PALM COAST -- When it comes to Palm Coast's agreement with the developers of Town Center, some changes are in order, city officials say.

Land swapping, deadline extensions and the development of a park in the area are some modifications Palm Coast will add to its contract with Florida Landmark Communities involving land the city owns within Town Center, city officials say.

Town Center is a 1,500-acre, mixed-use development between Interstate 95 and Belle Terre Parkway that includes residential areas and retail shops. The shell of a SuperTarget is now up in the western corner of Town Center.

Under the terms of the agreement, the city wants to switch one site already designated for a community center for another site adjacent to the future performing arts center.

The designated location sits too close to a Flagler County school youth center already standing, Assistant City Manager Oel Wingo said.

Moving the city's community center to the same site where the Palm Coast/Flagler County Foundation for the Arts and Entertainment plans to build a performing arts center makes more sense, she said.

The swap gives the city a little more land for parking, she said.

Some council members, however, expressed concerns about several points of the agreement. While the agreement places a community center adjacent to the arts center, the City Council never agreed on a location for such a building, Mayor James Canfield said.

"The only thing that was decided . . . is where the city hall is going to be someday and where the arts center was going to be placed someday," he said.

The closing date on the land exchanges has now been extended from May 4, 2006, to Dec. 15, 2007, Wingo said.

In addition, the deadlines that were set for work to begin on the arts center and a proposed city hall will be extended from January 2015 to January 2018, she said. According to the agreement, the land reverts back to the developer if the city does not meet the deadline. But the developer must pay the city fair market value for the land, Wingo said.

The city is not contributing any money to the center but last year began leasing the 8.5 acres of land to the foundation for $1 a year for 30 years.

The city also wants Landmark to develop a park near the proposed city hall site. The park is a two-phase project with Landmark developing phase one at its cost and Palm Coast building the second phase as money becomes available.

Landmark could use the park for festivals and outdoor activities at the city's discretion, according to the agreement.

Voters defeated a proposal in November 2005 to borrow $20 million to finance a new city hall and $10 million for two community centers. But the land exchange gives the city more options to consider when the time comes to decide where a community center could be located, City Manager Jim Landon said.

"We believe this allows for more flexibility for future decisions for how the public lands will be used," he said.

Councilman Alan Peterson agreed.

Now that the sites for a community center and arts center are grouped together, "we have more options than before," he said.

Peterson, however, said he was concerned that the agreement forces the city to finance the second phase of the park with community redevelopment area money it may not have.

But it's the City Council that decides when the second phase of the park's development would begin and how much of the community redevelopment money to use in its construction, Landon said.

The agreement allows the council to determine when it's financially feasible for the city to develop the second phase of the park, he said.

kenya.woodard@news-jrnl.com

Water grab would be theft, pure and simple

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published September 30, 2007

Water management districts were created to protect the state's most precious natural resource. As it turns out, at least one district is willing to steal to fulfill that responsibility.

The St. Johns River Water Management District is exploring the possibility of running pipelines from the Withlacoochee and Lower Ocklawaha rivers, and Lake Rousseau in Citrus County, to the overdeveloped areas of central Florida. Officials there have estimated that in the next 10 to 20 years, there will not be enough groundwater to meet the demand. Their proposed solution is to siphon hundreds of millions of gallons every day from rivers and lakes in other water districts, including some in the 16-county Southwest Florida district.

Predictably, this audacious idea is meeting early resistance from the counties and cities that would be affected. Not only is the St. Johns district endangering the ecologies and economies of those municipalities' most prized waterways, it also threatens their ability to tap those resources for their own use.

This proposal deliberately violates the intent of "local sources first" legislation that requires cities and counties to deplete their own water resources before looking elsewhere. However, the St. Johns water district is exploiting a 2005 change that broadened the definitions of groundwater and alternate supplies. According to a lawyer for one conservation group, that change "gives (water management districts) the power to make an alternative supply out of a traditional supply. That's how they get to the rivers, and that's a bastardization of the process."

