Mar 31, 2006

Tortoises must move to make way for school

All that will change this year.

The gopher tortoises will be moved to make way for the county's newest three-story school. But, in moving the ancient creatures, the county school district's facilities team ran into problems.

It would seem logical to relocate the tortoises to land owned by governmental agencies such as the Southwest Florida Water Management District, also known as Swiftmud.

That process, however, is mired in paperwork, according to the facilities' team that inquired with representatives of Swiftmud about the best place to move the tortoises.

"I think we need to make a request to Swiftmud for consideration since they own a lot of property," said school board member Pat Fagan. "And, again, it is taxpayer property."

Board members decided for a second go round in asking the water agency representatives for help in relocating the 20 gopher tortoises.

When Swiftmud was first approached, said one facilities team worker, they didn't sound as if any land was available.

"That's ridiculous if you ask me," said board member Robert Wiggins about the Swiftmud response. "It's just funny all the property they're buying around the state ..."

As a result of the early response from Swiftmud officials, the facilities department needed to use other resources to relocate the turtles currently living on the site that will be home to the county's second kindergarten through eighth grade school.

Their back-up plan was school district property located by Lake Lindsey. Property, however, that could eventually be sold by the school district.

"That piece of property has a lot of issues," said schools executive director of facility and support operations Ken Pritz during the board workshop on the new school. "It's free and clear to do what we want with it."

Pritz advised that no school should be built on the property but suggested it might be ideal for offices. Either way, moving the turtles to the Lake Lindsey property didn't sit well with one school board member. Fagan said he believed moving the tortoises to the Lake Lindsey property could bring problems for school district officials later if they decided to build or sell the property.

"I totally agree with you," Fagan said to the facilities' team. "We've got to mitigate. Again, it's on the lake. It's a very expensive piece of property. But I don't know if that's the site where we need to locate the tortoises."

Schools facilities director Roland Bavota explained that the places to relocate them were dwindling especially since there are several mandates placed on tortoise relocation.

"They're not readily available," Bavota said about acceptable types of land to transfer the tortoises. "There aren't many places you can put them now."

Typically, said one facilities workers, they like to move the tortoises to a corner of the property where they already live. However, the way the school is designed that can't take place.

"Mr. Fagan, if (the Lake Lindsey property) would sell to a developer, I don't think he would care much about the turtles," Bavota said. "I don't even think it would diminish the price of the property."

Fagan disagreed.

"You know as well as I know what the developer would do if they bought the property and I don't think that's something we need to make comments about," Fagan said.

Right now, the 20 tortoises are being trapped for blood samples that will determine if any of the tortoises are too ill for the trip to another location.

The Lake Lindsey property consists of 40 acres with a portion of the land under the lake.

Reporter Angeline Taylor can be contacted at (352) 544-5289.

Column

New era requires vision and unity

On local television the other night, County Commissioner Jim Fowler, reacting to the firing of County Administrator Richard Wesch the previous day, declared the board now to be dead in the water.

While some may disagree with this obituary, one thing is certainly true: The county does not have the luxury of being becalmed. Not with what is already steaming toward it and what is just over the horizon.

Later on the same show, Commissioner Gary Bartell gave a more upbeat assessment of the board while dropping this bombshell: The search for a new county administrator might take as long as six months.

That's six months of county staff adrift in a sea of uncertainty, waiting for a new captain to take the helm.

Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick will step in for now, but he made it crystal clear Tuesday that he is not angling for the promotion. He even rejected the title of interim county administrator and the pay raise that would have accompanied the upgrade.

As powerful as the county commissioners are, even they can't stop the world from turning. And so county staffers, and the board in the coming months, will be handling a boatload of major matters such as applications for huge developments - including the new RealtiCorp plans for hundreds of acres along U.S. 19 and Dixie Hollins' ambitious designs for a huge swath of northwest Citrus County, to name two.

The board, still fussing over how to handle a relatively small sewer and water project in Chassahowitzka, is also moving toward spending more than $30-million to acquire the Florida Governmental Utility Authority's Citrus County holdings, which serve nearly 12,000 customers.

Let's squint at a few more sails on the horizon: A comprehensive plan for installing and paying for sewer systems countywide; a long-term plan for trash disposal; which roads to pave, which to widen, which to build outright; how to meet the demands of constitutional officers for more office space; how to meet the crying need for affordable housing.

All of these items, and many more, will require the best that county staffers have to offer, at a time when their boss was just ordered to walk the plank.

For the board's current majority - Bartell, Vicki Phillips and Joyce Valentino - this is a time of challenge, and opportunity. After years of being on the frustrating end of important 3-2 votes, they flexed their power and cemented their ascendancy Tuesday by firing Wesch.

Now, it is their turn to lead.

First, they must show the public that they are more than simply a "Just Say No" board. They have signaled through recent votes, such as scuttling the proposed RV park and, on Tuesday, killing a proposed development agreement with RealtiCorp, what they do not like.

Now, it is time to show what they do want Citrus County to become. Let's see the vision.

That may be difficult because as much as the three commissioners think alike, they are not in lockstep. Witness the deep disagreement over the Chassahowitzka sewer project, when Phillips and Valentino parted ways with Bartell. Or the decision to increase the county's gas tax, which had Valentino on the losing end of a 4-1 vote.

It is important that all of the commissioners maintain their independence, obviously. But gridlock, rehashing past decisions, spinning wheels and personal sniping during meetings gets us nowhere.

The commissioners must find a unity of purpose, and a direction that all five commissioners can support. This is a time for ideas, for innovation, for leadership, for political courage. We cannot afford commissioners who simply vote against everything without meeting their responsibility to offer viable alternatives.

For better or worse, Citrus County has entered a new era.

But, hey, the stakes aren't too high - only the future of the county.

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Apr 2, 2006

Clogged Artery

Photo by: BEN SMIDT Traffic becomes congested along the intersection of U.S. 27 and Sebring Parkway during rush hour Thursday afternoon.

Today, everything is much different. Now Lebron avoids U.S. 27, taking State Road 17 to work despite the fact that Homer’s is in the Sebring Square shopping center on U.S. 27.

“It’s getting heavy,” Lebron said of the traffic on the highway.

People going slow in the left lane is one of the biggest problems, according to Lebron.

“Then on the right you have all those trucks,” he said.

There are approximately 2,000 miles of roads in Highlands County, according to Don Hanna, planner II for Highlands County, but most of the traffic is concentrated on a 48-mile stretch of highway.

All roads in Highlands County lead to U.S. 27, and that’s a problem, Hanna said, especially for the 30 miles of road that connects Avon Park, Sebring and Lake Placid. U.S. 27 stretches from the North Florida to Miami, which means it handles the traffic from county residents, as well as people who are traveling through the state.

