patrina.bostic@heraldtribune.com

Myakka land deal possible in future

Charlotte can try again for state funds; seller wants to know intent

The plan to expand nature's path

The newest segment of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail features more amenities, such as permanent restrooms and more parking space.

KEYSTONE - On weekend mornings, the parking lot begins filling at dawn. Cyclists from Clearwater. Roller-bladers from Carrollwood. Triathletes from St. Petersburg. Tricyclists, and their parents, from Lutz. The paved spaces rapidly fill up, and a dozen vehicles or more spill over to a grassy roadside, next to the NO PARKING sign.

All these people are converging at the beginning of the state's Suncoast Trail at Lutz-Lake Fern Road and the Suncoast Parkway.

But their parking lot is likely to disappear in a few years. If Hillsborough County times things well, trail users will get a new, improved lot down the road, plus a 3½-mile trail extension toward the southwest.

The project is the next link of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, even though it will initially connect to the Suncoast, not the current seven-mile section of the Upper Tampa Bay.

The new trail segment will have two features rarely found on the Suncoast: permanent restrooms and recreation out of sight of any road. It will wind for nearly two miles through the edge of the Brooker Creek Headwaters Nature Preserve.

At each end, the county plans a trail head with parking and restrooms. One is planned on Gunn Highway, immediately southeast of the Keystone Recreation Center. The other will be on the south side of Lutz-Lake Fern Road, just east of the Montreux neighborhood.

Richard Sanders, project manager in the Hillsborough County Public Works Department, said it should have 80 spaces, five times the parking of the current trail head.

To link that facility to the Suncoast, a trail will be built along more than a mile of Lutz-Lake Fern Road, much of it on boardwalks across roadside swamps. Sanders estimated the boardwalks will cost four to five times what an asphalt trail would cost.

"We've got to be parallel to the road, and unfortunately, the wetlands come right up to the road," he said.

The trail will cross Lutz-Lake Fern Road immediately west of Cheval's Nimes Court. Sanders said a traffic light will be placed there, programmed to stay green for motorists except when a trail user activates it to cross the road.

"Ultimately, what we'd like to see in the future is an overpass," he said. One snag: a pedestrian overpass nowadays costs $2½-million.

First in line

Sanders and other county officials are operating under an uncertain time crunch.

State transportation officials would like to bury the current trail head under an interchange connecting Lutz-Lake Fern motorists to the Suncoast Parkway. Money isn't available, but a mechanism to allow Florida Turnpike officials to borrow it was almost enacted in Tallahassee in the spring.

If that happens, the interchange could be added within three years.

Some trail parking could be relocated to the western end of the turnpike property. "But it would be only a fraction of the spaces that are there now," said Joanne Hurley, spokeswoman for Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, the agency that manages Florida's toll expressways.

Meanwhile, Hillsborough County has been gradually expanding the Upper Tampa Bay Trail north and south of Citrus Park, with plans to connect it to the Suncoast. Together, they will form a 57-mile trail.

"I've been working on this thing for well over 10 years," Sanders said. "It's always been the thought to connect the two."

Currently, the Upper Tampa Bay Trail runs from Old Memorial Highway in Town 'N Country to Peterson Road Park in Odessa. With an eye toward the Suncoast's upcoming parking problem, Hillsborough County chose the Upper Tampa Bay Trail's northernmost segment as the next to build, Sanders said.

To begin construction by 2010, the county needs to own land soon.

Most of the trail will pass through the 1,200-acre Brooker Creek Headwaters Nature Preserve, jointly owned by the county and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

But land along the roads is largely privately owned. The county bought its trail-head land on Lutz-Lake Fern Roaf two years ago. But it still lacks the strips of property along the road leading to the Suncoast, and plans later this month to file condemnation suits against three property owners.

Assistant County Attorney Ken Pope said those should lead to the land changing hands in exchange for appraised value within two months.

"As long as we have our ducks lined up, the judge will give us the benefit of the doubt," Pope said.

Afterward, any property owners' requests for higher compensation would be addressed in the court cases, he said.

Once the county has the land, it's first in line for state and federal funds to design and build the trail, according to Charner Reese, the county's top trail planner.

Design and construction are pegged at $5.8-million.

Bobcats, butterflies

Once built, the newest trail link will bring a stark change of scenery to users accustomed to riding through parks, neighborhoods and beside expressways.

Where the future trail runs through the Brooker Creek Headwaters Nature Preserve, the experience will feel less like the Suncoast or Upper Tampa Bay trails, and more like riding on New Tampa's Flatwoods Trail, or on Pasco County's Starkey Trail. Riders and skaters will be surrounded by scrub, pine flat woods, forests or swamp.

Hillsborough County's park ranger, Richard Ross, has lived on the property since 1992. He estimates that 60 percent of the preserve is swamp.

Sanders warns about summer rains. "There are probably going to be times where there's water up there, and they'll probably have to close it," he said.

The combination of swamp and flat woods nurtures a full array of wildlife, Ross said. The preserve is home to alligators, bobcats, wild turkeys, butterflies, coral snakes and everything in between.

"People have been hunting in here for 40 years," he said. "You still catch them sneaking in here."

Bill Coats can be reached at coats@sptimes.com or 813 269-5309.

STAFF REPORT

That's when Stewart realized the shores of Central Florida's infamous 30,000-acre cesspool had become a hot real-estate market.

Stewart declined the offer but made an even better deal -- for more than double the $2.7 million offer -- after a bidding war by developers.

"To me it's like a gift from God," he said.

The insatiable demand for waterfront property in Central Florida has spawned an almost unfathomable rush to the banks of the state's most polluted large lake.

Once renowned as a sport-fishing paradise, Lake Apopka suffered for decades from abuse and neglect. Sewage and farm runoff turned the 50-square-mile lake into a pea-green broth that suffocated fish and caused deformities in alligators.

Environmental officials have spent decades and tens of millions of dollars trying to clean up the lake, but the task has proved far more difficult than they imagined.

Yet today at least eight major new developments are being built around its western, southern and eastern boundaries. They will bring more than 5,500 new homes, most of them ranging from $300,000 to $7 million, to its shores.

More homes likely will mean more pollution that threatens to make Lake Apopka restoration all the more difficult even as headway is being made.

But developers and their eager customers apparently no longer care what lies beneath the water's surface as long as the views are grand.

"These people coming in and building multimillion-dollar homes on Lake Apopka amuse me. In my opinion, they have more money than brains," said Richard Moore of Montverde, who is selling his doublewide mobile home on the lakefront after 25 years there.

Fouled reputation

In the 1930s, decorative arches over Winter Garden streets hailed the state's second-largest lake as the "Large-Mouth Bass Capital of the World." Twenty-nine fish camps and an array of motels and resorts catered to movie stars, athletes, mobsters and anglers from around the globe.

Then came an ignoble era of environmental abuse. Farm runoff, sewage-plant discharge and citrus-packinghouse wastewater spoiled Lake Apopka and obliterated its sport fishery.

The lake also lost 30 square miles of shallow water and wetlands when the Zellwood Drainage and Water Control District built a levee across its north end to create more croplands. With its waters contaminated and its size diminished, Lake Apopka devolved from an asset into an embarrassment.

Shunned by boaters and developers for decades, it was one of the few area lakes where people of moderate and low income could live on the water. While most of the fish camps gave way to trailer parks or homes, one camp called Fisherman's Paradise Inn became a notorious swingers' club known as Ramona's Paradise Inn until Orange County shut it down in 1998.

The first lake cleanup attempts began more than a quarter-century ago, but it wasn't until 1996 that the Florida Legislature approved what was then considered the last major step in the project. The state agreed to spend nearly $100 million to buy 14,000 acres of shoreline farmland to end decades of runoff pollution.

Yet, even today, the slightest breeze sloshes up waves the color and clarity of dirty antifreeze. The lake's bottom remains coated with what one scientist calls a "liquid mud" nearly 2 feet thick. This floating coagulation of rotting algae and vegetation upsets the lake's natural biology and thwarts its full recovery. Tests show the lake has improved but remains essentially in intensive care with only faint promise for a significant recovery anytime soon.

"We always thought that we'd be done and disbanded by now after starting in 1990, but we are still locked in battle on a number of issues," said Jim Thomas, a founder of the Friends of Lake Apopka, an environmental-advocacy group.

His group worries that lawn fertilizers and new homes on septic tanks could leach pollutants into the lake. And they suspect proposed plans to alter wetlands for development or withdraw irrigation water from the lake also could further damage the lake's ecology.

But those concerns don't weigh heavily on home buyers.

"People think the lake is in good hands now and that it will come back to what it was someday," said Bob Bruno, sales and marketing director for Transeastern Homes.

Bruno and his staff were involved in development of Westyn Bay, a subdivision of nearly 900 homes on the lake's southeast shore, with $150,000 water-view home sites.

"I never got any resistance from people because of the lake's reputation, but I did get resistance to lake-view lots because they didn't extend all the way to the water," he said. "People want views with no houses behind them, and the views of sunrise and sunset are beautiful on Lake Apopka."

Bella brand

The mastermind behind the rebranding of the state's sickest large lake is resort-community developer Bobby Ginn. His Ginn Co., based in Celebration, is transforming 1,900 acres of former citrus grove and peat bogs into the Bella Collina gated development on Lake Apopka near Montverde.

Ginn's company also created the Reunion Resort and Club in Osceola County and Hammock Beach and Yacht Harbor Village in Palm Coast.

Bella Collina has been carefully marketed not as a boating community but as an exclusive equestrian and golf development featuring a Nick Faldo championship course and 801 home sites on rolling terrain.

"The private-club lifestyle is what draws people to Bella Collina," said Patrick Kelly, vice president of sales. "Occasionally people say the state of the lake is a big deal for them, but a day later they write contracts."

Much of Bella Collina's marketing material features the smaller and cleaner Lake Siena within the development. Though the 300-acre lake is pitched as a "prestigious" location, longtime residents refer to it as "Lake Hyponex" because it was once a peat farm mined by the Hyponex Corp.

Even so, Bella Collina home sites on Lake Siena and Lake Apopka have sold for $1.6 million to $2.8 million, thanks in part to land speculators "flipping" lots for huge profits. During a three-hour wine, cheese and cigar party in April, Ginn sold $320.7 million worth of lots there. The first homes constructed sold from $1.6 million to $6.8 million.

The rush of affluent buyers to Bella Collina is driving Lake Apopka land values to levels no one could have anticipated.

"We went to a campground on Lake Apopka a few years ago with my daughter, and when I went to the water's edge I was appalled. I didn't want her to put her foot in it," said Gary Rauch, vice president of Dave Brewer Inc., a custom-home-building company.