That is an accurate characterization of what St. Johns is trying to do, but it does not go far enough to describe this circuitous scheme. It is a water grab, pure and simple, from a region where indiscriminate growth has created an unreasonable demand on water supplies and other essential infrastructure.

The St. Johns water district says it won't proceed without approval from Swiftmud and the Withlacoochee water authority, but the fact that the idea has gained even casual momentum in Lake County is reason enough to react. Hernando County should pledge its full support to Citrus County, the Withlacoochee Regional Water Supply Authority and any other concerned government that opposes this wrong-headed proposal.

And Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, who sponsored the 2005 law that enables this legal challenge, should do what is necessary to nip this in the bud

Tampa Bay Water Needs Open, Resourceful Leader

Water Restrictions Impact Some,Others Ignore It

County waterways hearings next

By CINDY SWIRKO
Sun staff writer

A master plan two years in the making that will regulate use of Alachua County's rivers and lakes is nearing completion, with a set of public meetings planned prior to consideration by the County Commission in late November.

The county is trying to bring together waterway users who sometimes have conflicts - airboat users and canoeists, sailboat and powerboat users - to create a plan that will accommodate everyone, but possibly with some limitations.

Recommendations are now being drafted for presentation at the public meetings. Suggestions will be incorporated, if warranted, into the final package that will be presented to the Commission.

"There are always conflicts between people on shore and on the water, and between people on the water. In Alachua County, it has gained prominence over the last two or three years," County Manager Randall Reid said. "Our surface waters are one of our biggest assets ... We want a plan to best manage the waterways, particularly for recreation."

County commissioners first requested the plan about two years ago. It was spurred in part by complaints about airboat noise on Orange Lake by other lake users and residents along the lake, including state Sen. Steve Oelrich, then Alachua County sheriff.

So far, the consultants have held meetings with the various water users, and with individual representatives from all the factions.

Conflicts generally stem from speed and noise. Sailboat users and canoeists, for instance, have issues with fishermen who speed across lakes, or with water-skiers or personal watercraft users who buzz by too closely. Those are primarily problems on Lake Santa Fe.

The airboat issue has been particularly contentious with complaints about noise throughout the night, while airboat enthusiasts say they do what they can to quiet their machines and be mindful of other water users and residents.

Suggestions have included creating more no-wake zones, curfews for noisy craft such as airboats, and banning open containers of alcohol on boats.

But fishermen and skiers contend a small group is trying to shut down use of the lakes for others. The fishermen and skiers believe that people who buy property on a lake or use a lake for recreation should expect some noise from other users.

Bill Sensabaugh of the Gatorland Water Ski Show Team has attended most of the meetings so far and believes the process has been fair.

"I have been in the Gainesville area for 50 years or so, and it has really, really grown. There are a lot more people doing everything in Alachua County, including on the water and on ski boats," Sensabaugh said. "When I was a kid, nobody had that fast of a boat. Now lots of people do. Sometimes it's difficult for us to accept all of these changes. But overall, in the way these hearings were conducted, the results do not seem to be onerous for water-skiers. It would be good for people to come out and participate."

The public meetings will be Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at Hawthorne City Hall, Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Alachua County Library in downtown Gainesville, Oct. 13 at 1:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe Community College Davis Center in Archer, Oct. 20 at 1:30 p.m. in the High Springs Civic Center, and Oct. 30 at 6:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in Melrose.

Cindy Swirko can be reached at 352-374-5024 or swirkoc@ gvillesun.com.

Planners postpone Ironwood decision

Gainesville's City Plan Board postponed making a recommendation on an "active adult community" that would surround the Ironwood Golf Course on NW 39th Avenue after debate on the issue went late into Thursday night.