“U.S. 27 is by far the worst,” Hanna said.

Engineers rate how well a road handles traffic by grading the level of service on the road from A to F. Hanna said anything that is a C or better is considered acceptable. U.S. 27 has been given a D from New Landings Road to State Road 64 and an F from State Road 64 to Stryker Road. Even with $850 million in improvements planned in the next 24 years, parts of the highway are expected to be rated F in 2030.

Speeding and traffic congestion are the biggest traffic problems on U.S. 27, according to Captain Paul Blackman of the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office. Blackman spends much of his time patrolling and issuing traffic citations on U.S. 27.

Blackman gets lots of complaints about speeders and reckless drivers on U.S. 27, especially near Sun n’ Lake and South Florida Community College, from George Boulevard down to U.S. 98 and in front of Lakeshore Mall.

His advice to drivers is “just don’t be in such a rush.”

Some of the most troubled areas on U.S. 27 include the intersections at Hammock Road and at State Road 64. However, the Hanna said the worst spot of all is at U.S. 27 and Schumacher Road.

“That’s kind of ground zero in the county,” Hanna said.

An average of 42,551 cars go through the intersection of U.S. 27 and Schumacher Road each day.

Jeff Johnson is manager at the Wal-Mart at U.S. 27 and Schumacher Road. Johnson said Wal-Mart and Hill-Gustat Middle School are the two biggest draws off of U.S. 27.

“We’re probably the two big indicators off Schumacher,” he said.

Johnson believes the extra traffic has helped his business. Wal-Mart’s parking lot has three entrances on three different streets, which helps alleviate the traffic.

However, the highway is not always a positive thing for business. Theresa Gutekunst, who works at the Sammich Place on the Circle in Sebring, wishes downtown Sebring was still the center of town. She believes many drivers don’t see some of the smaller businesses in downtown Sebring because so much business is concentrated on the highway.

“We’d like to bring some people back downtown,” she said.

However, Elisa Jones, president of the Lake Placid Merchant’s Association, thinks downtown Lake Placid has been immune to many of the affects of U.S. 27 because the town has murals and other attractions that encourage downtown visitors to stop and look around.

“On 27 they’re zooming by,” she said.

U.S. 27 is the county’s only major route from north to south, and there are no major routes from east to west. Building two alternate routes around U.S. 27 are the county’s top priority, Hanna said. One route to the east would connect the Sebring Parkway to an Avon Park Parkway. The route to the west would connect County Road 635 from State Road 64 to State Road 66. Hanna predicts that most of the through traffic would stay on U.S. 27, while most local residents would use the alternate routes.

The county is also planning on expanding U.S. 27 from four lanes to six lanes from State Road 66 to State Road 70.

Hanna said many coastal counties are facing similar problems.

“There’s just not many parallels,” he said.

Funding has an impact on the future of the new system.

“A lot of this is a function of how much money we collect through the impact fee system,” Hanna said.

Hanna said the county is struggling to make these new improvements while keeping up with projects they’ve already committed to doing.

“We’re fighting a two-headed monster,” he said.

Family lives in little house on the island in Biscayne Bay

By ELINOR J. BRECHER
The Miami Herald

BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK, Fla. (AP) -- On a fog-shrouded winter morning, the traffic reports are forbidding: multiple-vehicle pileups. Miles-long traffic jams. Half-hour toll-gate waits.

But Tom Rutledge's eight-mile, 30-minute commute is clear sailing - or more accurately, outboard motoring.

His 23-foot boat skims the shallows of Biscayne National Park above clusters of coral, sponges resembling hubcap-size doughnuts, skittering spiny lobsters, browsing manatees and darting mullet.

Rutledge, a National Park Service ranger since 1976, has been stationed on Adams Key for 18 years, a 79-acre dot in the vastness of Biscayne Bay, inhabited by humans for 4,000 years.

Once home to the Cocolobo Club, built in 1916 by Carl Fisher as an exclusive resort, it is now home to just five people: Tom and Becky Rutledge and daughters Amelia, 9, and Meredith, who turns 12 on Feb. 16; and Ranger John Bittner, 33, who lives next door, in a two-bedroom, one-bath bungalow on stilts, nearly identical to the slightly larger house the Rutledges rent for $500.

The key is so remote that it is its own voting precinct.

There's also a public dock, picnic tables and a half-mile nature trail for visitors, who number about 150 per month.

If the Rutledge family's life were a television show, it would be Little House on the Island, idyllic and wholesome in a way that hardly seems possible in a wired and harried world.

The girls have been home-schooled all their lives, mostly because of logistics. Their science lessons are all around: sea-turtle nests and the island's centuries-old shell middens. The bay's flora and fauna. Meteor showers and constellations, so much clearer than from the mainland.

Recreation is fishing, boating, snorkeling and bird watching: "great preparation for their lives outside," Tom says.

They've had a pet praying mantis named Henrietta, and have befriended a great white heron named Big Bird and his night heron sidekick, Night-Night, regular visitors to their dock.

"That bird is so full of himself!" Amelia declares, hands on hips, as she spots Big Bird at the water's edge of nearby Elliott Key one evening. "He got into my bait bucket and got the pilchers!"

Somehow, the girls manage to survive without a home computer and weekends at the mall. They regularly cook family meals - often fish they've caught - and read voraciously from shelves lined with animal books and wildlife guides.

Television is limited to the networks and PBS, and not much of that, Becky says. Communication is by cellphone.

"This environment is good for kids," Becky says. "What an opportunity. How many kids get to live in the middle of the ocean? Kids sit in school all day and come home and have tons of homework and there's no place for them to go play because the neighborhoods aren't safe.

"My kids have learned to entertain themselves. Meredith will do beading. Amelia will listen to books on CD. They'll do gymnastics in the yard. They'll pick up trash around the island without being asked. They'll collect lizards and hermit crabs. I hardly ever hear my kids say they're bored."

Tom Rutledge: "I knew we were raising them right when a couple of years ago I said, `Meredith, what do you want for Christmas?' And she said, `A cast net and a fillet knife.' All right!"

They go to town - Homestead and Florida City - several days a week for piano and dance lessons, and often venture deeper into Miami-Dade County for modeling jobs.

The girls have thick portfolios of European catalog work and print ads for stores like Macy's, Target and Kohl's.

But the family's island idyll is drawing to a close. Tom, who turns 54 Sunday, faces mandatory retirement from the Parks Service at 57.

He and Becky - who turns 52 on Monday - have bought island property in the Charleston, S.C., area, near relatives. They're studying stilt-house plans and will soon start to build in a place of "roads and churches and Wal-Marts, so you don't even know you're on an island," says Becky.

