This one is more like national news This is similar to what is happening in Pasco County. Developers are crowding to Citizens Advisory Committee and other meetings protesting the Special Area Plan and suggestions made by the CAC and consultants. Scare tactics are also being employed to frighten landowners into believing their property will be devalued. This is NOT SO. Current future land use and zoning designations will NOT be changed if the overlays are adopted. Take a look at this column on the benefits of similarly protected property in Washington State. And this article on the economics of open space conservation. Florida legislators have been talking about the importance of rural preservation for years Rural Subdivision Design Article:  Case Law on Transferable Development  Rights (TDRs)

 

Although most people who take the time to look at this website are aware that the comments I e on this page are my own personal opinions and not necessarily that of the group, I have decided to keep them separate from published news items.

Updated March 23 : If you want to know what I have to say about what is going on click here.

 There is a comment feature so you can add your two-cents if you are so inclined.

Stupid quote of the day

Even if he were able to sell the lots for $125,000, he said, he would make "only" $1.5-million more than selling it as acreage.

"I'm not saying $1.5-million is not a lot of money," he said. "But the reward has to be significant or why take the risk."

- greedy Gary Schraut on why he should be allowed to get quadruple density on property he wants to develop in Hernando County

unch of stories on Florida "smart growth" and growth management

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS OBJECTIONS DATED MAY 2 PDF  TEXT

*new* The Orlando Sentinel has a a whole section of its website devoted to growth issues. I posted one story today. the rest can be read here..

*New June 6, 2006* For a copy of the petition on Trilby Estates click here:

Information on the subdivision can be found here:

*New June 7, 2006* Bunch of good stories about the housing boom in Palm Beach County.

 Trilby Estates County staff report

Interesting brochure for beachfront property on the panhandle - those were the days  

Dade City Freecycle group 

Freecy
cle groups in the Southeast US

People who negotiate the nuances of Jacksonville's zoning code say it's broken.

But a new task force responsible for fixing it - a group that includes prominent land use attorneys and developers - for some brings to mind the story of the fox guarding the henhouse.

"I'm sure that will be said, but first of all we're not foxes," said developer Curtis Hart, vice president of The Collins Group and a member of the task force . "We're just users of the code, just like anybody else."

The six task force members have had a hand in the biggest, and often most controversial, development projects in Jacksonville. Several either were resolved in courtrooms or are headed there.

"Their expertise is strong. Their loyalties are what I question," said Jim Bajalia, a Jacksonville Golf and Country Club resident who with neighbors in 2004 sued the city to block a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter and Super Target near their homes. "There's no checks and balances in that group."

Besides Hart, the other task force members include attorneys Karl Sanders, a former assistant general counsel for the city whose clients now include Wal-Mart; Lynn Pappas, who represents the prospective developer of Black Hammock Island; Paul Harden, who successfully defended the Wal-Mart Supercenter and Super Target lawsuit, and T.R. Hainline, who represented a failed proposal to turn Baymeadows Golf Club into 1,400 houses and condominiums. The final member is Michael Herzberg, former chief of Jacksonville's planning division who now works for Sleiman Enterprises.

Many of the members have served on the city's Planning Commission. Sanders, Pappas and Hart served on Mayor John Peyton's growth management task force, formed in April 2005. Pappas led a similar growth management task force in 1996.

"I tried to pick people who are experts in their field who work with the zoning code on a daily basis," said Councilwoman Sharon Copeland. As chairwoman of the Land Use and Zoning Committee, she assembled the task force.

Rewriting the zoning code is a priority of the council, and Copeland said she hopes to finish the job before she leaves office in June. Copeland said the most important task is to make the code easier to understand.

Forming the task force was the first step. She has asked the members to identify the day-to-day issues they have with the code and how to fix them. Already they have recommended developing an index and writing a user's guide that would include definitions and frequently asked questions.

After the task force finishes its work, Copeland wants the council to form a special committee that will include task force members as well as members of the public. That's where groups such as Riverside Avondale Preservation could get involved, she said.

"The community is not being left out of this," Copeland said. "They will have the opportunity to weigh in."

And they will, said Sid Ansbacher, an attorney who squared off with Sanders over a proposed Wal-Mart grocery store on the Southside. He said a rewrite of the zoning code is long overdue.

"Whatever I may think of task force makeup ... the most important thing is to just get it out on the table in public and allow it to be vetted and be passed."

The most recent attempt to update the code, in the mid-1990s, resulted in a 600-page draft that never was implemented.

Harden said "my motives are pure" in wanting to write a better zoning code and noted in his 30-year law career he has represented both developers and neighbors who have fought development. Hart called the task force "frequent fliers" of the zoning code.

"The average person is going to have one time he came in contact with the zoning code," he said. "We've got literally hundreds of contacts and incidents of why we needed this changed. We bring a lot of experience to the table."

beth.kormanik@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4619

Some area beaches again top the list of those in Florida with water-quality problems, a national environmental group reported Thursday.

Mashes Sands and Carrabelle Beach in 2005 were among the 10 Florida beaches with the most advisories against swimming because of high bacteria levels, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Beaches in Wakulla and Franklin counties, including Shell Point, Alligator Point and St. George Island, also have faced frequent advisories in recent years. But those beaches remain open this week, and there have been few advisories since Memorial Day.

A new advisory was issued Thursday against swimming at Mashes Sands. Advisories remained for the four beaches monitored in Taylor County, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Bacteria can indicate viruses and other threatening organisms associated with human waste, department officials say. State and local health officials have said they're not sure what's causing the high bacteria levels.

Inadequate treatment of sewage and stormwater runoff are among the possible causes statewide, said Linda Young, the director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, which released the report Thursday in Tallahassee.

"In almost every case where you have these violations, you will find runoff," she said. "There is going to be some development there."

Other potential bacteria sources include migrating waterfowl and boats dumping sewage, according to Young and the NRDC report.

A study completed last year at Mashes Sands failed to confirm a bacteria source. Possible sources identified in the study included a beach bathroom that once used a septic tank and boats on the Ochlockonee River.

Another study under way in Taylor County is looking at water quality in coastal areas with septic tanks, according to the Florida Department of Health. A new study in Wakulla County also is expected to be launched.

In releasing the report Thursday, environmental groups accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of weakening water-quality standards. The NRDC announced it is suing the EPA to force it to update beach water standards, a task the group says was required by Congress in 2005. EPA officials could not be reached for comment.

Dixie County beach is one of nation's dirtiest, report says

By NATHAN CRABBE

Sun staff writer

A Dixie County beach ranked as one of the most contaminated in the country, in a report issued Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Fifty-six percent of water samples taken last year at the Shired Island beach violated federal health standards for bacteria contamination, according to the report. The beach is located south of Horseshoe Beach near the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.

The same report showed that Florida's beaches rank among the nation's cleanest based on national standards.

Only 4 percent of Florida's beach samples exceeded the national bacteria standard in 2005, according to the report. That's half the national average.

The Shired Island beach is so remote that the source of the contamination is likely animal waste, said Wesley Asbell, environmental health director for Dixie County. But while the department has done tests at the beach, it hasn't determined the source.

"It's a limited resource program and our concern is informing the public," Asbell said.

Samples found high levels of enterococcus, a bacteria found in the feces of people and animals. The bacteria can cause diseases including urinary tract and wound infections.

Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, said she hasn't investigated the situation at Shired Island. But she said it's unlikely animal waste could have been the main source of the contamination.

"I just can't imagine how animals can create that much pollution in the water," she said.

The defense council's report named Shired Island as one of 22 "beach bums," which violated standards at least half the time samples were taken. The beach was the only one in Florida to earn the distinction.

This year doesn't look any better.
Health advisories were issued at Shired Island following 25 of the 29 tests conducted in 2006, according to Florida Department of Health Web site.

Bacterial contamination shut Florida beaches or prompted health warnings for more than 3,000 days in 2005, according to the report. The number was a 2 percent increase from the previous year and nearly double the amount tracked in 2002.

Young said such contamination can be caused by polluted runoff that also has other consequences. Nutrient-filled runoff can feed red tide, an algae bloom that discolors water, infects shellfish and sickens people.

"I think people definitely need to connect the dots," she said.

"It's not terribly surprising that we've had to put out 'no swimming' signs more and more because every day Florida's gaining a thousand new people," Young said. "We have inadequate sewage treatment facilities statewide and we have inadequate stormwater regulations."

Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Anthony De Luise defended the state's anti-pollution record, saying its beach standards are among the nation's most stringent. The state also has spent $1.6 billion on more than 800 sewage treatment and stormwater projects in the past seven years, he said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Resort backers fight flier with flier

Supporters of the Riverside Resort project look to counter what they say is misleading information in an action alert sent out by the River Alliance.

HOMOSASSA - The war of words over the Homosassa Riverside Resort expansion continues with the latest salvo a flier backing the project that should be showing up in local mailboxes soon.

The flier attempts to debunk many of the points made in an action alert flier done earlier this summer by the Save the Homosassa River Alliance. The River Alliance opposed the resort expansion as it was proposed and had used the alert to gather petition signatures.

Hundreds of signatures were received in time for the July 11 County Commission hearing on the project. But in the end, the commission voted 3-2 to approve the expansion.

The River Alliance leadership has voted to fight on and is expected to file an appeal to the commission decision in the coming days.

Other area residents spoke out in favor of the resort's plan, which includes demolition of old structures on the resort site and construction of new motel suites in condominium ownership in three-story buildings.

Thursday, Clifton Meyer, one of those who supported the latest flier, said he believed information in the River Alliance alert was misleading.

He said he and a group of others, who don't belong to any particular group, decided the rest of the story should be told.

Their flier asserts that the resort expansion complies with the county's Comprehensive Plan, Land Development Code, the old Homosassa overlay district rules and is compatible with the area.

Those are all points River Alliance president Priscilla Watkins said her organization refutes.

"I see this as just another flag waving," Watkins said. "I don't know what their point is. They're wrong. A number of their facts are incorrect."

But Meyer said that the community has not seen the full picture.

"It was our opportunity to present the other side of the story," Meyer said.

He said he has been involved with the development group for the resort expansion for the last several years. He did the design for the expansion and would be the builder for the project when it moves forward.

"I'm very supportive of it. It's the right thing for the community," he said. "I think it's good environmentally. I think it's good economically."

He added, "it's totally unlike the Halls River project."

River Alliance members have likened the resort expansion in its appearance, scope and ambiance to the highly controversial Halls River Retreat timeshare project proposed several years ago.

Considered the quintessential development versus environment battle of the past decade, Halls River Retreat is still tied up in litigation.

Gail Oakes, managing partner for the Homosassa Riverside Resort, handled the mailing of the fliers, said Meyer.

Oakes said she appreciated that some people wanted to clear up the misconceptions about what she wants to build.

"About 20 people who got together did it the flier. It was really kind of cool in my opinion. They were just kind of angry about the (River Alliance) flier that went out. . . they just felt that people were misled," she said.

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or beh

Board crafting rules to preserve past

Members must decide on rules to determine which historic county structures must be saved.

LECANTO - In every corner of Citrus County, the bulldozers, skeletons of new homes and cleared earth of new development demonstrate the area's burgeoning growth.

But every cleared lot foreshadowing the future also hints that something from the past has faded.

Making sure the past is not forgotten is the task of Citrus County's Historical Resources Advisory Board.

This week the board set about the tedious work of crafting rules that would guide future decisions about which of the county's approximately 200 designated historic structures must be saved and which can be razed.