But now his crews have plans to build at least 14 multimillion-dollar homes for Bella Collina clients.

"We haven't had any conversations about the pollution in the lake," he noted. "It's not even a factor."

Alice and Jonathon Wong of Long Island, N.Y., bought a 1.2-acre Bella Collina lot overlooking Lake Apopka for $456,000 two years ago.

The couple, who are in the real-estate and mortgage business in Long Island, saw a magazine advertisement that said Bella Collina will have golf, horseback riding and nature walks and decided it offered something for every family member.

Yet Alice Wong was surprised to learn it is not advisable to swim in Lake Apopka or to eat certain fish caught in it, and that its large alligator population makes most water sports hazardous.

"It is a little disappointing," Wong said. "But you can't have everything."

Nor was her family's enthusiasm diminished by reports of Lake Apopka's troubled ecological history.

"We were told that it was once very bad, and they spent a lot of effort to improve it, and that it is improving, and the Ginn Company is going to put in effort to continue to make it better," Alice Wong said.

The Ginn Co. created a 50-foot conservation easement on all property adjoining Lake Apopka and Lake Siena and built three miles of 40-foot swales along the lakefront to catch lawn fertilizers and other potentially harmful materials from washing into the lakes, said Robert Ginn, a vice president of his father's company.

"We've made sure that the closest any home can get is 90 feet from the lakes, and on top of that we've done extensive wetland cleanups," Ginn said. "We went through all of the wetlands and took out nuisance- and exotic-plant species, and we planted more than three miles of shoreline with native plants."

While Bella Collina's developers have reaped millions for their high-end development, many longtime Lake Apopka residents with moderate incomes are concerned they might lose out because of rising property values.

Speculators and real-estate agents have come knocking even at the Montverde Mobile Home Subdivision, a 30-year old neighborhood of 290 manufactured and mobile homes.

Those who live there, including many renters and elderly people on fixed incomes, are concerned they may be forced out. Even property owners who sell for a considerable profit could be hard-pressed to find anywhere nearby to live, given the region's escalating real-estate prices.

"I wonder where people who can't afford to stay will go to live," said Barbara Cybulski, whose family has had a mobile home on Lake Apopka for 10 years. "It's outrageous what's going on here."

Growing pains

The lake's future will depend in part on how its new neighbors treat it.

Friends of Lake Apopka has fought successfully for limits on stormwater runoff and pushed for swales, berms and buffers on lakefront lots to stop polluted runoff. The group also has asked for more parks, preserves and common areas as well as public or shared docks to protect the shoreline.

The planned Oakland Park subdivision, with 750 homes and town homes on 258 acres in Oakland and Winter Garden, serves as a model of thoughtful development, Thomas said.

Parkland and nature areas will protect the half-mile of shoreline; a marina and restaurant will share a common dock on the lakefront.

Thomas also praised the Ginn Co. for its thoughtful approach to the lakefront and for contributing $100,000 to Oakland Nature Preserve on Lake Apopka. But he is concerned that the planned construction of 60 lake docks in Bella Collina may damage new beds of desirable eelgrass.

Among his other concerns:

Proposals to draw large amounts of water from the lake for lawn irrigation could disrupt the optimal rise and fall of lake levels.

Construction of the 1.2 million-square-foot Plaza Collina shopping mall and 200-unit condo project along County Road 50, also known as Old Highway 50, could threaten nearby wetlands that act as nature's filtering system.

A Lake County Water Authority proposal to bulldoze healthy wetlands could destroy a natural filter on a lakeshore that has few healthy wetlands. The authority wants to build a plant that chemically cleanses water flowing out of Lake Apopka into downstream lakes.

A proposed general-aviation airport for corporate and private aircraft on the site of Orlando North Airpark just north of Lake Apopka would boost air traffic and might threaten waterfowl habitat.

Mona Phipps, president of Friends of Lake Apopka, also is troubled by proposed development of the former Woodlands Campground south of Bella Collina. Tentative plans call for 283 homes on 165 acres of the 200-acre site, which includes 41 acres of wetlands and 34 acres of lakes or ponds.

"I saw a plan for the development, and it was heartbreaking," she said. "It is heavily wooded now, and about a third of it is wetlands."

Yet, just up the road, excavation is under way on a residential project much larger than either the Woodlands or Bella Collina. The Sugarloaf Mountain country-club development also will have a substantial impact even though it is not directly on the lake, Phipps noted.

The golf, retail and residential development of more than 2,400 homes northeast of Minneola is a 15-year project.

To the lake's protectors, each new home stresses the lake even more. Yet they are hopeful that when thousands of newcomers come to its shores, they, too, will want to restore and protect it.

"Our hope is that as more people see the possibilities for this great lake, the more help we will get to bring it back," Phipps said.

Wes Smith can be reached at dwsmith@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5672. Kevin Spear can be reached at 407-420-5062 or kspear@orlandosentinel.com.

Road Costs May Stall Projects

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 17, 2006

The dramatic rise in road-building costs over the last year may stall several large Pasco developments as the developers fall short of the money they'll need to do the road improvements they have promised, according to one county official.

Bipin Parikh, the assistant county administrator who oversees planning and growth management, said last week the county's deals with developers of large projects, including the Cypress Creek Town Center in Wesley Chapel, don't account for inflation between the time the deal was signed and when construction actually starts.

That means some of Pasco's largest developments could stall if the developers can't make up the difference in costs, Parikh told the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the county's transportation planning board.

Those large projects, known as Developments of Regional Impact, are big enough to affect two counties. They typically involve years of pre-construction negotiations among the builders, county government and regional planners. Even after those deals are struck, the project can wait years for construction permits from environmental agencies.

Road construction costs are running 50 percent higher than usual, thanks to rising oil prices and shrinking labor pools. The escalation has forced the state Department of Transportation to scale back its plans for several large projects, including widening Interstate 75 from Fletcher Avenue in Hillsborough County to State Road 52 in Pasco, according to Bob Clifford, planning director for the DOT's Tampa office.

The county has tried to factor inflation into its deals with the developers of Bexley Ranch in Land O' Lakes and Epperson Ranch in Wesley Chapel, Parikh said.

The county can reopen an existing deal if the developer doesn't meet its road-project commitments, according to Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein.

Last spring, road-cost increases derailed development in Wesley Chapel's Seven Oaks neighborhood. Developer Crown Communities is committed to widening Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to six lanes -- a project that was originally supposed to cost under $6 million and now costs more than $36 million.

"We have a serious problem at Seven Oaks," Parikh told the MPO last week. "They're required to build that road."

"Required to and being able to do so are two different things," MPO member and Pasco County Commissioner Steve Simon said in response.

In May, county officials shut down development at Seven Oaks until Crown Communities could explain when and how it planned to widen the road. The county later let the developer proceed with a project already submitted for review, but barred new ones.

Seven Oaks spokesman John Heagney said Friday the road project remains under scrutiny by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Crown hopes to win Swiftmud approval by early next year, Heagney said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

Schools, roads prove to be a touchy subject

A state department clarifies its stance on the same day Sen. Fasano and the governor's office weigh in. The topic will come up again Tuesday.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published September 17, 2006

Officials at the state Department of Community Affairs backed away Friday from earlier comments that threatened to end public schools' exemption from road-building for developments.

The move came on the same day that state Sen. Mike Fasano and a spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush weighed in with comments that schools should not be made to pay for road improvements.

Pasco County School District officials reacted with alarm last week after finding out that top DCA officials were floating the prospect of making the district pay millions for road-building where new schools are located.

"I am certain that the taxpayers of Florida would prefer that school funding be directed toward building schools and not providing for utilities and transportation infrastructure," Fasano wrote in a letter to Valerie Hubbard, DCA's director of community planning.

"I also think it unlikely that the Florida Legislature intended to further burden schools with the tasks of building and/or paying for infrastructure that has typically been the responsibility of county government," he said.

The staff at DCA shared Fasano's letter with Bush's policy staff, though the governor has not seen the letter, Bush's spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said Friday.

"Concurrency must be met by all developments, even schools," Campbell said. "That's not to say schools must pay for road improvements. School districts can be exempted through interlocal agreements, and nothing in new growth management laws would change that."

"Transportation concurrency" means a requirement for road improvements to keep up with development needs.

In Pasco, the county and the district share an interlocal agreement, which lays out cost-sharing arrangements for infrastructure.

In his letter dated Wednesday, Fasano said Pasco's acute need for new schools means officials should work to help the district rather than divert dollars away from building classrooms.

"The addition of transportation concurrency costs will overburden an already strained construction budget," he said. "I strongly encourage the department to thoroughly review the potential impact of their decisions regarding this matter."

Hubbard, whom county officials said had first floated the prospect of ending the exemption, told the St. Petersburg Times Friday that schools would not have to pay such costs.

"Schools are not exempted under the law, but the law provides for interlocal agreements," she said. "It's not exemption, though schools don't necessarily have to pay the cost of road improvements."

Hubbard said she did not know why the issue had come up. She said she did not remember the conversation where she had apparently raised the red flag.

A two-lane road costs about $8-million a mile at current rates.

County Attorney Robert Sumner said Friday that if schools cannot afford to build new locations because of concurrency requirements, development projects would not be allowed to proceed at those locations. The schools are necessary to accommodate new residents.

Developers currently also pay for road-building, according to terms negotiated with the county.

"Regardless of the concurrency issue with schools, we have an agreement with the School Board," he said. "All the money comes from the same pot."

Pasco officials will discuss the issue further at a workshop Tuesday dealing with its draft concurrency management ordinance, Sumner said.

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at (813)909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

Condo slowdown trips up bulk buyers

BY MATTHEW HAGGMAN

mhaggman@MiamiHerald.com

The three men behind The Formula, which bought condos in bulk and flipped them, turned hefty profits when the market was good. When it fell, they turned against each other.

Back when condos were still hot, mom-and-pop investors all over South Florida waited overnight in lines that snaked around the streets just for a chance to buy in.

Not the men behind The Formula, a company that bought condos in bulk directly from developers and flipped them. These three -- a paralegal with a taste for fancy cars and the heirs to a Dunkin' Donuts fortune -- made millions until the market turned, and they turned against each other.

The story of The Formula offers a glimpse into the billion-dollar game of large-scale condo speculating that played out from South Florida and the Caribbean to Las Vegas, waged in the shadows of the condo frenzy far from the eyes of ordinary buyers. It also raises questions about how much of the condo market is built on the greed of gamblers -- and how deep and long the downturn will go because of it.

The owners of The Formula say they simply meet the needs of developers, bankers and investors -- even in a down market. But real estate analysts say speculation, which accounted for 40 to 80 percent of the condo boom by some estimates, fosters a herd mentality that sends investors fleeing the market as quickly as they stampeded in.