Plans for the project, which is referred to as Hatchet Creek after the waterway that flows through the property, call for up to 1,500 single-family homes, a 500-unit assisted-living facility and up to 200,000 square feet of buildings for commercial, office and other uses. The project is designed as a largely age-restricted community that would have security features at its entrance.

While they did not make a decision, several Plan Board members made critical comments about the project during the meeting.

The Plan Board had already postponed its decision once before Thursday's meeting on the project, which is seeking land-use changes to become a "Planned Use Development." That designation allows developers flexibility in how they use a property but allows the city to place significant restrictions on the project.

The Plan Board's recommendation will be heard by the City Commission when it makes a final decision on the development in the coming months.

Debate at the meeting focused largely on how much the noise from planes using the airport would disturb the development's residents, the quality of wetlands on the site and whether the project should be considered economic development or sprawl.

Thursday's meeting brought supporters of Gainesville Regional Airport and environmental advocates together in opposition to the project. They said it would generate complaints that could hamper airport operations and warned that it would damage wetlands and other environmental features on the site and worried that runoff from the site would have negative impacts on Newnan's Lake.

Complaints from future residents could "make it difficult for the airport to optimize the way it operates and make the airport less of a benefit for the local community," said Ted Baldwin, an airport consultant hired by the city who said complaints by residents had caused problems for airports in other areas. Airlines, private planes and military jets that use the airport would cause considerable noise in the development, Baldwin said, though consultants for the developer and residents who live near the project contested that analysis.

East Gainesville community leaders begged the Plan Board to approve the project, arguing it was the kind of high-quality development the area needs and that it would help spur the area's economic development.

Doris Edwards, an east Gainesville advocate, described the development as a "high-quality, extraordinary" project that she said could turn around a corridor she called "lock-up row" because of the Alachua County jail on NW 39th Avenue. Edwards suggested planning staff and those opposed to the project might have bias as a motivation.

"Is there a little prejudice here in some way?" Edwards asked.

Citing concerns about aviation noise, planning staff recommended the plan board deny changing the zoning on about 199 acres on the eastern edge of the property, which is now zoned for industrial use and which is closest to the airport's runway. Planners recommended approving zoning changes on the rest of the property, which is already zoned for single-family homes.

However, the staff's recommendation came with 31 conditions, including a requirement that places special environmental protections that a consultant for the developer said could make the project infeasible. The conditions also limit the number of units allowed to be built as part of the project to 1,199.

Jeff Adelson can be reached at 352-374-5095 or adelsoj@gvillesun.com

A Sarasota facility prepares sterilized male fruit flies for a flight to disrupt the destructive species' life cycle

Two or three times a day, laboratory technicians load chilled metal boxes onto small planes at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

The boxes contain millions of foot soldiers in the state's war against the Mediterranean fruit fly, a tiny pest that could devastate Florida's $4 billion citrus industry.

When they reach 2,000 feet above Southwest Florida, the boxes are opened, releasing a shower of tiny bugs into the sky.

As it falls, the rain comes alive. Bodies once dormant from the cold start to twitch. Tiny wings unfurl and flutter. If the technicians have done their job right, the flies will never reach the ground.

The federal government's secret weapon against the Mediterranean fruit fly? Male flies made sterile by radiation.

About 70 million flies are dropped each week over Tampa, Miami and about 160 square miles of Sarasota and Manatee counties, areas considered a high risk for a Medfly outbreak because they have major sea ports.

Although they are sterile, the flies' urge to mate has been chemically fired up with the aroma of ginger oil. Their mission is to lure the female fruit flies from their wild, fertile counterparts.

The Sterile Insect Release Program is run from a small U.S. Department of Agriculture lab near the airport. Introduced in 1998, the program has helped keep Florida's citrus industry free of one of agriculture's most destructive pests.

The program costs taxpayers about $3 million per year. Florida citrus growers say that is money well spent.