Still, there are marshes and tidal creeks, so the girls anticipate the change with mixed feelings.

On the plus side: shrimping, crabbing and living within biking distance of their cousins.

The minuses: "I'll miss the easiness to get out and do something, like go out in a boat and go kayaking," Meredith says.

"I like being able to see all the (island's) animals, because in the city the only animals you get to see are pigeons or alley cats or stray dogs," says Amelia. "And the city smells bad."

But she looks forward to public school.

"I'm not saying I'm going to love it, but I just want to try it," she says. "I love it here, but I love it there, too."

Tom and Becky Rutledge met when both were assigned to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia in 1977, Tom as an entrance-station supervisor, Becky as a seasonal worker.

By the time they married in 1981, Tom had fulfilled his dream of being a back-country ranger, at Shenandoah. Until landing permanently on Adams Key in 1988, the pair - together or separately - worked at Dry Tortugas National Park, Big Cypress, Lake Clark in Alaska and Everglades National Park.

Becky, from upstate New York, resigned from the service in 1994 after Meredith was born, rather than move to town and put her daughter in day care.

"It worked for us, but it's tough," Tom says. "The real downside is that Becky loses her retirement (although) we haven't been frugal to the point of not having fun."

"It's a choice we made," Becky adds. "We don't do anything fancy or own fancy things or dress fancy or take fancy vacations."

Tom, a Virginian, always knew he wanted to work outdoors. His father is a retired career Army officer who had a passion for the outdoors, his mother a retired costumed "hostess" at Colonial Williamsburg.

"I saw myself being a game warden in Montana or a wildlife biologist - it was either going to be the mountains or the seashore," he says. "The Parks Services was the first (agency) to call."

Now he's acting supervisory ranger, patroling the bay and its island campgrounds, always on call for emergencies at the nearby Turkey Point nuclear plant or firefighting in the Everglades.

It's with some concern that Tom Rutledge considers the park's ecological future.

"Biscayne is still OK because Monday through Friday, the park gets a chance to rest. But Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, Miami comes to the park, literally thousands of boats . . . Caesar's Creek is like I-95."

Some of the most difficult days are before hurricanes. "We stayed through Katrina and Irene," he says, "but if it's a 2 or greater, we leave." The rangers haul their boats on trailers to the old missile base in Everglades National Park, and the Rutledges move into a Florida City hotel.

For Becky, the biggest drawback to island life is the time it takes to reach the mainland.

She knows what she'll miss most: "that it's so peaceful and beautiful. How many people get to live on their own island without being rich enough to own one?"

For Tom, it's "the clarity of the water, like living in a big aquarium. Charleston has water, but it's brown."

His second career will be outdoors as well: "something fooling around in the marsh, maybe a bait store."

And he will look back at life on Adams Key the way he did after leaving Shenandoah and the Dry Tortugas: "I had a great time in all those places, and I know somebody else will take care of it."

Family values trump buyout offer

4-story Wiscon condos planned

The developer will bring a proposal for a three-building, 288-unit project on Wiscon Road to county planners April 10.

BROOKSVILLE - Hernando County may soon see its own version of the high-rise condominium projects common in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

The buildings proposed by GCMB Partners LLC of Seminole are hardly skyscrapers, but at 60 feet and four stories high they will tower above most residential projects in Hernando County.

The company plans to build the three buildings, with a total of 288 condominiums, on 44 acres on Wiscon Road, about 2 miles west of U.S. 41. The project, which will come before the county Planning and Zoning Commission on April 10, is the latest indication that development in and around Brooksville is rapidly spreading, even to land that once might not have been considered prime for development.

The property is currently zoned for agricultural use, and much of it is designated as rural on the county's future land use map. It also includes wetlands and lies partly within the flood plain of nearby Peck Sink, a sinkhole that drains thousands of acres in and around southwest Brooksville.

The county planning staff is recommending approval of the plan, though it would require a 75-foot natural buffer to protect the wetlands that flow into the sink. It also would require that all roads and the floors of the buildings be above the flood levels established in a watershed study that currently is being completed by the county and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Ginger Garnett, a local real estate broker who is the local representative for GCMB, was not available for comment Friday.

Deputy County Administrator Larry Jennings said the studies of this and other drainage basins in the county are expected to be approved by Swiftmud within a few months and should not hold up the project.

One reason the project is appropriate for this site, Jennings said, is the development on surrounding land, including the new Brooksville Regional Hospital, which borders the site. Doctors offices and commercial areas are expected to follow the hospital, which opened last year.

The county is requiring the developer to build a frontage road to connect it with nearby parcels on Wiscon.

Jennings mentioned the project at a joint meeting between the County Commission and the Brooksville City Council on Thursday. At the same meeting, Bill Geiger, the city's community development director, said that plans for about 4,100 new houses, apartments, townhouses and condominiums have been approved or will soon be submitted to the city.

Among those projects is one that includes three-story condominiums being built by longtime developer Charlie Sasser about a mile northeast of the GCMB site. Geiger's list did not include the GCMB condominiums, which are outside the city. Also, because the GCMB land does not border the city limits, it cannot be annexed immediately, Geiger said.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

Developer-exploited tax reform bill languishes in Legislature

By TRAVIS REED
Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Walt Disney World avoids $1.5 million in Osceola County taxes each year by leasing some of its land to a farmer and claiming almost 650 undeveloped acres as timberland and swamp marsh.

An Atlanta developer accomplishes roughly the same thing with a small handful of cows and horses and a big lot of young pine trees on 850 acres in neighboring Orange County.

Some say Disney, developers and others are abusing Florida's Greenbelt Law, which provides tax breaks to farmers who own agricultural land and was in the crosshairs of state House and Senate reform bills proposed this legislative session to overhaul it.

The 1959 law, which saves Florida agriculture landowners $950 million annually, was intended to keep farmers in business, but critics say it is also used to shelter developers and landholders from big tax bills on property they intend to sell or build upon.

However, opposition from farmers and the political pressure of an election year have already killed the reforms. On March 21, the measure died in its first hearing after the Senate Agriculture Committee decided to postpone a vote and study the issue for a year, with potential changes next session.

"We don't feel that it's fair that these people are getting ag exemptions on these properties. Once we put it on an ag value, the rest of the taxpayers have to pick up the tab for that," said Hope McKinnon, agriculture appraiser for Osceola County. "We feel that if they're legitimate ag businesses, they should be entitled to it. If they're not, they shouldn't be eligible for that tax break."

Opponents of the reform bill, like the Florida Farm Bureau, argued there were already provisions in place to prevent abuses of the law on valuable undeveloped land.

"The Greenbelt Law has achieved exactly what the Legislature said it wanted to achieve," Farm Bureau executive director Pat Cockrell said. "We feel that the agricultural assessment is best dealt with at the county level."