Speculators made it look like there was a real demand for condos and paved the way for buildings that never would have gone up otherwise, some say. Now, the danger is they will leave empty condos and tanking prices in their wake.

''You just can't build so many tomorrows of supply and generate these tremendous price appreciation levels and not pay the piper,'' says veteran real estate analyst Lew Goodkin. He predicts the market will soften enough by next summer to offer opportunities for bargain-hunting buyers.

Five years ago, The Formula's leaders -- Brian Neiman, Farhan Naseer and Kashif Shaukat -- were the best of friends. Cousins Naseer and Shaukat took over a slew of Dunkin' Donuts franchises from their families, according to court documents. They claimed the stores brought in some $120 million in revenues over two decades before they were sold.

`ROLLING IN DOUGH'

'I guess you could say Kashif and I were `rolling in dough,' '' Naseer crowed in an August 2005 e-mail included in the legal filings.

Neiman, a paralegal, lived in an oceanfront penthouse in Fort Lauderdale and reported his annual income at times topped $1 million.

Also in his past: convictions for theft and insurance fraud. And he was rebuked by federal judges for threatening class-action lawsuits against companies to extort settlements.

In one case, a judge dismissed Neiman's lawsuit claiming defects in his Lamborghini and called his conduct ''a mockery of the judicial system.'' The judge ordered an auction of Neiman's belongings to pay the carmaker's $1.6 million in legal bills.

The belongings -- a life-size mermaid sculpture and ''magic fingers'' massager among them -- were auctioned off for about $42,500. But at the end of the bidding, Neiman ponied up $50,000 borrowed from Shaukat and Naseer, and disgruntled bidders shuffled out of the penthouse condo. Shaukat said: ``He's had a lot of issues these last few years.''

In 2002, the Florida Supreme Court disciplined Neiman for pretending to be a lawyer for more than seven years.

Neiman didn't return calls, but his lawyer, Bart Houston, spoke on Neiman's behalf. On the litigation, ''they were perhaps overreaching and heavy handed, and perhaps took the low road.'' He was not Neiman's lawyer at the time.

The Supreme Court's ruling, Houston said, was pivotal: It led Neiman to real estate. ''This has been his second chapter, from paralegal to real estate mogul,'' Houston said.

Enter The Formula.

The Fort Lauderdale company was established in 2002 by Shaukat and Naseer, though Neiman claims he came up with the concept in 1999. The cousins were its officers and lone shareholders, while Neiman made the deals.

At the time, it seemed like the sky was the limit for condo construction. But banks, burned from a 1980s condo bust, coughed up loans only if developers already had lots of buyers before they built.

In came the sales centers and lavish parties, hyping not just a condo but a lifestyle worth the wait. Yet it still wasn't always easy to find buyers willing to plunk down 20 percent and sit out two to three years of construction.

The Formula was happy to help.

The formula: Pool money from investors to buy units in bulk -- up to 30 percent of a building -- for 15 percent off retail price. Share the profits with investors.

Each unit was in an investor's name, but The Formula made investors sign over power of attorney to control the units. And the company built in protection: No matter what the units eventually sold for, developers had to charge The Formula 15 percent less. If the project went bust, The Formula got its money back.

Some developers saw it as a way to meet banks' presales requirements in a day.

The St. Regis in Fort Lauderdale went for it. So did Hollywood Grande in Hollywood beach, court records say.

''It is a win-win for everyone,'' says Peter Herman, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represents Naseer and Shaukat and is a condo investor.

``It is a win for the developer trying to get presales in the beginning stages, a win for the bank because the presales are satisfied and a win for the buyer -- particularly if he gets in early enough.''

A year ago, The Formula claimed in a letter to a Naples bank it had more than $100 million in cash and $1.4 billion in contracts, with condos in five states and three countries.

Developer Eric Sheppard said he decided against using The Formula for his Canyon Ranch Living project on Miami Beach because presales were going well but would consider using it in the future.

''They are putting in major money,'' Sheppard said. ``I think Brian Neiman is a good guy. . . . I think he is doing a good job.''

That's not the way everyone sees it. When Fred Bullard, the developer behind St. Regis Fort Lauderdale, discovered the man charged with marketing and building the project struck a deal with The Formula to sell units, he sued to get out of the contracts.

Bullard, whose company is Castillo Grand, contends he never would have done business with The Formula had he known about it, because its terms shift all the buyer's risk to the builder.

Further, he says The Formula deals gave his company -- and its lender -- the false impression that sales were going well when buyers were in fact speculators intending to resell.

Houston's response: Castillo Grand knew much more than Bullard is letting on. With $20 million at stake, Houston promises a ``war.''

Dezer Development in a lawsuit last month accused The Formula of flipping a unit in The Trump Grande in Sunny Isles Beach three times -- resulting in the unit's price leaping from $775,700 to $2.1 million -- without the developer's consent.

''The Formula is a vehicle for desperate developers to sell units,'' said Gil Dezer. ``The model is great for investors, not for the developer. It puts the developer in shackles and handcuffs.''

By early 2005, trouble was brewing within The Formula.

Neiman wanted to renegotiate terms with developers without telling The Formula's investors, Shaukat and Nasser allege. In July 2005, the two resigned and gave up their stock to Neiman rather than put their reputations ''on destructive paths,'' they said. They since have called giving up their stock ``naive.''

Neiman tells a different tale. He says he was the brains behind The Formula, but his one-time partners sought to push him aside.

'These `best friends' who I let closer to me than anyone in my life have now shown their true colors,'' Neiman wrote in an August 2005 e-mail to developers and friends.

That month City National Bank froze The Formula's account, after Naseer claimed several checks written on it were forged.

Then Naseer arrived with police at Neiman's condo, saying the Rolls Royce Phantom parked there was his. He left empty-handed but later sneaked into the garage with a spare key and drove the car away.

In September 2005 Neiman fired back, calling his ex-partners ''suspected Muslim terrorists'' in a mass e-mail. That prompted a hail of lawsuits.

FLURRY OF LAWSUITS

Shaukat and Naseer sued for libel; 11 days later Neiman sued over the Rolls Royce. In November both sides sued over the City National Bank account. In January, the cousins sued for The Formula's stock -- to which Neiman replied: not unless he got their town house.

Late Friday, another Neiman attorney, William Berger, said the three had reached a settlement, although Shaukat and Naseer lawyer Herman said there was no deal.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates were creeping up -- and so was competition.

In January, two former tax advisors to The Formula founded Bridgepoint Ventures. In May, Neiman's former psychologist, Glenn Caddy, started Madison International Venture Partners. And Shaukat and Naseer -- who are still trying to wrest The Formula away from Neiman -- launched Sky Group Ventures.

All are based in Fort Lauderdale, and all buy condos in bulk for resale.

The Formula also is doing battle with a developer trying to cancel its sales contracts with The Formula. The company sued Printers Row, owned by the Falor Cos., to force it to close on one of the 90 units The Formula had agreed to buy in a Chicago condo-hotel project.

THE COMPLAINT

The Formula's complaint: The developer is using investors to get financing only to then try to get out of the deals.

Robert Falor, whose companies own stakes in several Miami Beach hotels, declined comment on The Formula and could not be reached about the lawsuit, filed Sept. 1.

The future of The Formula -- and of large-scale condo investing -- is uncertain.

As the market cools, The Formula's acting CEO says The Formula will be even more in demand as developers find it harder to achieve the presales that lenders require.

''A softening market really drives this type of business more than a strong market because developers are interested in alternative types of financing,'' Houston said.

But the number of new condo projects is declining, and banks are increasingly cautious in making loans.

The condo market itself is starting to feel the results of speculators pulling out. Prices in Miami-Dade in July fell 11 percent from last year.

''I think The Formula will find that there may not be as many opportunities out there as projected,'' said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach real estate analyst who is advising vulture funds based on his prediction the market will fall.

``There will be some projects that are successful. But in the overall market, the speculation has created such an enormous oversupply of condo units that it will take several years to absorb.''

Officials share growth ideas at Glades meeting

By Andrew Marra

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 17, 2006

BELLE GLADE — If big change is coming to the Glades, it is coming in small pieces.

A host of business and government leaders gathered Saturday at city hall to paint a picture of some of the growth on the horizon in western Palm Beach County.

Things that lay down the road, leaders said at the annual meeting organized by state Rep. Priscilla Taylor, include a new hospital, a growing community college branch, commercial redevelopment and, perhaps, a road-and-rail distribution center for the Port of Palm Beach.

All of it could mean more money and jobs in one of the state's poorest regions.

A commissioner from the county's health care district updated the audience on plans for a new hospital near Belle Glade, at Hooker Highway and U.S. 441.

The health care district has pledged $40 million toward the hospital's construction. It is expected to be built in four years.

Palm Beach Community College's Belle Glade campus is growing and now has food service on the campus, said Beverly Robinson, the campus' provost. The campus' first registered nurse program has been launched as well.

And big change could come to the Glades if the Port of Palm Beach makes good on its desire to build an "inland port" in the area.

With land at the port site in Riviera Beach already built out, port leaders are looking to the Glades as a place where cargo shipped into the port could be taken and then distributed by truck or train to its destination.

"The inland port is front and center in our hopes for future development," said Lori Baer, the port's executive director. "The port is out of room. We really have nowhere to grow."

Taylor, a West Palm Beach Democrat whose district includes areas of western Palm Beach County, said she holds the community meeting each year to give residents a sense of what new projects are in the works.

Beneath anger are desperate residents

It's not that they like yelling at the County Commission. Many are just at wits' end over increasing property tax bills.

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published September 17, 2006

Gone are the days of brief, sparsely attended budget hearings.

It used to be that county commissioners could vote on a multimillion-dollar budget in peace and quiet.

Not anymore.

"I would be here this year," said a weary Tom Hogan, who was recently appointed to the Hernando County Commission, just in time for the budget hearings.

In a scene that has been repeated around the state, emotional spectators crowded into commission chambers in Citrus and Hernando counties Thursday night to demand a tax cut.

Angry throngs complained that it costs more to fill their gas tanks, feed their families and insure their homes. Topping it off, ballooning property assessments mean swollen tax bills. With household budgets strained to the breaking point, residents looked to local governments for relief.

In Citrus County, commissioners voted 4-0 to approve a 1-mill cut, equal to $1 of tax for every $1,000 in taxable, assessed value.

Angry residents had already forced a lower millage rate out of the Citrus County School Board. The Tampa City Council voted 4-2 to lower its tax rate for the first time in two decades, by .131 mill. Hillsborough plans to cut by .39 mill and might go deeper after protests from residents.

"They have hard times," Hogan said. "And this increased tax bill is just the straw that broke the camel's back. It's an emotional thing."

