|
More
good news
A
new analysis of satellite data showed that an area the size of
Unlike
the Arctic, Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past
with the exception of the
Son
Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
They
found evidence of melting in several areas, including high elevations and
far inland in January of 2005, when temperatures got as high as 41 degrees
Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius).
"Increases
in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on larger
scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were severe or sustained
over time," Steffen said in a statement.
"Water
from melted snow can penetrate into ice sheets through cracks and narrow,
tubular glacial shafts called moulins," Steffen added.
"If
sufficient melt water is available, it may reach the bottom of the ice
sheet. This water can lubricate the underside of the ice sheet at the
bedrock, causing the ice mass to move toward the ocean faster, increasing
sea level."
Copyright
2007 Reuters.
All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed. Callery's
'new town' in Acreage rejected
By
Mitra Malek Wednesday,
May 16, 2007 With
a 4-2 vote, the Palm Beach County Commission shot down Callery-Judge
Grove's 10,000-home project in its entirety. Many
had expected commissioners to debate the project into the late evening and
delay voting on any aspect of the plan until June 26, a date the county
had reserved in case commissioners couldn't wrap up Tuesday. Callery's plan was so big and multi-faceted that county staff split the hearing process into three parts, the second Tuesday night.But
after hearing an hour's worth of testimony from a triad of municipalities
vehemently opposed to its project, Callery
asked for a postponement of the vote until June 26 to analyze a whopping
prediction of needed road construction the three gave, totaling a billion
dollars. Callery also said it wanted the extra
time to see if it could cut the project's size - a concession it had
dismissed in the past, saying a density reduction likely would ruin the
project. When
commissioners denied the grove's postponement request, Callery
said it wanted to cut to the chase and hear a straightforward
"yes" or "no" on the whole project. No need to belabor
each agenda item, sending the meeting into the wee hours, Callery
representatives said. Commissioner
Karen Marcus, a long-standing critic of the project, made a motion to
reject it. If Callery wants to scale back, let
it start with a new application, she said. Commissioners
Jess Santamaria, Addie Greene and Warren
Newell voted with Marcus. Commissioners Burt Aaronson and Mary McCarty
dissented. Commissioner Jeff Koons left early
because of a family medical emergency. "I
feel the people have spoken," Santamaria
said after the meeting. Santamaria , who represents the district including Callery, had listened for months to hundreds of residents beg him not to let the project go through. A former developer himself, Santamaria time and again said Callery should be entitled to density no greater than that permitted by the county's growth blueprint for the central-western communities known as the sector plan. State officials still haven't signed off on the sector plan, which under recent revisions would allow 4,708 homes on the 3,900-acre grove."Now
we have uniform guidelines for all future development," Santamaria
said. "Follow the sector plan, and you'll be approved." The
news wasn't as easy for Callery's general
manager, Nat Roberts, to swallow. "I'm
clearly disappointed," Roberts said after the meeting. "We and
the neighbors have worked hard to get to this point." Roberts,
who has been with the grove since 1990, has constantly taken care to note
the resident feedback that went into the project through a neighbor
advisory committee. Callery spent millions of
dollars creating, revising and promoting the project. It brought on board
top-notch lawyers and planners and assembled a team so deep it included
former state and regional planning staff. It
also caught some flak along the way for lobbying commissioners and the
state too hard. Many critics said the grove exaggerated public support for
the project, pointing to Callery busing in
last week to a hearing of proponents from distant parts of the county less
familiar with - and less likely affected by - the project. To
be sure, though, the project had its backers. They hailed its 3.8 million
square feet of office, research and retail space as a way to bring more
business opportunities to Loxahatchee. They also liked the project's
"new urbanist" layout and 600-acre
water-polishing flow-way. Yet
opponents outnumbered the proponents. Several dozen showed up Tuesday
wearing uniform green shirts that slammed the project and holding up signs
that spurned it. Tuesday
had been set aside for Tuesday
they said Callery would create a need for $1
billion in road improvements. They painted a grim picture of urban
interchanges on rural roads, along with miles and miles of clogged lanes. "We
don't see any solutions," Royal Palm Beach Engineer Ray Liggins
said. In
the end, the surprise billion-dollar figure, Koons'
unexpected absence and the presence of an FBI agent throughout the hearing
appeared to change the pace of a meeting that had been expected to last
well into the night. County
commissioners last May had preliminarily approved Callery's
plan with a 5-2 vote. Marcus and former Commissioner Tony Masilotti
dissented. Santamaria in November was elected
to replace Masilotti. On
Tuesday it was unclear what Callery might do
next. In the past it has said it plans to build 3,000 homes under an
agricultural enclave law it helped get passed.
|
|
|
Commissioners
Mary McCarty and Warren Newell were mum Monday on how they would vote, but
they previously supported Callery, along with
Commissioner Jeff Koons, who was unavailable for
comment.
That
leaves Greene, who has given mixed signals on how she'll vote.
On
Saturday, the Sun-Sentinel of
On
Monday, however, Greene distanced herself from those statements.
"That
was Saturday; today is Monday," Greene said, renewing the mystique she
reveled in last year in the weeks before she cast the deciding vote to move
The Scripps Research Institute to northern Palm Beach County.
In
an earlier interview, Greene acknowledged unprecedented lobbying by Callery,
beyond anything she had experienced as a county commissioner.
It
was not clear Monday whether Callery would alter
its plans, considering the growing objections to the density of the
3,900-acre project.
Callery
General Manager Nat Roberts did not return phone calls Monday, but has said
before that he would not want to alter the project because its parts are
meant to work together.
But
opponents want to see changes.
"From
what I've read and what I heard the board say the other day, he (Roberts)
needs to think about reducing density," Marcus said. "If they
(county commissioners) mean what they said, they'll vote it down."
Newell
cautioned his colleagues not to come to today's meeting with their minds
made up.
"I
hope no one has already said what they're going to do, because that's what
the process is for, to allow the facts and the information in the public
hearing, then make a decision," Newell said.
The
public hearing on Callery, scheduled for 2 p.m.
today at the
Then,
attorneys representing cities opposing the project -
Their
attorneys and Callery's attorneys may have the
chance to cross-examine each other.
"After
all that's out of the way and then, if there's time, the board can have
discussion about what they want to do," Weisman said.
Anticipating
a long meeting, the county made arrangements for dinner to be brought in for
the commissioners.
In
other Callery news, two
Peter
Evan Tsolkas, 26, and Lynne Purvis, 27, refused
to come down from a two-story building, where they were holding a banner,
police spokesman Ted White wrote in a media release.
It
took police and fire rescue an hour to remove them, he said, partly because
Purvis, who staged a 2004 topless protest at The Breakers in
Stephen
Hudak
Sentinel Staff Writer
May 15, 2007
TAVARES -- Nineteen property owners have sued Lake County Property Appraiser
Ed Havill, claiming he has wrongfully denied
them tax breaks for citrus groves, pastures and pine forests that might soon
become residential neighborhoods.
At stake is more than $2 million in property taxes that could be used to pay
teachers and deputies, pave roads and finance other tax-funded services
provided by
"They don't want to pay their fair share," Havill
said. "If they don't, who's going to make up for it? Everybody
else."
But the lawsuits claim Havill has abused his
discretion as the elected property appraiser by denying a tax-saving
agricultural classification for land that is still used for agricultural
purposes.
Grapefruits grow on some.
Cows graze on others.
The classification that the property owners seek, sometimes called a
"greenbelt" exemption, lowers the assessed value of their land
and, therefore, the property taxes.
Though Havill has been sued previously by
unhappy property owners, including two who wanted ag
tags for their land last year, he has never faced a legal gantlet like this
one.
His foes include owners of more than 3,400 acres slated to become Secret
Promise, a community of 9,200 homes near Okahumpka.
A greenbelt exemption for the land -- currently occupied by grazing cattle
-- would save the owners $1.05 million in property taxes this year.
With greenbelt, the owners would owe $17,187 in property taxes. Without it,
they owe $1.07 million for the land they acquired in 2005 for more than $53
million.
Karl Corp., developers based in
Others seeking six-figure agricultural tax breaks are Howey
in the Hills LTD, which would save $253,529 on 330 acres, and Drew Pastures,
which would save $151,425 on 500 acres.
Havill said developers were emboldened by a case
that he lost last year to John Baldwin, a
Havill had refused to give an agricultural
exemption to
The guideline allows a property appraiser to assume that land was acquired
for something over than an agricultural use if the purchase price was three
times greater than its agricultural value.
Lake Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary sided
with
Havill has asked the 5th District Court of
Appeal to review the ruling.
A majority of those who sued Havill last week
have cited the
Lawyers for several of the property owners could not be reached by phone
Monday or would not comment.
But some investors, marginally involved in agriculture enterprises, have
used loopholes in the law to qualify for exemptions and save thousands of
dollars in property taxes while preparing groves and pastures for
development.
Havill said some sites in question in
"It's a blatant misuse of the law, as far as I'm concerned," he
said.
Stephen Hudak
can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.
Property
slated for retail
Growth
a big issue in Belleview
BELLEVIEW
- The annexation application for approximately 40 acres of property near the
southern rim of Belleview fronting the U.S. 441 corridor, set to go before
the city's Planning and Zoning Board on June 12, is gaining a lot of
attention not only as the largest parcel in the upcoming requests, but also
because it is slated to add to the area's mix of retail shopping.
Stephen Clark, a partner with Atlanta-based CenterPoint
Development Group, confirmed the company plans to develop a shopping center
in excess of 300,000 square feet at the site. He said the retail center
would allow for an anchor tenant, with space for other smaller retailers.
CenterPoint has filed the annexation application
with the city and has a contract to purchase the property, which is
comprised of eight separate parcels. He said putting the site together and
negotiating with potential tenants is a parallel process.
"We have been looking in the area for several months, since the third
quarter of 2006,"
If the company gets the go-ahead from the city, it will be CenterPoint's
first development in
Belleview Land Development Coordinator Jeff Shrum
said at this point, as with all city annexation applications, the request
does not address what is going to be done with the property.
"The question is whether this is an area the city sees itself growing,
and extending sewer and water services, and that has been answered because
the service area extends further south of this property," he said.
"The property is in the county now, so the first step is getting it
into city jurisdiction through annexation."
He said the site plan, where details of the development are disclosed, is
further down the road in the overall process, likely in August or September.
Shrum said the city does not have a contract
with CenterPoint and does not know any more
about the scope of plans other than the land is intended for retail use.
"If it's going to be a Lowe's, Home Depot, Kmart, Wal-Mart or Target,
we don't know yet," he said.
In addition to the almost 40 acres of property for the CenterPoint
development, the city is processing other annexation requests totalling
more than 100 acres.
Annexation is becoming an increasing challenge for the city as elected
officials struggle to balance it all while maintaining what some call a
"small-town atmosphere."
During a strategic planning workshop last week, Belleview City Commissioner
Christine Dobkowski said, "We've annexed
over 500 acres in the last two years and have more pending. Do we want to
annex everything around us and what size do we want the city?"
It's a question commissioners hope to answer in coming weeks when they
develop a vision for the city, and some believe annexation allows the city
to have input in what is developed near the town's border.
Harriet Daniels may be reached at harriet.daniels@starbanner.com
or (352) 867-4125.
Land
Problems May Hinder Deal
BARTOW
- The city may have hit a snag in its plan to sell 35 acres of vacant land
near Wal-Mart to a
Frontier
Properties, which signed a contract to buy the land from the city more than
a year ago, has uncovered a host of problems impacting the site.
The
property is laden with wetlands, and some parts that aren't environmentally
sensitive are low enough to require fill dirt. There's also a drainage ditch
slicing through the site. A power line and transportation issues have crept
up as well.
In
short, it's going to cost Frontier a lot more for the strip shopping center
there than the company initially predicted.
As
a result, Frontier representatives are asking the city for a price break on
the land.
"It's
going to cost us $300,000 to $500,000 to mitigate these problems,"
Frontier representative Eric Gordon told commissioners this month.
"We'd like some consideration for that."
Frontier
wants to renegotiate its deal with the city. The developer has proposed
buying only the 13-acre site fronting
City
commissioners said they're open to talking about it, but they want to see an
appraisal for that land before committing to anything. The remaining 22
acres, scattered among five parcels, would revert to the city.
The
city is expected to meet with representatives of Frontier to put together a
preliminary proposal.
