoyed by everyone.
Then we went to the ballot to close an annexation loophole. Developers used to persuade cities to annex land so they could build at higher densities than the county would allow. Now, in those cases, the county's land regulations supersede the cities'.
Next, we passed a charter amendment that requires a 4-1 vote (rather than 3-2) whenever the county commissioners try to change the comprehensive growth plan to allow more density or intensity.
On May 6, we will vote again.
We will consider a charter amendment to sanctify the urban service boundary, the line devised for planning purposes to separate where we want urban development and where we don't want it.
If we pass the amendment, the urban service boundary will be defined in the county's charter, eliminating it will require a referendum, and changing it will require a unanimous vote of the commissioners.
None of this is intended to stop growth. It simply supports the idea that once we concoct a sensible plan for organizing the place in which we live, we should not abandon the plan every time a developer buys a chunk of land and wants to make money off it.
We, the people, may know what we want, but we're not particularly well organized, which is why we've needed groups such as Citizens for Sensible Growth and the Council of Neighborhood Associations to collect our signatures and put our thoughts into ballot language.
Once they have, we've known what to do with it. If that sets a good example, so be it.
Eric Ernst's column runs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at eric.ernst@heraldtribune.com or (941) 486-3073.
Developer's effort to muzzle activists on suit sparks tiff
By JASON SCHULTZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
JENSEN BEACH — Jensen Beach activists were outraged Monday at developer Bill Reily's request to have a judge bar them from calling Reily's lawsuit against the activists a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation suit.
"I think Mr. Reily and his attorney don't have any concept of what country we live in. I am shocked that in the United States somebody would try to do this," said Jackie Trancynger, a member of the Jensen Beach Group.
In 2006, Reily sued members of the group who have opposed his 84-unit Pitchford's Landing development. He has alleged that the group defamed him in its opposition and interfered with his business contracts.
Members of the group accused Reily of filing a SLAPP suit aimed at scaring them from speaking against the project.
"It was an effort to scare the community," said Thomas Fullman, founder of the Jensen Beach Group.
Several members of the group who were dismissed from the original lawsuit have since sued Reily, accusing him of malicious prosecution.
Reily filed a motion Monday in the lawsuit that the group members filed against him asking Circuit Judge Robert Pegg to bar them from using the terminology SLAPP suit, including publicly, when discussing his lawsuit.
"They just use that term freely to garner support," Reily said. "It's not a SLAPP suit, and we're not going to let anyone use that terminology if we can stop them."
The developer said he has not stopped any of the group members from exercising their right to speak about Pitchford's Landing.
Trancynger, one of the members who was dismissed from the original lawsuit and now is suing Reily, said she has no intention of refraining from using the words "SLAPP suit" in public and thought his request infringed on her constitutional right to free speech.
"How can they tell me what words I can use?" Trancynger said. "That's what this whole thing is about is my right to free speech."
SAVE CYPRESS TREES
Mulch Ado About Something
Cypress mulch is popular for use in gardens and in landscaping around homes and
businesses. But people should know that their choice can harm Florida's wetlands, the Gulf of Mexico and our coastal environment in general.
It would be far better to allow cypress trees to remain knee-deep - literally - in swampy waters rather than cut them down and grind them for mulch.
Other types of hardwood and softwood mulch are available, and just as effective for retaining moisture in the soil, experts say. Environmental groups encourage the use of such mulch in an
effort to preserve cypress and its significant benefits.
Large pockets of cypress - often called bald cypress - grow along the coasts of Florida and other Southeastern states.
"Swamps dominated by cypress, one of Florida's most beautiful and majestic trees, occupy about 1.6 million acres, or 5 percent, of the state's landscape," says a paper by Mary L. Duryea and L. Annie Hermansen. Duryea is a professor and associate dean of the School of Forest Resources and Conservation in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Services at the University of Florida. Hermansen is a graduate student.
A species that occupies 1.6 million acres is not on the verge of extinction but, where cypress is left to grow, it plays an important and varied environmental role.
REASONS TO SWITCH
Here are some of living cypress's benefits, according to Dan Favre of the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based organization waging a four-state campaign to persuade retailers and individuals not to sell or buy cypress mulch:
Cypress provides "the best natural storm protection" along the gulf coast, said Favre. Storm surges, for example, flatten out in a cypress swamp.
Storm runoff is naturally retained in cypress swamps. That runoff can cause flooding if cypress is removed.
Cypress swamps help regenerate ground water and impede the intrusion of salt water into ground water.
Stands of cypress provide shelter for wildlife, including wood storks, woodpeckers, black bears and the endangered Florida panther.
Cypress trees filter nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen from water before they reach the gulf and fuel the growth of algae.
The beauty of cypress swamps and the wildlife they attract make cypress a magnet for public recreation.
More cypress will be preserved if homeowners, community associations, businesses and local governments switch to another kind of hardwood or softwood mulch.
Better yet, they could use mulch made from the melaleuca - or punk tree, an exotic species that drains water from the fragile coastal environment. Many Florida communities now ban the planting of melaleuca and remove them when possible. Grinding the trees for mulch would do our environment a favor in more ways than one.
conflicts of interest
EPA, Business Chummy
The American people cannot have faith in the decisions that are made by EPA science advisory panels if panel members are paid by the industry involved.
So it's encouraging to see the House Energy and Commerce Committee look into potential conflicts of interest of eight scientists who were either consultants or members of EPA advisory panels assigned to assess the health effects of toxic chemicals.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who chairs the committee, opened the inquiry March 17 with a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, The Associated Press reported.
Dingell reminded Johnson that last summer the EPA removed toxicologist Deborah Rice from an advisory panel after complaints from the chemical industry.
A-TO-Z POLITICAL INTERFERENCE
Rice, a scientist who works for the state of
Maine, was opposed by the American Chemical Council because she advised her state to
ban a flame retardant used in electronic equipment. She was on a panel that was looking at the chemical.
The Union of Concerned Scientists recently released a report documenting 84 examples of political interference in 24 federal agencies. The instances occurred over a period of six years, beginning in 2001
The "A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science" also found that nearly 2,000 scientists working for nine federal agencies have reported that they fear retaliation for openly expressing concerns about the mission-driven work of their agencies.
Dingell wrote in his letter to the EPA,
"The routine use of chemical-industry employees and representatives in EPA's scientific
review process, together with EPA's dismissal
of Dr. Rice, raises serious questions with regard to EPA's conflict-of-interest rules and their application."
If advisory panels are tainted, Americans need to know. And the past work of those panels would need to be reviewed.
More frustration in Tallevast
Limited review of pollution-linked cancers widens a credibility gap
Published Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
The Florida Department of Health searched a statewide data system and, according to a recent report, found four cases of cancer in Tallevast that might be linked to industrial pollution.
Residents of the community in southern Manatee County had already conducted their own survey, and reported that they found about 90 cases of cancer and beryllium-related diseases.
Why the discrepancies?
It depends upon whom you ask.
The Department of Health says its "public health assessment" used the Florida Cancer Data System to determine if a "predicted increase in cancer" occurred in Talle-vast. The prediction was based on evidence that pollutants from a now-defunct American Beryllium factory in Tallevast had poisoned some former workers and seeped into local well-water supplies.