Resident Dan Patrick told the Hernando County Commission that he has an office, a home and 17 acres. The value of his property skyrocketed in recent years, leaving him with a $31,000 tax bill.

"How would you like to pay them kind of taxes?" he said.

Patrick joined more than 100 spectators who overflowed Hernando County's budget hearing Thursday night, cheering calls for deep tax cuts and booing one woman who said it is not the time to lower taxes.

Emotional residents, some near tears, crowded the microphone to harangue the commissioners.

It worked.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to give the preliminary okay for a half-mill reduction that was first approved Sept. 8. That's 50 cents for every $1,000 in assessed value. The average homeowner would save $36.09, and it would cost the county $4.7-million next year.

Commission Chairwoman Diane Rowden, a Democrat and an opponent of the cut, said most of the crowd answered a call to action by Republicans and the cajoling of conservative radio talk show host Bob Haa.

But the naked desperation was hard to ignore.

Elsie Howell said she had to decide between buying a loaf of bread or paying her taxes.

Joseph Jordan demanded: "Where do I cut? Do I not eat? Do I quit taking medication?"

County property owners will pay $6.74 for every $1,000 in taxable assessed value if the half-mill reduction is approved at the final budget hearing Sept. 28.

That money funds the county's operating budget. In addition, county taxpayers pay nearly $1.88 for every $1,000 in taxable value for a handful of other funds set aside to fund the repair and building of roads, preservation of environmentally sensitive lands, emergency medical services, the county Health Department and a stormwater management program.

By contrast, the schools take nearly $8.19 for every $1,000 in taxable value. Residents of Brooksville pay an additional $7.50 for every $1,000 in taxable value to bankroll city operations.

The County Commission has no control over those taxes.

The county's rate cut threatened some renovations at the Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Richard Nugent had asked for $512,000 to pay for the headquarters' renovations and to build a pole barn to house supplies.

When the county could not pay for it, Nugent proposed spending money that his department had left over because it didn't hire as many deputies as he had hoped and hasn't yet had to cope with a hurricane this year.

Rowden sympathized with homeowners' increasing burdens, she said, but "I have nothing to do with the price of insurance. I have nothing to do with the price of their electric bill. My own electric bill is going up, too."

The tax cut could wipe out the county's reserves within four years, forcing it into debt at the same time that it's facing rising costs for road work and expensive capital improvements, such as renovating the old Brooksville Regional Hospital, she said.

The commission controls approximately one-half of a tax bill but bears the brunt of taxpayer outrage, Rowden said.

"They never say anything about the School Board," she said.

"For some reason, we seem to be in the cross hairs when it comes to spending money locally," said Commissioner Jeff Stabins, a Republican who voted for the tax rate reduction. "And that's fine. We're doing the best we can with what we can control."

Times staff writer Jonathan Abel contributed to this report. Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352 754-6127.

Focus on what is needed, not wanted

By Times editorial
Published September 17, 2006

Dozens of sticker-shocked residents of Citrus County complained long and loudly to their commissioners well into the night Thursday about their estimated property taxes for the coming year.

They were spitting mad about their bills, some of which doubled in a single year. They demanded that the board do the impossible, change state laws over which the commissioners have no control. They vowed revenge at the polls.

Five hours into the slugfest, the four commissioners in attendance did what they had promised the angry crowd at the outset that they would do: They provided some relief by cutting the tax rate by 1 mill.

That failed to satisfy many in the audience, who wanted the board to go to the rollback rate. Basically, that would mean raising the same amount of revenue as the county received this year through property taxes.

Doing so would have been fiscally irresponsible, and the commissioners wisely resisted the temptation to make a bad decision to placate a packed house of irate constituents. Equally irresponsible, however, would have been to keep the rate at its proposed level.

A more realistic, and fair, method would have been to start with the rollback rate and then increase spending at a rate comparable to the county's population growth, roughly 3 percent, or to the inflation rate, or even to the increase in the consumer price index, which is just more than 4 percent.

The proposed budget, however, calls for a 21 percent spending jump.

The net effect of the millage reduction is that the general fund portion of the budget will still increase by about $10-million in the coming year instead of the $21-million that was initially proposed.

Some items on the preliminary wish list will have to go; some hires won't happen. But that still leaves a substantial amount of new money for local government officers to play with in the coming year. Those extra millions, don't forget, come on top of more than $25-million in extra revenues that the county has reaped during the last five-plus years.

This millage cut will hardly cripple government. By getting less than expected, department heads will have to prioritize and to operate leaner.

In short, it will force government do what the overwhelming number of its customers have to do every day: Make do with less.

Good.

Clearly, the county has plenty of legitimate needs, and the extra revenue would have translated into improved services. There are important projects on the capital improvement program that must move forward. The county must have reserves. Commissioners have pledged to help residents who have been clobbered by astronomical water and sewer assessments and fees. Money must be spent to protect and restore our deteriorating waterways.

As they go about nipping and tucking their budgets in the coming days, the department heads must stay focused on spending the public's money on what is truly essential.

It is a needs-vs.-wants argument. Families do it all of the time. Government must do it, too.

Don't be surprised if many of the same residents who howled Thursday for a smaller budget return in the coming months and complain about cuts in services. People want it all; they just don't want to pay for it.

The commissioners said repeatedly that they will call upon the constitutional officers to reduce their budget requests at the same level as the county has done, and these elected officials should do so.

Shame on them all, by the way, for not attending the budget hearing Thursday night and facing the angry taxpayers. They knew that the commissioners were heading into a tough meeting with constituents, and instead of showing up to answer for their own budgets, they left the commissioners hanging out to dry.

Earlier in the week, the School Board gave some tax relief, voting to slice the district's millage rate from 7.66 to 7.46. After a brief meeting with her top aides, superintendent Sandra "Sam" Himmel announced a $2.8-million cut in spending, creating room for the millage reduction.

While welcome, that quick action raised an obvious question: If the administrators could find more than $2-million in cuts in a hallway meeting lasting only a few minutes, what kind of savings would be possible if the officials really went looking for places to trim?

As for the county's cuts, they should not be limited to only what is called for now that the millage rate is lower. A number of people at the hearing Thursday night identified specific areas in which savings could be found, and staff members and the commissioners should examine them all.

If some of them sound familiar, it might be because this newspaper has called for them repeatedly in recent years. Use smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles; carpool and share vehicles more often. Give employees the option of working at home, something that the county is finally going to consider.

Instead of building more expensive office space, and hiring more people to fill the offices, go to shift work. Have offices open at night and on weekends, when the working men and women of the county could actually go without taking time off from their jobs.

Get the full use out of the existing offices before building anything new. This includes the courthouse and the courtrooms, which sit unused for hours on end each week.

Use the tax revenues wisely and efficiently, and the residents are more likely to trust you with more of their money.

An absolute must is for the county, and all local taxing authorities, to adopt zero-based budgeting immediately. The current method of simply building onto last year's budget invites waste and discourages savings. It leads to proposed budget increases of 21 percent and to angry mobs at the commissioners' budget hearings.

Many of the complaints aimed at the commissioners Thursday missed the mark because the board's role is limited in the overall taxing process. The commissioners do not set property values; they do not control the state's Save Our Homes tax cap or the homestead exemption (although they could give certain senior citizens an increase in their exemptions).

They could suggest that the constitutional officers cut their budgets, but they cannot go line by line and make cuts. And if the officers choose to appeal their budgets to state officials, the law is heavily weighted in the constitutional officers' favor.

This year's battle over the budget and the millage rate came about because of a unique confluence of circumstances. Commissioner Dennis Damato is correct to say this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, when property values skyrocketed overnight and then began to plummet just as quickly, leaving values and taxes wildly out of kilter. It may take a year or more for these ripples to play themselves out.

Commissioners and all local taxing authorities, however, should seize this opportunity to get their own financial house in order by adopting better long-term budgeting practices and instituting greater fiscal responsibility.

The people paying the taxes have no choice but to live within their means. The same should apply to those who receive the public's money.

Fuming homeowners find ways to trim insurance bills

BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA
bgarcia@MiamiHerald.com

Debbie Roth Arthur was fuming when she got her State Farm renewal notice. Her annual premium tripled to nearly $5,800 from $1,900.

After the initial shock wore off, Arthur worked with her agent to reduce the pre-mium to about $3,500. Among the ways was raising her windstorm deductible from 2 percent to 5 percent and her property/casu-alty deductible from $1,000 to $5,000. She already had credits for shutters and fire alarms for her 1998 home in Kendall.

"Now the premium has just doubled, rather than tripled," says Arthur.

In recent weeks, South Florida insurance agents have been fielding desperate pleas from clients like Arthur who can't afford the huge bills arriving in their mailboxes.

There are steps homeowners can take to reduce their annual premiums, possibly by $2,000 to $3,000 if they qualify for all the credits offered by an insurer. Savings will vary greatly depending on the insurance company, policy type and insured value.

Besides raising deductibles, shedding rid-ers for jewelry, fancy stereo equipment or detached structures such as fences and sheds can save substantial bucks. You could even part with replacement-cost coverage.

However, there is a price: Reduced cover-age and much higher out-of-pocket expenses if your home is damaged in a catastrophec.

"Insurance is an individual thing. What's important to me may not be important to you. That's why you need to sit with your agent and review your policy," says Manny Miranda, a State Farm Florida agent in West Kendall.

"Miranda adds homeowners should be sure they have access to savings or a home equity line of credit to cover such expenses.

"Basically, what we're doing is stripping away all the extra coverages from a policy," says Gaby Dominguez, an agent with Avante Insurance in West Miami-Dade. "We got used to all these bells and whistles when premiums were low."

Ten tips to reduce your insurance bill

Hike deductibles: This can be painful, but it provides big savings. Move the windstorm deductible from 2 percent to 5 percent or even 10 percent. And on the property/casualty portion of a homeowners policy, deductibles can range from $500 to $2,500 or even $5,000 on big homes. Increase it by $1,000 or even more. Potential savings: $500 or more on your premium.

Opt for actual cost rather than replacement coverage on contents. That means if furniture and clothing are damaged, you'll receive what they're worth after depreciation. Most policies offer 50 percent to 75 percent of insured value for contents. For the structure, most insurers require coverage for the full rebuilding cost.

Avoid being overinsured. Insurance should cover the cost to rebuild your home. That's the amount of insurance you should buy, regardless of the market value or the price you paid for the house.

Many insurers apply ''inflation guards,'' which adjusts the insured value of a policy upward each year to keep up with higher construction and labor costs. Some insurance companies might be willing to drop inflation increases.