Here's
how the two sides got to this point:
About
a decade ago, Wal-Mart bought 50 acres along
To
avoid that process, Wal-Mart deeded 19.2 acres along the site's western
boundary to the city with the caveat that the land never be developed.
That
left the city with land that had no real purpose, save a park or other open
area.
Enter
Frontier, which approached the city in 2005 with plans to negotiate a deal
with Wal-Mart to remove the deed restriction.
The
city agreed to sell Frontier the land if the developer could get the
restriction lifted.
The
city also agreed to sell the land for about $5,000 an acre, representing the
appraised value with the deed restrictions in place and with limited access
to the site. At the time, the Van Fleet overpass hadn't been torn down yet
and it blocked access to the property from that roadway.
But
the city, recognizing that the land would be worth more once those two
problems were eliminated, demanded that a follow-up appraisal be done before
a final deal is struck.
That
day has come. The overpass came down two years ago and Frontier told
commissioners this month that the deed restrictions are gone.
But
Frontier representatives said problems with the site, including the
wetlands, power lines and drainage ditch, pose nearly as much of an issue
for development as the other issues. They also said that state
transportation officials are limiting driveway access to the site.
Therefore,
representatives with Frontier are asking the city to sell them the 13 acres
of prime land for the $170,000 they've already paid.
Gordon
said he wasn't certain that an appraisal would take into consideration all
the development issues on the site.
Commissioners
said they understood Frontier's concerns, but they didn't want to give the
land away.
Mayor
Brian Hinton said the city needed to move ahead with an appraisal to
discover what that finds before making any commitments.
Suzie
Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com
or 863-533-9070.
By
MICHAEL D. BATES
mbates@hernandotoday.com
SPRING HILL — Nature Coast Commons, a new 350,000-square-foot retail in
Spring Hill, will break ground today.
Representatives
from Tampa-based Opus South Corp. development team will be on hand at 10
a.m. to serve refreshments and give an overview of the new complex, located
on 42 acres of U.S. 19, just south of
Projected
for completion in early 2008, the new center will be an-chored
by a 104,000-square-foot JCPenney. Commitments
are in place, or underway, with several other stores, including an
electronics retailer, a bookstore, grocery store, arts and crafts retailer
and fashion tenants, according to Opus.
Outparcels
will accommodate restaurants, a coffee shop, a bank and other stores.
“Spring
Hill is a well-established community, which has been underserved from a
retail perspective,” said Dan Morris, Opus South director of real estate.
Nature
Coast Commons will boost the local economy and be an “asset to our
county,” according to Valerie Pianta, program
coordinator with the Hernando County Office of Business Develop-ment.
“Larger-scale
shopping centers enhance our economy through taxes and job creation, by
providing more choices for the local consumer and by making a
community more attractive to businesses and citizens considering
relocation,” Pianta said. “Businesses, for
instance, look for a great site and workforce, then want to know
more about a community’s amenities.”
The
JCPenny is being built on property owned by
Hardy Huntley, the same person who sold the land to make way for the
adjacent
The
property is zoned commercial so it will not have to go before planning and
zoning commissioners. The Southwest Florida Water management District has
already signed off on the project.
Opus
South is developing three other major retail projects in Florida: The
Shoppes at Four Corners in Davenport, and The Shoppes of Gulf Coast and the
Market Place at the Preserve, both in the Ft. Myers area.
Today’s
event is by invitation-only and not open to the public.
Reporter
Michael D. Bates can be contacted at 352-544-5290.
Tuesday,
May 15, 2007
The
Jensen Beach Neighborhood Advisory Committee voted 4-1 to recommend that
county commissioners next Tuesday approve a plan by the Dosses
to downsize the second phase of their project near the Jensen Beach
Causeway.
The
revised plan for the second phase of Renar River
Place, north of Pineapple Drive, calls for six condominium units instead of
the 21 originally planned and 4,200 square feet of business space instead of
12,447. The Dosses also eliminated plans for a
three-story parking garage.
"It
creates open space, people space, people-friendly space," Arden Doss
said. "I'm going to make less money, but if the community can come
together in consensus and be in support of this development it is worth
it."
The
Dosses announced the changes last month after
several meetings with residents, including two founders of the Jensen Beach
Group, an organization of slow-growth activists. The
first phase, which included 32 condominium units and was criticized by that
group as being too tall and too close to the road, was finished in February.
But
most of the opponents were applauding the Dosses
Monday night for downsizing.
"I
really think the Dosses did a superb job,
absolutely superb," said group member Henry Copeland.
Several
neighborhood advisory board members questioned whether the new plan met
county codes, as it has larger setbacks from the road than originally
planned. Members also questioned whether the reduced amount of parking would
be enough without the garage. Board member Debra Eddington
voted against the proposal, and two members, Ken DeAngelis
and Phil Anson, abstained.
Some
businesspeople argued against the changes.
Tammy
Simoneau, executive director of the county's
economic development council, said the project shouldn't be downsized.
Community redevelopment areas are designed to have high density, generate
more tax revenue and prosper, she said.
"We
don't want green open space in the CRAs because
we're giving up our tax structure," Simoneau
said.
She
also said asked the Dosses to keep the garage,
saying it would look better than a ground lot.
"I
don't want to drive by a parking lot that looks like a used car lot,"
she said.
Arden
Doss responded that he originally promised to build only $17 million worth
of taxable value. The first phase alone has more than $25 million worth of
value, he said.
"We
delivered more than we said we'd deliver," he said.
City
OKs electronic signs moratorium
JEFF
ADELSON
Sun
staff writer
Commissioners voted 4-3 in favor of the moratorium, with Commissioners Ed Braddy,
Rick Bryant and Scherwin Henry dissenting.
Those who favored the ordinance said it was a necessary step to prevent new
applications while the commission considers its sign ordinances.
"We can't just say, 'This is
The moratorium is the latest step in a process that has been the subject of
heated debate between business groups, led by the Gainesville Area Chamber
of Commerce and local banks, and individuals and groups who argue the signs
are ugly and distracting.
The signs in question include the red LEDs used
on the signs of some local banks and law firms as well as video displays or
projected signs.
The City Plan Board spent months considering regulations on electronic
signs, eventually recommending in March that the commission ban them
completely and require existing signs to be taken down. Last month,
commissioners opted to adopt regulations that stop short of such a ban but
would restrict the size and other elements of the signs.
Braddy and Bryant questioned whether the city
should move forward with the moratorium or strict regulations, particularly
in light of municipal use of electronic signs on the city-owned Southwest
Downtown Parking Garage and for traffic signs. Braddy,
Bryant and Henry also questioned whether a moratorium was too extreme for
the circumstances, noting that few applications for electronic signs had
been received recently.
But Rob Brinkman, who has frequently spoken before the commission on
development and environmental issues, said the moratorium was necessary to
prevent a rush of new applications from businesses seeking to receive
approval before stricter regulations are put in place.
The meeting also led to heated comments from commissioners. Braddy,
in particular, criticized city employees, who he said presented slanted
information on the signs. "What we've heard is all stuff as to why
they're bad," he said. "Has staff spent any time, as much time as
on the negative, on the positive?"
Brinkman said the staff was providing information designed to support the
commission's previous policy direction, which included coming back with a
moratorium.
Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan
said she was getting tired of hearing strident rhetoric from those on the
commission and in the community who opposed any new regulations on the
signs.
"I'm willing to compromise, but the more obnoxious rhetoric I hear on
the other side just pushes me toward just banning them," Hanrahan
said.
Jeff Adelson can be reached at 352-374-5095 or adelsoj@gvillesun.com
Posted on Tue, May. 15, 2007
BY
DAVID ADAMS
But
the latest controversy is perhaps harder to fathom: President Bush's support
for alternative energy.
Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez and
''Taking
corn away from people and the food chain to feed automobiles'' is ''a
terrible thing,'' Chávez said recently.
Biofuels
as a substitute for gasoline is fast becoming a major global issue, dubbed
the ''food vs. fuel'' debate. But in
''Chávez
wants to use his oil to be more relied upon politically,'' said Peter Sommer,
commercial manager for Latin America exploration and production with Chevron
Corp. ``He wants everyone to be indebted to him so he can be crowned king of
Chávez's
petro-diplomacy has earned him extraordinary
influence in some countries, principally
''The
McManus
said the key issue driving
Oil
imports are responsible for 36 percent of the
Still,
Bush administration officials are quick to recognize the political spinoff
from biofuels in Latin America, at a time when
Ethanol
and its sister, biodiesel (made with various
seed or plant oils), can create thousands of new jobs stimulating rural
development throughout the hemisphere, they say. Latin America's poor, who
are fertile recruiting ground for anti-American populists, might be
encouraged to rethink their attitude toward
Until
recently, biofuels had been a word barely heard,
let alone comprehended, in the hemisphere. The exception is
In
his
It
took a while for the significance of Bush's new ''passion'' to sink in with
his perennial detractors. That changed quickly when the White House
announced that Bush would travel to
Chávez
and Castro framed the debate as one between food security for poor nations
and energy security for the world's richest. Most
of the hostility was directed at the
In
one of several articles published in
Chávez
argued that to fill up a car with ethanol used the equivalent ''grains, food
and nutrients'' to feed seven people. Ironically, only a few days later,
The
debate reached a crescendo at a South American energy summit in
''Most
of what Chávez says is empty bluster,'' said
David Rothkopf, an international business
consultant and former senior trade official at the U.S. Commerce Department.
``It's
ludicrous to think he can derail the agreement with
Experts
say ethanol should be seen as a complement to gasoline, not as a threat to
oil.
''Ethanol
is getting blown all out of proportion,'' said Jorge Pinon,
a former Latin American oil executive with Amoco-BP now at the
Chávez's
ideological approach to biofuels is driven by
domestic politics, Pinon and others say. His
anti-U.S. rhetoric plays well at home, where he has spread oil wealth among
the poor and forced foreign oil companies into less favorable contracts.
But
Chávez appears to have met his match in Lula.
In
an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled Our
Biofuels Partnership, Lula
defended his alliance with Bush as good for the environment and good for the
economies of oil importing countries.
''This
is a recipe for increasing incomes, creating jobs and alleviating poverty
among the many developing countries where biomass crops are abundant,'' he
wrote.
"It's
like sticker shock - 'Whoa,'" said John Renfrow,
director of the county's Water and Sewer Department. "But we are doing
everything humanly possible."
Experts
said the losses appear typical for an American utility with pipes more than 60
years old.
"Miami-Dade's
numbers probably aren't out of sync with what we know about utilities,"
said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the
American Water Works Association.
In
Cities
with newer pipes, however, report smaller water losses.
Improvements
to Miami-Dade's pipes are critical to the county securing long-term access to
clean water, said Chip Merriam, deputy executive director of the South Florida
Water Management District.
"One
of the first things we said to them is, 'If you want more water, one of the
first things you can do is fix the leaks," he
said.
As
the drought continues, officials say they are also losing the region's
wildlife.
Low
water levels are causing snakes, alligators, frogs and turtles to inch closer
to busy roads, trying to find new water sources that aren't so crowded, said
Richard Hilsenbeck, associate director of land
acquisition for The Nature Conservancy in
At
"No
hatchlings at all have survived," Smith said.
Water
wars put springs in spotlight
Lobbyists
convince state to pay $7.2M for submerged lot
Flagler
begins manatee protection process
State
and federal officials may curtail waterfront construction in
According
to Tim Tefler,
Tefler
said he was pleased that representatives from environmental advisory groups,
developers and Sea Ray were among the fewer than 20 people who attended a
kickoff meeting last week as part of the process to establish a manatee
protection plan.
"We
want to hear from everyone," Tefler said.
"This will be a living document that will evolve over time."
"Over
the past five years we have reached the regulatory threshold of five manatee
deaths within a five-year period," Tefler
said. The number increased to six in September 2006.
Developers
said little during the meeting and could not be reached for comment afterward.
There
were only four watercraft-related manatee deaths in the previous 26 years in
As
the county's population increases -- and along with it waterway traffic --
more manatees are dying in boating accidents, officials said.
Six
manatee deaths in
Tefler
said many boaters pass through
"We
tend to be a transportation corridor. They (boaters) head north and they head
south through here," Tefler said.
Several
perinatal deaths, calves that die shortly after
birth, have also been recorded in the area but are not included in death
totals.
"There
are multiple studies being done," said Tefler.
Wildlife
commission environmental specialist Terri Calleson
said an aerial study of manatee populations is expected to be completed in
October. That information would be part of the data used in making geographic
information system maps.