As board members mulled over criteria used in other communities, they reminisced about historic locations and features that were not preserved as growth marched into the county over the last few decades.

One such place they recalled was the stone Church of the Nazarene, which had stood at the corner of U.S. 41 and Parsons Point Road for approximately 60 years before it was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for a shopping center that was never built.

"That was sad," said board member Richard Clay.

In that case, the county asked the owner to document the building's historical significance and erect a roadside marker.

Such documentation might be suggested or even required in all future cases where the historical resources board approves demolishing a structure deemed historic.

Mary Craven, the county staff member assigned to assist the historical resources board, on Wednesday presented board members with a copy of the criteria used in Mount Dora.

Craven said that set of criteria seemed to be more complete than the criteria sent by any of the other communities that have sent her materials.

The Mount Dora rules ask property owners to document a structure before it can be destroyed, an issue which resonated with the Citrus historical advisory board members.

They liked the idea of having photographs, documents and architectural drawings, and member Sandra Noble even suggested that the laser scans that produce digital plans of structures could be another way of preserving history after a structure is removed.

"So always and forever we can see what it once looked like instead of a sketch or a photo," she said.

The board also gave tentative approval to encouraging property owners to salvage building materials, architectural details and ornaments and fixtures for use in restoration of other historic structures.

Board members suggested that property owners could even offer their building up if someone else wanted to move it to another site.

Although the board members questioned how they would determine whether property owners would face undue economic hardships if their old historic structures could not be torn down, they generally supported that concept.

The board also accepted that historic structures that have been condemned should be torn down and that a building's historical relevance should help guide their decision making.

But one of the guidelines written into the Mount Dora rules did concern board members.

The Mount Dora board asks property owners if they have plans for immediately reusing the site and the effect those plans will have "on the character of the surrounding area."

But Citrus board member David Noble said he didn't believe the body had that kind of power. "We don't have any say," he argued.

Only in so-called "overlay districts," like the one established in old Homosassa and the one that David Noble and other Floral City residents are attempting to establish in their community, can aesthetic regulations be enforced, he said.

While the historical resources board cannot dictate what someone will build on a site, that question could still be posed as a way for the board to rank which projects it would approve for demolition, said Brad Thorpe, the county's community services director.

Board members debated whether property owners would tell them the truth about their plans or whether it would matter in their decision if the land owner planned to put up a structure similar to the one torn down or, for instance, condominiums.

The committee ultimately decided to reject for now the guideline which would have them measure the effect a planned project might have on the character of a community - but it agreed to ask property owners whether there were immediate plans for a site.

Thorpe offered the board encouragement as they struggled with the wording in the guidelines and came up with scenario after scenario where historic structures could be allowed to be razed and replaced with something modern.

"Now you don't have anything and you don't have any way of getting anything," he said, referring to the documentation, drawings and photos that could be required. With these new rules, he said, "You've gotten something out of it. You've gotten what you could."

The board approved a tentative draft of its criteria but also asked Craven to return with more samples of glossaries, applications and procedures used by other historical resource boards.

Craven warned the group that before they could establish a set of formal rules, they will likely face their first applicant.

In June, Floral City property owner Michael Wessler told the board that he is hoping to demolish an old house on East Magnolia Street in Floral City, which is not repairable.

He promised to come back for permission at the end of summer.

"Somebody's got to be first," said Noble.

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com.

Developers win battle over landmarks

A pact gives developers more leeway on the Woolworth-Newberry block condo project.

TAMPA - Preservationists received a blow Thursday when the City Council backed away from its earlier vote to bestow historic landmark status of the facades of two downtown buildings.

Developers who want to build 975 condominiums on a block that now holds the old Newberry and Woolworth buildings had balked at a March vote to designate them landmarks. After months of negotiations, the council Thursday approved an agreement that city officials say will protect the properties through zoning regulations and oversight by city staff.

Defenders of historic preservation aren't so sure.

"This is a black day for preservation in the city of Tampa," said Beth Johnson, an attorney working with the nonprofit group Tampa Preservation Inc.

The council's 5-2 vote to approve the agreement allows the removal of the landmark designation through public hearings before the Historic Preservation Commission, according to City Attorney David Smith.

Council members Linda Saul-Sena and John Dingfelder voted against the agreement.

"It is our responsibility to protect and guard the city's historic resources," Saul-Sena said.

The Kress building, located between the other two structures on N Franklin Street, also was designated a landmark, but with the consent of the owners, who are also the developers. They plan to incorporate the Kress building into the new condo towers.

But the designation means any changes to the buildings must be reviewed by the city's Architectural Review Commission, a process the developers, Kress Square LLC, said they wanted to avoid with the Newberry and Woolworth facades.

Jeanette Jason, a principal in Kress Square, had said if the facades were named historic landmarks she would significantly scale back her project.

Mayor Pam Iorio has been pushing residential redevelopment of N Franklin Street, and at the City Council meeting in March, City Attorney Smith presented a compromise similar to the one approved Thursday.

But the City Council rejected that proposal and voted for the designation.

So the developers asked to take the matter to mediation.

City staff and the developers fleshed out the original compromise, adding to it a nine-page outline of facade preservation requirements. The mediator blessed the agreement, which went before the City Council for consideration Thursday.

Johnson argued that the compromise was a "wholesale reversal" of the City Council's earlier decision.

"You could drive a truck through these facade protections," she said. They're too vague, she said, and in many instances only require the developers to take "reasonable measures" to preserve the structures.

"A red flag goes up in my mind when you let a developer determine what's reasonable," she said.

But John Grandoff, an attorney for Kress Square, convinced council members the agreement would protect the buildings. He read to them the mediator's conclusion that the agreement gives the city "significant oversight and control" of the project.

Grandoff said construction of the condos will begin as soon as possible.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

Charlotte shifts gears, decides to take regional water approach

The county is looking into relying on the Peace River water authority for its supply in the future.

Red tide returns to area coastline

The bloom has spread north from Lee County

Officials Set Meeting to Plan Facility's 'Limited Opening'

By Tom Palmer
The Ledger

LAKELAND
A wild turkey hen and a line of her nearly grown poults march across an unpaved road, through the tall grass and into a pine forest.

Gator Creek's dark, tannin-colored water rushes around moss-covered rocks between stands of sweet gum, sabal palm, cypress and elm.

Goldenrod and other colorful wildflowers dot pinelands kept open by regular burning.

A family of Eastern bluebirds flies from its perch on a fence line.

These sights and more await visitors at Colt Creek State Park, a new state park in the Green Swamp scheduled to open sometime this fall.

The park is a 5,067-acre mosaic of fields, forests and swamps east of County Road 471 and south of the Withlacoochee River northwest of Lakeland.

A limited opening is scheduled soon, but no date has been set, said Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Anthony De Luise.

"We're very excited about it," he said during a recent

visit to the property. Gaye Sharpe, director of Polk County's Environmental Lands Program, one of the three agencies involved in the purchase, said she met recently with state park officials and was told opening the park is a high priority.

Normally it takes 10 years to open a state park after the property is purchased.

Although full opening is probably years away, the planned limited opening will give the public some access.

Limited opening means minimal facilities -- a parking lot, portable restroom and perhaps an information kiosk. Two rangers have been assigned to the park.

State park officials are planning public meetings within the next few months -- tentatively sometime in mid-September -- to give state park officials an idea of what activities and facilities should be included in the park's management plan.

Activities discussed in the early planning include equestrian trails, bank fishing and camping, Sharpe said.

During a tour of the property it was clear that although the ranch had been well managed, it was hardly pristine.

There had been logging, forests had been cleared for pastures and there are patches of invasive exotic plants -- cogon grass, climbing fern, skunk vine -- that will have to be dealt with.

Chuck Geanangel, a veteran Winter Haven birdwatcher, said he plans to approach park staffers about launching a yearlong survey of birdlife and other wildlife at the park.

Geanangel organized a similar survey at Lake Kissimmee State Park -- Polk's only other state park -- shortly after it opened in 1977 and has led similar projects to survey Tenoroc Fish Management Area, Lake Wales Ridge State Forest and Circle B Bar Reserve.

These surveys provide park staffers with more detailed information on the park's natural resources than they would normally have time to assemble themselves.

Geanangel said he wonders about the possibility that the longleaf pine stands in the park would be suitable for the introduction of red-cockaded woodpeckers, a species that has declined because of the loss of this kind of habitat in the Southeast.

Marian Ryan, a Sierra Club activist involved in the project, also mentioned the possibility of establishing red-cockaded woodpeckers here, though she acknowledges this is a long-term project because logging of the ranch over the years has eliminated many of the mature trees the woodpeckers prefer.

"I am thinking about what the place would look like 50 or 100 years from now," she said.

Meanwhile, Genangel said the property may offer some unusual sights for nature observation.

"This also may turn out to be a breeding area for yellow-throated vireos," he said, explaining this species is fairly rare in Polk County, which is the southern end of its breeding range.

Although Polk County's Environmental Lands Program started the acquisition effort, the completion involved a collaboration with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and key support from state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland.

The deal came together May 31 when longtime Lakeland rancher Charlie Mack Overstreet and other family members sold the ranch to the state for $53.2 million.

That agreement capped 10 months of negotiations and ended speculation that Overstreet would sell the property to a developer.

The property is adjacent to thousands of acres of other former ranch lands now owned by Swiftmud to protect the water resources within the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern at the headwaters of the Hillsborough, Withlacoochee, Peace and Ocklawaha rivers in northern Polk and southern Lake counties.

Geanangel, who was a member of the team that nominated the site for acquisition last year under Polk's Environmental Lands Program, said the purchase of the property adds to the protected area within the Green Swamp.

"It's an important chunk in a bigger chunk," he said.

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

Sales fall, but home prices hold

Builders toss in incentives as real estate sales slow significantly

BY JOHN McCARTHY
FLORIDA TODAY

It's no secret that the pace of sales in Brevard County's red-hot housing market has cooled.

Compared to a year earlier, fewer than half the number of single-family houses sold in June. "For Sale" signs stay up twice as long on average as they did last year. And builders are offering incentives such as free upgrades and no-closing-costs financing to help sell homes.

But one statistic stands out from those details: Sales prices haven't changed much at all.

FLORIDA TODAY analyzed all of the more than 12,000 single-family homes sale in the county from June 2005 to June 2006, the last month for which complete sales figures are available.

Among the findings:

Sales are down. In June 2005, 1,364 houses -- new and existing -- were sold in Brevard. This June, 580 homes were sold.

• But prices have dropped only slightly. In June 2005, the median sales price was $220,000. This June it dropped to $214,500, a change of only 2.5 percent. The price per square foot has barely budged, dropping only 38 cents to $149.69 a square foot.
• Changes have been different around the county. In general, prices on the barrier islands -- where homes are generally more expensive -- have dropped, while prices in many less-expensive mainland communities have climbed.

  Still, even the recent lower prices are far higher than they were just three years ago.

  'So high, so fast'

  Robert Johnson moved to his Suntree neighborhood after retiring from the Army seven years ago. At the time, most houses in the area sold for less than $150,000. Today, four houses on his street are for sale. The asking prices range from $276,500 to $300,000.

  "I've never seen housing prices jump so high so fast," Johnson said, adding that he doesn't foresee them dropping to what they were before the boom started. "I don't think they ever will reach that ever again."

  Still, the slowdown in sales is obvious to people in the area.

  "A lot of people have had signs up in their yards for months" said Tanja Tea, who lives in a Suntree subdivision not far from Johnson.

  In other parts of the county, the median sales price actually increased despite slowing sales.