Drop coverage for fences, gazebos, garden sheds and screened enclosures. After Hurricane Wilma wiped out many of these structures, insurers dramatically increased the cost of this coverage anyway. Mold protection may be another one to cut: If mold is caused by a hurricane, removing it is covered by your windstorm policy.

Rack up those hurricane mitigation credits on your windstorm coverage. A ''hip'' roof, where all sides slope upward, is good and can mean an instant credit. A ''gabled'' roof is bad because its two gabled ends -- two vertical sides -- mean more wind resistance and thus no credit. Straps or clips that attach roof trusses to walls mean another credit. A full set of windstorm shutters or shatterproof windows can mean premium savings. With a hip roof: 23 percent to 32 percent; without a hip roof: 7 percent to 19 percent for homes built before 2002; more on new homes. Bottom line: These savings could trim $1,000 or more depending on the insurer.

Get your alarm discounts. Burglar and fire alarms: 5 percent off the property/casualty premium, more when combined with a sprinkler system.

Score on new or updated homes. Homes under 10 years old can qualify for discounts up to 20 percent.

Some insurers are adding surcharges on older homes. An inspection by an engineer, building inspector or architect might be needed to verify that an older home has a new roof, along with plumbing, electrical and heating/cooling systems that meet current building codes. Inspections cost $150 to $200.

Be claims free. Discounts for non-wind coverage can range from 5 percent off after two years with no claims to up to 20 percent if there are no claims after nine years. The flip-side: Many insurers impose a surcharge when non-hurricane claims are filed.

Group your home, auto, even boat policies with the same insurer. State Farm, for instance, offers a 2 percent discount on a homeowners policy and 15 percent off on auto insurance.

Harden your home for the future. Apply for the state's new free inspection program at www.mysafefloridahome.com or call 1-800-342-2762 and learn about your home's construction and what mitigation credits you can get. You may also be eligible for matching grants to strengthen your home against future storms.

*

As insurers lose money, we lose out

By MARK WOODS
The Times-Union

Grady Wester went to his mailbox the other day and found a letter from Allstate, the "You're in Good Hands" insurance company.

You'll have to excuse Wester, a retired police officer who lives in a mobile home on the Westside, if that slogan elicits a chuckle.

He had been putting his premiums in Allstate's hands for nearly 15 years. He says he always paid on time and never made a claim. Not on his mobile home. Not on his '84 truck.

"I'm a model citizen," he said. "And then, boom."

A form letter from an office on the other side of the state. Attributed to Phil Lawson, president of Allstate Floridian.

It was short and to the point.

At 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 14, Wester's policy will expire. And it won't be renewed.

"We made this decision to help ensure that Allstate Floridian can continue to provide quality service and competitive rates in the lines of insurance we offer ... " the letter said. "This decision is not a reflection of the quality of your home or your claim history."

He called his local agent and asked to have this explained "in 30 words or less." He says he was told it had to do with "shared responsibility."

There was a more detailed explanation, but it didn't really matter to him. All that he really cared about was the bottom line. His policy won't be renewed.

He had been paying $698 every six months for $50,000 of coverage. Now he can't even get most companies to give him a quote. One has: for $2,700.

"This probably isn't a story," he said. "I'm sure there are a lot of people out there like me."

There are. And that's exactly why this is a story, why we're using the word "crisis" to describe what is happening. All over the state, people like Wester are going to their mailboxes and finding surprises.

Earlier this year, Allstate announced that it had decided not to renew 120,000 policies. This comes after the company decided not to renew 95,000 policies last year. And while it's easy to take jabs at the Good Hands people, they're hardly alone.

In the past year, in Florida and Louisiana, more than 600,000 homeowners' property policies have been terminated or not renewed. And it's not necessarily because these homeowners have been making too many claims, or because they haven't paid their bills. It's because, well, they have homes in Florida and Louisiana.

Wester doesn't blame the local agent. And I'm not even going to mention the agent's name here. Blaming him would be like blaming the guy at the local gas station when regular topped $3.

And, as I wrote last week, I'm not necessarily laying the blame at the feet of the insurance companies. Some of it should go to the politicians who rolled over during the development of the state, thinking more about current gains than the future problems.

In a way, the insurance companies fell into the same trap. They went through a period of write, write, writing policies. Now they're backtracking, cutting losses and potential losses.

"I'm not smart enough to understand all this," Wester said, "but I know it's not right."

I'll second that. It's bad enough to hear about soaring rates. It's worse to hear about the "Dear Homeowner" letters.

Wester says he was told that Allstate would like to continue providing his auto insurance.

He laughs at this.

"That's like your wife coming to you and saying, 'I'm seeing this other guy, but I still want to be with you.' I don't think so."

mark.woods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212

Residents Near Lake Fear Flooding

By Bill Bair
The Ledger

LAKE WALES -- Cheryl Allen "just wants to come home" to the house on Belle Lake that she and her husband, Tom, purchased in 2004.

Repairs to the house are nearly complete, but the race is on to see if the rainy season ends before Belle Lake again floods homes on Peninsula Drive.

Until lake levels stabilize, Tom Allen, 59, said the couple will continue to rent storage space for their belongings, rent a second home and pay the mortgage on the home they cannot occupy.

That has been a financial strain.

There was a lot of that going on in East Polk County last year.

A year ago today, pumping began to ease flooding at Saddlebag Lake Resort east of Lake Wales, where more than 100 manufactured homes were either flooded or isolated by floodwaters.

Because of the water, electricity was cut to 274 of the 789 units in the development.

Because floodwater infiltrated the sewer system, water restrictions were imposed on remaining residents, who were required to use portable toilets set up throughout the development, rather than flushing toilets.

It was like that in many parts of East Polk.

Lake Clinch flooded numerous homes and yards near Frostproof, Belle Lake left Peninsula Drive and a few other homes around Belle Lake under water and there was isolated flooding throughout the area.

Polk County spent $300,000 to make emergency repairs to the drainage system between lakes Clinch and Reedy and $500,000 to buy pumps, pipe, fuel and pay overtime costs to pump water out of Saddlebag and Belle lakes.

At 103 feet above sea level, Saddlebag is now almost 5 feet below the high reached last summer and a foot lower than it was when pumping ended March 7.

The water that cascaded from Clinch to Reedy last year is now only a trickle because water levels have fallen.

But Belle Lake is again rising. The debate is whether it is because of recent heavy rain or Lake Wales city pumping -- or some of both.

The county projects were temporary. The pipes and pumps are now in storage, awaiting future problems, said Jeff Spence, the county's director of natural resources.

In the case of Saddlebag, where water was pumped two miles to Lake Rosalie, permits with two water districts and agreements with private property owners expired.

When pumping ended March 7, the pump at Saddlebag was moved to nearby Lake Thomas, which had also flooded several homes.

Lake Thomas was pumped into Lake Cypress, which eventually drains into Catfish Creek between lakes Pierce and Hatchineha.

Spence said the county is in the process of finding permanent solutions for Clinch, Saddlebag and Belle.

In the case of the drain between lakes Clinch and Reedy, about $3.8 million will be spent to replace existing 48-inch pipes with 72-inch pipes, to make more improvements to open ditches and to improve the structure over which Lake Clinch flows into the ditch.

The state has contributed $1 million to the project, with the remainder to be split between the county and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

At Saddlebag Lake, Spence said, work could begin in October on a $2.1 million plan to re-establish a historic drainage system between that lake and Lake Pearce.

That system involves draining Saddlebag to Lake Thomas, which will drain to Lake Cypress and then into Lake Pearce.

The Peace River Basin Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District has agreed to pay half the cost of that project.

"At this point it's a matter of acquiring easements and constructing," Spence said.

Belle Lake remains the problem.

Spence said the best option appears to be to install permanent pumps and pipes, which would be used during periods of high water or in advance of storms.

The Peace River Basin Board has agreed to pay half the cost, which is estimated at $1 million.

Spence said the county will ask the city of Lake Wales to split the remainder.

Peninsula Drive is just outside the city limits, but residents blame a city wastewater reclamation project for adding to their flood problems.

Residents Marcia Mudd, and Donald and Rita Ahern filed suit in Circuit Court seeking an injunction to stop the city from pumping 1.2 million gallons a day into sand basins south of the lake.

The suit has been temporarily dismissed, but is expected to be refiled to include the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said City Attorney Chuck Galloway.

Galloway said lawyers and engineers on both sides of the case met recently, but did not reach an agreement.

Resident Tom Allen agrees that three hurricanes in 2004, followed by an unusually wet winter and summer in 2005 in Southeast Polk, were largely responsible for flooding.

But he said city pumping exacerbated the situation and is responsible for the lake remaining high.

"Without a doubt, Mother Nature is responsible for the lion's share of this," Spence said.

However, he said, the city project also has an influence -- "how much, I can't say."

Pumping is being considered because the city cannot s imply stop discharging 1.2 million gallons a day of treated wastewater. That water has got to go somewhere and the sand rapid infiltration basins allow it to filter back into the aquifer and groundwater tables.

Those discharges have been going on since 1999, after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection ordered the city to cease discharging directly into the Peace Creek Drainage Canal.

DEP officials issued permits for the city to construct the $1.2 million infiltration basins, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District helped finance the project.

Ironically, the pumping solution could mean the water ends up going full circle.

Treated wastewater is pumped from the city's treatment plant west of U.S. 27 near the Peace Creek Canal. It is pumped into the sand basins south of Belle Lake, which residents claim raises the water levels.

If the pumping project is constructed, water would be pumped from the lake, under U.S. 27 and back to the Peace Creek.

Allen said the city should take an interest in funding the solution because it is in the process of selling 365 acres near the lake to the Feltrim Development Co., which is planning a 1,024-unit housing complex.

If the lake were to continue to rise, Allen said parts of that property could flood.

Bill Bair can be reached at bill.bair@theledger.com or 863-676-7118.

I empathize with Mr. Myers but I have one thing to say. How can the proposed Hickory Hill development make Spring Lake worse than it already is?

Take a tour of Wesley Chapel and find out.

Area's ruin predates Hickory Hill

Letter to the Editor
Published September 17, 2006

Hickory Hill will ruin rural way of life we enjoy, Sept. 12 letter to the editor:

Let's face the facts: How can the proposed Hickory Hill development make the Spring Lake area any worse then it already is?

We've lived in the Spring Lake area all our lives and even went to school in Spring Lake. And, yes, at one time this was a great place to live and raise a family. Now all I hear is how a development is going to ruin your way of life. Let's take a look at this.

I once was surrounded by orange groves and woods and fields. Now all the woods and groves are being cleared; house after house is popping up all around. I once could travel down Hickory Hill Road and never meet another vehicle, and when I did they understood that, this being a one-lane road, we had to share. Not any more. Now no one wants to get their vehicle off the pavement so we can pass safely.