The industry employs about 90,000 people and has an economic impact of $9 billion, according to a University of Florida study. A fruit fly outbreak would prevent Florida fruit and vegetables from being sold in many other states and countries.

"This type of unique bio-control is important to keeping Florida citrus certified for shipment to markets around the globe," said Michael Sparks, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest growers organization.

If left unchecked, fruit flies "could cause millions of dollars of damage to citrus and agriculture as a whole in Florida," he said.

A pernicious pest

Fruit flies are attracted to 250 different types of fruit and vegetables including avocados, grapefruit, guavas, lemons, mangoes, tangerines and oranges.

The flies do not eat the produce. Rather, the females lay their eggs under the skin of the fruit. Their larvae, that look like maggots, then eat the fruit from the inside.

A female can lay about 800 eggs in her life. The eggs become adult flies capable of reproducing in about 25 days.

Even with a survival rate of only 50 percent, a population of 100 Medflies could explode to 10 million in about 120 days.

"If we can find these things when (they number) five or 50 or even 5,000, then we can win it," said Dr. David Dean, an entomologist with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The influx of visitors to Florida's beaches and theme parks adds to the risk of a fruit fly outbreak.

Larvae can be brought in when travelers ignore regulations and sneak fruit into the state. Fruit flies also arrive in shipping containers or are inadvertently brought back by boaters from the Caribbean.

"They can't get here on their own; they get here with the help of people," Dean said.

Florida's most recent Medfly outbreak occurred in 1998. Medflies were found in seven counties, including Sarasota and Manatee.

This year, crops in five counties in Texas were quarantined because of an outbreak of the Mexican fruit fly.

Where they come from

The idea of the sterile-insect technique is simple: Inundate high-risk areas with millions of sterile male flies so the chances of a female mating with a fertile male are virtually zero.

But where do they get 70 million male flies?

The answer is from El Pino, a USDA mass-rearing facility in Guatemala. There, hundreds of millions of flies are bred, and maggot-like larvae are hatched.

After about eight days, the larvae turn into pupae, a small hard shell barely bigger than a grain of rice. Inside, the larvae transform into flies.

Millions of pupae are then put into water heated to 94 degrees, a temperature that most males survive but which is deadly to virtually all females. The dead pupae, which float to the surface, are skimmed off by a machine.

The surviving pupae are dyed vibrant orange so that fruit fly trappers can distinguish them from wild fruit flies.

The pupae are put into sausage-shaped plastic bags and exposed to radiation to make the flies sterile. Less than 24 hours later, the bags arrive by plane at the Sarasota facility.

Preparing an army

The flies spend five to seven days at the lab, hatching out of the pupal stage and reaching sexual maturity.

Housed in a temperature- and humidity-controlled storage room, the flies are kept in mesh screens stacked on top of one another.

Beneath the screens is a small wick sprayed with ginger root oil. A fan spreads the aroma through the screens, making the flies more sexually competitive, said John Renshaw, the facility director.

The flies feed on a clear jelly-like slab of sugar and agar that is cooked on site in 60-gallon pots.

When it is time to release them, the screens are rolled into a metal storage room kept at 38 degrees.

"All the little critters get cold," Renshaw said. "They wrap their wings around themselves, release their feet and curl up into a little ball."

Workers wearing hooded tops to ward off the cold load the balled-up flies into metal release boxes from which they will be dropped. One box typically holds about 95 pounds of flies.

In the plane, an augur device under the box controls the release of the flies, dropping 125,000 per square mile.

Troops on the ground

Medflies are also attacked through a ground-based program.

Around 250 fruit fly trappers keep tabs on roughly 60,000 traps from Key West to Jacksonville.

Every fly caught is checked for traces of the vibrant orange dye that signifies it is a sterile male.

If a wild fly is found, state and federal agencies go into emergency mode.

That happened in July, when trappers in Tampa found a male Oriental fruit fly. More than 500 traps were set in an 81-square-mile area around Valrico, east of Tampa, where the fly was found. No other flies have since been found.