The DOH said its review of the data system found only four cancers "of interest" that might be linked to the pollutants. The department's 127-page report states that researchers looked at cancer cases in Talle-vast's main ZIP code; a DOH spokesperson told us the department reviewed "cancers in five other nearby ZIP codes," although that wasn't disclosed in the report.
The failure to make that disclosure in the report was a mistake, and it heightened the frustrations of Tallevast residents.
Unfortunately, those residents and former workers of the factory have reasons to be skeptical: Corporate and government recognition of a health hazard came decades late, and the private- and public-sector responses have been plagued by delays and incomplete findings.
The disappointment expressed by Talle-vast residents after the recent meeting was understandable. Pollution problems became clear in 1997. Local and state officials have taken steps to mitigate residents' exposure to additional threats, but the process should be well beyond searching databases.
Nevertheless, the February report, which was discussed in community meetings this month, assembled a lot of data.
Epidemiologists at the DOH searched the state Cancer Data System, discovering three kidney cancers and one non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
At a recent meeting with Tallevast residents, DOH officials discussed the limitations of using a statewide database to look for cancers in a "small area." The report also notes that cancer-incidence data is lacking before 1981; the former American Beryllium plant operated at the site in Tallevast starting in 1962.
During the meeting, state health department officials asked Tallevast residents for the specific results of their survey -- What took so long? -- and promised to look into the possibility of a more accurate study that would include a door-to-door survey of the community.
That type of survey by an epidemiologist should be conducted as soon as possible. State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, pledged his continued support: "We've got to find the funding and get this done quickly and correctly," he said.
The Legislature should work with Galvano to assign this a high priority.
Local and state health and environmental protection officials continue to work with Lockheed, the site's current owner, on an acceptable cleanup plan -- but the credibility of the state and the company have been damaged by delays, mishaps and mistakes.
Unfortunately, the limits and inadequate disclosures of the Department of Health's haven't helped bridge the credibility gap.
Thirty-Six U.S. States to Face Water Shortages in the Next Five Years
by David Gutierrez
(NaturalNews) At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages within the next five years, according to U.S. government estimates. Available freshwater supplies are dwindling across the country due to rising temperatures and droughts, while increasing sprawl, population and inefficient resource usage are leading to rising demand.
"Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the American Water Works Association. Rising temperatures due to global warming have increased evaporation rates across the country and reduced the availability of important water sources. One of these is the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies a significant portion of California's water. Across the West, similar trends are expected to reduce flows of the Colorado River, which supplies water for seven states.
Meanwhile, rising sea levels are expected to cause saltwater to infiltrate freshwater aquifers in coastal states, rendering that water unusable.
California uses about 23 trillion gallons of fresh water per year. The United States as a whole uses more than 148 trillion gallons for all purposes, including agriculture, manufacturing and other uses.
Other threatened regions include the Midwest, where the Great Lakes are shrinking, and upstate New York, where reservoir levels have fallen to record lows. Georgia's crisis has already arrived, and Florida's is expected to hit soon.
While Florida has no shortage of rainfall, widespread draining and paving of the region's natural wetlands has left the water unable to drain back into the soil. As a consequence, the state is forced to flush millions of gallons of water into the ocean per year to avert floods. The state's environmental chief, Michael Sole, has asked the Florida legislature to increase the use of reclaimed wastewater. Other states are encouraging measures such as desalinization, but it is widely accepted that conservation is the cheapest alternative.
Even with such measures, the forecast is not expected to improve. "Unfortunately, there's just not going to be any more cheap water," said Randy Brown, utilities director for Pompano Beach, Fla.
Cities to stay tethered by water line
Published Sunday, March 30, 2008 8:47 PM
PORT RICHEY — Three years ago, the city unveiled a plan to end its decades-old reliance on New Port Richey for water.
The city, which already had three wells of its own, would build four more using a $3-million bond issue. Once those new wells were finished, Port Richey hoped to stop buying water from its municipal neighbor.
Construction has finished, and the new wells should be up and running within 60 days. But aquatic independence will take a little longer.
Port Richey's seven wells could meet the city's needs today, consultant U.S. Water said, but the city will need more water as it grows, as well as access to an emergency water supply. U.S. Water recommended the city maintain its relationship with New Port Richey.
The City Council agreed Tuesday, voting unanimously to extend the city's bulk water purchasing contract with New Port Richey.
The vote extends the 10-year-old contract, which was set to expire in 2009, for another year. Under the new contract, the city will reduce the amount of water it buys from New Port Richey from 200,000 to 100,000 gallons a day for at least a year, while still drawing from its own wells.
"The bottom line is, we have to have a backup plan, regardless," said council member Dale Massad. "But I think we'll be independent in the next year."
Residents say while they hope the city could one day provide its own water without the help of its sister city, they're supportive of the council's decision to renew the contract.
"If the city could ever be self-sufficient, it would be ideal for the city," said resident Mike Latini. "But if it can't, or isn't sure it could, then it's extremely wise to have a backup system. I think the council made a wise choice."
Others say that while Port Richey could operate without help, it's best to err on the side of caution.
"I think the consensus is that it's like a sister city, and we don't want to hurt them by removing them from the equation," said resident Jim Carroll. "The wells could go online and have problems. One day, if it's feasible to be on our own, it's a good thing. But at this point, you never know what could happen."
Construction on the four new wells was completed this year. But before turning them on, the city is going through a permitting process and testing pumping capacity and transmission lines.
The wells project won't have any effect on customers' water bills, City Manager Richard Reade said.
In all, the city's seven wells will be able to produce 1.2-million gallons of water a day.
Reade said the four new wells will help alleviate the water demands placed on the city's three existing wells.
"The three (wells) we have now are running at a high level," Reade said. "We need to take some pressure off these and put it on the new four wells."
From October 2006 through September 2007, Port Richey bought about 137-million gallons of water — worth $535,539 — from New Port Richey.
The city's three wells produced 241-million gallons during the same time period.
Reade said he's grateful for the partnership with New Port Richey, and that he isn't sure if Port Richey will ever operate its water system independently from its neighbor.
"I think we have all become partners," he said. "I don't think we will ever become independent of New Port Richey. We are in this together, and we're trying to help each other."
Tom O'Neill, city manager of New Port Richey, said the water deal has been in place since the '60s. He said about 90 percent of New Port Richey's water comes from Tampa Bay Water, and the rest from a city-owned well.
O'Neill said Port Richey officials can continue to rely on New Port Richey for as long as they need to.
"It's a win-win situation," he said. "We are able to deliver a good product to Port Richey that helps them, and they are able to rely on us."
Camille C. Spencer can be reached at cspencer@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6229.
New way to gauge Sarasota waters' ongoing health
Published Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
SARASOTA COUNTY — Oyster production is up in many Sarasota bays, sea grasses are more abundant and scallop populations are on the rise — all indicators of improving water quality.
A new county law should help Sarasota's watersheds even further by limiting fertilizer runoff.
Yet currently there is no way of tracking the overall health of local rivers, creeks and bays. More than 30 years after Congress passed the Clean Water Act, most governments still have no comprehensive way to determine whether water bodies are improving or becoming more polluted.