  Mike Coppola bought his home off Carpenter Road seven years ago for about $120,000. The median sales price in the general area jumped from $196,000 in June 2005 to $263,600 this past June.

  The Astronaut High teacher now figures his home is worth at least twice what he paid for it.

  "This past year has leveled off a bit," he said of his immediate neighborhood. "But the past couple of years before that, things really shot up."

  Few people in the real estate industry believe the frenzy of the past couple years was normal by any historical standard. And many agree that the slowdown in sales means the double-digit price inflation isn't likely to return soon.

  However, a continuing influx of newcomers to the state should prevent any serious erosion of prices for single-family homes, experts say.

  "The bulk of appreciation we've seen in Florida has been because everybody knows about the expected population growth," said Richard Fedele, founder and president of Boston-based Summit Mortgage, which arranged $250 million in home financing in the Sunshine State in 2005.

  Fedele pointed out that the single-family home market is much different than that for condos, which saw the bulk of speculative buying in recent years.

  Investors who bought condos with the thought of "flipping" them for a quick profit might be forced to lower prices to avoid paying the mortgage for a unit that is sitting vacant, he said.

  But house buyers typically purchase their homes to live in. If they can't sell for the price they want, they generally can wait out any downturn in the market. That can lead to fewer sales without a big drop in sales prices, Fedele said.

  "In the single-family market you have home ownership, not speculation. . . . The single-family home market is very stable."

  Mix of hurdles

  Most of the speculation in single-family homes comes not from individual investors, but from the builders themselves. During periods of rapid sales, some builders construct houses without contracts for buyers. The hope is that they will be able to sell these "spec" houses to a willing buyer soon after finishing them.

  But when the market cools, builders are left with these unsold houses, as well as others where the contract to buy fell through.

  Traditionally, though, builders will go to extreme lengths to avoid cutting prices below those of homes they have already sold in a neighborhood. Instead, they will offer buyers incentives such as upgrades to higher-end appliances or breaks on financing. Those deals can mean thousands in savings for the homebuyer while preventing median sales prices from dropping.

  But as builders slow down the pace of new construction, those deals should become less lucrative for buyers. After that, look for prices to stabilize, developers say.

  "I think our situation will get back to normal, not the way it was the last couple of years, but back to normal within a year," said Tom Vani, president of S&S Enterprises, the developer of Alamanda Key in Melbourne.

  Steve Romano, president of the Space Coast Association of Realtors, said concerns over the availability and cost of property insurance, rising property taxes and the recent spate of hurricanes are hanging over the market right now.

  "I think the next year is going to be interesting to see what is going to go on," said Romano, who has more than 20 years' experience in the real estate business in Brevard County.

  Still, he said, people are buying and selling houses locally, even if it is not at the pace of a year ago. The key, he said, is pricing and marketing a home properly and not having unrealistic expectations.

  "People with unrealistic expectations were able to do OK in the past couple of years. They will not be able to do that . . . in the next year or so."

  Ed Ross, who runs thespillzone.com, a real estate forecasting Web site, predicted the next year might be tough in Brevard for people who bought real estate hoping for a quick profit.

  "Over the next year there is going to be a reality check."

  Still, he expected that prices in Brevard would climb between 6 and 12 percent over the next three years.

  "The average homeowner in Central Florida is not going to feel the pinch that they are going to feel in South Florida."

  Contact McCarthy at 752-5018 or jmccarthy@flatoday.net.

Gadsden County's rapid growth - some of it spilling over from Tallahassee - is getting the state's attention.

The Florida Department of Community Affairs is blocking six approved land-use changes in Gadsden County that allow up to 1,112 new homes. The DCA in recent months also filed challenges to land-use changes in Leon and Wakulla counties.

Covering 1,200 acres of agricultural land in Gadsden County, the changes reflect urban sprawl and the lack of a coherent development pattern, the department said. The DCA also had objected to the changes before they were approved.

William McCord, Gadsden County's growth management director, called the state action "ludicrous." He said the state apparently is pushing Gadsden County to adopt a type of growth boundary similar to what exists in Tallahassee.

"It's just ludicrous and I'm fed up," McCord said Wednesday. He added that DCA officials "want to Tallahassee-ize the rest of the state and create Gadsden County in their own image."

A department official responded that such growth boundaries are voluntary under state law. He said the DCA respects the differences of communities when it applies state law and development rules.

With Tallahassee growing and the price of homes in the city increasing, some residents say they are moving to Gadsden, Jefferson and Wakulla counties for cheaper homes and easy access to the city.

Gadsden and Wakulla counties are beginning to face growth pressures, said Paul DiGiuseppe, regional planning administrator with the DCA. The department in April also blocked seven land-use changes in Wakulla County that would allow 1,074 homes on 741 acres.

"I think this is probably more (land-use changes) than either of those communities have done historically," he said.

Last month, the department moved to block Leon County's approval of 81 homes on 232 acres along U.S. Highway 90 east of Tallahassee. The lack of plans for providing sewer service to developments was an issue for the state in Gadsden, Leon and Wakulla counties.

The DCA's actions on the land-use changes send the issues to state hearing officers for recommendations. The issues eventually could be decided by the governor and Cabinet, but settlements are more likely.

Gadsden County has been holding public meetings to discuss long-range planning, a process called "visioning." The results are scheduled to be presented to the Gadsden County Commission on Aug. 29.

McCord said the state seems to be pushing for an "urban services area" in Gadsden County as exists in Tallahassee and Leon County. Water and sewer are provided inside the area and land-use changes outside the area usually are discouraged.

"A lot of what they (state officials) have done has driven up the cost of housing," McCord said. "The Tallahassee market is more expensive than beachside communities in many cases."

Builders and real-estate agents in Tallahassee also have complained about the lack of available land for development. But Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature in recent years have pushed for laws that direct development into areas where schools, roads, water and sewer are available so that government won't have to pay for those services.

Elva Peppers, a consultant representing four of the Gadsden County landowners who received land-use changes, said it's harder to provide affordable housing when the developers are required to pay for extending utilities.

"Gadsden County is not like some of these other counties in Florida," she said. "If they are comparing them to Central and South Florida, Gadsden County is so rural."

Marion Lasley, chairman of the Gadsden United environmental group, said the state or county could end up paying for sewer lines that are needed in the future to serve communities with failing septic tanks. She said she's pleased by the state blocking the land-use changes.

"I just felt like I was losing my mind and the things I was asking (the Gadsden County Commission) for were ridiculous," she said. "But it seems there is reason for concern."

Leesburg could face massive growth

A flurry of annexation requests could add 20,817 residential units to formerly rural land.

Hillsborough approves beltway idea to link Tampa Bay region

TAMPA - A strong majority of Hillsborough commissioners enthusiastically blessed a proposal to build a suburban beltway linking the four main high-growth counties of the Tampa Bay region.

Using descriptions such as "excellent," "tremendous," and "bold," commissioners voted 6-1 to give their conceptual approval to the toll road being proposed by the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority.

"Looking at the concept, this beltway will be good for the Tampa Bay region," said Tom Scott, who sits on both boards and made the motion to sanction the plan.

Commissioner Kathy Castor voted against the proposal, which she said will take limited potential money for improving transportation away from the county's job centers and divert it to areas where it will promote more growth. She also faulted the proposal for its lack of emphasis on rail or other transit.

"I'm concerned that our precious dollars would go to a sprawling roadway," she said.

None of the commissioners raised any concerns when Scott acknowledged that he had been briefed on the proposal a year ago and told to "keep it very confidential," though the proposal would affect thousands of people in the region. It only became public last week after the Expressway Authority received requests from two newspapers records for written documentation about the project.

Expressway Authority officials will now seek similar blessings from the other county governments, and, with their approval, will begin a years-long process of studying detailed routes, designing the road and jumping the various regulatory hurdles ahead. Optimistically, they hope to be able to open some segments of the road by 2015.

Commissioners said there will be many opportunities for them to intervene and raise objections if necessary, and that the beltway is far from a done deal.

Commuter-rail line on tap for '09

Region's home builders hear sobering news

Panel to draft new vision plan for Daytona Beach

DAYTONA BEACH -- The city's new vision process now has clearer direction.

Most of the 16 current members of the original vision executive committee will stick around to help design the future of the city and a member of the clergy will join them to provide more diversity on the volunteer group, the City Commission decided during a workshop Wednesday.

The actual makeup of the 17-member steering committee, which will be charged with drafting a new vision, will be made official during the Aug. 16 meeting. The commission will also discuss a timeframe for completion and whether to hire a facilitator to help out.

The first vision plan, drawn by a consultant for $200,000, was scratched in June after public protest over the recommendation to increase density citywide without plans to preserve historic properties.

The commission also voted to wait until Nov. 15 to decide whether to spend $149,500 to hire a consultant to draw a master plan of the city's riverfront from the south end of Beach Street to Ballough Road, saying its concept is too similar to the vision plan.

"It's premature to pay for this," Commissioner Rick Shiver said.

The commission took the advice of the Downtown-Ballough Road Redevelopment Board, which earlier this week urged them to hold off on hiring the consultant to prevent overlap and to look at another plan already done there.

The riverfront master plan was originally allotted to cost $70,000 for a study of Beach Street, but it was expanded to include a look at Ballough Road at the request of NASCAR's France family, which owns property on the riverfront road. The request doubled the study's cost.

The France family wanted the study to better plan development in the area after they objected with plans for a condo at Sunset Harbor Yacht Club next door to their property.

However, Bill France Jr., son of NASCAR's founder and recently-appointed member of the downtown redevelopment board, voted with his board colleagues to recommend the commission scratch it.

The two plans - riverfront and vision - would likely be completed around the same time, in a year to 18 months.

During the vision workshop, the commission discussed what goals to give the vision executive committee, with topics including transportation, land use, landscaping, parks and recreation, public safety, public facilities, parking and historic preservation.

With development booming, resident Paul Zimmerman asked the commission to avoid stretching the vision process out.

"Two years would be too long," he said. "By then, we'd develop a vision that'll already be decided for us."

Scientists suggest risky plan to
save manatees

Residents protest concrete plant

CEMEX Inc. is proposing the plant off Lena Road in East Manatee

Beltway Around Urban Area Would Give Green Light To Sprawl

Published: Aug 2, 2006

Today Hillsborough County commissioners will be asked to help this urban area grow more like Atlanta. That's not the question they will hear, but that's the issue.

A decade ago Atlanta faced a choice in siting new highways to handle growth. Should the roads encourage business hubs with spokes to the suburbs? Or should the region grow in concentric circles with each beltway farther out than its predecessor?

Atlanta chose rings of congestion and has nearly choked on its own traffic. If you've driven there recently, you know it can take an hour to drive two miles.

So today, commissioners should show extreme caution about a proposal to build a beltway connecting Pinellas, Pasco, eastern Hillsborough and Manatee counties. Of all the transportation challenges facing this region, it makes little sense to start with a multibillion-dollar beltway that would do virtually nothing to help hour-long commutes to the region's business cores.

Indeed, the real purpose of this highway is to open up vast rural areas to development and undermine the county's comprehensive plan, which encourages development close to urban settings where roads, schools, water lines and public services are concentrated. A new highway outside the "urban services boundary" would undermine the community's will.

"I'm very concerned about its impact on Hillsborough County's quality of life," says Bob Hunter, executive director of the City-County Planning Commission.

The beltway idea comes from the appointed Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, which also wants to build a new expressway in North Tampa at the same time that it faces an over-budget elevated bridge from Brandon to Tampa.