Winter Garden nurseryman Monty Knox says he couldn't stay in business without state tax breaks on the 45 acres he owns in the rapidly developing suburbs around Orlando.

Knox saves tens of thousands of dollars under the Greenbelt Law, paying a fraction of the value for land he purchased a decade ago at $5,600 an acre that's now worth more than $50,000.

"I couldn't pay the property taxes on it otherwise," Knox said.

Disney spokesman Jacob DiPietre said the company's Osceola County land is an appropriate exemption because it's been leased to the same farmer for 50 years.

"This may be a savings of $1.5 million on this particular piece of land, but we pay more than $450 million in taxes each year," he said.

Cockrell and other opponents also say they don't believe the law is widely abused. Even those who want to change the law say there are no hard statistics on questionable exemptions, only anecdotes.

"We are very concerned that you take a few instances and then they're going to change the entire state policy based on a few examples," he said. "There's the law of unintended consequences where we're not sure how everything is going to work out."

Sen. Steve Geller, who sponsored the bill, said he used to drive by a property in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Pembroke Pines that was completely cleared of trees and grass, but had four cows on it.

"It's clear that people have been calling Hertz rent-a-cow. They are renting cows just so they can keep the ag sales tax break. That's not a legitimate use," the Hallandale Beach Democrat said.

County appraisers often try to fight illegitimate agriculture exemptions on land but frequently lose in appeals to the value adjustment board.

"Historically they go on the use of the property. If there are cows on it when it's sold, they allow the exemption," McKinnon said.

Orange County Appraiser Bill Donegan expressed similar frustration.

"Our contention is, when you stop using the land for agricultural use, you cease to get an agriculture exemption," he said.

Donegan said he was disappointed, but not surprised the reforms failed.

"I would've liked to have seen it at least debated a little bit, but I just don't believe it's going to happen," he said.

The Senate bill (SB 2378) would have removed exemptions for land approved by county permit for a new building or facility not used for agricultural purposes. Its counterpart in the House (H 1385) would have pulled the break on land approved for permits that demonstrate an intent to change land use in the near future.

Bill sponsor Rep. Juan Zapata, R-Miami, said the issue was easily muddied by election-year politics. Still, he said he hopes for future reforms.

"The fact that people are talking about it now is promising," he said.

Geller said the debate would be different next session after a year of study.

"In the past, they've argued there is no evidence as to widespread the problem is. Next year there will be evidence," he said.

Apr 1, 2006

Drain On Resources

Photo by: CHRISTINE DELESSIO / Tribune Limestone mines such as Rinker's, 60 miles north of Tampa, displace millions of gallons of water daily. Mining companies say the water returns to the aquifer.

CENTER HILL - It's in your house, the roads you drive, the building where you work. Crushed limestone is even in your toothpaste.

In Florida, the white, chalky mineral is the lifeblood of the construction and road-building industries that drive Florida's red-hot economy.

"You can't build anything without us," said Jack Banning, president of the Florida Limerock & Aggregates Institute.

But Florida has another resource that even Banning agrees is more valuable than limestone: water. And the need to produce one while protecting the other is sparking a growing number of battles between Florida's commercial interests and conservationists.

Just last week, a federal judge sided with environmentalists in blocking a 5,000-acre expansion of rock mining in the Everglades. Closer to home, families who live near Rinker Materials' Center Hill mine in Sumter County, 60 miles north of Tampa, are hoping to stop an expansion there.

They say groundwater pumping is depleting the aquifer, opening sinkholes in their pastures and cracking the foundations of their homes. Complicating the matter are allegations that Rinker has been deceiving Sumter County authorities and the state about how much water it is dumping in a nearby creek, possibly wasting millions of gallons.

The Sumter County Commission has taken notice. In October, the commission denied Rinker's request to expand the 1,000-acre mine by 395 acres, in part because of concerns about groundwater. Rinker managers say the sinkholes occur naturally and that groundwater drawdowns are confined within the mine's borders. The company plans to ask for a rehearing before the commission.

Sinkholes In Sumter

Mining companies in Florida pump millions of gallons of groundwater daily to get the most value out of a quarry. Pumping lowers the water table so draglines can go into the mining pit and dig deep into the rock.

Sumter County is one of only four or five areas in Florida with significant limestone reserves, Bannon said. Six rock mines operate in the county. One of them is Center Hill, and it pumps about 33 million gallons of groundwater a day, according to state documents.

Mark Taylor, an Orlando firefighter who lives about a mile from the mine, said the pumping is causing his land, and the water in his pond, to sink.

Cracks have opened in the foundation of Taylor's home, his concrete driveway and his floor tiles. Engineers he hired said the cracks were caused by a combination of blasting at the mine and a drop in the water table.

A report by Rinker's engineers said blasting could not have caused the damage. The report said the mine had no effect on groundwater under Taylor's property.

Joy Guidry suspects the mine caused an ugly black hole in a pasture near her home. She noticed the sinkhole last summer, and it has gotten deeper since then.

She has seen other changes: Small springs that Guidry calls boils used to bubble in Jumper Creek, a stream near the mine that feeds the Withlacoochee River.

"I'm not a geologist; I have no clues how things work," she said. "But it's obvious things have changed."

Mark Stephens, a hydrologist who works for Rinker, said sinkholes occur naturally here. Sumter County is underlaid with porous limestone, a formation geologists call karst. The rock is riven with fissures and underground caves. Water seeps down through the limestone and travels sideways in underground rivulets and rivers, sometimes ending up miles from its origin.

Stephens said that rainwater, which is slightly acidic, accumulates in the cracks and dissolves the limestone. This weakens the rock so that it eventually collapses, producing a sinkhole.

"You can find sinkholes all around this county," he said.

Protecting The Aquifer

Since the mid-1980s, the state has required limestone mines to store their pumped water on-site. The theory, which some scientists dispute, is that the water soaks back into the aquifer.

John Parker, a scientist with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said on-site water storage has been effective in protecting the aquifer from drawdowns.

Sydney Bacchus, a hydroecologist and opponent of mining, disagrees. She said the empty mine pits act like a magnet, pulling groundwater for miles. The water in the pits evaporates in the hot Florida sun. The water can also pick up pollution and pathogens.

"Those millions of gallons a day they are discharging are draining the aquifer of water that could be used by surrounding communities for potable water," she said. "The aquifer is not an infinite source of water."

Bacchus said mining sucks water from wetlands, leaving them vulnerable to exotic, invasive plants. Unlike native plants, which conserve water, the invasive species lose water through evapotranspiration. As the wetlands dry up, the aquifer loses vital water storage.