That will change for Sarasota County in a few months when environmental experts roll out a new ecological scorecard modeled after successful efforts in the Tampa Bay and Chesapeake Bay areas.
"We see this as a critical service, informing the public about the health of our bays," said Jack Merriam, the county's manager for water planning and regulation.
From oyster sampling to sea grass surveys, Sarasota County already has a variety of monitoring programs that will be used in the new report card.
The idea is to create a more comprehensive, easy-to-understand system that will help drive community awareness and public policy decisions on local water bodies, Merriam said.
In the Chesapeake region, for example, a report card developed two years ago has garnered significant public interest and helped target government spending, said Bill Dennison, who developed the assessment tool as professor and vice president for science applications with the University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science.
"These simple scoring systems really resonate with the public," said Dennison, who created his first environmental report card while working in Australia and is now sought after as a consultant on ecological accountability initiatives. "Now the report card is being used not just to diagnose the problem but create these solutions, which we're really excited about."
Public officials are using the Chesapeake report card to funnel money for sewage treatment upgrades along the bay's most polluted tributaries and designate less polluted regions as conservation areas, Dennison said.
Sarasota County already has taken similar actions, spending millions on a program to remove 14,000 septic tanks that made Phillippi Creek one of the most polluted water bodies in the county.
The report card could help the county identify similar projects, Merriam said.
"We're already moving in the right direction, but this will be used to make those decisions in the future," Merriam said.
A consultant has completed the first draft of Sarasota's scorecard and county environmental experts are debating what data should be included in the final draft.
Dennison said determining what environmental indicators to measure, and how, is one of the most critical steps.
"If you're going to have a very public statement about the status of your waterways, you better get it right," he said.
Paying To Slow Life In The Fast Lane
By CHRISTIAN M. WADE
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 1, 2008
PORT RICHEY - Forest Lake Drive residents have complained for years about traffic scofflaws turning their quiet west Pasco County road into a NASCAR raceway.
So awhile back, they approached Pasco County officials with a proposal: Install speed humps along the road to slow the drivers down.
It took a while to get the initiative going, but homeowners association members eventually gathered enough signatures on a petition from residents who supported the move, and then submitted the required paperwork to county officials.
After months of traffic studies and cost analyses, the county commission approved the request last Tuesday, but with one caveat: Homeowners will have to foot the bill.
Before signing off on the request, the commission approved an ordinance adding traffic-calming devices to the list of road improvements residents in unincorporated Pasco are required to fund.
Under the deal, Forest Lake Drive homeowners will pay the estimated $19,500 for the four speed cushions through special tax assessments - roughly $450 per household.
With the staggering growth of Pasco's population in recent years, requests aimed at slowing traffic in neighborhoods have risen substantially.
Although most of Pasco's six municipalities pay for installing speed humps, county officials say they can't afford to shoulder the cost of neighborhood improvements that might benefit only a handful of residents.
"If residents want to enjoy the benefits of safer and better roads, they have to pay for it themselves," said Bipin Parikh, assistant administrator for development services.
Parikh said the assessments are similar to road-paving projects, which charge residents a portion of the cost.
"We take care of resurfacing the big roads," he said, "not the small residential streets."
Under recent changes in county law, traffic-calming assessments require approval from only 60 percent of the affected residents. Previously, supporters needed a 90 percent approval.
Shawn Foster, past president of the Forest Lake Estates homeowners association, said a majority of residents on the road support the project and are prepared to pay their share.
"Our community was willing to pay for this to improve the quality of life," he said.
The association, which represents the subdivision of about 200 homes, has pledged to chip in $6,000, reducing the cost to about $300 per household, Foster said.
Of course, not everyone wants to be saddled with the bill.
"I feel like this is being crammed down my throat," said Bonnie Schohl, who has lived on Forest Lake for several years. "I decided to put my house up for sale because of it."
For others, the benefits of a safer neighborhood outweigh the cost.
"The speeders are terrible," said Barbara O'Donnell. "We just needed to do something."
Parikh said because the tax assessments are less than $1,000 per household, residents will be allowed to pay them over the next five years. If they refuse, a lien will be placed on the property, but the county won't take residents to court, he said.
The work will be done by a county-certified contractor who has gone through the competitive bidding process. County commissioners must approve the lowest bid.
If residents decide down the road that they don't want the speed humps, the county will charge to remove them.
By contrast, city governments like New Port Richey pay for traffic-calming projects.
City Manager Tom O'Neill said New Port Richey has installed dozens of speed humps in recent years. Although residents are still required to pay for a portion of street paving, the city doesn't plan to bill them for traffic-slowing measures.
"I can tell you that we don't plan to do that," he said. "It would be very unpopular."
Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.
County lays off 14, blames economy
Housing permits down more than half since 2005
Benjamin Roode
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
TAVARES - Lake County's Building Services Department laid off 14 employees last week, saying a reduction in building permit requests has short-changed the account that funds the office.
A downturn in the housing market, which has affected many local contractors and other building-related businesses, has had a detrimental effect on the government office, said county spokesman Chris Patton.
Building offices use enterprise funds that rely on permit and inspection fees, not property taxes, to pay employees and other costs. As home and other construction decreases, the need for permits declines, Patton said. When that need goes down, less money comes into the office and costs must be cut.
Employment in the building department can fluctuate more because revenues are more dependent on outside markets than in other county offices.
"This department is different because it's self-sustaining," Patton said. "It's definitely gone the other way. In some years, we've had a wash of money and been able to hire more people.
"This (office) operates more like a business than any other one," he added.
Permits issued for the department dropped by 57 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to county figures. That includes permits for residential, multi-family, commercial, electrical service, roofing, mobile home, swimming pool and other permits.
Last year's budget estimated the office would see $5.03 million in operating revenues; this cut would save about $180,000, Patton said.
It's not the first time the county has downsized the department. Lake laid off 12 people in the office in April 2007 during a similar move, Patton said.
Employees like Charles McGhee, a seven-year department employee and one of the 14 who were laid off, understand why the cuts needed to be made. There are other options besides cutting staff that rely on a paycheck and benefits, though, he said.
"I can understand the county's point of view of having to cut back," he said. "I just don't agree with some of the tactics."
Lake has been a fair employer during his tenure, he said.
Lake isn't the only county that has cut jobs in the face of a housing market downturn.
Sumter County's Building Service Department cut 11 positions - down to 25 employees - this past August. Officials there also cited reduced building permits, applications and inspections. The office's budget was projected to be half that what it was last fiscal year.
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Decline in building permit purchases affects city of Tallahassee budget
By Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
The slowdown in home construction is having ripple effects not only in the private sector, but on local government as well.
The city of Tallahassee's building inspection fund is projecting a $1 million deficit in a $3.9 million budget this year, and the city is considering raising permitting fees to make up the difference. That rankles some home builders.
"Why are we in a $1 million deficit?" asked Dale Fuller, the executive officer of the Tallahassee Home Builders Association. "Because we're not building homes. Why would you increase the fees on something that no one's buying?"