The
series of maps will be layered over a base map of Flagler County and help
identify areas of manatee congregation in relation to marinas, speed zones,
construction areas and other points of interest. An aerial study of manatee
sightings is currently being conducted by the wildlife commission and will be
completed in October 2007.
"We
want to make sure we have all of the info and make the best decisions," Tefler
said.
While
the studies will take time there are simple measures boaters can take, said
county spokesman Carl Laundrie. "If they
would slow down and watch what they are doing," Laundrie
said. "The manatees are just below the surface and you can see them. When
you do, slow down."
By
JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published May 14, 2007
Almost
three of four Floridians think state lawmakers should take immediate steps to
combat global warming.
In
a St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll, 71 percent of those polled said they
support immediate legislative action to cut green house gas emissions.
More
than half - 54 percent - said they believe global warming has contributed to
an increase in the number and severity of hurricanes over the past few years.
Pollster
Kellyanne Conway cautioned that the numbers might
be inflated given the trendiness of global warming
as a political issue, but she said it appears global warming has become a
significant issue in
"It's
their way of asking
Democrats
and independents most strongly favored government action to curb greenhouse
gases, with 81 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of independents agreeing,
according to the poll. About 54 percent of Republicans supported government
action.
Also,
younger people, those 18 to 34, supported government intervention to cut
emissions more strongly than those older than 65.
Scientists
believe that the burning of fossil fuel has produced atmospheric gases that
trap heat near the earth's surface, which in turn warms oceans. Some believe
that the warmer oceans are spawning more frequent and stronger hurricanes.
It
also gave $62-million for alternative energy programs, including one that
converts crops into fuel.
Energy
policy is also expected to emerge as presidential campaign issue in
"Public
awareness and attitudes about energy policy and global warming are growing at
an increasing amount on the daily basis, "
said Susan Glickman with Natural Resources Defense
Council, an environmental nonprofit.
Some
who took part in the poll were interviewed by Times reporters, and nearly all
said they believe in state action on warming.
"I
have grandchildren, and if we don't do something soon there won't be anything
left, " said Marcia Burnham, 70, a retiree and
registered independent in
Donald
Brown, a 65-year-old Republican retiree from Wildwood, said he doesn't believe
that human activity is the sole or even main cause of global warming, but he
also agrees that emissions should be cut.
"I've
thought about a lot of pros and cons about it, and any cut in emissions is
good, whether it affects global warming or not, " Brown said.
The
survey was conducted by Schroth, Eldon &
Associates, which traditionally works with Democratic candidates, and the
Polling Co., which mostly does Republican polling. They spoke to 901
Floridians from May 6 to May 9. The margin of error for statewide figures is
3.5 percentage points.
Monday,
May 14, 2007
A
recurring question swirling around Callery-Judge
Grove is whether
Callery's
studies show that the county will need those homes and more, to fill a housing
shortfall, particularly after 2015. County staff studies show the project will
help fill a housing shortfall only after 2020.
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The
issue is critical, as the county commission is scheduled to consider the plan
Tuesday. The proposal includes the homes, nearly 4 million square feet of
office and research space, a golf course, water-cleansing flow-way and three
schools. But housing demand is more difficult to estimate than either
conclusion indicates, experts say.
Both
Callery and the county based their studies on
population projections from the
Callery
also points to a state law it believes says local government must plan to
accommodate future population. County staff doesn't interpret the law the same
way; it says population predictions are not certainties.
"We
don't do the bulk of any analysis solely on population projections," said
Lisa Amara, a principal planner for the county.
"That
number is so variable and so far out," Amara
said.
Regardless
of population projections, county staff recommends denial of Callery's
project because they consider it too dense for its Loxahatchee location.
Callery's
demographers and planners have shown that the county will need 150,000 more
homes in 2025. County planners peg the number at about 50,000.
Normally,
about 8,000 homes are built a year in the county, said Brad Hunter, director
of the research firm Metrostudy's
So
10,000 homes spread over 15 years - the duration of Callery's
project - isn't all that much, he said.
"There
are not many places you can build, not many of any size," Hunter said.
"You're going to have to find a lot of land other than Callery-Judge,
or economic growth will grind to a halt."
And
the recent real estate slump won't affect a project whose construction
wouldn't be under way for a couple more years, Hunter said. "The
fundamental demand for new homes in
That's
because the state sells sunshine, among other perks. Hurricanes may dissuade
some potential home buyers, but most people realize that weather phenomena can
happen anywhere, several real estate experts said. At least you can plan for
hurricanes, they said.
Plus
Callery, a citrus grove since the 1960s, already
owns the land it would develop and obviously believes demand is strong enough
to be worth the money and effort to develop the site, said one.
"Developers
are not going to build where they don't feel a need," said Phyllis Choy,
president of the board of directors for the Regional Multiple Listing Service.
"Nobody is going to throw money in the air."
By
MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published May 14, 2007
Earlier
this year, a proposed 152-mile toll road in
The
state's top transportation officials deemed the road - the
But
now, the project appears stalled. More than three months after the engineering
study was recommended, the Florida Department of Transportation still hasn't
set aside the money needed for the study. More importantly, the key political
support of the Jeb Bush administration is gone.
"Gov.
Charlie Crist doesn't seem as enthused about this
as Gov. Bush was, " said Rick Dantzler,
a former state senator who represents a consortium of landowners pushing for
the road. "DOT will have to make a decision pretty quickly. If we drag
our feet too long, it will be an impossibility to get this road secure."
The
In
March, Crist told the St. Petersburg Times that
expanding existing roads in urban areas was more of a priority than building
rural highways.
Crist's
secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, Tom Pelham, says Future
Corridors is an ill-advised approach because roads would dictate where growth
would go, not planning.
Pelham
said this week that his department, which oversees growth management; the
Department of Environmental Protection; and the DOT
will take a closer look.
"My
understanding is that (Future Corridors) is on hold pending further discussion,
" Pelham said. "Much of the slowdown, I think, is related to
the fact that we just finished the legislative session. I'm sure more
attention will be turned to this and the
Down
an unfamiliar path
Being
in limbo is something new for the
In
March, the St. Petersburg Times reported that a HEART founder, state Sen. J.D.
Alexander, R-Lake Wales, controls two companies - Alico
and Atlantic Blue Group - that own thousands of acres along the proposed
Alico
and
The
others are: A. Duda & Sons, a fifth-generation
ranching and farming dynasty that's also a developer; Barron Collier Co. and
Collier Enterprises, two family owned development companies near Naples;
Bonita Bay Group, a land developer near Fort Myers; Lykes
Brothers, a Tampa landholding company; Mosaic Co., a phosphate giant; Bryan
Paul, a LaBelle citrus grower; the Latt
Maxcy Development Corp., a real estate firm in
Osceola; and Highland Cassidy, a Winter Haven homebuilder.
Dantzler
said these HEART members own half of the 2-million acres where the toll road
is proposed. According to state records, four of the companies plan to build
small towns in counties where the
Until
recently, the road hadn't drawn opposition from local governments. Four
counties - Hendry,
But
last month,
HEART's
first political setback hurt its efforts to curry favor with local
environmental groups, said Brad Cornell of the Collier County Audubon Society.
"They
made a mistake in letting it go forward, "
Cornell said. "It looks bad for them."
The
only HEART member at the meeting, Tom Conrecode, a
senior vice president with Collier Enterprises, said the vote was a minor
bump. He said it will take decades to plan for the
"I
don't think there's any rush, " Conrecode
said. "We have a new governor, we have a new
secretary of the DCA, neither who are familiar with Future Corridors. Both of
them need to know more."
Dantzler
said things were more urgent. He said development is happening quickly in
"I'm
not sure we're off track; we've had a lot of good that's happened,
" Dantzler said. "But we're
probably in a little bit of a dip right now."
Michael
Van Sickler can be reached at mvansickler@sptimes.com
or (813) 226-3402.
By
KATE SPINNER
kate.spinner@heraldtribune.com
THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"It's like sticker shock -- 'Whoa,'" said John Renfrow,
director of the county's Water and Sewer Department. "But we are doing
everything humanly possible."
Experts said the losses appear typical for an American utility with pipes more
than 60 years old.
"Miami-Dade's numbers probably aren't out of sync with what we know about
utilities," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive
director of the American Water Works Association.
In
Cities with newer pipes, however, report smaller water losses.
Improvements to Miami-Dade's pipes are critical to the county securing
long-term access to clean water, said Chip Merriam, deputy executive director
of the South Florida Water Management District.
As the drought continues, officials say they also are losing the region's
wildlife.
Proposed
landfill within land earmarked for panthers
County
to decide proposal before wildlife considered
The
location where a developer wants to build a regional garbage landfill in
eastern
But
whether Omni Waste of
The
site is adjacent to the 74,000-acre Babcock Ranch, which was acquired by the
state for $340 million last year. The acquisition was touted for creating a
wildlife corridor between the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area to the
west and the Fisheating Creek conservation area to
the east.
The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in its latest panther recovery plan, which is
currently undergoing a final review, calls for the panther's range to be
expanded north of the
The
Babcock/Fisheating Creek region was identified in
a 2006 study by the FWS as one four potential areas where breeding populations
of panthers could be re-established.
The
Charlotte County Commission will decide at a public hearing set for 2 p.m.
Tuesday whether to grant conceptual approval for zoning and comprehensive plan
changes to accommodate the proposal.
But
the county has opted not to consider the landfill a Development of Regional
Impact, over the objections of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning
Council.
If
the project were considered a DRI, it would get detailed reviews from a host
of experts from local, state and federal environmental agencies, said Dan Trescott,
a DRI specialist for the planning council.
Such
a detailed review of the landfill project is warranted because it would draw
truck traffic from across county lines and pose regional environmental
hazards, Trescott said.
But
And
Omni has obtained a letter from a state Department of Community Affairs
staffer confirming that landfills are not DRIs,
said Ken Cargill, chief engineer for Omni.
Cargill
said he has spoken with the Southwest Florida Conservancy, an environmental
organization, about panther concerns.
"We
know they want to make a safe passageway from Babcock Ranch to the Fisheating
Creek site," said Cargill. "We want to be supportive and
cooperative, and we want to help."
But
the 400 to 500 truck trips per day generated by the landfill would pose a
danger to panthers, according to a report by county staff.
A
handful of male panthers are roaming the Babcock/Fisheating
Creek region right now, according to Allen Webb, a project supervisor for the
FWS based in the agency's
"It's
great habitat for a lot of different species," Webb said. "In fact,
the last female
That
female was killed in the 1970s.
Female
panthers have since proven reluctant to swim across the
The
FWS wants to expand the habitat north because the population of 100 is
considered too small to sustain itself, due to genetic problems, Webb said.
The
Babcock/Fisheating Creek area could support 10
panthers, according to the FWS.
The
draft plan calls for transporting female panthers into the area in the future.
Before any of the predators would be relocated, the agency would first draft
local plans with public input to resolve safety concerns, Webb said.
"There's
a lot of upfront involvement so people don't feel they are going to be at
risk," Webb said.
If
Omni finds it must apply for a federal wetlands impact permit, that would
trigger a consultation with the FWS about panther impacts, Webb said. But there's
only a few, small wetlands on the project site, according to Cargill.
The
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also has
not conducted a "formal review" of the Omni project, according to
Gary Morse, FWC spokesman. However, at the request of a county staffer, one
FWC staffer conducted an informal review, he said.
The
staffer, Stephanie Rousso, found that 18 species
of endangered or threatened animals potentially could be found on the Omni
site.
"The
project site is located within a critical wildlife habitat linkage connecting
managed lands such as Babcock Ranch and Fisheating
Creek Ecosystem," Rousso said.
If
the Omni project falls within one of the federal agency's panther zones, the
state FWC would examine the proposal, said Darrell Land, panther recovery team
leader for the state FWC. But Land said he's received no notice indicating the
project's location.
"That's
part of what we're really struggling with right now," said Land. "We
don't have a real nexus to get involved with this site."
Both
the state and federal agencies rely on cooperation and negotiation to get
property owners to preserve panther habitat.
The
state can use its Rural Lands Stewardship Program, which calls for property
owners to trade environmental assets for development rights, Land said.
But
enforcement is rare.
"With
a critter like the
By
GREG MARTIN
By
KATE SPINNER
kate.spinner@heraldtribune.com
Slated to go within two miles of Babcock
Ranch,, a 74,000-acre preserve recently purchased by the state, the
proposed landfill would rise 318 feet above sea level -- just 27 feet shy of
Brighton Hill, the highest point in Florida.