Permit Violations

At the Rinker mine, water is routed from the remaining active quarry into a ditch, then to four empty mine pits. In these azure-colored lakes, framed starkly by white rock, the water supposedly returns to the aquifer. When the lakes get too high, the water is dumped into Jumper Creek.

Rinker officials say that of the 33 million gallons the mine pumps daily, all but 6 million gallons goes underground via the ditch and pits. Much of the water dumped into Jumper Creek also returns to the ground, they say.

Nearby residents John Megan and Louise Racine dispute Rinker's claim. The couple say Rinker has deceived regulators and wasted water. Public records seem to substantiate the couple's assertion.

For instance, the mine's permits say water discharges should happen only after heavy rains. Yet hydrologist Stephens conceded that the mine is dumping 5 million to 6 million gallons a day.

Water district documents indicate the mine may be dumping more than that. In a February letter to Rinker, the water district said discharges held at 9.5 million gallons a day from June 2004 to December 2005.

The district also said that a constant discharge of 9.5 million gallons does not correspond with rainfall, as spelled out in the permit.

"Our expectation was [discharges] would be episodic after a big rainfall," said Parker, the district scientist. "We didn't expect it to be continuous."

Stephens said the mine must discharge because water tables are high.

Joey Chandler, chairman of the Sumter County Commission, said Rinker is being blamed for supplying what people want: roads, restaurants, shopping malls.

"I know people who would love to see mining go away," Chandler said. "Well, when they stop wanting roads and concrete, it will go away."

Mar 31, 2006

City, county meet over common projects

County planning director Larry Jennings gave an update on projects in the unincorporated area close to the Brooksville city limits. In some cases, county and city staff already have had discussions. In others, those still must occur, Jennings said.

The city has a first right of refusal area that, in most parts, surrounds the city limits by roughly five miles. In that area, the city has first dibs on providing utility services to any development.

When a development falls within that area, city and county staff share information and hash out who will offer services.

Among the projects Jennings mentioned:

* A condominium development east of Brooksville Regional Hospital, with access points on Cortez Boulvard and Wiscon Road, featuring 288 units on 44 acres. The project is expected to go before the planning and zoning board this month.

* A mixed-use development behind the Lowe's on U.S. 41 in Brooksville. The project has access to both Wiscon and Mason Smith roads and features both residential and commercial units. The zoning has already been approved.

* An informal proposal to expand the existing Hernando Oaks residential community on U.S. 41 in Brooksville. The proposal would expand the development to the north and west but is "far out into the future," Jennings said.

* A residential project with mostly single-family homes and some commercial units north of Yontz Road and west of U.S. 98. The proposal is slated to go before the planning and zoning commission in April.

* A residential development featuring roughly 70 single-family units south of Yontz Road between U.S. 98 and Howell Avenue.

* An industrial project north of the truck route portion of Cortez Boulevard and east of Main Street.

* And a residential development near the southeast intersection Cortez Boulevard and Jefferson Street, with 398 single-family and single-family-attached units on 88 acres.

Brooksville community development director Bill Geiger presented more than a dozen development projects in various stages of the approval process within the city limits, as well as several annexation petitions in the works.

Among the larger proposed projects within the city limits that Geiger mentioned:

* An expansion of Southern Hills Plantation, between U.S. 41 and Hope Hill Road, featuring roughly nearly 1,000 units on 1,189 acres

* A residential project called Majestic Oaks east of McIntyre Road and north of Richbarn Road. The development, in the northwest corner of the city, would feature roughly 900 units on 428 acres.

* A residential project at the Brooksville Country Club, off Croom Road in the northeast portion of the city, would feature roughly 133 units on 169 acres.

* A residential development east of Jasmine Drive and south of Mondon Hill Road, with some 400 units on 191 acres.

* A residential project east of the nexus of U.S. 41 and Howell Avenue would have roughly 850 units on 425 acres.

* A residential developments in southeast of the intersection of Jefferson Street and Cortez Boulevard bypass, featuring some 105 units on 48 acres.

* Southern Pines, a residential development between Cortez Boulevard and Mobley Road featuring roughly 284 units on 41 acres.

* And a residential development near Southern Hills Plantation, east of U.S. 41 and south of Pine Cabin Road, with 925 units on 411 acres.

Geiger also pointed out a 1,400-acre swath of land east of Hope Hill Road, near the CSX railroad tracks, in which developers have expressed interest.

Geiger said the number of annexation requests to his office has slackened recently. The largest recent request is a 442-acre parcel owned by Daryl McAteer. Real estate speculators already have expressed interest in the parcel east of Southern Hills Plantation, Geiger said.

Geiger also presented the city's five to 10 year service and infrastructure planning boundary, a large loop outside of the city limits where the city figures it will need to expand utilities for impending growth.

Geiger stressed the area should not be considered "an annexation boundary."

Rather, said Mayor Joe Johnston III, it's a way for the city to stay ahead of the curve of rapid growth.

"We don't want to be caught flatfooted," Johnston said.

Commissioners offered no comment on the plan during the meeting. On Friday, Jennings said county staff is still reviewing specifics of the plan but that "the idea makes sense."

Despite a contentious history between the two parties over potentially lucrative utility agreements, the meeting was cordial. Representatives on both sides said communication is improving, something officials have said was lacking in the past.

The city and county have an agreement to meet every six months.

"This is a good opportunity to show the community we're not fighting," said Commission Chairwoman Diane Rowden. "We all live in the same county and it's important for residents to know we have their best interests at heart and want to work together before problems come up."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be contacted at (352) 544-5286.

Church objects to giving land to county

Under a controversial ordinance, the church will have to give some of its property to the county for future road expansions.

LAND O'LAKES - County government, Father Ron Aubin told his flock Sunday, works in mysterious ways.

To build the new classrooms it needs for catechism, he explained, Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church would have to present an offering of some land to the county.

"It's extortion," Aubin said in an interview later. "I'm actually kind of shocked by it."

The dispute stems from an ordinance that county commissioners approved last summer aimed at widening roads quickly and cheaply.

Every time a land owner requests a permit to build something substantial, the county demands any land needed for future road expansions, even if the expansion is planned for the distant future.

And the county wants it for free.

The new law has ignited a flurry of objections from landowners who, like the church leaders, say it amounts to an unfair seizing of land. About a dozen such owners are already pursuing a formal appeals process, County Attorney Robert Sumner said.

In the church's case, Collier Parkway is scheduled to eventually be widened in a way that would stretch 11 feet into the church's property. It's not clear when the expansion would occur; it is not on the county's five-year road construction plan.

"Of course, it would be a nice gesture if we just gave them the land, and I understand the county wants to save every dollar it can, but you can't save money by stealing from the citizens," Aubin said.