The number of residential building permits issued has declined steadily the past few years from a high of 1,297 in 2005 to 1,065 in 2006 and 827 in 2007. Between October and January this fiscal year, only 114 permits were issued.
"Right now, people are not jumping into new houses," said Ronnie Spooner, the city's building official. "It's just too scary."
To make up the difference, the city is considering several options besides higher fees, including transfers from the general fund and not replacing people who leave or retire. The division of building inspections has 42 employees, and about two-thirds of them have the skills to conduct inspections, Spooner said. It's supposed to be self-supporting.
Transfers from the general fund would mean less money for services such as parks and police, at a time when the city has already eliminated $6.2 million this year as a result of state-mandated property tax cuts.
But the other two options would have an impact on home buyers. Cutting the number of inspectors who sign off on the building, electrical, plumbing, gas and mechanical safety of homes could lead to longer delays before homes are certified for occupancy. And higher fees would likely be passed on to home buyers, Fuller said.
Spooner said the city has been considering raising the fees because the $1,063 average for a 2,000 square foot home is less than Leon County's $2,132. Fuller said higher fees aren't a good option, but eliminating staff through attrition could mean a shortage of inspectors when business picks up.
"The problem with cutting people in government is there's so many strings attached," she said. "Once you cut a position, you don't know if you're going to get it back."
She said members of the association's government affairs committee will meet Thursday to look at how Tallahassee's rates compare to other cities and come up with proposals on how to reduce the deficit.
Contact reporter Julian Pecquet at (850) 599-2307 or jjpecquet@tallahassee.com.Filthy water puzzles Ocala family
BY NASEEM S. MILLER
STAR-BANNER
Published: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 6:30 a.m.
OCALA — The water conditioner has cleared the water," James Oram finally proclaimed, after more than six weeks of dealing with an elusive problem with the well at his home.
Oram, his wife and three children moved into a four-bedroom, three-bath, 2,000 square-foot home in Rolling Hills around mid-February.
For $1,000 a month rent, and a house perched on almost an acre of land, it wasn't a bad deal.
The house was almost new. The stove was shiny. The carpets nice and fluffy.
But the family bumped into some murky waters, literally, when they turned on the taps: the water was brown.
More than a month of back-and-forth with the builder, owner, the health department, the well-driller, and adding 4 feet of additional casing and dozens of hours of purging the well, the water turned lighter, but remained foggy.
And now that a water conditioner has cleared the water, no one exactly knows what was wrong with the water or why no one recommended a water conditioner in the first place, and everyone points the finger at the other for the six-week-long battle.
Oram's story, indeed, could be the worst-case scenario of "Wells Gone Wrong .Ê.Ê. But Not Really Wrong."
At first, Oram said he thought maybe the water was dirty because the house was unoccupied for more than a year and the well hadn't been used much. All his neighbors, who also have wells, had no problem with theirs.
So he called the Warranty Department of Armstrong Homes, which built and sold the house to another owner.
"We immediately sent out the well driller," said Scott Armstrong, one of the owners of the company, adding that since the company had sold the house to another owner originally, it really didn't have to follow up with the claim. He said there is no record of problems with the well from the first owner.
The well driller told Oram to purge the well. And Oram did. He purged it so many times that the water has carved a little river in the soil. He calls it River Oram.
The water would clear up some days, after he would purge it all night. But by evening, it would be back to the same yellow color.
Oram also called the homeowner, Orlando Santa Cruz, who lives in South Florida.
"I didn't expect [the well] to have those problems," Santa Cruz said during a phone interview on Monday. "Armstrong has always been attentive to me.Ê.Ê. but I think the problem is the driller, because first he thought it was the iron, then he thought it was sulfur, then he told Jim to wait and exhausted everybody's patience."
Armstrong said their well-drilling company is reliable and drills hundreds of wells for them every year.
"The well-driller went there numerous times and every time they would test and it would come out fine," Armstrong said. The driller also added four additional feet of casing, which helped clear the water some more, but not completely.
The company also contacted the Marion County Health Department, which tested the water and found no bacteria, iron or sulfur.
The general consensus was that the water was drinkable. Armstrong said he drank the water sample that was brought to his office. Oram saw the well-driller drink the water from the well.
Yet Oram wasn't going to drink it because it was still murky, sometimes foggy.
So the Orams bought bottles of water for drinking and cooking, drove more than 10 miles every few days to wash their clothes at a laundromat, and took showers in the murky water.
In the end it was determined a water conditioner was needed. But then there was the question of who was going to pay for it, which apparently held up installation another week or two. Average cost is $800 on the low end, plus a monthly maintenance fee.
The owner of the house eventually paid for it and the water cleared within a few hours after the conditioner was installed, Oram said Monday.
So while his water is now clear, the reason behind its murkiness is not.
"Wells are touchy things, because the water that's there is the water that God put there," Armstrong said. "But the bottom line is that water needs to be potable, drinkable. I saw two samples, there was no color in the water, and that was before it was treated ... I never got to the bottom of what was wrong with the water."
Naseem Miller may be reached at 867-4140 or naseem.miller@starbanner.com.
CSX RAILROAD LIABILITY
The Tale Of Two States
On Tuesday, a runaway CSX Corp. freight car came flying off a branch onto the main line of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter system. There were 300 commuters riding the rush-hour train out of Boston's South Station when the unattended, lone freight car smashed head-on into the train.
About 150 passengers were injured: facial cuts, broken noses, twisted ankles and necks, and back injuries. The injuries were not life-threatening. Apparently the freight car was not properly parked. It started rolling and went three miles before colliding with the commuter train.
It was, said one passenger with a bloody face, as if the train "hit a brick wall." The engineer of the commuter train had stopped his train before the freight car hit it. Otherwise, injuries could have been higher.
Yet, in Florida last week, the House Infrastructure Committee approved a provision that would make CSX immune from liability for such crashes, even if they involved the deaths of passengers.
Such protection for the company is needed, said CSX, so the state can operate commuter rail on 61 miles of track the state plans to purchase from CSX in the Orlando area. Mixing freight and passengers troubles CSX, and the company faces additional liability it doesn't want.
FAST ACTION, FEW FACTS
To indemnify CSX for such accidents, said Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, was "fair to the citizens of Florida and fair to CSX."
Fair to allow the state to pay $2 million a year to buy insurance for CSX's neglect or mistakes?
Glorioso and other committee members thought it was fair. It was also pretty hush-hush: The final agreement wasn't released publicly until shortly prior to the Thursday meeting - which was called with less than 24 hours' notice.
There was no staff analysis as to the pros, cons or financial impact to taxpayers, as is normally done with even minor pieces of legislation. The agreement was also attached to an unrelated transportation bill.
Contrast the Legislature's willingness to grovel on the CSX deal to what is happening in Massachusetts. State officials want to buy 22.8 miles of track between Framingham and Worcester to expand commuter rail. CSX has demanded - just as it has in Florida - a hold-harmless provision.
'counter to prudent principles'
Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray called that "completely unreasonable," and said the state would drop negotiations before agreeing to it. "We have real public-policy and public-safety concerns about that. What incentives are you giving them to be safe?"