In addition to the promise of good-paying jobs, Tim Salopek,
owner of Omni Waste, is offering the county $2.3 million annually over the
30-year life of the landfill. He also pledges to pay $1 million to spruce up
the road that up to 500 trucks a day will use to haul garbage to the nearly
1,300-acre site. About 300 acres of that will actually receive garbage.
While
"It sounds like extortion," Charlotte County Commissioner Thomas
Moore said, half-joking.
Commissioners
will vote Tuesday on whether to give preliminary approval for the landfill.
One of the biggest sticking points is the landfill's proximity to Babcock
Ranch, which sits next to thousands of acres of protected wildlife habitat and
vacant land that the state wants to keep as natural as possible.
But Salopek said he is an eco-conscious guy, and
points to a ringing endorsement from one of the state's most respected
conservationists.
William Broussard, a 10th generation cattle rancher who runs a ranch and
nature preserve in Osceola County, said he is happy to have the landfill Salopek
built as a neighbor because developers do not like to build near landfills.
Who is Omni Waste?
Some might have called Salopek foolish after he
turned down a college scholarship for a $6-an-hour job at a garbage dump three
decades ago.
Now an international leader in landfill construction, the
Salopek settled into a $1.2 million home on the
Peace River two years ago, just like he homesteaded in
Salopek also set up an office in Punta Gorda
nine years ago and began to make acquaintances with the movers and shakers of
He joined director's boards for
His company also donated money to more than 20 community groups, including the
Coastal Conservation Association, the Peace River Audubon Society and the
Redfish Tournament.
Salopek said he shares his wealth because he came
from humble roots.
"I'm a down to earth maggot masher," Salopek,
51, said.
But he and his chief engineer, Kenneth Cargill, also seem to be seeking
political influence.
Since the beginning of last year, Salopek, Cargill
and other Omni associates have donated more than $23,000 to
Salopek, Cargill and Omni Waste also contributed
more than $10,000 to Republican candidates statewide in last year's general
election.
Money talks
Landfills are never an easy sell. Communities turn their noses up not only at
the smell, but at the noise and truck traffic.
"Be it a power plant, a phosphate mine, whatever, you get concerned
citizens that will oppose things," Salopek
said.
In 1999, Salopek was virtually run out of
When 200 angry DeSoto residents mobbed a planning
board meeting to oppose his project, Salopek
withdrew.
He met similar opposition from Holopaw -- the name
means "a place where something is hauled" -- a rural town south of
Residents feared the landfill would clog the streets with traffic, disturb
wildlife and pollute waterways that lead to the
When Osceola leaders eventually denied the landfill, Salopek
sued the county.
County leaders settled and issued a permit that allowed Omni to raise the
landfill 187 feet above sea level and only accept garbage from Osceola and
bordering counties.
Omni eventually sold the landfill to a Canadian company, Waste Services Inc.,
with which Salopek has close ties.
He had also developed close ties with members of the
A year after the first load of garbage landed at the dump in 2004, the new
company sought permission from county leaders to increase the landfill's
height to 330 feet and to accept regional garbage.
That permission was granted with no fuss, Hawkins said.
In
Part of the settlement with Osceola promised financial perks identical to the
ones proposed for
Salopek used cash to help sell the landfill idea
to Holopaw residents, too.
"Some of us look at it as selling our soul," said Gary Pickett, once
a vigorous opponent of the landfill. He and his neighbors receive a $150 check
each year from the landfill.
Jan Mitchell, Holopaw's mail carrier, said the
money and the fact that she cannot smell the dump tempered her opposition.
When garbage drifts into her yard, she does not mind picking it up.
But money has not sweetened everyone.
Patricia Sheffield said a truck ran her off the road last year, and recently
another truck did the same to her friend.
"They're crazy down there. Half of them don't even know how to drive a
truck,"
Anatomy of a landfill
The biggest concern with any landfill is its
potential to pollute ground water. And in a state where 90 percent of drinking
water comes from the ground, that is a big concern.
In this state, a landfill that accepts household waste must meet federal
regulations for hazadous waste.
At the Holopaw landfill, rainwater trickles
through 5.5 million cubic yards of refuse -- household garbage, diesel-tainted
soils, sewage sludge, construction waste -- before
it hits a plastic bottom. The bottom is sloped so water flows toward covered
collection ponds at the landfill's edge.
By the time the water reaches the ponds it becomes a yellow broth that smells
like a rancid port-a-toilet. Eventually the water will be hauled to a
waste-water treatment plant, but in the meantime it is sprayed back onto the
landfill to keep the soils from drifting on the wind.
Hawkins said that for every acre only about a shotglass
full of that polluted water will ever make its way though the liner.
The state requires all landfills that accept household waste to be lined with
two thick plastic sheets, or one layer of plastic, clay and fabric.
Omni's liner exceeds state standards, said Kenneth Cargill, chief engineer for
the company.
Two layered sheets of clay, fabric and tough plastic form a liner as thick as
a double-decker sandwich at the bottom of the Holopaw
landfill. The same sort of liner is proposed for the
"With the two layers you're basically 100 percent sure that nothing gets
through," Cargill said.
But some say nothing is ever 100 percent certain.
"Anything has the potential to leak," Martin said.
Robert
Sargent
Sentinel Staff Writer
May 14, 2007
MONTVERDE -- Not enough residents.
Not enough money.
It's a common problem with small towns looking to improve utilities, law
enforcement and other public services. There's a need for better, but it's a
struggle to come up with tax money when the population narrowly exceeds the
triple digits.
So communities such as Montverde, Astatula and Howey-in-the-Hills
-- the three smallest in
Montverde wants to look at goals and how it serves the population of about
1,200 in southeast
Council member Billy Miles said Montverde should set some goals to reach
within the next few years.
"What is the long-range plan for Montverde, and how best can we go about
reaching those goals?" Miles asked.
He said the town could consider ways to build up its small business district
off County Road 455. The town ball fields also may need some consideration.
Plans are under way to improve C.R. 455 and the town's water utility.
Miles said he would like to see another route for area traffic. One idea is to
encourage the county to buy a property south of town and create a bypass from
C.R. 455 that would lead vehicles to other roads west and north around town.
Mayor Dale Heathman said he would like to hear
ideas on how the government should be run -- a subject that has caused a lot
of debate as Montverde slowly grows.
The mayor is elected as the town's top administrator, a job that pays about
$14,400 a year. The post requires a significant amount of time, although Heathman
and the previous mayor have worked that schedule around full-time jobs.
Some say Montverde needs a full-time administrator, whether it is a mayor or a
town manager. Obtaining the latter could require voters to approve amendments
to the town charter to accommodate a manager form of government.
Others say the town is not big enough and does not bring in enough taxes to
keep a qualified manager on staff.
"It takes so much time to do the job effectively as the mayor," said
Heathman, who would like to hear input from the
council and residents.
Heathman said Montverde should have open
discussion about how it will deal with surrounding growth and other challenges
within town borders.
Astatula -- with about 1,500 residents -- has a
five-person council and no manager. Much of the administrative work is handled
through a clerk.
Howey-in-the-Hills has
about 1,200 residents. It also has no manager.
Robert Sargent
can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5909.
Broward's
housing will be multistory, not single-family
By
Robin Benedick and Buddy Nevins
May 13, 2007
Broward
County is growing up. High up.
As land runs out and population continues to climb, developers in almost every
city are proposing multistory condo towers, anchored by ground-floor shops,
offices and restaurants.
Already flourishing in eastern cities such as
There are enough such projects in the pipeline to remake Broward's skyline and
redefine how people live.
"As a virtually built-out community, future housing cannot be of the same
single-family sprawl which has characterized our community the past 30
years,'' said Debbie Orshefsky, a Fort Lauderdale
lawyer. "Rather mixed-use, multifamily development needs to become the
norm.''
By 2020, planners expect Broward's population to grow by nearly 400,000, to
almost 2.2 million.
Finding places to put the newcomers is the challenge. While developers and
city officials see the mixed-use philosophy as the answer, the current jittery
real estate market could delay some projects.
Soaring construction costs, taxes and property insurance, coupled with the
slowdown in real estate, already have put some projects on the back burner.
Still, several cities are going forward with land-use changes so they are
ready when the market rebounds.
Lisa Curtin, of
"This overdevelopment scares me to death,'' said Curtin, 47, owner of a
paralegal service. "They're telling us we're
running out of water and we can't wash our cars and we can't water our lawns,
so let's put up another 40-story condo tower. We're destroying our
ecosystem.''
Those favoring denser development say the idea is to allow people to live near
where they work and shop. Developers say they are catering to young
professionals, people going through a life change such as a divorce and empty
nesters looking for smaller digs.
"It's the melting pot atmosphere you get when you have people of
different cultures and different styles living together,'' said Hudson, 35,
who works in financial reporting.
Most of the new growth is a result of the most recent land-use rules adopted
by the county and cities that encourage taller, denser buildings at major
roads with mass transit, such as State Road 7 and
However, Broward has no money to build a light rail system and while new
express buses are running on State Road 7, they share the same crowded
streets. Last year, Broward voters rejected an extra penny sales tax for
transportation.
That has County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs calling for a timeout on allowing
mixed-use projects.
"It isn't working as it was planned," said Jacobs, a transit
supporter. "I think it's time to halt these high-density new developments
until the transportation system is there."
Charles Siemon, whose law firm, Siemon
& Larsen, consulted on the mixed use
"This is a chicken and egg problem. If you start building urban places,
you're not going to have transit. But if you keep waiting for the demand for
transit before you build transit, you're never going to get there,'' he said.
The city of
Despite the lack of mass transit,
In
"I think it's a really exciting time in Broward going from a more
suburban landscape into a more urbanized landscape,'' said Carolyn Dekle,
executive director of the South Florida Regional Planning Council.
Though the county won't look the same in the future, its single-family
neighborhoods should remain as they are.
"Right now you've got a high-rise strip on the beach, a second one on
U.S. 1 and now you're going to have a third one on S.R. 7,'' said Don Giancoli,
director of Lauderhill's Community Redevelopment Agency, where several
multimillion-dollar projects are proposed around Sunrise Boulevard and State
Road 7. "We won't have islands of development popping up in the middle of
nowhere like in the past.''
Robin Benedick
can be reached at rbenedick@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7914.
Panel
to review visioning draft tonight
BY LINDA JUMP
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Tonight at 6, the 15-member Community Visioning Steering Committee will review
the 164-page draft of a vision plan for the future of the city 20-25 years
out.
The draft says the city should have multiple downtown centers that encourage
dynamic business opportunities, more parks, mixed uses with affordable housing
developments and feasible transportation plans. The plan also calls for
protection of critical environmental areas in the city.
“
Don’t look for specific goals, dates and funding sources, but instead for a
general guide with maps.
“This is not intended to be a strategic plan, but more of a land use
plan,” said City Manager Lee Feldman.
Here are areas included and suggestions:
Economic
development—manage growth, protect the environment, encourage living wage
jobs and a diversified economy and a nodal concept for downtown center and
activity centers.
Land
use—Vibrant downtown centers, appropriate recreation facilities, business
corridors, linkages and nodes for nature and smart development in the annexed
areas.
Transportation—Improve
traffic flow and connectivity, vehicle safety, alleviate traffic congestion
and encourage public transportation use.
Housing—Create
life-stage housing and performance standards for housing.
Open Space and Recreation—Acquiring or constructing more parks,
creating diverse parks, working with the state and county on adjoining open
space, creating a main park facility and developing eco tourism.
Five public workshops were held earlier this year, one on each topic. Red Oaks
Consulting of
The plan is to comply with the state’s Growth Management Act of 1995 that
requires local governments to create long-term plans.
Townhouse
plan angers residents
BY
LINDA JUMP
The
250 acres of the Chaparral development would include a multifamily building
with 252 units and 598 single-family lots on six "pods." Developers
can expect objections to plans for townhomes, for
which land use amendments are already in the works.
Recently,
when the city council was approving changes to the development plan,
Councilman Andy Anderson said the gun ranges have been there for years.
"They
were there first -- I'm not going to pressure them to leave,"
He
told developers to disclose the proximity of the gun ranges to potential
buyers.
City
officials said existing neighbors aren't complaining about the ranges, and
range operators said they emphasize safety. Neighbors said they're more
concerned about the townhouses.