Before the release program, outbreaks of fruit flies were treated by spraying malathion, a pesticide, from planes. The measure was unpopular with the public who feared it posed a health risk.

Now, any area with an outbreak would be inundated with sterile flies from the Sarasota facility.

"The flies are much more efficient because they find each other. We've got biology working for us," Dean, the entomologist, said. "We do that long enough, we can totally eliminate the species."

These days, nobody in Southwest Florida — not laymen, not landlubbers, nobody — has an excuse for not knowing what an estuary is.

Estuaries — bodies of water where freshwater from the land mixes with saltwater from the sea — have been much in the news for the past few years:

• Too much rain in 2004 and 2005 forced water managers to release huge amounts of nutrient-rich fresh water down the Caloosahatchee River; the nutrients caused massive algal blooms, and the fresh water upset the delicate freshwater-saltwater balance estuaries depend on.

• The ongoing drought in 2006 and 2007 has upset the balance the other way, and the saltier water has killed virtually all the river's tapegrass, which is important fish and invertebrate habitat and provides food for fish, freshwater turtles, manatees and birds.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida published its first Estuaries Report Card for Southwest Florida in 2005; the second report card is due at the end of 2008.

"Since 2005, we've seen policy changes around the region that indicate some success, particularly land-acquisition programs," said Jennifer Hecker, the Conservancy's natural resource policy manager. "We hope those will have positive results on the next report card. Unfortunately, there have been some inappropriate land-use decisions that might have an adverse effect on the report card. So, we need to look at the scientific data to find out our progress or lack of progress."

10 estuaries evaluated

The Conservancy report card looks at 10 estuaries from the Coastal Venice watershed to the Ten Thousand Islands and bases grades on two criteria: wildlife habitat and water quality.

Pine Island Sound received the highest grades in Lee County, with a B-plus for wildlife habitat and B for water quality.

"We're in better shape than we were six months ago," said Ralph Woodring, 70, who was born on Sanibel and lives on Tarpon Bay. "When that water came down the river, we got red drift algae and everything in creation. It was eating us alive.

"The water quality is fairly good. Sometimes it's so dirty you can't see the bottom. Sometimes it's as clear as the Keys. Neither one of them is natural."

Pine Island Sound should be in "fairly good shape" by the 2008 report card, Woodring said, but it will never be as healthy as it was before the development of Lee County.

"The only way for it to come back is to get rid of some of the damn people," he said. "Between the boats and cars and airplanes and all the crap coming down the river — ain't none of it good for the environment."

With an A-plus for wildlife habitat and an A-minus for water quality, the Ten Thousand Islands received the highest grades in the 2005 report card.

Gary Lytton, director of the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, has been watching the Ten Thousand Islands for two decades.

"Generally, what I've seen is that we've been able to maintain the environmental conditions that I observed when I first came down 21 years ago," Lytton said. "That's not to say we haven't experienced challenges over the years. In terms of whether we'll be able to maintain the pristine conditions of the estuary, I'm optimistic.

"What we've been focusing on is work outside our boundaries, dealing with land-use issues upstream that have an impact on water quality."

"Upstream" is an important word — and concept — in estuary health, and many estuary managers are looking upstream into the watershed.

As became very clear in the Caloosahatchee and Pine Island Sound, what happens upstream affects the estuary — it's all connected.

Pine Island Sound's problems are not just result of releases from Lake Okeechobee. More than 70 miles of agricultural land, residential lawns, golf courses, sewage treatment plants, and roads line the Caloosahatchee between the lake and the estuary.

"The watershed is the area of land where any rainfall ends up in a body of water, typically an estuary," said Lisa Beever, director of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. "That water carries with it either good things or bad things. It can carry nutrients, oils, greases, heavy metals, fecal coliform. Estuaries need a flow of clean water to have the productive stocks of fish and crustaceans and associated birds that make the area wonderful to live in."