Here in Florida, the Governor's Office has remained silent on the CSX-immunity deal. The only statewide elected official to speak out has been Chief Finance Officer Alex Sink. Her office released a memo last month saying immunity for CSX would "run counter to prudent principles of risk management and stewardship of state funds."
While many legislators in Tallahassee are rolling over for CSX, those in Massachusetts are asking some hard questions. Rep. Robert P. Spellane, said CSX wanted "the taxpayer to assume all liability, regardless of fault, which to me is just fundamentally wrong. When in society do we ask some people to take responsibility for other people's actions?"
Good question. Why aren't more legislators in Florida asking the same thing?
MORE BAD NEWS
It was yet another piece of bad news for the CSX project to provide commuter rail for Orlando while building the "mother of all rail yards" in Winter Haven. On Tuesday, the state announced the cost of the project had increased by more than $140 million - 32 percent. That makes the cost nearly $630 million, which will be taken from money previously marked for other transportation projects.
In Tallahassee last week, after legislators on the House Infrastructure Committee voted to recommend financial immunity for CSX, Gary Sease, a CSX spokesman, said that the company is taking on additional risks by having passengers on a line previously used mostly for freight.
"There has to be some additional protection in place [for CSX]," he said.
Given the crash involving a CSX freight car on the Boston commuter line last week, it should become clear to legislators why the company so desperately wants that additional protection.
Changing the Big Pass channel
Published Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
It is the question that has driven debate on Siesta Key for 20 years. Can you take sand from Big Pass Shoal to renourish local beaches, saving millions of dollars, without causing damage to the key's high-priced shoreline?
After spending $500,000 studying tides, currents, the movements of sand and dredging options, Sarasota County finally has its answer: Yes, you can.
After four years of study, coastal engineers hired by the county say sand can be mined from one of the coast's biggest shoals without causing Siesta Key homes to slip into the sea or eroding any sand from nearby public beaches.
Whether that answer will be accepted by skeptical Siesta Key residents is another question. After all, these are the residents who successfully opposed Venice's plans to take Big Pass sand in the early 1990s. That fight stirred up so much political activism that it helped an anti-dredging candidate win a seat on the County Commission.
While the study is in, the research on the matter continues. That is because county commissioners, aware of Siesta Key residents' skepticism about dredging, agreed to put in an extra step. The county has spent another $200,000 hiring three scientists to review the findings and methods of the study, and above all, the computer model that predicts how various types of dredging will affect the migration of sand in the pass and surrounding areas.
If the scientists agree that dredging will not harm the shoreline, the Siesta Key Association will accept that dredging is safe, said Lourdes Ramirez, the association's president.
But if the scientists do not agree and the county tries to go ahead with dredging anyway, "then we'll fight it tooth and nail," she said.
The stakes are high. Costs for rebuilding projects being considered for Lido and Manasota key beaches alone approach $40 million. The county could save millions by using Big Pass sand.
Big Pass could become the new Stump Pass, the Charlotte County pass that has become a regular source of sand, feeding renourishments in recent years of Manasota Key and North Knight Island, said Cliff Truitt, the coastal engineer heading the study.
But Siesta Key residents worry about unintended damage to Siesta Public Beach, which they say generates one-third of the island's tourism revenues, and to the expensive homes they say are protected by the large shoal.
And boaters, who sometimes have to creep through the shallow pass, are hoping whatever is decided will improve navigation.
An earlier phase of the study predicted how currents and sea levels through the pass would change for each of five main options. Doing nothing is also an option, since the study found that Big Pass would remain open to navigation without dredging.
These "extreme" options, which included dredging a new pass down the middle of the channel and mining large amounts of sand -- equal to that used in the Longboat Key project in 2006 -- were chosen for a reason, Truitt said. If no damage was done to the shoreline, even by these options, then more moderate options would be safe to undertake.
Truitt followed the study on currents and sea levels with months of computer modeling on the sand itself and how it would shift and migrate if dredging occurred. The biggest surprise was that a new channel dredged through the middle of the pass would fill in within a year. Besides making that option too costly, navigation would actually be worse within a year of dredging, he said.
Even on these extreme projects, Truitt's study finds no significant impact on the Siesta Key shoreline.
b>'Worth its weight in gold/b>'
On a recent sunny day the channel is a deep blue as it hugs North Siesta Key's shoreline and then meanders into the Gulf of Mexico. On one side are sea walls, protecting mansions and waterfront homes. On the other is a nearly one-mile-long shoal covered in large stretches by less than two feet of water at low tide.
It is a fine, granular sand, perfect for renourishment projects, with hardly any shell in it.
"This sand is worth its weight in gold," said County Commissioner Jon Thaxton.
Despite that allure, Thaxton and other county commissioners say it is worth the time and money -- four months and $200,000 -- to conduct the scientific peer review of Truitt's work.
"I am totally certain that what's at stake are tens and hundreds of millions of dollars," said Thaxton, whose biggest concern is damaging coastal resources in and around Big Pass.
For Commissioner Nora Patterson the concern is economics. Like many longtime Siesta Key residents, Patterson is convinced that the huge Big Pass Shoal protects Siesta Public Beach from erosion. While Truitt's study included the beach and found that dredging did not cost that beach any sand, Patterson wants to be sure.
"Hopefully everybody will feel the process has been fair and right and feel good about the results, and if they don't, we'll probably end up not dredging," she said.
With an eye toward achieving that "feel-good" moment, the county allowed Siesta Key groups to have a say in the hiring of the peer review scientists. In particular, the groups were happy about the choice of Robert Dolan of Coastal Research Associates, a Charlottesville, Va., firm. It was Dolan who criticized the county for its plan in the early 1990s to mine sand from Big Pass.
Ramirez, in particular, pushed for an independent review of Truitt's work. She notes that Truitt sometimes works for dredging companies, and that the Siesta Key Association wanted his work vetted by "independent" scientists.
Others on the key, though, say Truitt is meticulous and his studies are methodical and unbiased. That includes Peter van Roekens, a boater who heads the Siesta Key Association's inlet management group, and Dr. Rich Shriner with Save Our Sands Forever.
Despite their confidence in Truitt, both van Roekens and Shriner are taking a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to his study. They want to hear from the other scientists before accepting Truitt's findings.
The study did pretty much eliminate some options, including one to dredge a new, straight channel through the pass and close the meandering, shallow one that can vex sailors. The new channel would fill in too quickly and to such an extent it would hamper navigation.
None of the options to mine sand from the shoal harm the shoreline, although taking a big rectangular cut from the shoal's northwest end has the biggest effect on currents and sea levels.
The model measured how different dredging options would affect the flow of water through Big Pass. Dredging can change both the speed of the water ebbing and flowing through the pass and the water's elevation. The study models not just how tides and winds can affect the flow of water, but how hurricanes and storm surge would impact the pass differently if it were dredged.
Truitt's is the first comprehensive study of the inlet and the first time its shifting sands have been modeled. One of Truitt's findings that should come as a relief to boaters is that despite the accumulation of an underwater mountain of sand, Big Pass shows no sign of closing.
While the peer review reports are due in August, county commissioners will not discuss and possibly rank the options until October.
Then a particular project will be designed and brought back for approval.