Commissioners should probe whether the authority is overextending itself, remembering that when the Crosstown Expressway was first built, it needed a taxpayer bailout to pay the bills.

While the authority is filling a leadership vacuum in regional transportation, it has neither the popular support nor sufficient representation to justify a beltway that is strongly backed by developers and real estate attorneys.

The Tampa area should choose more wisely than Atlanta. The top priority should be to keep the urban core accessible to fast-growing suburbs and better link suburbs to one another. The authority's new reversible bridge helps do that, as do improvements to I-4 and I-275. But a new road through the woods and fields would do nothing to address the transportation challenges facing those of us already living here.

Today's meeting is the beginning of a long process of public discussions about this highway project. It's vital that the right questions be asked from the start and that the public - and our elected leaders - truly understand what's at stake.

A piece of natural Florida preserved

The largest single conservation land purchase in Florida history is a done deal and the state's environmental future is a little brighter because of it. Most of the historic Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida now belongs to the public - and to the wildlife that needs it for survival. Five years in the making and delayed by a last-minute legal challenge, the $350-million purchase agreement was completed Monday.

With the 74,000 acres, the state now owns a natural corridor that stretches from Lake Okeechobee nearly to the gulf. Most of the newly purchased land will remain as is, including the working cattle ranch. It is strategic habitat for the Florida panther and other important species and plays a key role in maintaining the area's water quality.

As part of the agreement, a planned community will be built on the ranch's remaining 15,000 acres. Developer Syd Kitson sold the bulk of the ranch to the state in exchange for permission to build 19,000 homes plus office and commercial space on his portion. That almost sank the deal.

Saying a development of that size would lead to urban sprawl in an environmentally sensitive area, the Sierra Club filed suit to stop it. That aggressive stance angered some environmentalists, who felt it threatened the purchase. Recently, the Sierra Club and Kitson reached a compromise, allowing the sale to go through.

The Sierra Club never intended to scuttle the deal, said Frank Jackalone, the group's senior regional representative. In fact, the settlement made the deal a little better. The developer agreed to drop plans for another 1,600 homes, to limit the impact of the new community on the environment and roads and to set high energy-efficiency standards for the new homes.

It would have been nice if the state had bought the entire ranch, but it didn't work out that way. Such agreements in a place growing as rapidly as Florida are going to be difficult and involve some trade-offs. This one is worth it.

Another important piece of natural Florida has been preserved. Let's enjoy it and vow it won't be the last.

Builders knocking on city's door
Developers, landowners petition Leesburg to annex, rezone 5,566 acres
Daily Commercial Wednesday, August 02, 2006
LEESBURG Ñ Landowners are heading for the city limits of Leesburg with density in mind.

Twice a year, a municipality can make large-scale amendments Ñ those concerning any development larger than 10 acres Ñ to its comprehensive plan. In LeesburgÕs second cycle this year, 26 landowners are petitioning to bring a combined 5,566 acres into the city, most with zoning to allow large residential developments.

Deputy City Manager Jay Evans said the city isnÕt asking people to come; they are simply submitting applications.

ÒAt this point, we have no idea if the city is receptive to bringing any of these properties into our city limits, nor do we know if there are advantages or disadvantages to doing so,Ó Evans said.

If all the petitioners received the requested rezoning and could develop every acre of their land, 20,817 residential units could be constructed. But that number is likely too high, said Laura McElhanon, Leesburg director of community development.

McElhanon said landowners are making a majority of the requests, and they are seeking to simply rezone the property rather than create a planned unit development. She said a PUD would be required before the land could be developed, and that would limit the number of actual homes built.

Developers are seeking PUD approval for some of the tracts now. Plans for the Hunt property, east of State Road 48 and south of FloridaÕs Turnpike, call for 315 units. Renaissance Trails, which has gone before the commission before, is seeking 2,262 units. Out by Silver Lake, the Purdum Family Trust wants to develop 76 units on 33 acres of land. Green Leaf Development is seeking approval for 303 units. Lafayette Square, south of El Rancho Drive and Caballo Road, has asked for 420 units.

Those proposed developments could bring almost 3,500 homes to the city. Other petitioners for annexation and rezoning have not specified how many homes would be built.

ÒWeÕre just starting to evaluate these,Ó McElhanon said. ÒThe impact on the city depends on how many of these weÕre supporting.Ó

Attorneys and agents representing landowners could not be reached late Tuesday.

The city has 15 other proposed developments under review by the Florida Department of Community Affairs. On Sept. 11, the City Commission will decide whether or not to approve sending these additional 26 proposals onto DCA as well for further comment and review.
Growth summit delayed

Daily Commercial Wednesday, August 02, 2006

TAVARES Ñ After Lake County failed to submit its comprehensive plan to the Florida Department of Community Affairs on time, the deadline has been pushed back to Oct. 3.

In response, the County Commission has postponed a proposed smart growth summit so it can focus on the 20-year growth plan.

County Commissioner Welton Cadwell suggesting pushing the summit to November to allow planners to finish the comprehensive plan.

ÒItÕs really not the time to have a kumbaya session on smart growth,Ó Cadwell said, adding he didnÕt want the comprehensive plan process any more convoluted.


The summit, according to county planners, would educate citizens and cities within the county on principles of smart growth, including mixed land uses, walkable neighborhoods and preserving open space. The conditions of smart growth have been developed by several groups, including the American Planning Association, the International Sustainability Indicators Network and the Smart Growth Network.

ÒItÕs not a magical elixir,Ó said Carol Stricklin, director of growth management. ÒItÕs a good way to talk about what good planning is.Ó

The session was originally planned as a ÒkickoffÓ to the smart growth audit the county will undergo in September. Stricklin said the audit will compare the countyÕs comprehensive plan and land development regulations to smart growth priniciples.

Stricklin said that information and comments from the DCA review of the comprehensive plan will be added to the comprehensive plan when it returns to the county commission for final adoption.

The audit is expected to cost $20,000 to $30,000. The request for consultants will be brought back before the board sometime this month.

Residents say Deltona's too eager to grow

People from Osteen tell planners they want to protect their rural lifestyle

Deal finally made on commuter rail

Jay Hamburg and Etan Horowitz
Sentinel Staff Writers

August 2, 2006, 2:36 PM EDT

Gov. Jeb Bush today announced a nearly $491 million deal that will bring commuter rail to Central Florida, capping a 20-year dream to relieve gridlock in one of the nation's most congested regions.

He arrived at 12:50 p.m., about 15 minutes later than expected, on board a two-car, double-decker train that rolled up on tracks next to the downtown Orlando Lynx bus station.

"Establishing commuter rail will ease congestion, which will improve the quality of life of people both on and off the road," Bush said.

The project requires a mix of federal, state and local money, as well as private investment. But with funding mostly lined up and details over routes and stops just about worked out, only minor negotiations remain before construction can begin.

Trains could start running between DeBary and Orlando by late 2009. An extended route into Osceola County is scheduled to be completed by 2013.

During a news conference after his arrival, Bush announced a deal with CSX Transportation, which owns the 61 miles of track on which the commuter trains would run. The state will buy the tracks for $150 million and in exchange would improve existing freight lines so that CSX can increase its capacity and move some of its trains away from urban areas, possibly farther from downtown Orlando.

About 50 percent of money for the project is expected to come from the federal government, with 25 percent from the state and 25 percent from local governments. The announcement about the Central Florida project included funds for other rail line improvements through the state.

After the press event, people toured the train, which could carry as many as 320 people -- 186 of them in seats -- per car. The commuter rail's operating plan foresees a 47-minute trip from DeBary to downtown Orlando, where people could walk to work or take buses or trolleys to nearby offices.

Speakers today, however, emphasized the dual benefits of the project -- not just giving people an alternative to congested Interstate 4 but also getting freight train traffic out of downtown Orlando.

"This increases mobility options and freight capacities for the future of Florida," said Denver Stutler, Florida's transportation secretary.

The deal with CSX was the final component needed to push the rail project forward. It is being called an "agreement in principle" between Florida and CSX with some details such as liability for any environmental contamination around the existing tracks to be worked out in the near future, Stutler said.

But both he and Gary Sease, a spokesman for CSX, said a strong framework was in place and both expected the deal to be finalized in the near future, a theme Bush echoed during his speech today.

The Florida Department of Transportation will oversee the design, construction and operation of the rail system. The purchase of the rail lines will come from state funds.

The deal also creates new possibilities for housing and retail development around transit stations in Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties.

Long time coming

Transportation planners have pushed for some form of rail to relieve congestion in Central Florida for more than 20 years, but funding problems and political battles nixed the idea.

This time, governments have agreed that rail is needed and have pledged money to get it built.

In addition to the $500 million for the tracks, construction of the system, including the stops, will amount to about $475 million. The federal government will chip in half. The state will provide 25 percent, and local county and city government will put up the other 25 percent.

The state also will pay operating costs through 2015.

"What a great opportunity for this region," said Shelley Lauten, director of myregion.org, a think tank that tackles growth issues in seven Central Florida counties, on Tuesday. "It shows what we can do when we work together."

Supporters of commuter rail say it will begin to take some pressure off Central Florida roadways, where congestion is ranked as the nation's ninth worst.

Pressure has been building to develop mass-transit options in a region whose population is expected to double to more than 7 million people by 2050.

"I think it's wonderful," said Linda Chapin, director of the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at the University of Central Florida, on Tuesday. "We had a chance at rail in the late 1990s and we blew it."

Chapin pushed for an earlier project, but she had left office as Orange County chairman when the County Commission turned down a light-rail proposal by one vote in 1999. She called today's announcement a "good first step."

A regional impact

Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty said Tuesday counties will have to continue to work together to figure out how to operate and pay for the system in the future.

Orange County already has put aside $30 million to build transit stations.

"This project is important," Crotty said. "It is not the end all. It's a starting place."

Leaders in Volusia County, where about 30,000 residents commute every day to jobs in Seminole and Orange counties, were ecstatic about the news.

"I think what it will do is connect us in ways that we have only been connected by automobile and I-4," said Linda White, president and chief executive officer of the West Volusia Chamber of Commerce. "And we all know the issues we have in terms of that connection. It will allow us to rethink where we relocate business, how we look at workers and how we move people back and forth."

White said that the commuter rail also will boost plans for a $23 million Partnership Center in Orange City, which will host seminars, conferences and concerts.

"This will give them [commuters] an opportunity not to have to go through the stress of driving, the cost of gasoline and the maintenance on their vehicles," Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno said. "It will change the lifestyle of the people who will be using it."

John A. Cutter of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Jay Hamburg can be reached at jhamburg@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5673. Etan Horowitz can be reached at ehorowitz@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7915.

Three hundred people in Mount Dora attend the last public workshop before planners propose precise routes.

Gov. Jeb Bush is expected to announce today a new commuter rail initiative in Central Florida that could lead to improved service for Tri-Rail riders in South Florida and one day lead to a new Tri-Rail line deep into the suburbs of Southwest Miami-Dade.

The governor's aides refused to confirm any details about the scheduled early-afternoon announcement in Orlando regarding the proposed commuter rail service.

But state transportation leaders have been negotiating for months with CSX Transportation for the rights to run trains on 61 miles of freight lines through parts of Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties.

Three sources familiar with the Central Florida deal said CSX, based in Jacksonville, has also agreed to relinquish dispatching and maintenance control along the 72-mile South Florida corridor that the state bought in 1988 for $264 million.

For years, Tri-Rail leaders have complained that the state refused to wrest control over dispatching from CSX as the company sent freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains into the corridor during peak Tri-Rail service hours.