The best way to protect estuaries from upstream influences is for government agencies and environmental groups to buy upstream land and leave it undeveloped.

Individuals, too, can help protect area estuaries, Beever said.

"Try not to add impervious surfaces to your yard, and use fertilizers and pesticides sparingly, if at all," she said. "Plant native plants and leafy trees so the world is cooler.

"If you're on the water, use responsible boating and fishing practices: Stay in channels; if you run aground, pole out rather than using your motor to blast out — prop scarring is a real problem on our seagrasses. Dispose of your garbage properly."

In 2005, area estuaries earned grades ranging from A-plus to F-minus; future grades depend on the steps taken by government agencies, environmental organizations and individuals to protect the resource.

"There's still hope," Beever said. "We've seen declines in our estuaries, but they're not so far gone that they can't recover. It took a lot of different assaults to degrade them; it'll take many different kinds of things to bring them back."

Today, the nation celebrates National Estuaries Day. Held annually since 1988, this celebration focuses on the special places where rivers meet the sea.

Estuaries are among the most productive ecosystems on earth, serving as nurseries for fish and shellfish and providing vital nesting and feeding grounds for coastal birds, sea turtles and marine mammals. They are also important economic engines that pump millions of dollars into coastal communities through tourism, recreational sport fishing and boating.

Florida is home to some of the nation's most pristine estuaries. However, with a growing coastal population, the challenges for protecting and sustaining the health of these coastal gems grow as well. Jointly, the Florida state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have made a significant and long-term investment in coastal stewardship by designating three Florida estuaries as National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Florida's three National Estuarine Research Reserves - Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve, along the North Florida Panhandle; Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, located near Naples on the southwest Gulf coast; and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, located on the east coast near St. Augustine - are aligned with 27 sites around the nation selected to serve as research laboratories and education centers. Each research reserve has its own unique landscape and character, and each works with its own “network” of coastal communities. All three Florida reserves, like the others around the country, share the important mission of promoting stewardship of estuaries.

Why should Floridians care about estuaries?

Florida's sport fishing industry generates more than $4 billion each year in sales of boats, fishing tackle and fuel. Fish that we seek in Florida waters, including snook, redfish and tarpon, depend on healthy estuaries.

Shrimp landings along Florida's west coast totaled 18.5 million pounds in 2002. Shrimp also depend on healthy estuaries.

Florida's estuaries include mangroves, marshes and sea grasses, plants that depend on clean coastal waters to provide a vital food source and habitat for wildlife. Apalachicola Bay's waters alone yield 90 percent of Florida's commercial oyster harvest.

Science has shown us that the health of our estuaries is inextricably linked to clean water. In Florida, summer rains deliver fresh water that slowly filters across the landscape and mixes with saltwater to create a highly productive ecosystem. With Florida's coastal population on the rise, we face serious challenges in managing growth and protecting water quality so that our estuaries continue to thrive.

The value of Florida's estuaries, from our wildlife to our economy, makes the work of the estuarine reserves vitally important. Scientists use cutting-edge technology to monitor changing conditions of water quality within the estuary. This is a far more complicated process than it might seem. Educators help thousands of young students each year make their own connections at the estuary, encouraging coastal stewardship at an early age. Reserve biologists restore wetlands, conduct prescribed burns, and restore freshwater flows changed by land uses upstream.

No single agency or organization has the resources and knowledge to successfully protect an estuary, so DEP's ongoing work requires partnerships in both public and private sectors, and an informed and involved community.

To learn more, visit your local estuarine reserve and learn how to protect this valuable resource.

Seth Blitch is administrator of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Located along the Florida Panhandle, the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve, managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, is one of the largest reserves in the nation, at more than 246,000 acres. The estuary yields 90 percent of Florida's commercial oyster harvest, fueled by nutrients from the Apalachicola River, Florida's largest river in terms of flow. The reserve's office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, go to www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/apalachicola or call (850) 653.8063. For more information on estuaries managed by DEP, go to www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal.