"They
(Chaparral developers) want to put a six-foot cement wall with townhomes
that could lead to rentals on the other side," said Brenda Chrieki,
who lives in Malabar Lakes West.
She
and others plan to object at a June 6 planning and zoning board hearing, when
rezoning to allow the townhomes is on the agenda.
Thomas
Gaume, who lives on
He
said the two-lane
"The
two-lane bridge is our only exit access. It was fine when there were a few
hundred families, but not for a few thousand," said Gaume,
adding that widening of Malabar Road to four lanes west of Minton Road isn't
expected to begin for more than five years.
The
development would include 12 retention lakes with fishing docks, a nature
trail and a six-acre community park.
Contact
Jump at 409-1423 or ljump@floridatoday.com.
By
PATRICK WHITTLE
patrick.whittle@heraldtribune.com
The
state's greenbelt law, which allows
A pair of state legislators introduced bills this year that would have made it
more difficult to obtain the half-century-old greenbelt classification, which
is designed to help farmers pay taxes lower than market rate on their farms.
The legislators, Reps. Ralph Poppell of
But the bills failed to reach the state House and Senate floors in the
legislative session. Geller said it is possible, but unlikely, that the bills
could come up again during the 11-day special session scheduled to start June
12. Both legislators said they will likely reintroduce the bills next year.
The legislators said they were motivated to submit the bills by developers who
claim the greenbelt classification by placing cows on land before it is primed
for building.
Geller last year accused developers of calling "Hertz rent-a-cow" to
acquire the tax break, which sometimes saves property owners more than
$200,000 per year in taxes.
But some farmers breathed a sigh of relief that the bills never reached the
House floor. Buster Longino, who is the principal
of the Longino Ranch, one of the largest ranches
in
Longino and his wife, Jane Longino,
said they feared opening the greenbelt law for revision would harm legitimate
farming more than it would cut down on tax abuse.
"If the greenbelt law is taken away and we have to go back to real estate
values, the ranch will just have to go," Jane Longino
said.
The state law that governs the greenbelt law requires property appraisers to
base a greenbelted property's assessment on how
much income it generates.
Grazing land usually results in a low assessment while a citrus grove would
generate more. Landowners would normally pay two to 400 times more in property
taxes without the tax break, according to a nationwide study by the
Associated Press in 2004.
![]()
Some
of the land slated for Benderson Development's
The state law says property owners must meet three criteria to lose the
greenbelt classification. Geller's proposed law would have changed the rules
so that property owners could lose the tax break if they met only one of the
criteria. The criteria are:
The
land must convert from an agricultural to a non-agricultural use.
The
land must no longer be used for agricultural purposes.
The
land must have been zoned to a non-agricultural use at the owner's request.
The law change met opposition from agricultural lobbyists, Geller said. But he
still believes his proposed law would help catch tax cheats.
"The problem is the agricultural community has a vested interest in not
passing it," Geller said. "There's always
50 lobbyists pushing against it."
A
different way to develop
By
TONY
lmarrero@hernandotoday.com
BROOKSVILLE — As a child, Joe King grew up in a
4-H family.
His mother was particularly interested in forestry.
On Thursday, in order to convey to an audience how his family feels about
developers, he contorted his face and growled.
So when it came time for King to create a housing development on a tract of
riverfront pine forest in Bradenton — located just south of a large family
plot where his mother still lives — he brought a sense of environmental
stewardship to the project.
“I knew I had to do a good job,” King said during a presentation at the
Streets to Streams workshop on stormwater
organized by the county’s Groundwater Guardian Team, a group supported by
the Hernando County Utilities Department.
The goal of the event, held at the Sand Hill Scout Reservation, was to show
how runoff from roofs, roads, driveways, parking lots and a myriad of other
paved surfaces plays havoc on the environment by spreading pollutants that
often end up in the aquifer.
Organizers asked King to show the audience, which included department heads
and policy makers from
The project, which King dubbed
The 26-acre tract of land sits on the
Instead of a 24-foot wide road, King made his 18 feet wide.
Instead of curbs and gutters, King built a network of swales, which allowed
water to percolate into the ground.
Few of the homes have lawns, but are instead nestled among the abundant pine
trees and saw palmettos.
And King convinced local planners to let him create “permeable walkways”
of shells or pine needles alongside the roadway instead of sidewalks.
At first, King recalled, engineers with the Southwest Florida Water Management
District asked: “Where are your ponds? What kind of development is this?”
But his aim was to avoid the need to build the large stormwater
retention ponds that become necessary when paving over the landscape. The fill
from those holes is typically dumped and compacted elsewhere in a development,
altering the landscape’s ability to naturally percolate and drain.
“We let the natural topography do what it does,” King said.
“Part of the key was getting construction firms to wrap their brains around
how were going to do this development,” he said.
One of his favorite photos, taken during construction and shown on a huge
screen at Thursday’s workshop, shows upturned earth around the mouth of a
water pipe under what would eventually be the roadway. A few feet away is the
trunk of a large pine tree with two ribbons around it, one green and one red.
King had used green ribbon to mark trees he was especially adamant about
saving. One of the contractors for the project, however, used red ribbon for
the trees that would have to fall to install the infrastructure for the
development.
King convinced the contractor to leave the tree and see if it could survive
the nearby construction.
The next photo shows the completed street, the closed manhole in the center of
the pavement — and the grand pine, providing dappled sunlight on a nearby
driveway.
Because of a steadfast philosophy to save trees, “It feels a little cooler
inside
A skeptical audience member asked King about development costs, saying he’d
heard that such costs could be double that of a typical residential project.
Costs were “about the same” as more traditional methods, King replied.
In fact, King said his technique paid off. One engineer said he would have to
reserve a swath of riverfront land for retention ponds, but his stormwater
management system helped avoid that and enabled him to sell another lot.
An architect by trade, King designed most of the homes and, working
collaboratively with homeowners, promoted “green architecture.”
He encouraged homeowners to build two-story homes when possible to reduce the
footprint of the buildings. He discouraged gutters. Many installed driveways
made of pavers or shells to further reduce runoff.
And he used the Florida-Friendly Yards and Neighbor-hoods program as a
resource for drought-resistant landscaping.
Recently, as the project is built out, King has taken a back seat to
neighbors, who have come together to educate themselves about the most
environmentally friendly way to maintain the place.
King acknowledged he is an “atypical” developer.
But with less land and rapidly evaporating water resources, King’s methods
portend necessary changes in the mindsets of developers, said Eric Livingston,
chief of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of
Watershed Management.
There also will have to be a paradigm shift in policy, said
Environmentally conscious developers “won’t do any
good unless local governments change their codes,” said
Many local governments’ codes require curbs and gutters and prohibit swales,
Now, he said, “That’s the old-school way of doing things.”
Reporter
Tony Marrero can be contacted at 352-544-5286.
Homes
in fire-prone areas
Open spaces worth the risk,
residents say
BY SUSANNE CERVENKA
Kathy
Goodrich cries when she sees news reports of families losing homes to
wildfires. Not too long ago, that was her.
"Every
time I hear it, it's, oh God, it brings it all back," said the
49-year-old, lifelong Mims resident, whose rural Bluebill Road home was wiped
away by the 1998 fires. "I know exactly how that feels."
For
Goodrich and much of
A
During
droughts, parched vegetation is a tinderbox that's a mere spark away from
becoming a multiacre fire that can spread to
housing.
About
12 percent of the county -- 78,669 acres -- was in the high-risk zone,
according to the state data based on satellite images. Although the Florida
Division of Forestry collected the information about five years ago, officials
say many of the likely hot spots remain the same and they're using that
information to allocate resources until an update is complete.
It
shows most of the high-risk land in Brevard -- 49,545 acres -- is in
unincorporated areas, like pockets near Lake Poinsett, west of Cocoa, and Lake
Washington near Melbourne.
With
drought conditions increasing and little rain in sight, Brevard County
Fire-Rescue considers all of its territory at risk for wildfires, spokesman
Orlando Dominguez said.
"Conditions
are dry countywide," he said.
Across
A
risky mix
Dominguez
said the risk in
Tuesday,
for example, firefighters battled a 50-acre fire in Grant-Valkaria
that started near
And
last year, Canaveral Groves residents did all they could to protect homes when
a monthlong blaze roared nearby, burning 6,500
acres.
But
in the worst fire outbreak in recent history in Brevard, the 1998 fires tore
through more than 70,000 acres in Mims and Scottsmoor,
destroying 32 homes and three businesses.
The
flames jumped Interstate 95 and U.S. 1 before reaching North Brevard Salvage
Co., north of
Even
today, almost nine years later, workers occasionally kick up chunks of melted
aluminum that used to be cars. Last week, Steen stood over a melted
six-cylinder engine that he could have sold to someone looking to replace a
motor in a foreign car. Now it's worth nothing.
"At
the time, it was probably a $600, $700 engine," he said. "Wasted
money."
No
plans to leave
Steen,
who was working at another salvage yard when the fire hit, has a vivid memory
of the flames and smoke.
And while the dry conditions strike a concern, he says the business has proven
it can survive disaster.
"The
fires tried to take us out. So did the hurricanes," he said. "But
we're still here."
Goodrich
also has no plans to leave the area -- even as the wildfire risk continues
year after year. The quiet, open air and the neighbors who came to her side in
1998 are enough to keep her family in Brevard.
But
she is not without caution.
No
pictures hang on her walls, for fear of losing them again. Instead, her
photos, neatly organized in albums, sit in three containers in her living room
so that she can quickly grab them should a fire threaten again.
"With
a hurricane and a tornado, at least there's pieces
you can pick up," she said. "A fire, there's no picking up pieces.
There's nothing left to pick up."
Prescribed
burns
Jim
Brenner, state fire management administrator, said the mapping systems help
foresters determine where to use limited funds to reduce the potential fuel
that could feed wildfires.
The
map takes into consideration the area's climate, its wildfire history and fuel
and balances those conditions with what's in the area, he said. Homes would
put an area at higher risk.
Since
July 1, the Division of Forestry gave permission for 49,692 acres in
The
controlled burns can greatly tame a blazing wildfire, officials said. The fire
behavior calms somewhat when it passes over an area that had previously been
cleared of overgrowth.
"It's
invaluable. What is a person's life worth?" Brenner said.
Contact
Cervenka at 360-1018 or scervenka@floridatoday.com.
County
To Consider Local Historic Landmarks
Kathy
Waters/Highlands Today
Jim
Konkoly
Published:
May 13, 2007
SBRING
— Ten buildings, ranging from a one-room rural school house to a
neo-classical colonial mansion, have been recommended as Highlands County
Historic Landmarks.
The
seven-member Highlands County Historic Preservation Commission voted Thursday
to nominate the 10 sites for the historic designation. County commissioners
will vote on the recommendations, probably at their May 22 meeting.
"Too
much of our world now is brand new, and we need to keep our roots," said
Catherine Cornelius, chairman of the commission. She retired after 18 years as
president of
All
owners of the nominated structures agreed to the historic landmark
designation, which could help them obtain state historic preservation grants
for restoration or renovation work, Cornelius said.
"We
hope this will encourage the owners to maintain these properties so that we
can look in the future and see what was," she said. By accepting historic
landmark status, the property owners agree to keep the exterior appearance
unchanged but are free to make any alterations inside.
Cornelius
said each property nominated is an outstanding example of various
architectural styles.
Nominated
as historic landmarks are:
-
Pearce Homestead,
-
u
Hollyhurst,
-
Venus Teacherage,
-
-
Smith House (Coachman-Pollard House & Caretaker's Cottage), 25 Piney Point
Drive,
-
Chapman (Hill) House,
-
Bond (Etheredge-Barrow) House,
-
Percefull (Barrow) House,
In the absence of a sane growth-management policy, nature is becoming the great equalizer in Florida.
A 17-month drought has made a puddle of Lake Okeechobee and has parched the Biscayne Aquifer. Parts of the Everglades are drying up, while advancing seawater endangers the well fields that serve hundreds of thousands of residents in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Water managers warn that, unless consumption is drastically reduced, the taps could run dry -- or, at the least, start spitting salt -- in several coastal communities. Forget about watering your lawn; you won't be able to water your kids.
The emergency is so dire that even a busy hurricane season may not make it go away. Florida, one of the wettest states in the country, is running dry.
Drought cycles here are nothing new, but this is the first one to occur with 18 million people encamped on the peninsula. They might cut back on sprinkling their geraniums, but they won't stop taking showers or washing their laundry.