I used to be able to keep my property unfenced. Not any more; now we have people trying to use our drive to get to their property with no concern that the extra traffic will ruin my driveway.

I used to be able to use my trash bin that I am paying for my own use. Not any more; now everyone wants me to foot the bill while they get an easy way to dump their trash.

I used to be able to travel the roads around Spring Lake and feel fairly safe. Not any more; now we have the motorcycle maniacs using these roads as their weekend race tracks and, if that's not bad enough, you have the bicyclists - hundreds of them - impeding traffic on the hills and curves in the area. God forbid, they pull over and let you by! Aren't there bike trails elsewhere in Hernando County?

Now we have all these special people who have moved in from the Tampa and Orlando areas who still work in these towns, and who have no time to waste getting to their jobs. They tailgate, pass in no-passing zones including hills, curves and even the turn lanes at intersections. We have people who, all of a sudden, are concerned about the groundwater in the area when the golf courses are put in. Where were these people when, for the past 30-plus years, all the fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides were, and are still being, used on the ranches and groves? Will a golf course use more?

So, what will the development bring? More houses? They're still being built. More people? They're still coming. More traffic? Look around.

Everyone has his opinion; mine is neutral. I don't care either way. But I do oppose one person from the Spring Lake area speaking on my behalf.

You say this development is going change your way of life? Well, you've already changed mine.

Richard Myers, Brooksville

Park issues matter of right, wrong

St. Petersburg Times Letter to the Editor
Published September 13, 2006

I've been reading all these letters and opinions about what's happening to mobile home owners, and I thought of another side of it. It seems to me that it's not just a matter of business, or park owners and residents against developers. It's also an issue of morality.

It seems pitiful that hundreds, even thousands, of folks can be put out on the street with little or no recompense for their investment. But where is the indignation by the state that unscrupulous developers show no compassion or interest in the people who are being evicted from their homes?

Do the buyers of these parks have any conscience? Or are they only interested in the money? Are the owners of the parks so callous that it doesn't faze them to put senior citizens out of their homes? Is there no sense of right and wrong in the business community anymore? Maybe if some of these developers had parents who lived in a mobile home park they'd think twice before forcing them out of a home they'd lived in for years.

I was born in Florida almost 60 years ago and have never been more ashamed to be called a native than I am now! And the politicians who won't address this issue with some concrete solutions and relief to the mobile home owners ought to be totally ashamed of themselves. This state is losing its soul when it allows the rich to step all over and ruin people's lives and homes in the name of the almighty dollar.

There are those in our community who are fighting hard to preserve this lifestyle and to them I say thank you. Are there any lawyers out there with any backbone? Someone who is willing to fight for "right" vs. "wrong"? That's the issue here - right and wrong!

Glenn Johnson, St. Petersburg

Residents Fight New Wal-Mart

By CHRISTIAN M. WADE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 17, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - An empty field at Grand Boulevard and State Road 54 is shaping up as the battleground for Pasco County's latest Wal-Mart fight.

Residents in the Colonial Hills subdivision are mounting a campaign against a planned 189,974-square-foot supercenter, saying the store would be too large, noisy and busy for a residential area and that they never expected a big-box store in their backyard.

This isn't another neighborhood war against sprawl, however.

"We're not fighting development," said Cynthia Besio, who organized the campaign against the world's largest retailer. "We just don't want another Wal-Mart store."

The denizens of this heavily developed section of west Pasco County, a closely knit working-class hamlet surrounded by strip malls and highways, would rather see anything go into the 25-acre parcel that years ago housed a lumber yard and auto auction site.

A Publix? Sure.

Kash n' Karry? No problem.

But Wal-Mart?

"Anything but a Wal-Mart," said Bob Mulkey, who has lived in the neighborhood with his wife, Theresa, for more than 27 years. "It's not just right for our community."

So they are mobilizing residents with meetings, collecting signatures on petitions and mounting a formal appeal to Pasco County commissioners, scheduled for Oct. 24.

The appeal is based on arguments that residents whose properties border the proposed supercenter site were not properly notified that the plans were being voted on.

If the appeal is granted, the proposal would be sent back to the county's development review committee. The commission would have the final say.

Kay Maley, who has lived in Colonial Hills since the mid-1980s when there were orange groves in the neighborhood, said she learned about Wal-Mart's plans from a neighbor.

"The company says they notified us by mail," she said. "I never got a letter."

In May, the county commission unanimously approved with little fanfare the preliminary site plans for the 24-hour superstore, which will include a garden center.

Pasco transportation planners said the company's proposal meets county standards.

Residents disagree. They said county planners are ignoring the problem of increased traffic in a place where the lines between retail and residential often are blurred. They are preparing an independent traffic study to prove it.

Wal-Mart representatives have said they intend to spend more than $4 million on road improvements to accommodate traffic coming in and out of its business, including adding turn lanes in the State Route 54 median and realigning a portion of Grand Boulevard.

Residents, however, said such improvements won't reduce traffic.

"The improvements will only maintain the grade level of the traffic in this area, not improve the conditions," Bob Mulkey said. "It's going to be a nightmare."

Besio said the plans were rushed through with little input from the community.

"We wanted to be included in this process," she said. "We wanted to be heard, but instead the politicians and the company representatives treated us like children."

Glenn Smith, a lawyer for Wal-Mart, could not be reached for comment.

The revolt in this community of about 2,000 residents is the latest in a number of Wal-Mart fights that have erupted in recent years, as the giant retailer carves out its territory in one of Florida's fastest-growing regions.

The opposition has met with mixed success.

Rezoning problems torpedoed plans by Wal-Mart to build a store at U.S. 19 and Gulf Trace Boulevard after residents raised concerns. The county approved a store at U.S. 19 and Beacon Woods Drive in Hudson, despite opposition from the neighborhood.

In many ways, the proposed New Port Richey site seems like the perfect location for a new shopping center: an old industrial site; traffic rushing by on all sides from nearby highways and a ready-made consumer base in surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Colonial Hills was built in the late-1960s, years before the property was designated for commercial use and when the county established its existing planning and zoning laws.

The intersection was occupied by a Cox Lumber yard and an auto auction business for a few years; since then the land has been vacant, and nature has reclaimed much of it.

Most residents said they know something has to be done with the property, which has become an eyesore and a stomping ground for vagrants and squatters.

They welcome a department store or a grocery store, just not a Wal-Mart.

"Anything but Wal-Mart," Besio said.

Pasco County Commissioner Anne Hildebrand, whose district encompasses the area, said she understands residents' concerns but knows Wal-Mart has the upper hand.

"They own the property, and the project proposal meets the zoning laws, but they'll have to satisfy the transportation problem," she said. "We're waiting to see."

Meanwhile, opponents are digging in for battle.

"We're going to fight this all the way," Besio said. "This is our neighborhood."

Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

Alliance: Damato had mind made up

A group fighting the Riverside Resort says his prepared statement shows the commissioner ignored opposing views.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published September 17, 2006

At County Commission meetings, prepared statements are a hallmark of Dennis Damato's comments from the dais.

The first-term commissioner says that approach helps him get a handle on complicated issues and explain them clearly to the public.

But members of the Save the Homosassa River Alliance say Damato's prepared statement at a July meeting showed that he made up his mind before listening to both sides of a controversial issue.

That, the group said in a lawsuit it filed against the county last month, is one reason why a judge should overturn the commission's 3-2 vote in favor of expansion plans for the Riverside Resort in Homosassa.

"We were a little bit stunned by him having a prepared report on his position," alliance president Priscilla Watkins said. "By law commissioners must come to each hearing with an open mind. They should be willing to listen to all testimony and then decide."

The case is still pending. And County Attorney Robert "Butch" Battista says the group's argument doesn't carry legal weight.

But the issue of when - and how - commissioners make decisions is a familiar one for the county's legal staff.

In November 2002, Circuit Judge Jack Springstead rebuked the commission majority for ignoring the testimony of project opponents in his ruling overturning the commission's approval of the Halls River Retreat condominium project.

Damato said this week that the alliance's allegations against him are unfounded, and his actions will hold up in court.

"I listened to them, and they listened to me," he said. "Had I heard new information or information that would have made me change my mind, I could have just taken that prepared statement and thrown it in the wastepaper basket."

At issue is the County Commission's 3-2 approval of expansion plans for the Riverside Resort. Damato, Commission Chairman Gary Bartell and Commissioner Jim Fowler voted to support the project. Commissioners Vicki Phillips and Joyce Valentino voted against it.

The Riverside Resort's owners proposed leveling all buildings on the east side of the main entrance road and replacing them with 72 motel suites in buildings of three stories over parking, and 15 regular motel rooms in two stories over retail.

Representatives for the project said that approach would allow them to preserve more open space on the property.

But members of the Homosassa River Alliance said the resort's plan is not compatible with its surroundings in Old Homosassa. In their lawsuit, they say the expansion would increase density to an unacceptable level, violate provisions of the county's comprehensive plan and fly in the face of special Old Homosassa redevelopment rules mapped out by the residents and adopted by the county last year.

Alliance members say Damato ignored substantial evidence they presented at the commission's July 11 hearing against the Riverside Resort project.

"It is clear from the events of that evening that Commissioner Damato had concluded that he would vote in favor of the application" before hearing their presentations, the lawsuit says.

When making their decision, commissioners were required to follow guidelines of quasijudicial proceedings, which means they were required to act like judges. They must consider all testimony presented during the hearing and disclose whether anyone has discussed the project with them or if they had visited the site before the meeting. But Battista said that doesn't mean they can't also consider background information provided in their file - such as site plans and sworn testimony from the Planning and Development Review Board meetings.

Damato's decision to prepare a statement after reviewing the file county staffers provided him was "not anything out of the ordinary," he said.

"If he had heard something during the proceedings that caused him to change his mind, he could have changed his statement," Battista said. "Usually the testimony you hear only bolsters what you've got in the file."

The approach, Damato says, comes from his 35 years as a general contractor and shows that he does his homework before meetings.

"You're not just reacting to what you're hearing from proponents and opponents," he said.

Damato said he plans to use prepared statements again in the future when "hot-button, technical issues" come up.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," he said. "Every time I see President Bush on television, he's reading from a teleprompter. I see absolutely nothing wrong with it as long as I listen to the people."

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

Residents hunt for San Miguel artifacts

By TaMaryn Waters
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

It was a dirty job, but no one seemed to mind.

Children wiggled their toes in the earth Saturday and playfully tossed scoops of mud at each other. A few feet away, adults were just as dirty from running their fingers across a sifting screen, hoping to find pieces of history.

Residents endured a hot afternoon Saturday in the San Miguel neighborhood, a community currently under construction off Chairs Cross Road, searching for links to the Apalachee Indians. In the past few weeks, they have found several artifacts dating to the Mission period, between 1633 and 1704, and they were eager to find more.