How the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates Tri-Rail, would cover the multimillion-dollar expense of dispatching and maintenance remains to be seen.

The sources said CSX, as part of the Central Florida pact, will also grant Tri-Rail permission to run passenger service deep into Miami-Dade on a 32-mile spur known as the Homestead extension.

The tracks run from Bird Road near 72nd Avenue diagonally southwest along State Road 874 toward Miami Metrozoo before heading south to Homestead. One spur could also serve residents who live near the Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport.

Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez has been pushing to develop a bare-bones service similar to the early days of Tri-Rail that would provide a commuting alternative for West Kendall suburbanites who could transfer to Metrorail in Hialeah or, someday, at the Miami Intermodal Center near the airport.

Plenty of funding and operational hurdles have to be cleared before Tri-Rail could start new service in Miami-Dade.

The CSX tracks, which currently support one to two freight trains a day, would have to be improved to meet federal safety standards for passenger services.

And Tri-Rail was originally planning on running three-car diesel-powered double-decker trains that could run at speeds approaching 60 mph. But now those diesel multiple units, or DMUs, might be headed to Central Florida a lot sooner than originally anticipated.

The state paid $22.9 million for the first five cars -- the vast majority of the funding secured by Rep. John Mica, a Central Florida Republican who chairs an influential transportation subcommittee.

Tri-Rail was ordered to send two DMUs to Orlando Tuesday where they will be used as a stage prop for today's announcement by Mica and the governor before returning to South Florida for trial runs later this month.

It is unclear how the four Central Florida counties and the state will pay for the new commuter rail service.

On June 27, Bush vetoed a bill that was strongly supported by Central Florida Republicans and Democrats that would have allowed county voters to decide whether to enact a $2-a-day rental-car surcharge to pay for roads, buses, trains and other transportation needs.

CSX will not be relinquishing its ability to haul 508,000 carloads of freight annually on 1,750 miles of track in Florida.

''We are pleased that these negotiations will enhance CSX's ability to meet the freight needs of a growing state while also addressing Central Florida's commuter rail desires,'' said CSX spokesman Gary Sease.

Boynton approves 800 new homes at Quantum Park

By Will Vash

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Wakulla deal requires all to be heard at commission meetings

By Bruce Ritchie
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

A settlement reached with environmentalists who challenged a proposed development in Wakulla County requires the County Commission to hear everyone who signs up to speak at a public hearing.

The Wakulla County Commission turned away speakers before it approved the N.G. Wade Investment Co.'s request for a "sustainable" community on 606 acres along the Leon County line. During a stormy commission public hearing, two opponents were ejected for outbursts after they weren't allowed to speak.

The settlement, which was finalized Tuesday when the state ordered the case closed, requires the Wakulla County Commission to hear from anyone who owns property in the county and requests to speak. The commission can limit the time individuals can speak.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," said Victor W. Lambou, one of the Wakulla County residents who challenged the approval. "Will it solve all the problems? No way."

The settlement clears the way for the Wade Co. to submit development plans. An attorney for Wade said the company would wait for a 30-day appeal period to pass this month before determining how to proceed.

Other challenges filed by the state, Leon County and the Florida Wildlife Federation have been settled since 2003 as the development was scaled back.

As part of the new agreement, the company also dropped a harassment lawsuit it filed in May against Lambou, Robert Alessi and Earl Enge. An attorney for the three challengers said the suit was filed to silence his clients.

The Wade Co. received approval for 1,250 homes and apartments and 500,000 square feet of commercial and office space. The 606 acres is adjacent to a state prison and an industrial park.

The state in 2003 moved to block approval, citing concerns about the threat to groundwater flowing toward Wakulla Springs. The Leon County Commission challenged because of concerns about traffic on Woodville Highway.

The Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and Concerned Citizens of Wakulla Inc. also filed challenges along with Alessi, Enge and Lambou.

To settle with the state, the Wade Co. reduced the development to 650 single-family units, 150 multifamily units, 350,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 100,000 square feet of office space.

Wakulla County also agreed to develop policies that were proposed in June to protect sinkholes and groundwater. Leon County settled after Wakulla County agreed to a transportation study for improving Woodville Highway.

Wakulla County Attorney Ronald Mowrey and County Commission Chairman Maxie Lawhon could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Bob Routa, an attorney for the Wade Co., said the development previously agreed to provide more stormwater and sewage treatment than is required in the county. The company also agreed to set aside land for conservation and trails.

"It really sets a model some people could follow in terms of environmental consciousness," Routa said

By Tom Palmer
tom.palmer@theledger.com

Florida phosphate mining company granted permits

By VICTOR HULL

N.Y. Times Regional Media Group

Drilling off state OK'd by Senate

By CORY REISS

Sun Washington Bureau

Familiar deal falls flat for developer

Ken McGurn asked Ocala to help finance a $100-million development that eventually stalled. Now New Port Richey deals with a similar situation.

NEW PORT RICHEY - A developer with ambitious plans for downtown asks the city to help finance his project. City leaders don't want to pony up all the money. The developer says the city is putting up too many stumbling blocks, and he walks away.

Sounds a little like the recent story of Gainesville developer Ken McGurn and New Port Richey. But it is the story of Ken McGurn and Ocala.

In July 2005, McGurn and Ocala City Council members ended their negotiations over a nearly $100-million venture in that city's downtown that would have included a mix of residential, retail and office space.

Up front, McGurn and his partners had asked for a rebate on property tax dollars generated by the project - money that would otherwise be earmarked for the city's redevelopment projects - to help make the project doable. By McGurn's figures, that would have totaled about $4.8-million over 20 years.

Less than a year later, McGurn was asking New Port Richey officials for help finishing a project he had already started.

The Main Street Landing project had run out of money as industrywide construction costs pushed the price tag for the first phase from $17-million in 2004 to $33-million. McGurn and a local partner, former mayor Peter Altman, requested paying off a construction bond with $6.7-million of the future taxes that a finished Main Street Landing would generate over the next 23 years.

In Ocala, discussions ended after nearly a year of back-and-forth over the rebate, permit fee waivers and such issues as who should pay for a new public parking garage. McGurn, who never purchased the property, is no longer involved in Ocala.

"What it really came down to was we just couldn't afford him," said Ocala City Manager Paul Nugent. "Ken is the ultimate negotiator."

Back in New Port Richey, McGurn made a presentation to City Council members in June, laying out figures and making his pitch. But a majority of council members said they didn't like his proposal, rejecting it in a 3-2 vote.

McGurn began shutting down the construction site, saying he was waiting for costs to stabilize.

Then the proposal flickered back to life last month, when council members directed city staff to enter negotiations with Main Street Landing.

Marc Mondell, Ocala's planning and development manager, said McGurn's request was not unusual to those in the redevelopment world.

"I wasn't surprised," Mondell said. "I was a little more open to it" than other city officials.

After all, McGurn has been able to win incentives in other places. In Gainesville, for instance, where McGurn is widely credited with helping turn around a dying downtown, his Arlington Square and Union Street Station projects will have received up to $3.2-million in reimbursements by the time both ventures are paid off, the Gainesville Sun reported last month.

McGurn, for his part, said he couldn't afford Ocala's proposal requiring that he pay the city $300,000 a year for a garage he would build. More broadly, he said, the city did not seem willing to take the big steps needed for a major project.

"You have to have that bigger vision," he said. "They said, 'Take it one step at a time.' "

McGurn said the Ocala and New Port Richey negotiations shared a similar theme: the difficulty of having the first premier project downtown.

"Those are the toughest ones to do it in because you've got to break them in," he said. "For the first guy in there, it's tough."

After splitting with McGurn, Ocala officials scrapped their original plan to have one developer coordinate the major undertaking. Instead, they divided the master project into three separate, smaller projects.

So far, they have signed a deal for one project. In April, the Ocala City Council approved a contract with a developer planning to build 38 residential units, a parking garage and a 40,000-square-foot retail and restaurant complex, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

Mondell said Tuesday the developer will get a $1.5-million loan, a city-owned parcel and fee waivers.

But no property tax rebate.

Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or 727 869-6247.

Condo proposal tweaked, resubmitted

Developers respond to residents' complaints about access to the 60-unit project near U.S. 41 by relocating the access.

LAND O'LAKES - Despite wider fears of a slumping condominium market, a 60-unit condominium proposal off U.S. 41, just north of Carson Drive, is heading back to the Development Review Committee with a different access point.

The development attracted opposition from Carson Drive residents when it surfaced in December last year.

Residents said the 13-acre development by Mobley Homes of Tampa would choke narrow, dead-end Carson Drive and stress its chronically failing sewage treatment lift station.

For months, the project languished as Mobley sought a compromise by finding an access route that would not use Carson Drive. The access would now run 1,000 feet north and then west directly onto U.S. 41.

"We just resubmitted our plans to the county's staff," Tonja Stewart, Mobley's land development manager, said Tuesday. "We're moving forward with a connection to U.S. 41 and not through Carson Drive."

A date hasn't been set for Mobley's reappearance before the Development Review Committee, but Stewart is hoping for a date within six weeks.

When that happens, it will be Mobley's second shot with the proposal. The Planning Commission in March sent the project back to the county's staff on the strength of residents' objections.

Even with the new access point, residents who oppose the project said they would still press the county to halt Mobley, arguing that drivers would still use Carson Drive as a shortcut to the development.

They also fear the additional load on the Carson Drive sewage station. The station broke down in May, spilling 3,000 gallons of sewage. Residents say it was an example of chronic failures there.

The condominiums' prospects may also now be complicated by plans for a milelong, six-lane overpass that would straddle State Road 54. While state transportation officials say the project is still a decade away, the plan has already influenced past county decisions on developments along U.S. 41.

But Mobley said discussions with the county's staff apparently assuaged their concerns.

"It's not going to impact us," Stewart said. "Most likely, the (state) Department of Transportation will have to accommodate us with transition lanes."

But with single-family home median prices dropping for the first time in five years, buyers may not be looking for condominiums, central Pasco Realtor Christie Zimmer said.

Condominium sales dropped 47 percent in the Tampa Bay area in the year up to June, according to the Florida Association of Realtors

Still, condominiums are a relative rarity in central Pasco and may create a demand, said Marvin Rose, a Tarpon Springs market analyst.

"Historically, condominium development in Pasco has been on the water," he said. "There have been a couple of scattered projects on (S.R.) 54. The market for condominium conversions did well for a couple years, then got saturated. Other than that, there's not been much condominium building in central Pasco. It's a strong, central location."

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

Builder Drops Planned Condos

By CHRISTIAN M. WADE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 2, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - It was supposed to be a windfall for this growing city: an exclusive midrise condominium complex that would add more than 1,000 residents while pumping much-needed tax money into municipal coffers.

In December, the city council approved a developer's proposal to annex nearly 30 acres from the county into the city to build 500 condos.

A few months before, Ryland Homes had approached city officials with a plan to build six nine-story buildings with parking, a fitness center, library and swimming pools on the vacant land off Sea Forest Drive in Gulf Harbors.

City officials were excited at the prospect of expanding the property tax base; the developers were eager for access to municipal sewer systems, better fire and police protection and a streamlined development approval process.

After approving the annexation, the council agreed to rezone the property from a multifamily designation to a planned development district and signed off on preliminary site plans for the Venetian Isles gated community.

Now, seven months later, Ryland Homes is selling the property for an estimated $12.5 million, leaving the future of the much-anticipated project uncertain.