Not many politicians are brave enough to cite overpopulation as a cause of the current crisis, though it is. There are too many people using too much water, but it's easier to blame the weather.
The state's primitive, low-tech economy revolves around cramming as many humans as possible onto every available acre. Few in Tallahassee have the guts to admit that it's time to change course.
This is where nature steps in. Try selling a new home or a condo when briny crud is dripping from the spigots.
Since its infancy, Florida has had a contentious relationship with water. The Everglades were diked and dredged to sabotage the natural flow, first for the benefit of agriculture and later for the benefit of land developers.
The Everglades promptly began to die, and only when the financial ramifications became manifest did those same special interests rally behind the current restoration program.
Unlike California and other fast-growing states, Florida can't hijack big rivers to supply its thirsty cities. Much of our water is pumped from porous rock underground and, without moderate rain, the levels keep dropping and salt intrusion progresses.
Building moratoriums
Once a contaminated well is shut down, it can take years to bring it safely back on line. Said Jesus Rodriguez, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, ``The scenario is a grim one. We could be talking about bottled water for the municipalities for a long time.''
One way to gird for the future -- and protect families who already live here -- would be to impose building moratoriums in those counties where the water shortage is most acute.
This is way too simple and sensible. Moratoriums can't be enacted unless local leaders are willing to stand up to developers, a rare occurrence indeed. The state is requiring counties to recycle water for nonpotable uses, but that doesn't curb the liquid appetite of sprawl.
It's lunacy to continue carving out subdivisions and erecting high-rises when the wells are drying up, but that's the plan: Keep Florida growing, no matter what. Once the rainy season begins, everything's gonna be fine, right?
Wrong. The state was soaked by hurricanes and tropical waves during 2004 and 2005, yet where's all that water now? As we all know, newcomers aren't easily spooked away from Florida. Despite predictions of another terrible storm season, the state's population soared last year by nearly 431,000.
That's the same as adding two more cities, each the size of Orlando.
According to the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, the state will have 20 million residents within three years, and almost 25 million by 2025.
Don't let anybody tell you this is good news, unless you yearn for more taxes, higher insurance rates and water bills as hefty as your car payment. That's the future, and it's not so far off.
Encroaching saltwater
Rains will come this summer, as they always do, providing temporary cover for politicians who don't want to confront the water crisis. Experts say it could take years of heavier-than-normal precipitation to restore safe levels in Lake Okeechobee and saturate the aquifers sufficiently to stave off encroaching seawater.
Shortages will hit some communities sooner, and harder, than others. Eventually, state water managers will be forced to take action on a bolder scale than rationing sprinkler use.
Twice as many people are moving here as are moving out. The net population continues to expand at the dangerous rate of about 1,000 souls a day, and they'll keep coming until there's a full-blown water panic.
By then, we'll all be sucking air.
Health risk from springs' pollution not fully understood Pollution in springs could cause reproductive changes in aquatic species and have implications for human health, according to emerging science on the issue.Solving the Hillsborough River's environmental crisis is likely to bring higher water rates.
By JANET ZINK
Published May 13, 2007
TAMPA - A battle is brewing that pits the city of Tampa against Tampa Bay Water, the agency created about a decade ago to end the region's water wars.
The problem: Because of a lawsuit, Tampa needs to more than double the amount of water flowing into the lower Hillsborough River to protect wildlife.
But the Tampa Bay Water utility says part of the plan to solve the river's environmental crisis will cut into its ability to supply water to the region.
"We're scrambling all over the place to get water, " said Steve Daignault, the city's director of public works and utilities. "So is everybody else right now."
Both the city and Tampa Bay Water - which supplies Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, St. Petersburg, New Port Richey and sometimes Tampa - warn of legal challenges and lawsuits.
In the end, though, Tampa residents, who enjoy the lowest water rates in the region, will soon be paying more to water their lawns, fill their pools and wash their cars.
Tampa gets most of its drinkable water from a reservoir above the Hillsborough River dam.
Seven years ago, officials in Tampa and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, determined that 10 cubic feet of water per second - about 6-million gallons a day - need to flow through the dam to the lower river to keep fish and plants alive.
The nonprofit group Friends of the River said it wasn't enough to support snook, baby manatees and other wildlife. The group sued and settled for a five-year study.
Swiftmud released the results of the study in 2005. After initially balking, the city agreed to supply 20 cubic feet of water per second for most of the year and 24 from April through June.
Now, Swiftmud and the city have a plan for meeting that requirement, which has pulled Tampa Bay Water into the mix.
Among other things, the $40-million, five-year plan calls for building a pipe from the Tampa Bypass Canal to take water from the canal to the lower river.
Daignault says it will require increasing Tampa water rates, but he doesn't know how much.
Right now, because Tampa has its own water supply in the Hillsborough River, city water users enjoy the lowest rates in the region, paying about a third as much as other customers.
Tampa Bay Water argues the Swiftmud plan could take 1-billion gallons of water from the regional water supply.
Paula Dye, project manager for Tampa Bay Water, says her agency is fine with the plan's call to dedicate 11 cubic feet of water per second to the river.
"The way that they actually implement it might be more of a problem, " she said. "The concern that we have is that there isn't always 11 cubic feet per second of flow."
Tampa Bay Water is last in line to take water from the Bypass Canal and the Hillsborough River. The city gets it first. The utility can take water only during the rainy season, when both bodies swell.
Tampa Bay Water worries that during dry times, the city will have to mine groundwater from the canal to get the needed allotment for the river, and it will take four to six weeks longer for the canal to reach a level where the utility can take water for thirsty customers.
Tampa Bay Water is weighing its options. A legal challenge is possible, said Richard Lotspeich, general counsel for the agency.
David Moore, executive director of Swiftmud, says the utility is overestimating the impact of the plan.
Tampa Bay Water needs to step up to the plate and be willing to sacrifice a little for the river, he said.
"That water will be used for the environment first. And when the environment doesn't need it, Tampa Bay Water can take it, " Moore said. "We've done everything we can to meet the needs of the water suppliers" while meeting the needs of the river.
"It's a pretty doggone good plan, " Moore said.
But Friends of the River isn't so sure.
"The most elegant option is to release water at the dam, " said Rich Brown, a member of Friends of the River and an engineer who worked on water quality issues for the Navy. "You just turn a button, crank the gate open. You can start that tomorrow. There's no permits, no $40-million in infrastructure, digging holes, tearing up streets and sidewalks."
City officials say the Friends of the River proposal to simply let water flow through the dam isn't an option, physically or legally.
Daignault said the city doesn't have a connection to the Tampa Bay Water system capable of providing all the water the city needs. And city attorneys say Tampa's agreement with the utility requires Tampa to use all the water it can from the river - its permit allows 82-million gallons per day - before calling on Tampa Bay Water for more.
Tampa Bay Water officials dispute the city's arguments.
The agreement with the utility, said Lotspeich, doesn't require Tampa to reach the limit of its permit from the river - only that it use what it can from the river before buying water.
Physically, increasing purchases from Tampa Bay Water is impossible today. But the utility is building a connection that would accommodate increased sales to the city. It will cost the city $2-million and be ready in March.
Meanwhile, the river waits.
Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The most critical map in the water district's war room shows a solid orange line stretching from Tequesta to Hallandale Beach, the leading edge of an underground enemy that threatens coastal communities' wells:
Salt water.
As water managers combat the drought, their top priority is defending well fields east of that line from subterranean saltwater intrusion. Ocean water is three times saltier than human blood, and it tastes unpleasant. Drinking too much can lead to death. It corrodes pipes and damages equipment. Once a well goes salty, it's useless.
Well fields in Riviera Beach, Manalapan, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Highland Beach and Boca Raton all sit inside or near the map's orange saltwater-intrusion line. A wedge runs from the ocean into the porous coastal rock, where it lurks beneath a layer of fresh water that supplies the wells. A prolonged lack of rainfall increases the risk that pumps will suck brine rather than fresh water.
Of all Palm Beach County's coastal communities, Lake Worth and Lantana face the biggest risk with well fields, water managers believe.
Mark Elsner has their names circled in red on his map. Elsner, in charge of implementing the South Florida Water Management District's water supply policy, says those communities lack back-up sources. To the south, Broward County's Hillsboro Beach, Dania Beach and Hallandale Beach face the same risk.
To save these coastal well fields, the entire region conserves. Lacking rain, golf courses turn patchy. Hibiscus hedges wilt. Nurseries' business evaporates. Cars grow dingy. And homeowners contemplate the cost of re-sodding.
Every conservation effort helps, says Chip Merriam, deputy executive director for the water district. At the district's headquarters, the thermostat has been turned up to 80 degrees. Less energy required for air conditioning means Florida Power & Light needs less water.
Merriam's shirt sleeves are rolled up, his hair a bit damp from the heat. Explaining his strategy to hold the orange line, he looks and sounds like a battalion commander low on ammo.
With almost no water available from Lake Okeechobee, his infantry has shut off water to most of the region's tributary canals. Instead, water is shunted to coastal canals. The fresh water acts like a weight, providing pressure that, in theory, will keep the heavier salt water pushed below the lighter fresh water that feeds the public wells.
"Normally we let canals carry water from the conservation area to recharge the well heads," Merriam said. "Now we're trying to protect those well heads."
It's not an ideal strategy. It pulls down the water table in the center part of the county, making the need to conserve regionwide more intense.
But it buys time for the wells most at risk.
June typically brings Florida's rainy season. The long-range weather forecast maps on Merriam's paper-strewn desk suggest it won't arrive on time. So Merriam plans for the worst.
Lantana highlights intrusion problem
Salt readings in the production wells have not changed, but nearby monitoring wells, which run deeper, have Merriam worried. He recommended that some coastal wells be turned off for at least 60 days, while wells farther west carried their load.
In Lantana's case, the back-up wells are just a few blocks from those shut down.
Jerry Darr is the soft-spoken director of Lantana's utility. A whiff of incense and a soothing screen saver in his office are the only signs that he's under stress. He has worked for the town for nearly 20 years. He knows his wells.
"We're migrating our wells as far west as we can," he says. "We've shut down wells 3, 4, 5 and 6."
But in a town that's just 2 square miles, the remaining wells are close to the coast, too.
The district is watching Lantana closely, as the monitoring wells - used only as a way to predict risk to the production wells - detect rising chloride. One has a reading 17 times the allowable limit for salts.
Lantana officials think the information is bad. They are digging new monitoring wells but hedging bets by digging new drinking water wells, too, near Interstate 95.
Historically, the orange line of underground salt water has pushed past Lantana's new I-95 well, Elsner said. Lantana's other backup plan, to open valves that link to Lake Worth's supply, doesn't offer much comfort.
"If you're a city with limited options and you're interconnecting with another city with limited options, it's not the best situation," Elsner said.
In late 2008 or early 2009, Lake Worth will be in a better position, assuming that concerns about nutrient-laden discharge near a coral reef don't cause new delays. Lake Worth, like Jupiter, Manalapan and Highland Beach, is building a reverse-osmosis plant that will strip the chloride from the salty deep aquifer.
Reverse osmosis-treated water tastes a bit different, lacking minerals. Customers' bills have risen, too, but their supply isn't at risk.
Other communities - Riviera Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton - have dug wells west of Military Trail, or tapped other systems, so the loss of eastern wells won't create a crisis. They wanted Lantana to do the same, but when town staffers explored the possibility a few years ago, they found the $15 million cost more than the town could afford.
Using Everglades water considered
So for now, the priority is to weigh down coastal canals with water. The water district has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bend its rules on taking water from the Everglades if the situation grows worse.
The proposal is getting a great deal of research and discussion, engineers at the Jacksonville office say. The corps has asked the district to draft a clear set of standards that would trigger overriding Everglades protection rules.
It will use sentinel monitoring wells, watching their depth and their levels of salt. Also under study is how much of a release would do the job.
The agencies have conference calls every other day to hear where things stand with the lake, the drinking water supply, the saltwater incursion issue, and the health of the too-dry wetlands.
Most birds' hatchlings have yet to fledge. Even that must be considered, said John Zediak, chief of the corps' water management section. "Many considerations must be weighed: flood control, water supply irrigation, environment, saltwater intrusion," Zediak said. "We are trying to continually manage in a way to balance those considerations."
Lately, the question of preserving the wells has taken precedence. "That's where the need is," he said.
This time last year, the concern was flood control: keeping the Herbert Hoover dike around Lake Okeechobee safe from a hurricane. Fresh water from the lake was sent out to sea to lower the lake and reduce the risk of dike failure going into hurricane season.