"I'm sure that big developers are willing to grant big concessions because they have a major impact on the road. That's not what we're doing."

But that's exactly what the ordinance assumes of any substantial improvement to property. Unless the owner is able to prove otherwise, the county assumes it will have a traffic impact sufficient to require the donation of any needed land for expansion of roads.

It's up to the landowner to argue that the development will not have an impact on traffic. If such a formal objection is filed with the county, the landowner is required to appraise the land in question. The County Commission will vote on any payment by the county. Sumner acknowledged that the county staff doesn't always make that option clear to owners.

The assumption that the land should be given to the county for free, Commissioner Ann Hildebrand said, was based on the question, "Where do you draw the line between something that has a traffic impact and something that doesn't?"

Hildebrand said she regretted that the ordinance is negatively impacting a church, but she said that by aggressively exercising rights to obtain land, the county is better able to keep pace with traffic needs.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being funneled to county roads over the coming years by state transportation authorities. Hildebrand said the county won so much money in part because it had already obtained the necessary property and was ready to go.

"Obviously every dollar the church gets is precious to what they are doing, but everybody doesn't want to be stuck in traffic either," Hildebrand said.

Garrett Therolf covers Pasco County government. He can be reached at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232, or in west Pasco at 869-6232. His e-mail address is gtherolf@sptimes.com

Mar 31, 2006

Sinkhole swallows drilling equipment

The sinkhole had opened up recently on Catalina Street and the homeowner had hired a contractor to fill it in, according to Mark Tobert, senior emergency management coordinator.

Tobert said the contractor was using digging equipment Friday to prepare the sinkhole for filling when the hole widened.

"The ground collapsed around it and the drilling equipment fell in," Tobert said.

He said the hole is estimated to be about 10 feet across and 15 feet deep.

Because the sinkhole is on private property in a fenced-in back yard, the county will not be involved in the repair process.

"It's not a threat to public safety. It's not a threat to the roadway. It's not a threat to other houses," Tobert said.

The sinkhole is about five blocks from several others that opened March 3 along Cobblestone Drive.

Six sinkholes opened within a one-block radius, the largest of which swallowed a concrete truck headed south on Cobblestone Drive. Others opened up on adjacent Toledo Road and in the yards of surrounding homes. The residents in that area were evacuated for several days while the county filled and repaired the holes and the roadways.

Reporter Christi Stevens can be contacted at (352) 544-5271.

Flooding project may get funding

The state Legislature okays $1-million for a project to fix flooding in the Duck Slough basin.

TRINITY - County leaders said this week that a $1-million cure is on the way for chronic flooding problems in the Duck Slough basin.

The project won inclusion in the Florida House and Senate budgets, which are moving toward approval in the Capitol. County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand said an aide of Gov. Jeb Bush indicated it will have executive support as well.

"I am very encouraged," said Hildebrand, who traveled to Tallahassee recently to lobby for county priorities, including the Duck Slough project.

State Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin, is sponsoring the project along with state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

Anderson said the area, which includes Trinity Oaks, Wyndtree, Chelsea Place, Oak Ridge and the Reserve at Oak Ridge, won out over other potential projects such as the Holiday area, where many residents also complain of flooding.

"There are so many projects, and most of them are very good projects, but the pie is only so good, and you can only do so much," Anderson said.

Even though the size of the allotment is substantial, county officials have said it would be only a down payment on the total cost to fix the problem.

A study conducted by the county and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud, showed that the cost to solve the flooding problems could top $10-million.

During recent years, hurricanes submerged some of the roads in Nature's Hideaway, Trinity Oaks and Thousand Oaks, among other areas.

The drainage problem has been most dramatic in Thousand Oaks, where the roads began crumbling just two years after they were paved because of prolonged water exposure.

If the $1-million gains final approval, it would pay for design, permitting, land acquisition, bidding, contractor selection, engineering and inspection services.

Garrett Therolf covers Pasco County government. He can be reached toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232, or in west Pasco at 869-6232. His e-mail address is gtherolf@sptimes.com

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Land near springs no longer in Citrus-state swap

The property surrounding Bluebird Springs park is taken off the table after "about a half-hour of haggling."

HOMOSASSA - County officials are still hammering out the details of a land swap with the state, but one thing is certain: Land surrounding Bluebird Springs park is off the table.

The county is using 55 acres around the perimeter of the Central Landfill in Lecanto for gas monitoring wells required by the Department of Environmental Protection. That property is part of the Withlacoochee State Forest, and state forestry officials want county-owned property in exchange.

Originally, state officials had asked the county to consider donating land bordering the Homosassa Tract of the state forest.

That request drew protests from members of the Homosassa Civic Club, who said the property had been donated to the county for Bluebird Springs park by the club and the Pliss family.

In a meeting Thursday, officials agreed to take the Bluebird Springs property off the table "after about a half-hour of haggling," said Georgeanna Phelps, a local activist who attended the meeting. Phelps, 71, spent years leading volunteers to clean up the clogged springs and improve the park.

"It looks like we saved it," she said.

Phelps said she is relieved. But county officials are still trying to complete a land swap deal to satisfy the state's request. They have until Tuesday to finish a lease agreement with the state, said DEP spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez.

But the county's director of solid waste, Susie Metcalfe, said Friday that county officials have asked the DEP for an extension. Vazquez said the extension request was still being considered Friday.

After the Bluebird Springs property fell through, state officials suggested another parcel as part of the swap: about 15 acres off Pleasant Grove Road on the southeast side of the forest.

That brings the total amount of property the county would give the state in the swap to around 33 acres, Metcalfe said. The county also will give the state about $110,000 worth of herbicides and road building materials as part of the exchange.

To move forward with the swap, the County Commission must approve the exchange at its next meeting April 11.

The state's Division of Lands will have the final say.

Keith Mousel, resource administrator for the Division of Forestry in Brooksville, said forestry officials weren't aware that the property they had asked for had been donated.

"It helped to talk with some of the folks from the civic club and let them understand why we asked for it," he said. "We didn't know all the particulars about it."

Metcalfe said Thursday's meeting helped clear up misunderstandings among state, county and civic club officials.

"It was considerably more complicated than we anticipated," she said.

DEP officials said the wells are needed because testing has revealed methane and chemicals leaking from old buried trash cells at the landfill.

On Sept. 20, the county entered into a consent agreement with DEP, agreeing to install the monitoring wells within 90 days.

Since then, the agreement has been extended at least twice while officials have tried to straighten out the land swap, Vazquez said.

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

Funding shift worries some leaders

• protection almost certain;

• protection reasonably likely;

• protection unlikely; and

• no protection.