The sale is being handled by Tampa-based Eshenbaugh Land Company, which boasts in an information packet that the site comes with significantly lower city impact fees, compared to the county, and that the buyer can sell or transfer development rights.

If they can find a buyer, Ryland stands to turn a sizable profit. In 2004, the company paid $1.6 million for the tract, county records show.

A spokeswoman for Ryland Homes couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

Mayor Dan Tipton said he was told the Ryland project was on hold until the real estate market bounces back. He did not know the property is for sale.

"It's going to mean less money for the city if it's not built, but from what I understood the project is going to go forward at some point," he said. "The last thing I heard was that they were putting it on hold because of the condo market."

The apparent demise of Venetian Isles is bad news for the city, which has been trying for years to build its general fund reserves from new development and annexations.

Revenue generated by growth also pays for services such as police and fire and has been keeping the property tax rate from increasing.

Chuck Kalogianis, a New Port Richey-based real estate lawyer who represents a potential buyer of the Ryland property, said the rising construction costs and an uncertain market have forced many developers to abandon midrise condo projects.

"There is a consensus in the building industry that doing midrise condos is a bad idea right now," he said. "The cost of construction materials, particularly the price of concrete, has made building midrise condos virtually prohibitive."

But there are other factors. The skyrocketing cost of homeowners' insurance has contributed to the delay or demise of numerous midrise condo projects.

"That's what's slowing the market," said Chuck Grey, a New Port Richey-based real estate broker. "It's an extreme situation; the state's economy is based on real estate and development. It's one thing to slow down, it's another to stop."

Kalogianis expects the property to sell but doubts a buyer would be interested in building a midrise condo complex on the site, as was planned.

"It's a crown jewel piece of property," he said. "But midrises are out."

The Ryland project was one of several midrise housing complexes that developers were hoping one day would soar into the county's skyline west of U.S. 19.

Ryland is building another midrise complex on nearly 100 acres of county land in Holiday. The development group plans to build 350 condos in seven midrise towers on the seaside property off Baillie's Bluff Road.

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

Concerns tower over condo projects

Neighbors fear negative impact on home values

BY RICK NEALE
FLORIDA TODAY

Sue Lee Lin stood at the edge of the muddy, excavated pit off Melbourne Avenue, watching workers fashion the final foundation pilings of her future housing tower.

When completed next July or thereabouts, Harbor Edge Condominiums will loom 80 feet above the roadway, containing 27 penthouses selling for up to $1.2 million.

The Mediterranean-style high-rise is the first in a wave of lofty superstructures that -- if built, in light of the slumping housing market nationwide -- would forever change downtown Melbourne's economic and cultural makeup.

In recent months, local and out-of-county developers have submitted documents to City Hall detailing 10 future housing towers in downtown Melbourne.

Ranging from 76 feet to 159 feet in height, the concrete monoliths would spring forth from the banks of Crane Creek, to the base of the Melbourne Causeway to the New Haven Avenue retail strip.

"I was thinking this would be
a landmark," Lin said, laughing, "but then there's this one, this one, this one," pointing in different directions. "You probably won't even notice it."

According to various documents, the towers would contain at least 1,028 condominiums, suites and townhouses -- nearly tripling today's downtown population. These wealthy occupants would shop, dine and do business in the immediate vicinity.

"It's maybe the single biggest key to renovating a downtown area," said Jack Ryals, who chairs Melbourne's downtown redevelopment board. "If you talk about safer, cleaner, better-environment situations in a downtown area, residential is the single biggest impact."

But thus far, construction work is only under way on Lin's tower.

Why? "Rising mortgage rates, rising inventory levels, rising insurance premiums and higher energy costs," the Florida Association of Realtors stated last week, describing the statewide market.

Housing slowdown

Condominium sales tumbled 79 percent in Brevard County last month compared with June 2005, the Realtors organization reported. And the median sales price slumped from $229,500 to $185,000.

"I can tell you that the condominium market is over-saturated right now," Ken Ward, a director at Towne Realty on Merritt Island, told Melbourne officials recently. "A lot of the projects that have been brought before you, most likely you're going to hear back (from the developers) again -- because they're not going to get built."

"It's not like you're building single-family, one-story homes where you can come out and, after three homes, you can stop," Ward said.

According to Melbourne code, each tower site plan is only valid for one year. Plans for the 10 towers run the gamut in terms of evolution: Lin's building is under construction; Dr. Richard Hynes' Harbor City Center was proposed back in 2001, but remains on the drawing board; the Melbourne Lofts still require a land swap with the city.

"The likelihood that everything that has been submitted is going to be built is less than 50 percent," City Manager Jack Schluckebier said. "But we probably will see between half and two-thirds of them being built within two or three years."

Dismal demographics

Melbourne's 242-acre redevelopment district, encompassing the historic downtown and blighted U.S. 1 corridor, is thinly populated and surprisingly low-income in nature, a 2005 Strategic Planning Group analysis reveals.

Including the adjacent Tar Heel neighborhood, this downtown zone contains 1,465 residents in 832 households. A sobering 44 percent of households earn less than $15,000 per year -- retirees in the Trinity Towers public-housing buildings skew those statistics.

Thirty percent of Melbourne's downtown households earn between $15,000 and $34,999 per year. Five percent earn $100,000 or more. And 69 percent of total households are renters, not homeowners.

The towers would boost these dismal downtown demographics. Assuming an average of 2.6 people per household, the towers would contain 2,673 affluent residents. That would catapult Melbourne's meager downtown population skyward 183 percent, to 4,138 people.

"I have mixed feelings about it," said Amanda Pearson, manager at Sun Shoppe & Café. "I think it'll be really good for business, and it'll bring a lot more people down here. But I think it'll create more traffic."

Construction 'risky'

Ward's comments about the "over-saturated" condominium market came July 6 during a Melbourne planning and zoning board meeting. He and Dave Menzel, founder of MAI Architects Engineers of Suntree, were lobbying for approval of a site plan for the Crane Creek Campus, twin 149-foot towers featuring 282 timeshare and hotel units.

Ironically, Ward and Menzel -- condominium developers who stand to profit from the project -- both labeled tower construction "risky" under current conditions.

"We don't know where the market's going," Menzel said.

The Brevard County residential housing market now lists about 7,000 properties, including roughly 2,300 condominiums and 600 townhouses, said Gene Collins, president of the Melbourne Area Association of Realtors.

Collins said the market is softening, in part, because quick-turn investors are looking elsewhere.

"The flippers were in there pretty early (in 2004), particularly in the beachside areas. It was a great business, but I think those people are really out of the market now," he said.

In addition to the 10 towers, developers hope to build five more high-dollar housing towers along the Indian River Lagoon, north of downtown.

Menzel asked for permission to build Crane Creek Campus over a 10-year span, entailing three phases of construction. The Melbourne City Council has yet to rule.

Opposition

Not all support the towering edifices. This spring, former councilwoman Pat Poole submitted more than 200 signatures to City Hall asking for a referendum to restrict building height limits.

"I think it's a disaster," said Poole, a downtown resident. "It's not necessary to have that height. They say they're saving land.

"They're not saving land, like the developers say -- they're saving money."

Port Richey wants to plant artificial reefs

City officials will ask the county for $50,000 to plant 375 Ecoreefs to promote natural coral reef growth and attract tourists to area keys.

If Port Richey officials have their way, tourists with a snorkeling excursion in mind will someday flock to Durney Key.

City Manager Jerry Calhoun and Mayor Mark Abbott will approach the Pasco County Tourism Development Council in the coming months to ask for money to buy Ecoreefs, or artificial reefs, to install about 2 miles west of Durney Key.

Mike Haley, a consultant for San Anselmo, Calif.-based Ecoreefs, suggested Port Richey officials buy 375 Ecoreefs, which would cost about $50,000.

The Ecoreefs would stand about 3 feet high and be anchored into the sand with stainless steel cable. Power boats would be banned in the shallow water where the artificial reefs would be installed.

Ecoreefs have been installed in Indonesia, the Bahamas, the Philippines and the Florida Keys.

The ceramic, non-toxic Ecoreefs create a habitat for fish and could promote coral reef growth.

"One of the things I've noticed was in many circumstances, when coral reefs are severely damaged, they have a long time to come back," said Dr. Michael Moore, a marine scientist and Ecoreefs founder.

County spokeswoman Diane Jones,said Port Richey would be eligible to receive funding for the project through the bricks-and-mortar portion of the county's tourist development tax, which is used to increase tourism.

The 2 percent tax on all hotel, motels or RV stays generated $800,000 for the county last year, Jones said.

Calhoun said Ecoreefs leftover from the Durney Key project could be installed for snorkeling at nearby Anclote Key.

"It's great for local citizens to go out there," Calhoun said. "Our plans are to enhance Durney Key. Right now, nobody does anything with it or takes care of it."

Camille C. Spencer can be reached at cspencer@sptimes.com or 727 869-6229.

Land deal worries Sarasota County

The possibility of a conflict of interest has commissioners considering a larger ban.

Florida phosphate mining company granted permits

By VICTOR HULL

N.Y. Times Regional Media Group

Phosphate mining opponents, including Charlotte and Sarasota counties and a regional water utility, will have to decide how far to carry their long and expensive fight against the industry.

The latest legal setback came as the state's top environmental regulator determined that Florida's largest phosphate company can strip mine a new 4,200-acre site between Bradenton and Wauchula.

Announcing the decision Tuesday, the Mosaic Co. said it vindicated the firm's mining plan and refuted opponents' claims that water and other natural resources would be ruined.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Colleen M. Castille agreed with Mosaic that the company had provided enough assurance that the environment will be protected during and after mining.

The firm's mining plan "sets a new level of expectation for the entire industry," Castille said in a news release.

Castille ordered the agency to issue state permits to Mosaic - formerly IMC Phosphates - allowing the destruction of 212 acres of wetlands and nine streams.

The company will preserve 375 acres of wetlands and 13 streams.

"We have demonstrated our commitment to responsible stewardship of Florida's environment and protection of local water resources, and we trust that this order will not be subject to further appeal," said Mosaic Senior Vice President Steven L. Pinney in a prepared statement.

An appeal is just what Charlotte County commissioners will consider an appeal at a closed-door strategy meeting requested by the county's lawyers on Aug. 22.

Charlotte County Attorney Janette Knowlton said Tuesday that she and the county's outside law firm in the case were still reviewing the DEP's 118-page permit ruling and have not decided whether to recommend an appeal in Florida district court. The deadline for an appeal is Aug. 30.

Castille's decision puts Charlotte and the other mining opponents at a crossroads.

The battle against phosphate strip mining has led to significant changes in mining regulation and practices.

Mosaic, for example, significantly scaled down the scope of its proposed mine site, called Ona-Fort Green, from the more than 20,000 it sought originally. And it agreed to preserve more environmentally sensitive areas, including wetlands and streams.

But the five-year legal fight against mining has cost Southwest Florida taxpayers and utility customers more than $12 million, with Charlotte County residents bearing most of the expense.

Besides Charlotte, Sarasota and Lee counties and the Peace River-Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority, operated jointly by Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota, participated in the permit challenge.

Some Charlotte County commissioners have indicated recently that they are ready to stop fighting. But Charlotte County Commissioner Adam Cummings, a leading mining opponent, said he favored an appeal, arguing that Castille had ignored important conclusions by a state administrative law judge who reviewed the mining plan.

Even without an appeal, Mosaic cannot begin mining the Ona site, about a half-mile east of the Manatee County line, immediately. The firm must still get local and regional approval.

A company executive said excavation likely wouldn't begin until 2010.