The storms didn't come, and now the lake is too low.
"Mother Nature, she'll give us rain or she won't give us rain," Zediak said. "I can't really tell you what the future is going to be. I can try to manage the resource to the best of our ability."
Our view: Stop the dumping
Florida Today Eeditorial
State and federal government should protect
the endangered seas
One of the biggest failures of the recently ended legislative session was its shameful refusal to pass Rep. Bob Allen's Clean Ocean Act.
The Merritt Island Republican's bill aimed to stop Florida's gambling cruises-to-nowhere from dumping their partially treated sewage off our coastline.
That includes the estimated 1.4 million gallons the ships sailing from Port Canaveral release a few miles off Brevard County's shores.
The bill would have forced Sterling Casino Lines and SunCruz Casinos -- which carried 879,672 passengers from the port last year -- and nine other gambling ships sailing from state ports to pay sewage disposal fees for their annual total of 46 million gallons of effluent.
Even if they continue to dump it in international waters.
The goal was to convince them to bring the sewage back to port for land-based treatment.
The measure got through the House. But despite the public's wholehearted support, the powerful day-cruise lobby drowned it in the Senate.
Allen says he'll bring it back in 2008. When he does, lawmakers should do what the public wants:
Put an end, once and for all, to the use of our sea as a toilet.
Florida, however, is not alone in its battle to keep the ocean from being fouled by ship-dumping.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth -- after waiting seven years for the Environmental Protection Agency to respond to a petition calling for action on cruise-ship pollution -- has finally filed suit in U.S. District Court demanding action.
Under President Clinton, the EPA had quickly responded to the group with a study and public hearings, but that progress ended under President Bush.
The EPA apparently doesn't care that just one cruise ship, on a one-week voyage, generates about 210,000 gallons of sewage, a million gallons of wastewater from showers, dishes and washing, and 37,000 gallons of oily bilge water
Port Canaveral is home port to seven multi-day cruise ships that carry almost 1.4 million passengers a year. But while some cruise lines worldwide have high-quality treatment systems and closely regulate their own waste, some don't.
The bottom line is that as long as ships are more than three miles from shore, international law says they can discharge rivers of raw sewage where they wish.
That's becoming a more critical issue every day, as the current fleet of 100 cruise vessels carries more than 12 million passengers in the North Atlantic and even more ships are in the works.
Friends of the Earth has been patient with the EPA. Now, the courts should stand firm for the protection of endangered oceans from the destructive dumping of filth.
As for state lawmakers, they should do the same to protect Florida citizens, marine life and the state's $62 billion dollar beach-based tourism industry.
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published May 13, 2007
The Brooker Creek Preserve occupies a strip of northeastern Pinellas County, with Pasco County just north and Hillsborough to the east. It is owned by the Pinellas government.
More than 7 miles north to south, the preserve takes in about 8, 300 acres. In its interior there are nature trails and an education center.
Recently, you might remember, there have been controversies in which the county wanted to pump the preserve to irrigate a nearby golf course, and to build youth recreational fields there.
But now Pinellas County proposes a far more sweeping change to Brooker Creek - making it official policy that the county could use more than a quarter of the preserve lands, about 2, 400 acres in all, for other purposes.
Those uses include future water-treatment plants, other utility infrastructure projects and well fields, and whatever else the county deemed to be in the public interest.
Almost all of the existing preserve north of Keystone Road would fall into this new category. The county also could use a strip running down the preserve's eastern side, around an existing Progress Energy right of way, for some purposes.
In defending these changes, to be discussed at a County Commission meeting on May 22, the county advances two main arguments.
First, the lands in question were acquired by the county's Utilities Department for precisely these uses. Their inclusion in the preserve was secondary. Even so, the county notes, it is still moving about a third of the utility land into the protected category.
Second, most of the targeted land is not the same wetland ecosystem that exists around the education center and hiking trails. It is often pine-tree upland, reclaimed agricultural land or just scrub.
The other day I knocked around the preserve, first visiting the nature center and hiking the trails, then driving along Keystone Road and Trinity Boulevard.
I pulled off Trinity and took photographs of the pine forest to the south. Pristine or not, it is beautiful green space, and the habitat for many species of plants and animals.
A sign at the border of the land to be redesignated declares: "All Wildlife and Plants Protected." I suppose they will have to change the sign to read, "Except from the County Commission."
The commission workshop on Brooker Creek is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, on the fifth floor of the Pinellas County Courthouse, 315 Court St. in Clearwater.
If you want to contact the commissioners, their main number is 727 464-3377. Be sweet to the folks answering the phone; they haven't done anything. Here are the commissioners' e-mail addresses:
Ronnie E. Duncan (chairman), rduncan@pinellascounty.org.
Calvin D. Harris, charris@pinellascounty.org.
Robert B. Stewart, rstewart@pinellascounty.org.
Susan Latvala, slatvala@pinellascounty.org.
Karen Williams Seel, kseel@pinellascounty.org.
John Morroni, jmorroni@pinellascounty.org.
Kenneth T. Welch, ktwelch@pinellascounty.org.
Published: May 13, 2007
NEW PORT RICHEY - Angelo Zucconi's sinks and bathtub are stained with a black film from water that tastes and smells like rotten eggs.
He has spent a small fortune on water softeners, filtration systems and other gadgets to remove the offensive odor and taste.
Nothing works.
Like many other elderly residents in Summertree, a gated community off State Road 52, he doesn't drink the tap water.
He buys bottled.
"It's terrible," said Zucconi, 86, who moved into Summertree with his wife about five years ago. "The only thing it's good for is washing dishes."
And like many residents here, he doesn't think the utility that has serviced his subdivision since the early 1990s - Utilities Inc. of Florida - deserves the rate increase for which it's seeking approval from the state Public Service Commission.
"It's highway robbery," Zucconi said. "I don't think they should get a dime."
Utilities operates 22 water and wastewater systems in Pasco, Marion, Orange, Pinellas and Seminole counties. In Pasco, where it has an estimated 4,166 accounts, the majority in Summertree, the utility has proposed hefty rate increases.
Company officials have asked the commission, the state regulatory body that oversees about two dozen utilities in Pasco County, for a 47 percent increase for potable water and 45 percent for wastewater service.
Utilities also has requested rate increases for its customers in several other counties it serves, but state regulators had a problem only with the request for Summertree. Commission staff called the water quality there unsatisfactory.
Following complaints from customers and scrutiny from the state Department of Environmental Protection, state regulators have scaled down the request to 24 percent for water and sewer.
The commission is expected to vote on the matter at a meeting in Tallahassee tentatively scheduled for May 22.
Patrick Flynn, the utility's regional director, said the company needs to generate $1.2 million in revenue to offset system upgrade costs.
The utility's last rate increase was approved in 2002. The company, based in Altamonte Springs, is in the process of designing a new filtration system to remove the bad taste and odor, Flynn said.
"There's lots of sulfur in the water," he said. "It's a natural occurrence."
He said fixing the problem will take at least a year, possibly more.
"We're going to find a solution eventually," Flynn said.
Higher bills will cut deep in Summertree, a retirement community of about 1,100 households built around a golf course and recreation center.
A customer who uses 5,000 gallons of drinking water a month would pay an estimated $29.30, up from $17.78.
Wastewater customers, based on 5,000 gallons, would see a monthly increase from $49.83 to $73.39.
Archie Bell is 68. He moved to Summertree about six months ago and, like many residents there, he's living on a fixed income.
Bell doesn't drink the water, either. Ask him whether he thinks the customers should foot the bill for system improvements, and you'll get an earful.
"They're ripping us off," Bell said. "They're as bad as oil companies."
Utilities is among several companies that entered the local market and gobbled up small utilities across the county.
Most of the private utilities in Pasco have dilapidated water and sewer lines that are growing more expensive to maintain. Some larger companies took over shallow wells built on small lots or alongside weakening septic tanks.
That has led to public health concerns about water quality, highlighted by customer complaints and lawsuits against several private utilities.
The Department of Environmental Protection took Utilities of Florida before a judge last year after the company failed a series of quarterly, state-mandated water quality tests.
In April 2006, the utility signed a consent order with the state agency requiring the water provider to take steps to resolve the contamination problems. The company was fined $500.
Nationwide, Utilities serves more than 300,000 customers in 17 states. It is owned by American International Group, a New York City-based insurance and financial services corporation that has been plagued with recent allegations of scandal and fraud.
The utility's parentage is another reason residents argue that they shouldn't be saddled with the cost of upgrades.
"These people are making millions of dollars," Bell said. "Here we are living on fixed incomes, and they want to take more money from us."
The clash is reminiscent of a decadelong war between Aloha Utilities and Seven Springs area customers over black and foul-smelling water.
State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said the problems with Utilities are yet another example of why the county needs to take over regulation of local water systems.
"This is not an isolated incident," Fasano said. "We've seen these kinds of problems with Aloha, Lindrick and several other utilities."
Pasco is one of the few counties in the state that doesn't regulate its utilities. The responsibility falls to the Public Service Commission, which permits franchises and sets rates for about 25 of the county's medium-sized utilities.
Most of the other water systems in Pasco are either municipal operations that set their own rates or small private systems that fly under the radar of state regulation.
"We should be handling these problems locally," Fasano said. "It's not fair for customers to have to deal with a bureaucracy 250 miles away."
Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.
Three Citrus County communities over-pumping water
By Terry WittCitrus County doesn’t have water cops on the payroll, and most people aren’t begging the county to hire them.
Green lawns are much preferred to water police.
But with no enforcement of lawn watering restrictions, some communities pump more than their permit allows, as is the case in Sugarmill Woods, Pine Ridge and Citrus Springs.
The end result is nearly always sanctions.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District is preparing a consent order that would require all three communities to halt over-pumping.
“The main goal is to bring them into compliance,” district spokeswoman Robyn Hanke said Friday.
Pine Ridge and Citrus Springs used more than 98.5 million gallons of water in April, or about 705,000 gallons per day more than allowed by their permit, according to the Citrus County Water Department.
The county commission purchased the Citrus Springs, Pine Ridge and Sugarmill Woods utilities in February along with eight other community utility systems.
Pine Ridge and Citrus Springs are allowed to pump about 2.5 million gallons per day under their district permit, but during the 12 months ending March 30, the two communities averaged about 2.9 million gallons per day, Hanke said.
Sugarmill Woods is permitted to use just over 2 million gallons per day, but its daily average was more than 3 million gallons during the 12-month period ending March 30, according to Hanke.
Hanke said she was not familiar with what type of sanctions the district might impose for over-pumpage. She said the district’s legal department is awaiting information from the Citrus County Water Department before acting.
Water Resource Department Director Robert Knight said he knew sanctions were coming. He said he would not be surprised if the district requires conservation rates for all three communities.
“It’s probably a no-brainer,” he said.
Conservation rates require the utility to charge higher rates for those who use the most water. Big water users would pay much higher utility bills if they fail to conserve.
Rolling Oaks Utilities in Beverly Hills has used conservation rates for several years. The utility is not over-pumping. Rolling Oaks averaged 2.4 million gallons per day for the 12 months ending March 30, Hanke said. The utility’s permit allows 2.5 million gallons per day.
Over-pumping is one factor contributing to the recent low water pressure problems in Pine Ridge, Knight said.
“That’s a very logical conclusion because in other months when we’re not over-pumping, we don’t get complaints about water pressure,” Knight said.
When over-pumping isn’t brought until control voluntarily, the district issues consent orders or compliance orders to force obedience.
Knight said compliance orders are more restrictive than consent orders and he was under the impression the district was about to issue a compliance order for Sugarmill, Pine Ridge and Citrus Springs. Hanke said she was told it would be a consent order.
To be fair, over-pumping is not the sole cause of low water pressure in Pine Ridge, according to a May 9 memo from Bernadine Flood-Nichols, water conservation and outreach coordinator for Knight’s office.
She said a collapsed well is part of the problem. The county will replace the collapsed well with a larger, 12-inch well this summer. Later this year, she said the county will install a new 250,000 gallon storage tank and high service pump for Pine Ridge.
She said the county is also investigating the best location to add another connection to old Citrus County Utilities’ system. Citrus County Utilities is the original county-owned utilities system.
An interconnect pipe already joins Citrus County Utilities to Pine Ridge. The pipe allows the county to fill storage tanks at night to increase water pressure during daylight hours, Knight said.