Wiregrass Ranch Project Wins OK

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 31, 2006

DADE CITY - Seven months after county officials rejected their plans, the developers of Wiregrass Ranch finally won approval Thursday for their city-sized project at the heart of Wesley Chapel. The project lies east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard between state roads 56 and 54.

Don Porter, who has led his family's effort to "suburbanize" its 5,000-acre homestead, was happy to see the lengthy approval struggle end.

"Delay is the cruelest form of denial," Porter said.

From the back corner of the historic Pasco County Courthouse boardroom, Porter watched the final haggling between Wiregrass attorney Joel Tew of Clearwater and the Development Review Committee, led by County Administrator John Gallagher.

Porter conceded he missed some of the discussion because of hearing problems.

"But I saw a lot of people smiling," he said as the meeting broke up.

Developers hope to have state and federal wetlands permits within 60 days and final approval for the entire project by June. If all goes well, construction could start this summer, Tew said.

Thursday's approval ended nearly nine months of rancorous negotiations between Wiregrass and the county over the project's road network.

In the end, county planners got much of what they had asked for last summer, including a north-south road across the seniors-only Del Webb community. Developers had insisted a public through-road would destroy the gated enclave.

Frequently combative on the subject of Wiregrass, Tew was cooperative and accommodating Thursday.

"I'm pleased to tell you ... we only have an objection today to three items the staff is proposing," Tew told the DRC.

Those three items were central to the county's demand for more public roads within Wiregrass.

Since last summer, planners have demanded - over Wiregrass developers' objections - that the 5,000-acre project's road system have more public thoroughfares to spread around the massive traffic generated by Wiregrass and the surrounding developments.

Wiregrass' original road plan would have created gridlock long before Pulte built its 16,000th home, county planners said.

The final road plan up for review Thursday added:

•An east-west road linking Del Webb to the central "downtown" complex.

•Another east-west road tying the "traditional-neighborhood" community directly to Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

•A frontage road paralleling State Road 56 on the north on the ranch's eastern half.

Tew persuaded the DRC to drop demands for a frontage road north of S.R. 56 that would have impinged on the Del Webb community. DRC opted for a frontage road through commercial property on the south side of the highway instead.

DRC members stuck to their guns on the two internal east-west roads. Gallagher expressed his concerns, however, about sending cars into Wiregrass' compact downtown.

"You're trying to make it walkable," Gallagher said of the town center. "You don't want to make it a parking lot for cars."

Gallagher offered to make one of the internal roads private to limit travel on it. That will depend on the outcome of the April 27 DRC hearing that will feature Wiregrass' plans for pedestrian traffic, he said.

Wiregrass project clears first approvals hurdle

The developers of the giant project give in and agree to build a pair of major connector roads through the property.

DADE CITY - Don Porter figured from the smiles Thursday that the county Development Review Committee had given the first of many approvals needed to build a massive housing and commercial development on his family's Wiregrass Ranch in Wesley Chapel.

They did. He had a hard smiling with them. Porter described seven months of back-and-forth between his attorney and county staffers as "painful."

"This isn't what I do for a living, so obviously I'm tired of everything," Porter said Thursday. "I think as long as government exists there will be delays."

Wiregrass still faces several layers of additional scrutiny, including a development of regional impact review by state and local agencies. Technically, Thursday's approval applied only to 1,999 homes in one segment of the property. But both sides agreed to tackle the road plans for the whole area.

The Porters and developer Pulte Homes got few of the concessions they demanded when they first went before the DRC in August. One key change: Pulte agreed to put a public road through its gated Del Webb retirement community.

The north-south road will connect State Road 56 to Chancey Road.

"We've given in on that," said Joel Tew, the developer's attorney. "We're simply going to have to put a lot of control gates on this access road."

The county staff insisted on a variety of public and private roads to relieve traffic in the already congested area. Pulte's plans could allow as many as 16,000 homes and millions of square feet of commercial space on the former ranch.

Pulte also agreed to build frontage roads along the State Road 56 extension.

Tew also argued against an east-west connection from Bruce B. Downs to a proposed "town center" on Porter Boulevard. He said the road didn't fit with pedestrian-friendly plans for that community.

County Administrator John Gallagher was supportive of pedestrian enhancements but voted with the rest of the committee to require Pulte to build the road.

Gallagher said the key to easing the area's uncertain traffic woes was to make sure residents of all the developments in the area could bike or walk - or drive a golf cart, he conceded - to a proposed retail "town center."

"Where are they going to park?" Gallagher said. "I don't want it to end up like Brandon town center where you can't get in and you can't get out."

LAKELAND
Land Purchase Plan Progresses

The proposed purchase of a 4,500-acre ranch in the Green Swamp for environmental preservation advanced this week.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District's governing board has approved an agreement with the state to share the cost of purchasing the property. Polk County's Environmental Lands Program is also a partner in the purchase.

The ranch is owned by prominent local rancher Charlie Mack Overstreet.

Swiftmud officials say they are completing negotiations for the purchase and expect to present an agreement for the purchase of the property at the April 25 meeting.

Swiftmud Settles Lake Van Lawsuit

Southwest Florida Water Management District officials have settled a 1998 suit against Auburndale businessman Lin Fung To.

The case involved illegal dredging and filling around Lake Van near Auburndale beginning in 1996.

Under the settlement approved by Swiftmud's governing board Tuesday, the defendants, which also include Lake Van Nursery and Citrus & Cattle Co. LLC, will be required to pay $49,000 and restore the area that was damaged.

The restoration project will involve killing exotic species that have moved into the altered area and replanting the site with native wetlands plants within six months.

The settlement also requires monitoring to ensure that the project is successful.

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156 homes for Wimauma?

WIMAUMA: A developer is asking to change zoning and exceed the number of housing units normally permitted per acre. Florida Homes Partnership wants to build 156 houses on 32 acres east of West Lake Drive and south of Bill Tucker Road.

The county's future land use map permits 130 units in that space, but the developer is applying for an affordable-housing bonus to tack on 26 units. The county's comprehensive plan allows more units for builders who can demonstrate that their projects will benefit an area with a significant percentage of residents earning low to moderate incomes.

Developers must promise to set aside 20 percent of the units for affordable housing and meet other criteria to qualify for the higher density. Florida Homes Partnership is asking to rezone the property from residential to a planned development.

The request goes to a zoning hearing master April 4. County commissioners are scheduled to hear the case May 23. PETITION 06-0222

GIBSONTON: A total of 288 houses, duplexes and townhomes could come to a 52-acre square of land east of U.S. 41. LawDevCo of Brandon wants to rezone the property between Pembroke Road and Kracker Avenue from agricultural to planned development.

The county's Environmental Protection Commission in February objected to the proposal, citing wetlands on the property that the developer did not disclose on its application. Before approving the project, the EPC or Southwest Water Management District must survey the property, which must be delineated on all site plans.