Once the reports are in, that is when Shriner expects to start asking his questions. As a doctor, Shriner has promised "to do no harm," and that is the same result he expects from whatever the county proposes to do at Big Pass.
One of the things he wants to know is how much confidence there is that dredging will not harm the shoreline.
Nothing is for certain, except that repairing any unforeseen damage done by dredging will be expensive, Shriner said.
When it comes to projects affecting the coastal environment, "they have unintended consequences and they have great consequences," he said.
Still, Shriner said the county is taking the right steps this time around, compared with the fight 15 years ago over renourishing Venice Beach with Big Pass sand.
There is a different attitude by the county, said Shriner, who praised the methodical approach to studying the inlet.
For now, van Roekens is not commenting on Truitt's study, except to call the engineer "eminently qualified" and talk about how important it is to study the pass and to answer the big unanswered questions.
"If it's not dredged anywhere, what will happen?" van Roekens asked. "We don't know. If it is dredged, what will happen? We don't know. If something's done and it screws up that channel, we're in deep trouble."
PRECIOUS SAND
The biggest cost in renourishing a beach is getting sand and transporting it to the beach. Big Pass is potentially a large and renewable source of sand.
Here is a look at recent beach renourishment projects, how much sand they required and how much they cost.
2007 South Siesta Key renourishment
Cost: $11.4 million
Sand used: 900,000 cubic yards
(That is enough to bury 10 football fields under more than 50 feet of sand.)
2006 Longboat Key renourishment
Cost: $21 million
Sand used: 1.5 million cubic yards
2005 Venice renourishment
Cost: $12 million
Sand used: 900,000 cubic yards
Florida City approves rock quarry's expansion
BY WALYCE ALMEIDA
The Florida City Commission approved a final agreement Tuesday for a rock quarry's controversial expansion that homeowners, regulatory agencies and the superintendent of Biscayne National Park had objected to when first approved last October.
Atlantic Civil will develop a rock-mining quarry on 589 acres of land that is so far projected to be located south of Southwest 360th Street and east of Southwest 167th Avenue. Some 72 acres are already being mined.
City leaders said last October the economic benefit of the quarry outweighed concerns raised last fall by homeowners as well as environmental and park officials. The city will be paid about $277,000 a year by the mine's operators in order to offset the loss of taxes the city would have received from other uses on the site.
For every ton excavated, 10 cents will go to Florida City. The 10-cent price will also increase with inflation.
''This agreement makes sure the city will receive its compensation for doing this project,'' City Planner Henry Iler said.
``Our future revenues will be protected.''
In addition, 20 acres will be given to the city to create a future park. Atlantic Civil will donate $100,000 for the park's development.
Last October, then Homestead Council Member Amanda Garner appeared at the Florida City Commission meeting to express her constituents's concerns about blasting damaging their homes.
''I can't tell you how many times I've been contacted by residents who've had damage to their homes -- foundation cracks, brand new homes with cracked tiles,'' said Garner, who's no longer on the council. ``People can feel it in their homes when it happens.''
The rock-mining quarry also troubled the Department of Environmental Resource Management, or DERM, the South Florida Water Management District and Biscayne National Park.
Mark Lewis, the superintendent of Biscayne National Park, worried that the mining would disrupt the flow of water to the Everglades.
However, the South Florida Water Management District and DERM later gave their approval as long as they receive reports of the quarry's activities, Mayor Otis T. Wallace said.
This clearance came after the two agencies had studied the effects of mining on the groundwater such as if there was any saltwater intrusion.
In other action, Florida City decided to accept an agreement with Miami-Dade County divvying up the maintenance of a canal on Palm Drive.
The county will take care of the treatment and cleaning of the water while the city will maintain the banks, such as cutting the grass.
''I think this is fair and reasonable for both sides,'' Wallace said. ``We could have solved this a long time ago, but we would have gotten ripped off.''
Florida City also agreed to receive the services of an online Web development business.
City Host 411 developed a website that can be linked to the city's official governmental site and will showcase events and services sponsored or organized by the city.
While the Web developing company is not charging Florida City to set up the site, it is asking that the city encourage local businesses to advertise on the site.
The website offers two categories: one for residents and one for visitors.
Once on the ''residents'' page, there are six options to click on: dining, entertainment, shopping, services, city happenings and real estate.
The city government may post information on the site for free, but local businesses that want to be listed on the site will have to pay a minimum of $60 per year.
''It is going to give local businesses some credibility,'' said Angie Williams, the City Host 411 representative.
Moreover, the company will also pass out literature, such as brochures and maps during city events with the names of the businesses that advertise on the website.
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Congress has big questions for Big Oil
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big Oil is once again being called on the carpet.
Senior executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies were to appear before a congressional committee Tuesday where they were likely to find frustrated lawmakers in no mood for small talk.
"These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies ... while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone," complained Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in previewing the hearing.
The lawmakers were scheduled to hear from top executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP America Inc., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, which together earned about $123 billion last year because of soaring oil and gasoline prices.
Markey, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said he wants to know why, with such profits, the oil industry is steadfastly fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks, stretched over 10 years.
He said the executives would be asked to explain how they can get energy prices down in the short run and "in the long run what are they going to do to shift the focus to a renewable energy agenda."
"We have to move beyond this oil economy," Markey said Tuesday on CBS' "The Early Show." "We have to move to a renewable energy economy. ... We can never get out of this trap as long as the oil companies want to hold us hostage to this old agenda."
The House last year and again on Feb. 27 approved legislation that would have ended the tax breaks for the oil giants, while using the revenue to support wind, solar and other renewable fuels and incentives for energy conservation. The measure has not passed the Senate.
The oil industry has argued on Capitol Hill and at the White House that the tax breaks are needed to assure continued investment in exploration, production and refinery expansions. President Bush has promised to veto any such bill, saying that the oil companies should not be singled out.
The threat of nationwide $4-a-gallon gasoline, perhaps this summer, and $100-a-barrel oil is producing strong political reverberations, even as lawmakers acknowledged there is little that Congress can do to bring prices down.
On Monday, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, said that the president should release oil from the government's emergency reserve to put more supplies on the market, saying, "We are quite clearly in the midst of an energy emergency." He noted the bankruptcy of Aloha Airlines, blamed in part on high jet-fuel costs.
The White House has repeatedly rejected use of the oil in the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve to influence prices.
The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the large oil companies in Washington, sought Monday to get its message out ahead of the congressional hearing.
Oil company profits in total dollar amounts are huge because the companies are huge and must be so to go up against giant multinational competitors in a global market, API President Red Cavaney said during a conference call with reporters.
In terms of return on investment, "we make an acceptable return" but one in line with other industries, Cavaney argued.
Congressional hearings and the probing of skeptical, frustrated senators and congressmen are nothing new to executives of the biggest oil companies.
In May 2006, the top executives of the same companies to be represented Tuesday were grilled on their spending and investment priorities in light of soaring oil prices. The cost of a barrel of oil at the time was $75.
Two months earlier, executives of many of the same companies were brought before the Senate Judiciary Committee and questioned about the "merger mania" that some senators argued was behind the high oil prices.