"It's really amazing that neighbors are doing this," said Lynn Mangan, a future homeowner at San Miguel. "This is our last chance to see what's under the roads."

Although the neighborhood isn't finished, it has attracted numerous families with the concept of creating a Christian community. But anyone is welcome.

Mangan was part of a group of 15 residents that helped during the excavation. She found several pieces of pottery. Residents filled plastic bags with the pieces, which will be used to create a mosaic in honor of the Indians who lived on the land.

Archaeologist Scott McNutt said it would be a good time to look for artifacts once the neighborhood's developers began carving roads.

As children ran up to McNutt to reveal their findings, they found out that some pieces were not always used as pottery. For example, small pieces of limestone were used as round gaming discs or an "Indian version of checkers," McNutt said.

Robin Fennema said she purchased a lot that was close to where they were digging Saturday, and she felt honored to be part of the excavation.

"Just think, someone used to live here 300 years ago," Fennema said. "It's beautiful. It's history."

Poll to Help Manage Gators

By Tom Palmer
The Ledger

LAKELAND -- Some Floridians have seen alligators their entire lives and some Floridians know little about them outside of press accounts of fatal attacks on pets or humans.

State wildlife officials want to hear from that kind of cross section of residents as part of the first comprehensive review of alligator management in Florida in decades.

The online poll is being conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"It's very open-ended," said Harry Dutton, a wildlife biologist in the agency's Tallahassee headquarters who is directing the effort.

"This is something that really hasn't been talked about comprehensively in 20 years," Dutton said.

Alligators are aquatic reptiles that were once driven to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting.

Dutton said today biologists estimate Florida's alligator population at about 1 million, but explained that includes everything from baby alligators to old males more than 10 feet long.

The bulk of Florida's alligators are 4 feet or shorter, he said.

That fact points out what he hopes will be a complementary effect of the survey, which will be to educate the public about alligators while soliciting their opinions.

Dutton said FWC officials are looking at the issue from various angles, ranging from commercial harvest to conservation and scientific research.

Results of the survey, which will begin next week and continue until Sept. 29, will be reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's seven-member governing commission at its Dec. 6-7 meeting in Key Largo.

If any changes are proposed, they will not be adopted until after the agency holds a series of public meetings.

To participate in the survey, go to MyFWC.com/gators/ input.html. The site also contains detailed information about alligators.

Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or 863-802-7535.

State raises questions about development habitat, a state report says.

By DAN DEWITT
Published September 16, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - In a report released Friday, the state says the proposed Hickory Hill development would promote sprawl, undermine the county's efforts to preserve habitat and create 1,749 new home sites without proving the county needs them.

Hickory Hill "allows or designates significant amounts of urban development to occur in rural areas at substantial distances from existing urban areas while leaping over undeveloped lands," says the report from the state Department of Community Affairs, which regulates local planning.

In June, the County Commission voted to back a change in its comprehensive plan to allow the construction of Hickory Hill, which also would include three golf courses and a neighborhood shopping center, on what is now a 2,800-acre ranch in Spring Lake, east of Brooksville.

Friday's report is the state's first answer to the proposed comprehensive plan change. As is always the case, the document listed not only objections, but also recommendations on how to answer them. The county must respond within 60 days.

In many cases, the state recommends that the county provide more information to support the change to the comprehensive plan.

For example, the report says "the transportation amendment is not supported by an adequate transportation analysis."

It also asks for more details about how the developer will protect wildlife and how it will provide sewage treatment and other services.

Hickory Hill's developer, Sierra Properties LLC of Tampa, has not had time to analyze the report, which was released late Friday afternoon, said Sebring Sierra, vice president of operations.

Still, the company is confident it can satisfy DCA, Sierra said in an e-mail.

"It appears as if most of the suggestions are asking for greater clarification or detail," he said.

Jim King, the county planner who helped write the proposed change to the comprehensive plan, also said he had not had a chance to carefully read the report on Friday.

But many of the state's objections mirrored the arguments offered by Hickory Hill's opponents.

For example, the opponents have repeatedly cited a county policy stating that the county must prove a need for more residential sites before it allows subdivisions to spread to rural land.

According to the DCA report, the county already has enough land in its plan for 76,000 houses, enough to more than double its current population, and more than twice as many as it needs to accommodate population growth over the next 20 years.

"Thus, there does not appear to be a demonstrated need for additional residential density," the state report says.

The state has nine rules to determine whether a project promotes sprawl. The report says Hickory Hill would violate six of those, ultimately inflating the cost of government services.

Allowing Hickory Hill to be developed, the report says, would "increase the cost in time, money and energy of providing and maintaining facilities and services, including roads, potable water, sanitary sewer, stormwater management, law enforcement, education, health care, fire and emergency services."

North Port residents to county: Plug growth

By JOHN DAVIS and PATRICK WHITTLE

john.davis@heraldtribune.com
patrick.whittle@heraldtribune.com

NORTH PORT -- Barri Burrus wants to put county government in control of North Port's land growth, and she thinks the county's residents should be allowed to vote such a reform into law.

But despite her best efforts to convince the County Commission, Burrus won't be able to cast a vote for at least six months.

Burrus, a Nokomis psychologist, was in Venice on Thursday to tell commissioners what a county survey confirms is a view shared by many: The cities of North Port and Venice have grown too fast, causing problems for people countywide.

The cities are opposed and are brokering joint planning agreements with Sarasota County to avoid a referendum that could give the county veto power over how city-annexed land is developed.

The latest overtures from Venice and North Port, including promises to stop annexing land for six months, left Burrus unimpressed.

"I hear requests for more time," she said. "What's new?"

But neither Burrus' disdain nor intense encouragement from dozens of city and county residents was enough to convince the Sarasota County Commission to pull the trigger on a referendum.

About 80 people asked to address the County Commission on Thursday, as if to amplify a survey that says taxpayers don't approve of unchecked growth in Sarasota County.

One of the residents was Rita Sakowicz, a Venice resident who lamented the loss of green space in the city she's lived in for 16 years. She, like dozens of others, called on the commission to give voters a voice.

"If the cities can't do this on their own, then Big Brother needs to step in," Sakowicz said Friday. "Go down East Venice Avenue. It's become so ugly."

Sakowicz and many others are miffed by a city-county plan, approved Thursday, to negotiate on how to grow responsibly. They painted the cities as irresponsible, needing a baby sitter more than a seat at the bargaining table.

But instead of putting growth controls up for a vote, the commission chose to limit the discourse to city and county officials.

County Commissioner Jon Thaxton said the residents' comments resonated. Still, he chose to give the cities "one last try."

"Taxpayers are sick and tired of the loss of community that results from ill-planned development and funding infrastructure for new growth out of their pockets," he said.

North Port City Commissioner Barbara Gross said some of the residents who supported the referendum represent an unrealistic approach to development.

"A lot of people that move to Florida, once they get here, they don't want anybody else to come," Gross said. "If you don't want anybody else to come, ever, then you've got to buy up the land so it can't be developed."

North Port has looked at development as a way to become a more complete, though much larger city. The growth, the city hopes, will solve problems such as North Port's shortage of parks, health care facilities, office buildings and even golf courses by expanding the tax base and attracting more services.

And while North Port leaders say they will work diligently with Sarasota County to come up with better ways to manage growth, the fast-growing city is not turning its back on development.

Indeed, city leaders stressed Friday that they have no plans to torpedo one of the most controversial projects, the 12,000-home Isles of Athena project planned for rural land east of the city.

Sarasota officials have called the area, with its large amount of wetlands, one of the most ecologically important undeveloped tracts in all of Sarasota County. Thaxton said he would prefer that the Isles of Athena project be rejected and the land preserved.

But the view from North Port is entirely different.

"I better not read tomorrow that we're sinking the Isles of Athena," Gross told a reporter. "And don't even begin to engineer anything I've said to indicate that."

Gov. says yes to dredging
Impact is expected to be minimal

By Bruce Ritchie
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

The state is close to issuing a permit for a controversial dredging project in Franklin County.

The owners of the new Carrabelle Boat Club have requested a permit to remove sand from a section of Postum Bayou between the Carrabelle River and their marina.

The Carrabelle City Commission opposes the project and has policies prohibiting new dredging, Carrabelle Mayor Mel Kelly said this week.

"Once this is approved, there will be no reason for other dredging not to be approved," Kelly said Thursday. She added that the issue has divided the city of 1,303 as it deals with rapid growth.

A deadline for challenging the proposed permit may have passed on Friday. Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Sally Cooey said no challenge had been filed, but she could not say when the deadline is for filing a challenge.

Opponents said manatees and sea turtles have been seen in the bayou and could be affected by dredging and boat traffic. DEP said the area is not one where manatees congregate.

The governor and Cabinet last month voted to allow the project after a DEP official said there would be minimal dredging. Under the proposed permit, the Carrabelle Boat Club can remove up to 1 foot of sand from three portions of Postum Bayou that total 665 feet in length.

Steve Lewis, an attorney for the Carrabelle Boat Club, told the governor and Cabinet on Aug. 15 the dredging would bring jobs to the marina, which he said is within a designated "enterprise zone" for economic development. The state has identified Franklin County as having a "critical" need for economic growth.

Panama City airport okayed; hurdles loom

The state's biggest developer has said the airport is key to its plans for the area.

By CRAIG PITTMAN and KRIS HUNDLEY
Published September 16, 2006

The Federal Aviation Administration approved a new $300-million airport on Friday 20 miles north of Panama City on land donated by the state's biggest developer, despite opposition from many local voters.

The airport would be the first to be built since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It would cover 4,000 acres, making it larger than Tampa International Airport.

When it would open is unclear because of uncertainties surrounding the project, including federal permits needed to destroy 2,000 acres of wetlands and the possibility of environmental lawsuits.

Supporters say the airport would help generate growth in the sparsely settled Panhandle. Opponents dislike it for the same reason.

The site is so remote that its nearest neighbor is the 6,900-acre Pine Log State Forest. Until a few years ago it was leased to the state as a wildlife management area. But the St. Joe Co., the state's largest private landowner, has said the airport is essential to its plans for the surrounding countryside: homes, stores, offices, hotels, bars, schools, even a barge port.

"Definitely St. Joe will benefit," said Randy Curtis, executive director of the Panama City-Bay County Airport Authority. "But they're a major part of our community, and this is going to be a major benefit for the whole community."

State officials say that the current airport on St. Andrews Bay is vulnerable to hurricane storm surge and that the runways are too short to handle big jetliners.

State officials also like that St. Joe pledged to preserve thousands of acres if the airport is built.