Mosaic announced Tuesday a net loss of nearly $181 million for the quarter ending May 31. Net sales were $1.33 billion, an 8 percent decline over last year.

The company blamed part of the loss on a slight decline in sales of phosphate and higher production costs, including natural gas prices. But the industry has always been cyclical.

Mosaic controls tens of thousands of acres more in Hardee and DeSoto county that could potentially be mined for phosphate, used mainly to make crop fertilizer.

The Ona tract is the largest of three the company has sought to mine since 2001 and the closest to the Peace River.

Charlotte and other critics said the mining and ore processing reduce water flows while polluting the Peace River and its tributaries.

Those waterways contribute vital fresh water to Charlotte Harbor, Florida's second largest estuary and a nursery for sea life.

The Peace supplies drinking water to about 250,000 people in Southwest Florida.

A state administrative law judge rejected many of the objections, but in June, he declined to recommend that Castille issue the permits to Mosaic.

Lawyers for Charlotte and the authority saw that as a victory, contending that the judge had concluded the mine proposal didn't meet state environmental protection standards.

But on Tuesday, DEP Deputy Director Richard Cantrell said the judge had affirmed steps the state would take to ensure protection of wetlands, streams and other natural resources.

Cantrell said the Ona permitting process was the longest in the department's history.

"The judge left us a sound basis to appeal this final order," said Ed de La Parte, Charlotte's special counsel. "He made it very clear that he didn't think this permit will protect the environment."

Tallahassee bureau reporter Joe Follick and Lakeland Ledger reporter Kevin Bouffard contributed to this report

Ideas offered on use of beach campground site

BY ERIK MAZA

SARASOTA COUNTY -- More than 115 people who want to help decide the fate of the Gulf Beach campground by Turtle Beach met Tuesday at St. Boniface Episcopal Church on Siesta Key.

Campers who stay regularly at the campground, which sits 25 feet from the Gulf of Mexico, lobbied for the county to keep it open.

Others thought the campground should be closed to make way for parking at Turtle Beach Park.

"I don't understand why the county bought the park if it's going to keep it as is," said Mary Kasper. "Either make it into something better everyone can use or sell it back."

During a wide-ranging discussion, they pitched a half-dozen ideas for the campground's future.

Turn the campground, which has a 2-acre strip of beachfront, into a park like the adjacent Turtle Beach park but with more shaded areas and picnic tables.

Allow campers to stay there for only a limited amount of time instead of the current 6-month-long maximum stay.

Keep the park as is since it brings in revenue and provides a buffer between Turtle Beach's parking lot and the neighborhood on the other side of the campground. Shelia Roberson of Sarasota County Parks and Recreation, which is organizing the workshops, said that since June, the park has made $80,000.

Make the campground, which now has 48 spots for RVs, into equal parts RV camp and regular recreation park with picnic areas.

Expand it to take in other campers since currently it is the only county-owned campground in Sarasota.

Make it into an eco-park with more space for turtles. (At least one person suggested turning it into a cat and dog park.)

Turn it into a parking lot to improve hectic parking on Siesta Key.

No decisions were made Tuesday, the first in a series of public workshops to gather input from the public.

The next workshop will be held 6 p.m. Thursday at St. Boniface, 5615 Midnight Pass Road.

Sarasota County bought the campground from the Iott family in January to bridge Turtle Beach Park and six acres of county-owned beach to the north, creating a 2,900-foot stretch of beach, the longest in the county.

Just owning that land qualifies the county for an additional $1 million in state funding for beach renourishment over 10 years, said Parks and Recreation director John McCarthy.

Jason Iott, son of the former owners, said the campground brought in about $300,000 in net income every year when his family owned it.

"There are only two other campgrounds on the beach in the state," he said.

To comment on the development of the campground, write to parksonline@scgov.net.

Put "Turtle Beach RV Park" in the e-mail's subject line.

D-day is Sept. 26 on Cypress Creek mall

The proposed mall at State Road 56 and I-75 has been bogged down for more than a year. Now Swiftmud appears set to make a final decision by the end of September.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published August 1, 2006

WESLEY CHAPEL - The governing board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, will decide Sept. 26 on its long-awaited, controversy-ridden permit for Cypress Creek Town Center.

Developers behind the 1.3-million-square-foot mall, the largest in the Tampa Bay area, issued a final round of correspondence on July 18 with the wetlands regulator and had their application "deemed complete."

The maneuver moves the yearlong negotiation into endgame.

It triggers a 90-day window for Swiftmud's final review, which means the agency must decide before mid October. The agency's board meets monthly, and the last available date in that window is Sept. 26.

The move also suggests a level of confidence in the expectations of the developer, the Richard E. Jacobs Group, since the "deemed complete" decision essentially cuts off talks and calls for an up-or-down vote.

Cypress Creek Town Center, which would straddle State Road 56 just west of Interstate 75, has been bogged down for more than a year over environmental permits it needs from Swiftmud and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, primarily because of its plans to remove 55 acres of wetlands and its risk to Tampa's drinking water.

Coming on the heels of negotiations with more than 100 intensive questions, the Jacobs Group's latest move attracts attention for its apparent subtext.

"To declare yourself sufficient, that's a tactic to bring the agency to a conclusion," said Jennifer Seney, executive director of Pascowildlife . "Swiftmud has to have given them the indication that it's sufficient. Or something must be going on to have given them that understanding."

Despite the wetlands concern, Seney has long supported the mall proposal, arguing the area is destined for development.

Swiftmud officials said Friday that the agency is still reviewing the Jacobs Group's final submission.

"We're looking to see if they have sufficient modeling and details to demonstrate hydrology wetlands mitigation prior to the development," said Michael Molligan, the agency's spokesman.

Some mall opponents vowed to sue immediately if Swiftmud issues its permit, but other environmentalists said the Jacobs Group has already been stringently scrutinized.

"They have been put through sheer, unadulterated hell," Seney said.

Ralf Brookes, an attorney representing local anti-mall interests, said opponents are reviewing their legal ammunition. The group has already lost two lawsuits and an appeal against the impending mall, but is now armed with advice from a former South Florida Water Management District attorney, Brookes said.

Even if September brings good news for the mall, the Jacobs Group would still have all but missed a late 2007 grand opening deadline, unless it opens a smaller version of the proposal. The developer needs about 18 months to construct the mall.

A Cleveland-based Jacobs spokesman did not reply to a call for comment.

Even with Swiftmud permit in hand, the mall's developers must still hurdle another obstacle from the Army Corps. But longtime observers say Swiftmud is the more critical - and possibly stricter - of the two regulators. Few doubt that a corps permit would be far behind a Swiftmud permit.

Chuck Schnepel and Tracy Hurst, the corps officials working on Cypress Creek Town Center, did not reply to messages for comment. 

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

Water pumping may get go-ahead
But bottling plant is another story

By Bruce Ritchie
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

A Wakulla County couple is closer to getting a permit to pump water but faces a new challenge in getting approval to build a water-bottling plant near Wakulla Springs.

D.P. "Dan" and Ruth High received a permit in 2003 to pump up to 1.4 million gallons of water a day. But the Wakulla County Commission last August denied a request by the Highs and Sidney Gray to build a water-bottling plant.

The Northwest Florida Water Management District is recommending approval of a new permit that would allow the Highs to pump up to 70,900 gallons per day - a much smaller amount than previously permitted.

Some residents and state park officials last year said the pumping may harm Wakulla Springs and lead other bottling companies to move in. The agency says water is plentiful in the area, but the permit allows water managers to order reduced withdrawals if pumping causes harm.

The recommendation, issued late last week, sets an Aug. 24 public hearing on the request before the agency's governing board.

Meanwhile, the Highs have asked for mediation with the county on the denial of the land-use-change request from a year ago.

Wakulla County Attorney Ronald Mowrey sent a letter to the Highs' attorney saying it's inappropriate for the county to proceed with mediation.

In the July 26 letter to attorney Nancy Linnan, Mowrey wrote that state law appears to require anyone who wants mediation to request it within 30 days of the denial.

MARK THE DATE

What: Public hearing on water bottling permit
When: Aug. 24, 1:15 p.m.
Where: Northwest Florida Water Management District, U.S. Highway 90, 10 miles west of Tallahassee.

 

Rural Shiloh Country may give way to development

By SUSAN LATHAM CARR

Ocala Star-Banner

OCALA - Tucked in the northwest corner of Marion County lies Shiloh Country, a quiet community where cattle cross the road and neighbors remember when Zetrouer's old country store was open for business - and wistfully wish it still were.

Jerome Feaster rests comfortably on a narrow bench in front of the old store, where he used to sit eating ice cream when he was a young boy.

"The property I live on has been in my family since 1891," Feaster said.

Shiloh Country is a place where people like Jeff Rubin, a pediatrician who has lived there for 40 years, still considers himself a "newcomer." The area is rife with history.

But the community could soon change. Developer John Rudnianyn has proposed two large-scale amendments to the county's comprehensive plan that affect 1,200 acres in Shiloh Country. The Marion County Commission will decide Thursday whether to transmit Rudnianyn's requests to the state for consideration.

That upsets people like Feaster.
"It's a 'pioneer farm,' " Feaster said about his homestead. That is a designation given by the state Department of Agriculture to families that have maintained continuous ownership of their farms for 100 years.

Jim Mixson is concerned, too.
"My daddy and my granddaddy and me were born in the same room in the same house," Mixson said.

Another neighbor, Jeanne Chitty-Campbell, is a fifth-generation cattle rancher.

Her herd of registered cattle is the oldest Angus herd in Florida.

She owns about 450 acres in Shiloh Country.

"My grandfather farmed it," Chitty-Campbell said proudly about Stardust Ranch. She is a descendant of the Zetrouers and Chittys, both pioneer farm families.

Her mother, Jeanette Zetrouer Chitty, who had cancer, signed the contract around 2000 that gave Rudnianyn part of the 1,200 acres he is proposing to develop. Ever since then - "and 16 lawyers later" - Chitty-Campbell has been unsuccessful in getting her family's land back.

Her husband, Chad Campbell, said he would be satisfied if Rudnianyn would develop the land as agricultural, meaning one house per 10 acres.

Urban sprawl
Rudnianyn is asking the county to consider a large-scale amendment to the comprehensive plan that would make a new land-use classification called a "conservation community."

His plan, if approved, would consist of about 240 homes on one- to 1-acre lots with an on-sight central water and sewer system.

The property is about one mile west of County Road 329 on the north side of County Road 320.

The county's Planning Commission and staff have recommended denial, saying the proposals are not compatible with the area.

"It's totally surrounded by rural land," Planning Director Dwight Ganoe said. "Sometimes it's hard to define urban sprawl but, if that's not, I don't know what would be."

Shiloh Country sits on the Alachua County border. Feaster, Mixson and Chitty-Campbell's land is in Marion County. Rubin's property is in Alachua County. There aren't any Wal-Marts or Targets or convenience stores. There aren't any police stations or fire houses. There isn't even a school there.

What is there are hickory, sweet gum, loblolly and longleaf pines and white oak trees.

"He's creating an artificial city where there is no infrastructure to support it," said Jim Gant, another neighbor from the Alachua County side of the community.

"I think it's despicable," Chitty-Campbell said. "It's not conducive for the way that the property is used around here."

Wetland damage
And the neighbors are concerned about Morse Pond, a roughly 400-acre prairie on Rudnianyn's land that is dry until the rains come. At times, it has filled to 4 or 5 feet deep.

"Everything drains to Morse Pond," Chitty-Campbell said.