In November 2005, the chief executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies sat shoulder to shoulder at a Senate witness table and sought to justify their profits. At the time, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., reflected the views of many of his colleagues when he talked of "a growing suspicion that oil companies are taking unfair advantage."
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This story shows that not only can you not take it with you, but you can't tell your children what to do with it after you are dead. Thanks kids, for respecting your mom's beliefs.
Activist's heirs okay with plan for growth
By Jackie Ripley, Times Staff Writer
Published Friday, March 28, 2008 10:30 PM
CITRUS PARK — A seven-story hotel is going up on Citrus Park land that was near and dear to one of the community's most vocal antidevelopment civic leaders.
Jean Carson, longtime president of the Citrus Park Civic Association, lived on Easy Street, on the fringes of Citrus Park. Easy Street was one of the areas of which Carson, who died nearly two years ago, was most protective.
Now, 7 acres between Easy Street and Citrus Park Lane are targeted for a $45-million mixed-use development. And Carson's heirs have sold the right of way on Easy Street to make way for the hotel, restaurants and shops.
"I know Jean didn't want it sold," said Janet Hiltz, a community leader and Carson's friend. "But I don't think when you pass on and you pass your land onto your heirs, you can say they can't have some feelings about it, too."
Citrus Park Crossings is being built by Odessa developer Christopher Daye. He said his project will decrease traffic on Easy Street.
He'll route traffic through Citrus Park Lane, which runs parallel to Easy Street. Easy Street, he said, will be used only for installation and maintenance of utilities.
The project is a boon to Big Cat Rescue, a wildlife preserve on Easy Street that found itself at odds with Carson.
Big Cat founder Carole Baskin said, "we are thrilled" about the hotel, a first for Citrus Park. "So many people come to visit us from around the world, and now they can have a place to stay that will be convenient."
At the rezoning hearings, Carson's daughter, Sharon Carlton, said the project will be good for the community and will help limit traffic. She also said the arrangement will allow some relatives to remain in their home on the street.
The 252,000-square-foot development will sit between Veterans Expressway and Gunn Highway, an area that has exploded with commerce since the Westfield Citrus Park mall opened in 1999.
The complex, taking two years to complete, will consist of two 100-foot-high buildings to include a 150-room hotel, restaurants, an office building and shops.
"If I had my whim, I'd have a bike shop and a coffee shop and some place that served a little more lunch-type food," Daye said. "With Westchase, Citrus Park and Odessa, you've got the second best demographics of disposable income in the Tampa Bay area."
Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5308.
Accept offer of free
land, or else
By Chuin-Wei Yap, Times Staff Writer
Published Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:07 PM
For more than four years, John Nicolette has tried to give the city of San Antonio a small piece of land just a few hundred feet behind City Hall, called Lake Emily.
The question is: Why?
Nicolette is running for the County Commission seat now held by Ted Schrader. Last week, in an e-mail to the St. Petersburg Times, he characterized his proposed land donation as altruistic.
"I only wish to give the city a piece of property and want a commitment & that they won't turn around and use the parcel for development and private profit instead of public benefit.''
But in public, Nicolette has a different demand: a rezoning that would make his donation a valuable tax deduction. A tax expert consulted by the Times estimated that for someone in Nicolette's income range, the deduction might be worth $5,000.
Nicolette, who lives 3 miles outside San Antonio, warned the City Commission in February that not giving him what he wanted might mire the city in lawsuits. Helping press his case was San Antonio's development consultant, Adam Carnegie, who once worked as Nicolette's attorney.
And then, unlike now, Nicolette said it would be fine for the city to sell the land to private interests.
• • •
School district and county officials who deal with land donations say they have never before encountered gift proposals that come with rezoning conditions, much less legal threats.
"It seems to be setting a precedent for a whole lot of wheeling and dealing," said Ray Gadd, who handles land matters for the district.
"Wow," said Renee Wiesner Brown, who handles environmental land donations for Pasco. "We haven't heard anything like that, and that's a good thing."
Thanks, but no thanks
Lake Emily, a 1.86-acre parcel, has appeared on city plats as far back as 1897. Heavy rain fills it quickly, though recent dry years have turned it into a parched, leafy basin.
Property deeds show Nicolette bought Lake Emily for $3,000 in October 2003 from Sumner & Jones Investment Corp. The company's directors were San Ann Realty owner Ralph Jones and Dennis Sumner, Nicolette's brother-in-law and son of former County Attorney Robert Sumner.
Late that year, Nicolette, 46, informally suggested to city officials that he could give the parcel to San Antonio, said city Commissioner Dennis Phillips. But officials weren't enthusiastic.
"The city doesn't want to own too much land," Phillips said, "because it would be something we would have to maintain."
In September 2006, Nicolette formally applied to change the parcel's land use. In the application, he again suggested that he could give it to the city. He later told the City Commission that the city could resell it to neighbors after the rezoning.
"You may not want it, not a problem," he told commissioners in February, according to tapes of the meeting. "The neighbors might say, we might want to purchase it. They can break it up for all the landowners, get it? & The city wins, because with that money, I ask for you to take it and put it into parks."
The neighbors weren't keen.
"It's just a strange situation," Richard Arto told the Times. "You give a gift, but it comes with terms and conditions."
At the meeting, Mayor Roy Pierce pressed Nicolette on his motivation.
Nicolette: "If I decide to gift it, there would be difference in conservation vs. residential."
Pierce: "It would add more tax value on your claim? That would make the difference, would it not?"
Nicolette: "Yes."
At another point, Pierce asked: "Are you still considering donating it to the city if they want it, so you could write it off on taxes?"
Nicolette: "Yes. From the last time, when I first purchased the property, my intent was to have you all change the designation."
Legal threat
Nicolette backed his rezoning request with vague talk of legal action if the land isn't rezoned. He cited state law called the Bert Harris Act, which forces governments to compensate landowners if regulations "inordinately burden" the property.
"If I pass away and my wife decides to sell it, and she sells it to somebody, I believe, through legal individuals I have talked to, this will put the city in a situation where they could become liable," he told commissioners at February's meeting.
Nicolette later told the Times he had no idea what the legal threat was about, and that he was only echoing what City Attorney Richard Davis and Carnegie, the city consultant, had said.
Davis said he didn't raise the legal threat.
"It is my recollection that I did not introduce the concept of a cause of action under (the Harris Act), but rather responded to questions from others regarding same," Davis said in an e-mail to the Times.
Here's what the tapes of December's commission meeting say.
"The question that I would ask is what is the recommendation from the attorneys and from engineers based on the legal issue of the Bert Harris Act?" Nicolette said.
Davis explained the act, and went on to tell commissioners, "Mr. Nicolette has posed that question before, and as your adviser, I want to make sure that we don't invite a cause of action under Bert Harris or other potential causes of action."
In December, Carnegie, the city's development consultant who had worked for Nicolette, had sent an e-mail to Davis and other city officials. It said: "Our position has been that the appropriate strategy in this case, both from an objective land-planning perspective and to protect the city from possible legal challenge, is to give the property at least minimum development potential on the Future Land Use Map."
Carnegie did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Times.