Gov. Jeb Bush, in a statement that did not mention St. Joe, saluted the FAA's decision: "Relocating the airport expands economic development and tourism in the region and protects thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive lands in the Florida Panhandle."

In a nonbinding referendum in 2004, Bay County voters rejected the airport relocation proposal 54 percent to 46 percent even though the ballot wording said it would not cost taxpayers anything. In fact, state and federal tax dollars would be used.

Critics have blasted the project as more of a boondoggle than a boon.

The airport, based in a county of 161,000 residents, is so quiet now that the control tower shuts down every night at 10.

It offers a dozen daily commercial flights - half the number it had five years ago.

Linda Young of the Clean Water Network in Tallahassee called the FAA's decision "one of the biggest corporate welfare scams of the year."

"We're going to spend $300-million on an airport that's completely unneeded just so St. Joe's land values will increase," she said.

Panama City resident Don Hodges, a retired Delta Air Lines executive who has repeatedly questioned the project, said, "If we really need a new airport - and many people are not convinced - there must be a better site than this."

St. Joe executives issued a terse statement Friday, noting the FAA decision and saying it has agreed to donate land for the airport "when all permits and funding for relocation are in place." Executives of the Jacksonville company did not return phone calls for comment.

Business analysts say the FAA's decision is a big boost for a company that recently announced it is laying off 200 employees because of the real estate downturn.

"There are no comparable land sales to point to in order to highlight the potential value of Joe's land around the airport, as it is unprecedented for one landowner to own all the developable acreage around a new airport," said business analyst Sheila McGrath of Ryan Beck & Co. She predicted the new airport will open the door to broader markets for St. Joe's resort projects throughout the Panhandle.

St. Joe chief executive office Peter Rummell has previously told stockholders the airport was "essential" to spurring development on more than 70,000 acres of St. Joe land around the airport site. In a 2002 interview he said that without the new airport, the company's plans might never bear fruit.

In that same interview, Rummell said he personally lobbied the governor to put taxpayer money behind the project. Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Dick Kane said Friday the state has budgeted $97-million for the new airport over the next five years.

But last month company spokesman Jerry Ray contended St. Joe's plans do not rely on the airport.

"We don't assume there's an airport in our business plan," he said. "It has never been in there."

St. Joe salesmen have used the proposed airport as a selling point for buyers.

Ryan Fleming, sales manager for a St. Joe development called RiverCamps at Crooked Creek, told prospective buyers in mid August, "They'll start construction on the new airport in 2007, and the first flights will take off in 2009."

Those dates are not that firm.

One question mark is money. To finance the move, Bay County hopes to sell the current airport site for at least $50-million, said Curtis, the airport authority's executive director. The rest of the cost is to be borne by state and federal taxpayers. A shortfall in the sale of the airport could pose a problem for financing the relocation.

Last spring the FAA published an environmental impact statement that said moving the airport to the St. Joe site appeared to be the best alternative. The Natural Resources Defense Council, however, responded that the FAA had failed to take into account redevelopment plans for the existing airport or planned development adjacent to the proposed site.

Defense Council attorney Melanie Shepherdson said Friday the FAA did not reply to its concerns.

Shepherdson said it's premature to suggest that her group might sue. But the council, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups last year persuaded a federal judge to halt construction on several St. Joe projects because of flaws in the wetland destruction permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The airport requires a separate wetlands permit, which has not been approved.

In the past 30 years, only four new commercial airports have been built: in Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Fort Myers and Fayetteville, Ark. Each took decades of planning and study.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the airline industry has been buffeted by financial woes. Northwest and Delta have cut back the number of seats available for flights at the current Panama City airport.

 

New group opposes curtailing amendments

Trust the Voters' politically diverse leaders say a ballot proposal aims to discourage petitions to amend the Constitution.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 16, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Former Democratic Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, the chairman of a conservative think tank and a Republican ex-legislator joined Friday in forming a group opposed to a ballot proposition that would make it more difficult to amend the Florida Constitution.

Amendment 3, placed on the Nov. 7 ballot by the Legislature, would require at least 60 percent of voters casting ballots instead of a simple majority to approve any amendment to the Constitution. That includes those proposed by lawmakers as well as citizen initiatives.

Graham called it one of the most important decisions voters will make this year. "That is whether to take away part of our rights in this great democracy to be active participants through Florida's initiative process," he said at a news conference.

He said the 60 percent requirement would discourage citizens from even trying to use the petition process.

Panama City businessman-lawyer Charlie Hilton, chairman of the James Madison Institute, former Republican state Rep. Bill Sublette of Orlando and Graham are co-chairing the group, called Trust the Voters.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has created a political committee dubbed Protect Our Constitution to support passage of Amendment 3.

Both sides claim to be aligned with Florida's citizens against special interests.

While most constitutional changes are offered by the Legislature, the debate is focused on citizen initiatives.

Mark Wilson, chamber executive vice president, said the amendment would discourage special interests from trying in effect to "buy" an amendment by paying petition gatherers to promote it to voters.

"They want to keep our Constitution for sale," Wilson said. "We want to return the process to the citizens."

Successful initiatives have included a ban on smoking in public places, class size limits for public schools, limits to tax increases on homes, creation of a universal prekindergarten program, limits on legal fees in medical malpractice cases and a minimum wage increase.

"The initiative process serves a useful purpose of riding herd over the Legislature and encouraging them to do things," Hilton said. "If they don't do it, the people can, if they feel strong enough about it, take it into their own hands."

An initiative that passed to protect pregnant pigs is often cited as the "poster child" for limiting amendments, University of Florida political scientist Dan Smith said. He said it has gotten a bad rap - in reality, it has kept environmentally harmful factory farms out of Florida.

The chamber's Wilson said Graham has a vested interest in keeping it easy to amend the Constitution.

Graham pushed a successful initiative to create the Board of Governors that oversees the state's university system. He also is backing a proposal for the 2008 ballot that would strip state lawmakers of their redistricting power and give it to an independent commission.

Sublette suggested businesses backing Amendment 3 are afraid of other future citizen initiatives dealing with growth management and sales taxes.

He opposes the measure even though he is chairman of No Casinos Inc., which failed to prevent passage of an initiative permitting limited casino gambling.

Sublette said Amendment 3 is an attempt by lobbyists and money interests to thwart the ability of citizens to bypass the Legislature. "The Tallahassee legislative process is dominated by lobbyists, special interests and big money," Sublette said.

The issue has put Hilton at odds with an old friend and business partner, House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City.

"Pregnant pigs is the perfect example of things we don't need in our Constitution," Bense said. "It should be hard to amend the Constitution."

AMENDMENT 3 BALLOT SUMMARY

"Proposes an amendment to Section 5 of Article XI of the State Constitution to require that any proposed amendment to or revision of the State Constitution, whether proposed by the Legislature, by initiative, or by any other method, must be approved by at least 60 percent of the voters of the state voting on the measure, rather than by a simple majority. This proposed amendment would not change the current requirement that a proposed constitutional amendment imposing a new state tax or fee be approved by at least 2/3 of the voters of the state voting in the election in which such an amendment is considered."

Taxing Effect

By GARY PINNELL
gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

SEBRING — Ron and Elaine Durham are giving up their house at Lake Istokpoga to move into Sebring. That’s for personal reasons that they didn’t want to discuss.

But they’re also rethinking their decision to continue their retirement in Highlands County.

Why? Their 2006 property tax bill rose from $3,000 to $5,000.

“It went up 42 percent, without the homestead exemption,” said Elaine Durham.

Why? “The market value is so high,” she answered.

That’s a blessing for real estate investors, but for people who want to live in their homes, it’s appalling.

Tom Klepinger of Sebring was talking with the tax assessor at Highlands County Government Center on Friday. He bought three lots two years ago, and neglected to file for a homestead exemption. Their value went up from $40,000 each to $120,000 each. That meant Klepinger’s tax bill zoomed $2,460 to $6,490.

“That’s 270 percent,” he marveled. And to pay that bill would have cost him 25 percent of his annual income.

Fortunately, he convinced the assessor’s office to help, and they agreed to grant a homestead exception that will lower his bill. He’s not sure how much.

Klepinger prepared to argue that the assessors were wrong. He went to three real estate agents, hoping they’d agree that the three waterfront lots weren’t really worth that much. They disagreed. They thought the tax valuation was really only 80 percent of the real worth of the lots.

Well, if he could find buyers for the lots.

Market prices are sky high right now, said Dayna Carlton, a RE/MAX real estate agent who was lunching with a client downtown in front of Sandy’s Circle Cafe.

“Lots aren’t selling,” she said. “The people who made their profits off them are gone. Things are beginning to change, but not overnight.”

She spotted a friend, Max Auster, who is selling his West Palm Beach house and moving to Lake Placid. He’s bought two lots, which rose 50 percent in value.

“I’m not complaining, though,” he smiled at the irony. His coastal home will be worth far more than his Highlands County house.

Several residents said their property tax bills won’t go up significantly, like Lynda Bourdeau of Sebring, whose tax bill went up from $700 to $1,000. She and her husband have a homestead exemption.

For the Durhams, however, their lifestyles are being affected by higher gasoline prices, insurance premiums and the like.

“We’re retired, on a limited income,” Elaine Durham said.

“We were just talking to some friends of ours,” Ron Durham said. “Gasoline is $2.28 in Indiana, and $2.16 in Ohio.” That’s compared to $2.65 a gallon in Sebring.

“I’m not sure how much longer we’ll live in Highlands County,” he said. She nodded.

Lawmaker Requests Audit Of Authority

By RICH SHOPES and LINDSAY PETERSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 16, 2006

TAMPA - A Tampa legislator has asked for a far-reaching investigation of the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority that would extend beyond the latest controversy and look into the authority's overall operations.

"There's just been too much outcry over the problems," state Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, said Friday. "The board has lost its credibility with the community."

In a letter this week to state Rep. Ed Homan, chairman of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, Crist formally asked the committee to investigate the authority.

The committee has the power to convene hearings and subpoena witnesses. It can scrutinize finances, relationships with contractors and overall operations of public agencies, such as the expressway authority.

"This committee can bring to the table all entities that could be needed to perform a thorough review," Crist said.

Allegations surfaced weeks ago that officials with the authority tried to influence the awarding of a contract for legal services worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The state's auditor general is investigating the authority's finances, and Gov. Jeb Bush has recommended that the authority throw out bids for its legal services contract and start the process over.

The authority enacted Bush's recommendation and others Monday, including that it fire its current general counsel and appoint an interim law firm to that post.

The expressway authority, which handles millions of dollars in tolls and public funding for road projects, was created by the Legislature in 1963 to build the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway.

In 2001, the authority started to expand the expressway by building an elevated highway to