Knight said the county’s Water and Wastewater Authority considered implementing a conservation rate for Pine Ridge, Citrus Springs and Sugarmill Woods several years ago, but the three systems were owned by FGUA at the time, and FGUA was legally prohibited from raising rates for five years.
He said he is not blind to the fact that some Pine Ridge property owners are not complying with the district’s requirement to water lawns once a week. Knight said he and Assistant Director Bob Merkle were golfing in Pine Ridge two weeks ago on a Sunday and observed a half dozen residents irrigating their lawns. Irrigation isn’t allowed on Sundays.
Pine Ridge resident Pat Brown, who has pressed the county in recent weeks to fix the problems with low water pressure, said he noticed the water pressure improved after it rained last weekend. The rainfall apparently prompted residents not to water their lawns.
He said he has also noticed Pine Ridge watering their lawns on the wrong days of the week. Residents are assigned days of the week to water based on the last number of letter of their address. (For watering rules, see Page 4A of the Chronicle).
“People don’t pay any attention to the day they are supposed to water,” he said.
Joan Bradshaw, a natural resources extension agent based in Citrus County, who serves Citrus, Sumter, Hernando and Pasco counties, said lawns can be prepared for dry weather or drought conditions. She said lawns don’t have to be watered every day to survive.
“If you have prepared your lawn for drought, it won’t look as lush, but it will survive,” she said.
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty has questioned whether Briny Breezes council members violated Florida's Sunshine Law, which governs actions elected officials must take in pubic.
McCarty is concerned about a letter, signed by Mayor Roger Bennett, that the town sent to various state and local agencies and governments that will weigh in on developers' plans to turn the mobile home park into a "destination resort."
Some versions of the letter were sent as early as April 27, the day the town's Board of Aldermen voted to send its draft comprehensive plan to Florida's Department of Community Affairs.
Opponents, mostly from towns adjoining Briny Breezes, were unhappy about a line saying that the town doesn't believe the DCA has to review the plan.
Developer Ocean Land's consultant Charles Siemon has said that is technically true, but the DCA almost certainly will review it regardless. But opponents decried the suggestion that developers were trying to skirt oversight.
McCarty noted that, at four public hearings, Briny Breezes' town council, the Board of Aldermen, never formally voted for, or otherwise directed Bennett to use, the language about waiving a review.
"How can Roger Bennett represent a request from the town that never happened at a public meeting, unless they violated the Sunshine Law?" McCarty asked.
Siemon has acknowledged he wrote the letter for Bennett to sign. Bennett said last week it "was part of the material that we voted on in the (April 27) meeting. We read it before the meeting. That line didn't jump out at me. I don't know why."
And Town Attorney Jerome Skrandel, who was out of town last week, admitted he hadn't yet seen the letter.
"I don't know what to say. I don't know anything about it. I don't think I should comment in a way that would be criticism," Skrandel said.
"What's done is done, and whatever consequences come from it, so be it," he said. "It seems to me that Charlie Siemon has explained it from the standpoint of who created what, who is the scrivener. If that be the case, that's what he wrote and had Roger sign it, and I'd better leave it at that."
No one has complained to the attorney general's office or the office of the Palm Beach County state attorney, officials of those two offices said.
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007
High prices and disappearing land are pushing out some of Palm Beach County's polo community, and the Treasure Coast appears to be rolling out the red carpet for the sport of kings.
Three large housing developments planned in rural Martin County would feature polo fields, practice facilities and some of the biggest names in professional polo, including one player called the "Michael Jordan" of the sport.
The migration of the largely Wellington-based polo enthusiasts is being called Palm Beach County's loss and Martin County's gain.
"It's sort of like a Disneyland for adult polo players," said Wellington veterinarian and polo player Ted Brinkman, who plans to build the Hobe Sound Polo Club with four playing fields.
Each development will sell 20-acre lots, with residents sharing the ownership and use of the polo fields, clubhouses and practice fields. Owners plan private games and leagues among the residents, but the fields will not be open to the public and will not charge admission like the International Polo Club in Wellington.
"There will be some tournaments and club chukkers for the younger horses," said Steve Orthwein, a former U.S. Polo Association official who is developing the Port Mayaca Plantation project and its five playing fields with his son, Stevie, also a player.
Palm Beach County polo leaders predict Martin County's polo communities would become like the Gulfstream Polo Club in Lake Worth, which has homes surrounding practice fields, and tournaments take place.
"Wellington and Palm Beach County is getting built out," said Brad Scherer, a player and real estate agent who is developing Lake Point Ranches and its four fields in Port Mayaca, near Lake Okeechobee. "Polo in South Florida is traditionally pushed west and north by development."
Gulfstream was going to be sold to housing developers until they pulled out of the deal last year. Several playing fields at other existing clubs, such as the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club, have been sold for development.
Scherer, Orthwein and Brinkman said the impending sale in past years of Gulfstream, where they played, caused them to look north to build their own clubs.
"Wellington started out as a horse community, but all the people there now don't see the value in horses," Brinkman said. "All of the land is going for houses."
The biggest problem is that Wellington simply does not have enough vacant land for more playing and practice fields, said Jimmy Newman, director of polo at the International Polo Club Palm Beach.
"It's expensive, it's crowded and there's a lack of available land to build anything on," Newman said.
Each field requires 12 to 20 acres, and professional polo players can use as many as 70 horses in one season, which require even more land to graze and train.
The price of land in Wellington rose from an average of about $66,000 an acre in 2001 to $686,000 in 2006, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's Office.
At those prices, pasture land is a "luxury nobody can afford in Wellington," Scherer said.
"Wellington is still the horse capital of South Florida, but it is a very expensive capital," Scherer said. "Why is polo coming to Martin County? It's about good land and proximity to Wellington."
In contrast, Scherer is offering 20-acre lots in Port Mayaca where polo ponies can graze and train for $36,000 to $60,000 an acre. Orthwein's prices at Port Mayaca Plantation start at $55,000 an acre.
For $1.7 million, players can get a 20-acre lot in the Hobe Sound Golf Club and part ownership of the playing fields and clubhouse, Brinkman said.
"You're getting 10 cents on the Wellington dollar here," Scherer said as he stood Friday in the middle of one of his Port Mayaca playing fields, which was inaugurated with an exhibition game last month.
The developments will be home to some of the legends of polo, including Adolfo Cambiaso of Argentina, regarded as the best player in the world. He has bought a Hobe Sound Polo Club lot and plans to train ponies there, Brinkman said.
"He's Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Babe Ruth all rolled into one," Brinkman said.
Guillermo "Memo" Gracida, a member of the sport's hall of fame, has bought a lot in Port Mayaca Plantation and will play and practice there, Orthwein said. Gracida owns a farm in northwestern Martin County, where he built his own private polo field almost two years ago.
Polo experts do not see Martin County's communities as a challenge to Wellington as the center of the South Florida polo universe; they view them as serving as a support industry.
The players would stable their horses, practice and train in Martin County and truck them to Wellington for matches such as the U.S. Open.
"They are looking for a farm setting where they can train and then come here for their 'high goal' polo," Newman said. "I think all of these are going to be good for polo."
Other communities, such as in Aiken, S.C., also have developments on less expensive land that center on polo. Martin County's communities offer a closer alternative, keeping the business in Florida, Wellington Equestrian Committee member Don DuFresne said.
"It's better than them moving to Aiken to play," he said. "We absolutely want them here."
Scherer said he does not expect opposition from Martin's staunch environmental activists because the horse-related uses on the properties will generate thousands of dollars in revenue but will not require water or sewer lines, schools or increased density.
All are planned on lands already disturbed: the western Martin projects on former sugar cane fields and the Hobe Sound Club on a former citrus grove.
So far, county environmentalists have not objected.
Donna Melzer, chairwoman of the Martin County Conservation Alliance, said her only major concern is whether the projects try to get water and sewer services.
The polo developers said the strict growth rules in Martin County that limit homes in rural areas to one unit per 20 acres could be good for polo because they will keep what happened in Wellington from recurring in Martin County.
"Their development codes have a unique opportunity to attract these kinds of uses," Scherer said. "We don't have to worry about a shopping center being built next to us in a couple of years."
Water trail provides paddlers glimpse at Suwannee's habitat
Ben Harris said the idea for a Suwannee River Wilderness Trail has been around for a while.St. Augustine overshadowed while younger Jamestown gets attention
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) -- This city almost erected a billboard outside Jamestown, Va., to congratulate it on its 400th birthday - and remind everyone St. Augustine passed that milestone four decades ago.
It would have said, "Happy birthday to our younger brother," former Mayor George Gardner said.
Jamestown is celebrating the anniversary of its founding on May 14, 1607, making it the oldest English settlement in the nation. Queen Elizabeth paid a visit, greeted by Vice President Dick Cheney. Time magazine trumpets "America at 400."
But St. Augustine is the nation's oldest city and its historians and officials wonder what all the Jamestown brouhaha is about. Their city was founded Sept. 8, 1565, by Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his expedition of 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 farmers and craftsmen. Some brought their wives and children. They, not the Pilgrims, celebrated the first Thanksgiving in the New World. The first schools, hospitals and banks in what is now the United States were built here.
Not that many Americans know.
"We speak English and we're reared in ... English historical traditions, which have tended to depreciate what the Spanish have contributed to history," said Bill Adams, the city's director of Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism. Historians have tended "write the Spanish out of their history books or diminish their contributions. So Americans have inherited that."
Adams says St. Augustine is also to blame for why it gets no respect compared to Jamestown and Plymouth, Mass., where the Pilgrims settled in 1620.
"It hasn't advertised itself very well. It hasn't gotten any press," Adams said.
But, he said, St. Augustine's contribution to American history should be celebrated and believes it will get more notice with the growing Hispanic population of this country and the upcoming 450th anniversary in 2015. The king and queen of Spain, who visited in 2001, will be invited back.
"I don't know how long it will take before the Spanish people realize that St. Augustine is their Williamsburg or their Plymouth or their Jamestown," Adams said. "St. Augustine is not only the birthplace of European culture and settlement in the United States, but of Spanish culture" in North America.
William Kelso, director of archaeology at Historic Jamestowne, who helped discover the missing fort in Virginia, said he understands the importance of St. Augustine. He attended the city's 400th birthday celebration in 1965.
"St. Augustine is an untold story, almost like Jamestown," Kelso said. "All the colonies have something to add to the creation story of modern America."
Although there are similarities between St. Augustine, Plymouth and Jamestown, there are several differences, including a big one that separates St. Augustine.
"We are a living city," Gardner said, while Jamestown and Plymouth are reconstructions. "This is the oldest town plan in the United States. It still exists. It is still intact. "There are 36 buildings dating back to colonial times and 40 that were reconstructed for the city's 400th birthday.
Although Jamestown was Virginia's capital from its founding until 1699, it had ceased to exist in the mid-1700s. It was settled for economic reasons; religion led to Plymouth's founding. Spain established St. Augustine for military reasons.
"They didn't come here to settle Florida. They didn't come here to mine its riches. They didn't come here to colonize. They came here to set up a military base that would prevent their enemies from establishing a position from which they could menace the treasure ships of Spain off the coast," Adams said.
In those early years, St. Augustine's settlers had to defend against French and British attacks, sometimes hostile Indians, mosquitoes, disease, pirates and hurricanes.
"Perseverance against tremendous odds accounted for the city's survival," Gardner said.
To protect St. Augustine, the Spanish built the Castillo de San Marcos, an imposing fort constructed of the stone coquina between 1672 and 1696.
In 1738, the Spanish established Fort Mose, an outpost about two miles north of the Castillo. It was the first free-black community in what is now the United States.
About 100 men, women and children lived in the settlement. Most had been enslaved by the British and were given their freedom if they could escape and make their way to the Spanish territory. As a condition, they had to serve in the militia and convert to Roman Catholicism, said Derek Hankerson, a filmmaker and member of the Fort Mose board of directors.
St. Augustine can also lay claim to the first European birth in the New World - Martin de Arguelles, born in 1566 or 1567. That beats the birth of Virginia Dare in North Carolina in 1587 and the first Pilgrim birth of Peregrine White on board the Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor in 1620, said David Nolan, a writer and historian in St. Augustine.
"In fact, in 1577 - a decade before Virginia Dare - Pedro Menendez Marques wrote that were 'forty-four women, sixty-two children, and 11 pregnant women' in St. Augustine," Nolan said.
"Do you expect that the Spanish were here for 42 years without procreating?" Adams said.