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Some Alachua residents question actions of the City Commission

By Rachael Anne Ryals
Herald Staff Writer

ALACHUA -- The decision to grant a year-long extension for a 145-acre development plan should have been discussed by the City Commission and the public before being approved, residents told the Alachua City Commission Monday.

The Alachua City Commission approved the extension on the city meeting's consent agenda -- an agenda used to approve several, small commission decisions at once. Residents in Alachua are not allowed to comment before the consent agenda is approved.

But some residents said that the extension was a large enough issue that it should have been removed from the agenda.

Alachua resident and political activist Michael Canney said that he even sent an e-mail request on Monday afternoon for the item to be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda.

But when he showed up on Monday night, the item was still on the consent agenda and was approved by the Commission before any resident was allowed to speak.

The extension for the 145-acre development plan is an issue that Canney said was important because the development was approved before the city changed some of its land-development requirements.

The land was changed from agricultural use to commercial planned development on Nov. 21, 2005. A one-year-long extension was previously granted on Oct. 9, 2006. The newest extension will allow the developer until Nov. 21, 2008 to submit development plans for approval.

"What we are talking about here is speculation," Canney said.

The use of the consent agenda is currently part of a lawsuit filed against the city of Alachua by Canney and Alachua resident and political activist Charlie Grapski.

"A lot of things are put on the consent agenda that don't belong there," Canney told the Commission.

Babcock traffic causes concern

Government estimates say vehicles will overwhelm roads

By KATE SPINNER

kate.spinner@heraldtribune.com

CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- Traffic from the proposed Babcock Ranch development could overwhelm nearby roads, county and state transportation officials said.

Government projections on the amount of traffic streaming from the giant planned community are much higher than the developer's. The discrepancy worries Charlotte officials, who said taxpayers could get stuck with the bill for future road improvements.

The Charlotte County Commission will hold its first hearing on development plans for the 19,500-home community on Dec. 13. The hearing will help commissioners decide whether to approve broad guidelines that will shape Babcock's development through 2030.

Several planning kinks need to be worked out between now and December, but traffic concerns top the list.

Developer Kitson & Associates moved to buy the Babcock Ranch in 2005 and unveiled plans for a community that would stretch across the Charlotte-Lee county line.

Now those plans are coming into focus as Kitson seeks approval for a master development plan on its Charlotte County holdings.

After Lee County resisted the plans this year, the developer decided to get first approvals from Charlotte, where most of the ranch is located.

Each development phase requires a separate review governed by the guidelines Charlotte will likely approve in December.

Before those reviews, local and regional planners need to agree on how the community will pay and plan for its impact on traffic, water resources, wildlife habitat, schools and affordable housing.

Traffic is one of the biggest sticking points because the developer and the planners have not come to terms on how many vehicles will leave Babcock Ranch daily.

Charlotte and Lee counties and the Florida Department of Transportation estimate that an average of 22 percent of the cars pulling out of Babcock Ranch driveways will stay within the community's confines.

The developer's estimate is 50 to 70 percent.

"If you're living in Manhattan that might be true," said Charlotte County public works director Tom O'Kane.

Residents outside the community will end up paying for wear and tear on the roads if the amount of traffic leaving Babcock Ranch is underestimated, O'Kane worries.

"Transportation improvements that will be made all around this development depend on what these transportation numbers are," O'Kane said.

>Babcock Ranch''s population is expected to eventually reach 40,000.

The increased population will put more traffic on State Road 31 and Bermont Road in eastern Charlotte County.

Without Babcock Ranch,, the county's growth management plan shows little to no development in the rural eastern area. That is why the county wants Babcock Ranch developers to pay all of the cost for maintaining those roads.