The water from Morse Pond flows about a mile via a slough to Ledwith Lake, which goes to Kanapha Sinkhole in Alachua County.

Rudnianyn's clearing has damaged some of the wetlands, including part of Morse Pond, according to a report by Lisa Rinehart, a Southwest Florida Water Management District staff field technician Lisa Rinehart.

"We haven't done anything in these wetlands but clean up," Rudnianyn said. "The situation we had was a bunch of trees got knocked down with hurricanes."

He did not get permits or agricultural exemptions to do the clearing.

"If there was unauthorized wetland activity, it certainly was unintentional," Rudnianyn said.

According to Rinehart's report, Rudnianyn, at first, said someone else did the work but later mentioned that his son had done the work. Rinehart and district Environmental Scientist Michael Sommers told Rudnianyn to stay out of the wetlands and not use heavy equipment until he gets the proper permits.

According to the report, Rudnianyn replied, "When we are finished we'll stay out of those areas."

Sommers sent Rudnianyn a letter asking him to contact the district in writing by July 28 with a plan and schedule for mitigating the unauthorized impacts. As of July 28, Rudnianyn had not responded.

He said he lost the letter and would respond this week.

Higher density
"Higher density reduces urban sprawl," Rudnianyn said. "This is a neat piece of land. This is on the cutting edge of rural environmental development."

He said that by clustering the units, more open space is available. He said he will be providing a permanent conservation easement on the property that will leave much of the land undeveloped.

"When you buy an acre, you are really buying 780 acres," he said. He said he would not build the homes but would sell lots. He said a lot would cost about $150,000-$200,000.

Gail Stern, a founding member of Marion County Citizens Coalition, opposes both of Rudnianyn's large-scale amendments.

"It sounds wonderful," Stern said. "What is he conserving? He's got a lot of good buzz words in there, but what does it mean?"

She said density would be doubled if the "conservation community" land use were approved.

"You call it 'conservation community' and you have increased your density," Stern said. "It's like an automatic 'get out of jail free' card. It's great. But who's going to pay for that in the long run?"

She said the residents of Marion County will have to pay for the schools and teachers and other infrastructure to support development in a rural area, not to mention the county's future water needs.

"Somewhere down the road we are going to pay," Stern said. "I would like to ask him exactly what he's conserving."

Plan for Peace River's Flow Clears Hurdle

By Tom Palmer
The Ledger

BROOKSVILLE -- Regional water officials Monday approved the latest step toward plans to raise Lake Hancock's level to store water to replenish the Peace River.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District's Governing Board voted unanimously to approve a memorandum of agreement between the agency and Polk County to deal with any problems the lake level project causes at the North Central Landfill.

The County Commission is scheduled to consider the memorandum Aug. 9.

County officials agree with the memorandum language and commissioners are expected to pass it, said Deputy County Manager Jim Freeman.

Freeman said county officials sought the memorandum to make sure Swiftmud agreed.

Those approvals will allow Swiftmud officials to apply this month to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for a permit for the project, said Mark Hammond, Swiftmud's director of resource management.

DEP's review should take about six months, Hammond said.

If DEP agrees to grant a permit for the project, the proposal will return to the Governing Board for a vote on whether to proceed, he said.

If board members agree to proceed, that will lead to the purchase of land around the lake and in the Saddle Creek floodplain -- including several homes -- to accommodate the project.

The memorandum is intended to outline Swiftmud's responsibilities in helping the county to deal with and to monitor potential problems caused by the rising lake level.

It covers permitting, wetlands mitigation and groundwater monitoring.

Board member Tom Dabney asked what Swiftmud's maximum liability would be under the agreement.

Hammond said no amount has been set, but said based on their modeling, they don't anticipate any major problems.

Bill Bilenky, Swiftmud's general counsel, said the law is clear on this point.

"We will be liable for any damage we cause," he said.

Swiftmud's plan is to raise the average level of the 4,519-acre lake by two feet to 100 feet above sea level to store water that will be released into the Peace River. Because of overpumping, the aquifer level in the area around the upper Peace River has dropped 40 feet since the 1930s.

That means portions of the river between Bartow and Fort Meade run dry during droughts, such as the one that occurred last spring.

The project has been under discussion since 2002 to comply with a 1972 state law requiring water management districts to set minimum flows for rivers.

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

Drilling off Florida may open other waters

By CORY REISS

Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Senate legislation on the verge of passing only opens a tract off Florida, but offshore drilling advocates say overcoming 25 years of objections from arguably the staunchest anti-drilling state provides the key to other waters, too.

Their confidence highlights the success drilling supporters have enjoyed over the past year in splitting Florida from other coastal states, which until recently have fought together, and the consequences a deal with Florida may have for other coasts.

The Senate Monday approved a procedural motion 72-23 that makes final passage of a bill to open 8.3 million acres of waters south of the Florida panhandle for oil and gas drilling little more than a formality.

The House, with support from the majority of the Florida delegation, passed a much broader bill in June opening waters off all coastal states for oil and gas production. Key senators in both parties are demanding the House adopt the Senate's version or risk winning nothing this year.

House Republicans have not acquiesced, and energy companies would prefer access to as much territory as possible. Drilling advocates and industry officials said, however, legislation limited to waters off Florida would be the first step in a larger expansion of offshore production.

"I will in due course argue for opening more, and then more, and then more, and then more," Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said at a press conference with major industry groups. "That's how I see it happening ... You take one step at a time. This is a big step."

Major environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, oppose both bills.

Republican Senate leaders say their chamber wouldn't approve a broader bill. Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has promised Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a filibuster if the measure returns from negotiations with the House altered.

The Senate could pass the bill as soon as today but more likely Wednesday. After that, members of the House and Senate must negotiate a final bill for both chambers to approve.

Domenici said deviation from the Senate legislation could shatter the delicate compromise that earned the support of both Florida senators, Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, who negotiated the bill with Domenici and others.

Authors of the House bill, including some Florida members, contend their broader measure is best for Florida, other coastal states, and the nation's energy supply. They have shown no sign of giving in.

David Parker, president of the American Gas Association, said the Senate bill is not the "end all, be all" for his industry. If the Senate bill becomes law, he said, the industry group would work with other states "to recognize the tremendous potential that's out there."

Asked if the Senate bill is enough for his organization's industrial members, John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said: "That would be historic in and of itself .... One step at a time."

Groups representing manufacturers, chemical makers, fertilizer producers and paper mills, whose industries are suffering from the high price of natural gas, urged Senate passage and swift resolution with the House.

Most waters outside the central and western Gulf have been off limits to drilling since 1982 because of annual congressional bans and periodic presidential decrees. The current presidential prohibition expires in 2012.

The Senate bill would open a large tract that begins 125 miles south of the Panhandle and 234 miles west of Tampa Bay, protecting a large military training zone off the state's west coast. The buffer would remain until 2022. Gulf states would share billions in federal royalties.

The House bill would open waters as close as 100 miles to all coastal states, and 234 miles from Tampa Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. States could allow drilling closer than 100 miles in exchange for shares of federal royalties, but they would have to pass legislation every five years to keep the 100-mile buffer.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., told the Senate that he wants to give states other than Florida the option of allowing offshore production. Virginia's legislature has twice passed legislation to show support for ending the federal bans off its shores.

Domenici told Virginia's senators the bill limited to Gulf waters was a "breakthrough" that would help states such as theirs to build on it.

Energy producers have eyed waters off Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Some critics of the Senate bill also complain it doesn't protect Florida's East Coast either.

Martinez acknowledged the Senate bill does not rid Florida of the drilling fight forever but that the bill is the best protection the state can get from the Senate right now.

State agency takes title to Babcock Ranch

By JOE FOLLICK

Sun Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE - The state sealed the deal Monday for the purchase of 74,000 acres of Babcock Ranch, ending a six-year process that resulted in the state's largest purchase of land for environmental protection.

"I can't begin to describe how great this feels," said an emotional Eva Armstrong, the director of the Division of State Lands for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Armstrong took the deed from the hands of Syd Kitson at a news conference in the Capitol on Monday, marking the official close of the purchase. Kitson will develop nearly 15,000 acres of the property, creating a new city in Charlotte and Lee counties.

The $350 million purchase provides an almost uninterrupted corridor of protected land from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. The land, which will continue operating as a working ranch, is home to the Florida panther, the Florida black bear and Telegraph Swamp.

"Babcock Ranch is probably the most important, and certainly the largest, investment Florida's ever made to protect our environmental lands," said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida vice president.

The road to the purchase was not smooth. Persuading the Florida Cabinet and the Legislature to spend $350 million was not an extremely hard sell. But a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club threatened the entire plan until an agreement was reached last month. The agreement requires more than 1,600 homes to be shifted toward less environmentally sensitive land, and requires all homes in the development to be 10 percent more energy efficient than ordinary houses.

Draper said it was just as important in its protection of the ranch itself, which will continue to include a working cattle operation.

He praised it as an environmentally friendly use of the land if it is well-managed, which environmentalists say it was in the past and operators promised it would continue to be.

"Today we celebrate not just the future for panthers and wood storks and spoon bills and other wildlife, but we also celebrate the future for working ranches as a part of Florida's economic future," Draper said.

Armstrong said the land would be people-friendly too, with "every type of recreation you could possibly want," and urged Floridians to visit it.

Lee County Attorney David Owen also said the purchase would benefit not just the environment - but generations of Floridians.

"This is for my children, this is for your children, this is for their children," Owen said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Kitson & Partners

Petitions for insurance relief are lying dormant

By DAVID DeCAMP
Published August 1, 2006

PORT RICHEY - More than 12,000 people have signed petitions begging state officials to solve the crippling home insurance rates, activists say.

But those petitions are gathering dust, at least until activists meet with Gov. Jeb Bush and top lawmakers - none of whom have agreed to meet with them.

In the meantime, state Rep. John Legg is left without what he said is valuable ammunition to press state government for a special legislative session to address the problem.

"I've never heard of a petition that's written to remain private," said Legg, R-Port Richey. He said lawmakers are picking up signals a special session is possible after the November election.

High rates have particularly stung Pasco, leading to calls for changes in Citizens Property Insurance, the state insurer of last resort, and insurance regulations. The rates for coastal Pasco will rise an average of 139 percent.

The petitions call on the Legislature and Bush to make reforms in a special session and rescind all rate increases since 2005. But Bush and top lawmakers have been reluctant to call a special session.

Last week, the activists turned down Legg's request for the petitions. Legg said he wanted send them to Bush and legislative leaders and compile a constituent contact list. But Christopher Kowalczyk, vice president of the nonpartisan Homeowners Against Citizens Florida, said the group needs to protect petitioners' privacy and worried about costs to copy the paperwork.

Kowalczyk said HAC is waiting for an appointment with Bush or leaders of the Florida House and Senate to turn over the petitions. He said none have agreed to meet with the group, though ultimately the petitions will be turned over.

But Kowalczyk and other activists said some people wanted to make sure their names and addresses were not added to mailing lists or given out other than to Bush and the leading legislators.

"It's not for his office like that," Kowalczyk said of Legg. "That's why it says it's going to the Legislature and to the governor."

The disagreement comes as the homeowners are regrouping after internal squabbles resulted in president Howard Polsky's resignation last weekend. The group had won attention for a 100-person showing in Tallahassee and other events this year.

But Kowalczyk said HAC is moving ahead with public events in August. Founder Nicole Deg, who distanced herself when she pursued a now-abandoned bid for County Commission, also is helping organize a rally.

[Last modified July 31, 2006, 21:58:38]