Thomas Reese, a St. Petersburg environmental attorney, dismissed the plausibility of using the Harris Act in a case like Lake Emily. Reese commented on the case without knowing the identities of those involved.
"Bert Harris is usually related to an act that changes the use of that property, usually when you downplan or reduce the use of the property," Reese said. "People use the name Bert Harris all the time. They think that if they mention it, people will dive under the table."
Challengers wonder
Nicolette's opponents in the County Commission race questioned why his proposed gift comes with conditions.
Schrader said his family has also made land donations.
"We were blessed and we felt it was best thing to do and it came with no strings attached," Schrader said. "If Mr. Nicolette believes it's the best thing for the city, why place any conditions on it? If he wants to do it out of the goodness of his heart, just give it and let the city decide what they want to do with it."
"It just sounds like a strange proposition to me," said County Commission candidate Gina King. "If it's really an act of altruism, why not just give it to the city without conditions?''
The terms of Nicolette's donation also unsettled a city commissioner.
"I find it odd that someone who's a candidate for public office is waving the carrot of a parcel as well as a lawsuit at a town that doesn't have the money to handle that kind of thing," said William Plazewski. "I find it unusual, to say the least."
The deal in dollars
What would the proposed rezoning be worth?
The Times posed the question to Scott Robey, a tax consultant with Tampa's public accountant firm of Bender Newkirk and Co. Robey spoke without knowing the identities of those involved.
Nicolette told the Times his salary, as a firefighter, is in the $50,000s.
Assuming a $55,000 salary and no other deductions, a donation of conservation land worth $3,000 might not yield any tax savings, since a married taxpayer would probably elect to use the standard $10,700 deduction instead, according to Robey.
But a donation of residential land yields more, Robey said.
Residential lots of similar size in San Antonio have been appraised at $30,000.
A $30,000 donation would mean deductions that could save a donor $5,250 in taxes over two years (deduction amounts are capped at 30 percent of income each year, but the balance is allowed to carry over to the following year).
Tax records are not public information. If Lake Emily is rezoned, it would never be known if Nicolette does file a deduction.
It may not matter any more. In his e-mail to the Times last week, Nicolette said:
"I would withdraw my application for the land-use change if the city makes, as a condition for my gift, a stipulation that the parcel will never be resold for development"
Our Recommendations For Dade City Election
The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 30, 2008
Voters in the county seat of Dade City are facing probably the most crucial election in a decade. Three seats - the commission majority - are up for election April 8, including the seat held by Mayor Hutch Brock, who is not seeking re-election.
Under the city charter, a new mayor will be selected by the five-member commission from within its ranks. Some residents and officials are concerned, understandably so, that a shift in power could result in divisive Commissioner Camille Hernandez being appointed mayor if two candidates linked to her, Jim Shive and Robert J. Avila, win.
Hernandez divided the city last year, wrongly and recklessly accusing Brock and former city manager Harold Sample of corruption and deceit and requesting a state investigation. The request eventually was dropped, but the controversy remains a sore spot. So far Hernandez has not demonstrated that she has the skills or tact to be mayor.
Group Three
The Group Three race pits Curtis A. Beebe, a 45-year-old technology consultant and 10-year city resident, against Shive, 50, a former city employee now working for Hernando County utilities. Both are making their first run for public office.
This should be an easy decision for voters.
Beebe, the vice chairman of the city's advisory planning board, cares deeply about Dade City and understands it is a community with a strong heritage and deep roots, which are important considerations when shaping policy. He wants to encourage more citizen participation in government through improved technology and other means.
And he understands government must analyze priorities because of Amendment 1, which is expected to result in a funding loss of $300,000 to the city, with input from residents. There are no sacred cows, he acknowledges, and there shouldn't be.
Beebe jumped the gun last year by leading a recall effort against Hernandez but wisely dropped it. He is confident he can work with Hernandez, and voters should give him the benefit of a doubt. Sincere, approachable and intelligent, he would bring a strong business sense to the commission.
Shive, who was involved in the city's most recent charter review, has years of experience in water and wastewater treatment and a good knowledge of city issues and needs. He also has been active in several political campaigns, including managing Hernandez's successful effort two years ago. But his employment record is troubling.
He has been fired twice from government jobs - the first after 27 years with Dade City a few years ago and closely after that from a position with San Antonio.
He disputes the circumstances surrounding the dismissals, but the fact remains he was fired from two public positions. That's not a good record for an aspiring commissioner.
The Tribune strongly recommends Curtis A. Beebe in Group Three.
Group Four
The Group Four race shouldn't give voters any pause, either. Steve Van Gorden, a 32-year-old middle school principal, was elected in 2004 and is seeking his second term. He is challenged by Avila, 53, a technology specialist.
Avila did not respond to requests for a meeting to discuss his candidacy. Van Gorden accepted an invitation, saying he would do everything he could to make sure the city heals from the recent painful controversy.
Van Gorden is upbeat and a consensus-builder who does his homework. He understands the city's budget and operations and says the city must make sure resources are used wisely. With Brock's departure, his experience is a must.
Van Gorden has worked to improve recreational opportunities for youths, and he is a proponent of sharing recreational facilities with the school board and Pasco-Hernando Community College.
He also touts his support for giving more residents opportunities to serve on advisory boards, and he notes that architectural standards and parks and recreation development fees have been implemented during his term.
We strongly endorse Steve Van Gorden in Group Four.
Group Five
The Group Five contest between 14-year incumbent Eunice M. Penix and downtown tavern owner Mike Agnello poses the most difficult decision for voters.
Penix, 67, being challenged for the first time, shows a love for the city and wants to continue helping people, which is admirable. A retired educator who continues to substitute teach, she is soft-spoken and deliberate, in stark contrast to the 47-year-old Agnello, whose passion for the city and its needs sometimes comes off as being too forceful.
Agnello is facing criminal charges that he failed to pay thousands of dollars in state sales taxes but says he is in the process of reimbursing the state and has been accepted into a court program for first-time offenders that could result in the case being disposed of without any marks against him.
He attributes his legal trouble to struggles as a small-business man but downplays his failure to fulfill an important obligation of business owners in Florida, which is troubling.
Still, Agnello, who ran for the commission two years ago, is the better candidate. He is a big promoter of Dade City and has been active in civic and political issues for years.
His passion, though misguided sometimes, shows he wants to make the city a better place to live and work, and he would put an immeasurable amount of energy into achieving those goals. He even attends county meetings, aiming to promote the city's interests and untapped potential.
Agnello has strongly supported causes important to the city - construction of its first chain hotel, drainage projects and the need for a vocational school. And he has a good grasp of the city's community redevelopment efforts and Amendment 1. He says he would expect every department to propose recommended cuts, which is laudable.
Agnello would bring fresh ideas and tough questioning to the commission, both of which are needed. His legal problem is a concern, but no one can argue that he doesn't love Dade City or possess the energy to make things happen.
The Tribune recommends Mike Agnello in Group Five.
Editor's note: Candidates not endorsed by the Tribune are welcome to respond. Either e-mail Pasco Tribune editorial page editor William Yelverton at wyelverton@tampatrib.com or fax him a letter at (813) 949-4862. The deadline for rebuttals is noon April 3
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