The development will also increase traffic on Interstate 75, especially south toward Fort Myers.

State transportation officials estimate that Interstate 75 will carry more traffic than it can comfortably handle in 10 years, even without Babcock Ranch..

Developer Syd Kitson was not available for comment Wednesday.

Besides traffic, Charlotte County has concerns about water supply and the development's impact on wildlife, said Seann Smith, who is coordinating the county's review of the project.

He said he is confident that the county will be able to resolve its concerns by November, when the staff plans to have a final recommendation and report on the project.

That report will go to the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council and the county's Planning and Zoning Board. Both boards will make recommendations to the County Commission.

Jason Utley, who handles development reviews for the planning council, is not so confident. Despite the council's questions about the development, the developers decided to seek the county's approval anyway.

Because the county agreed on Tuesday to set the December hearing for the project, the council has only 50 days left to review the project and make recommendations.

"It makes it very difficult on us because this project has been going at lightning speed compared to many others," Utley said.

State planners can appeal if the county approves the project over planning council objections.

Once the project guidelines are approved for Babcock Ranch,, developers will propose more specific plans to develop the community phase by phase.

Smith said the first proposal is expected by the fall of 2008. He said developers hope to have their first model homes complete by 2010.
County prepares to revisit subdivision roads

By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER

Jackson County Floridan

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Jackson County Commission several months ago placed a moratorium on accepting any more subdivision roads for maintenance, but now appear ready to consider lifting the freeze with some new controls in place.

A special joint meeting with the county's advisory planning commission to discuss and possibly act on the matter is set for 5 p.m. Oct. 23.

The planning board is also expected to discuss the issue at two of its own regular board meetings prior to that, at 6 p.m. sessions on Oct. 1 and Oct. 15.

Board member Jeremy Branch said he was ready to "move forward one way or another," and board chairman Chuck Lockey indicated that the board could take action Oct. 23 "if everything works out."

The issue has been discussed at public meetings and private.

For instance, a meeting arranged by Lockey at the requests of several business leaders was held recently between staff and some stakeholders in the issue.

According to county administrator Ted Lakey, that group included himself; Lockey; county engineer Larry Alvarez; Road & Bridge superintendent Al Green; planning commission member and developer Cresh Harrison; developers and real estate business people Byron Ward, Ted Tyus, Robbie Roberts and Kathy Milton; and private engineer Travis Howell.

On Tuesday, commissioners were presented a five-point memo outlining some of the options that had been discussed.

None of the points spoke directly of a funding source which would pay for maintenance of subdivision roads, should the county decide to start accepting them again. This is notable since funding issues were the main reason the moratorium was imposed.

Green reminded the board after the points were presented that, if the board decides to remove the moratorium, a funding source still needs to be identified if the board plans to maintain the roads.

In the past, the local government has accepted responsibility for subdivision roads with no funding source in place to pay for their maintenance.

That lack of funding is a troubling reality now that some roads in four of those subdivisions ? Indian Springs, Dogwood Heights, Meadowview Estates and Sheffield Subdivision ? are of the age that they now need resurfacing or other major repair. A younger subdivision, Spring Chase, also has some road problems.

In what is generally regarded as an unprecedented growth spurt over the past couple of years, subdivisions and subdivision proposals are popping up all over the county, and many developers want the county to take over maintenance of roads.

Commissioners, not wanting to dig themselves deeper into the situations they face now with the aging roads they've already taken on, imposed the moratorium early this year to give themselves time to implement a policy on accepting subdivision roads.

They were looking to craft a policy that would be fair to taxpayers in general, the developers spurring growth, and the people who would be using the roads the most.

The possibility of imposing special assessments on homeowners in the affected subdivisions has been discussed in the past, but those didn't make the list of options presented Tuesday.

Options making the list were:

1. The county would take over the ownership of the subdivision roads on final plat approval by the board.

2. The county would not provide maintenance on the new subdivision roa