The rezoning petition goes to a zoning hearing master April 4, and to county commissioners on May 23. (PETITION 06-0221)

BRANDON: A developer has targeted a 7-acre swatch for 42 townhomes west of Providence Road and north of Providence Oaks Drive. Property owners Lewis and Barbara Hart want to rezone the property from agricultural and residential to planned development.

A Planning Commission analysis found the proposal in keeping with the overall pattern of development in the area. A zoning hearing master will hear the request April 4. It goes to the County Commission on May 23. (PETITION 06-0467)

Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com.

Report spurns mining firm's land proposal

County staffers are concerned that Dixie Hollins' overlay district plans could skirt environmental standards.

Dixie Hollins has said his plans for the 1,542 acres his company owns north of the Cross Florida Barge Canal are visionary and environmentally friendly.

But in a report completed this week, county staffers recommend denial of the proposed Hollinswood Overlay District.

Under the plan, Citrus Mining & Timber's property would eventually include homes, an industrial area, a commercial port district, more than 20 public boat ramps and a waterfront retail area. It would also include expanded mining areas.

Long-range planning for the property is a good idea, the staff report said, but the large-scale comprehensive plan amendment application submitted is "troubling" and could have major ramifications for development across the county.

"If approved it would set a precedent for developing custom land use regulations to suit a specific project that does not meet the requirements adopted by the County," the report said. "Applications such as this could become a common practice to circumvent our coastal and environmental standards."

Hollins could not be reached for comment Thursday. Community development staffers were at a retreat and also could not be reached for comment.

The Planning and Development Review Board is slated to hold its first workshop on the proposal Thursday.

Since attorney Clark Stillwell submitted the application last month, Hollins has met with a number of community groups and local leaders to explain his plans.

"I want to do something my father and grandfather would be proud of," he told the Economic Development Council's executive committee earlier this month.

An overlay district would allow Hollins and county planners to address the unique nature of the property, he said, the majority of which is currently zoned for industrial and extractive use.

Hollins has said he plans to use the highest environmental standards in the development.

The county staff report includes a list of nine general areas in which the overlay district would contradict the county's comprehensive plan, including expansion of mining into environmentally sensitive lands, creation of residential use within five miles of Progress Energy's nuclear power plant and a reduction of residential setback requirements for new extractive areas.

Stillwell also submitted an application to change the zoning on 60 acres of the property from low intensity coastal and lakes to extractive.

County staffers have recommended denial of that application, as well. One third of the site consists of wetlands that would be "significantly impacted, or destroyed" by mining, the report said. It would also violate the Citrus County Code, which requires a 3,000-foot setback from residential property for new or expanded mines.

As Hollins tries to drum up support, opposition is mounting from some neighboring residents and from the Save the Manatee Club.

Charles Miko, a representative of an informal alliance of Yankeetown, Inglis and northwest Citrus County citizens who live near the property, said Thursday that Hollins' plans were "preposterous."

"Mining is the issue here . . . we think that all of the other stuff in that proposal, it's just smoke," he said.

Helen Spivey, co-chairwoman of Save the Manatee Club, has said she is concerned about the impact the proposed large public marina would have on a prime manatee birthing area.

But others have said the plan would create major opportunities for area businesses and residents.

Earlier this month, Madeira Beach Seafood president Bobby Spaeth told the St. Petersburg Times that his company, one of the gulf's largest grouper distributors, was considering moving its operations from Pinellas County to the property's proposed commercial port district.

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

Lakewood Residents Scramble for Housing

By Mike Grogan
The Reporter

DAVENPORT -- Residents of Lakewood RV Resort on Lake Wilson Road and County Road 532 have been scrambling to find someplace else to live.

The residents of the park near the Osceola County line were told a month ago that they had 90 days to move because the park had been sold to a developer.

Some have been fortunate enough to find other RV parks to accept them.

Others have sold their homes for low prices rather than face the expense of moving them.

And still others have just packed their belongings and left the state.

"If I could get what I still owe on the house, I'd sell and never come back to Florida," said Frank Troy, a retired long-haul trucker.

Troy and his wife, who are from Pennsylvania, bought the park model manufactured home new three years ago and have put more than $50,000 into it.

They split their time between Florida and the Keystone State, six months in each.

"See this concrete?" he said, pointing at the extra-wide driveway in front of his home. "I put that in. It's mine.

"See those two palm trees? Those are mine, too," he said. "I paid $400 apiece for them." Now the Troys are having to move their home to a park in Dundee, a move that is going to cost them somewhere around $6,000.

The palm trees, concrete driveway and new sod for the yard they put in will be left behind.

Already angry at having the property sold out from under him, Troy got even more mad when he found out he can't move to the park of his choice.

"I found a place in Hillsborough County, but the bank said no," he said.

There is still a mortgage on the house, Troy said, and the bank that holds that mortgage will not let him move it out of Polk County -- and only to a park that is approved by the bank.

Peggy Stassie is more fortunate than the Troys.

She owns her manufactured home outright, having paid cash for it just more than a year ago.

She found a place to move to that is only a few miles away.

That's important to her because she owns The Book Rack, a book store at Berry Town Center. The move has not added appreciably to her daily commute.

"I was lucky to find them," she said. "They have just been wonderful."

Stassie was talking about the management of Three Worlds RV and Mobile Home Resort on U.S. 17-92 near Loughman Oaks Elementary School.

"We have several people from Lakewood coming here," said Linda Thompson, who handles sales and rentals for Three Worlds. "I'd say at least 10 or 15 homes."

Three Worlds is a 53-acre park that opened in the early 1980s and is owned by Sundance Properties, a Michigan company.

Of the 347 lot spaces on the property, some 270 have permanently located manufactured homes, park models and recreational vehicles in place.

Thompson said regular customers who bring their motor homes and RVs to the park each year were given the option of reserving their spaces for next year.

The homes coming over from Lakewood will go to sites that have not been reserved.

"We wanted to give our regulars the first option," Thompson said.

But, she said, the management of Three Worlds also wanted to make room for the Lakewood residents who had been forced to move.

"I went over (to Lakewood) and my heart went out to those people," Thompson said. "There are a lot of older people losing their homes."

For Marsha Brown, the sale of Lakewood by its former owners to a Tampa development company proved to be a windfall.

But it is one she feels somewhat sheepish about accepting.

"We stole it," Brown said of the nearly new manufactured home she bought from an elderly woman from Michigan who used it as a winter home.

Brown estimated that she and her husband paid $20,000 to $25,000 less than the home would have sold for before the sale of the RV park made moving the home mandatory.

"We didn't set the price," she said. "We asked what she was asking for it, and she named the price."

The former owner, she said, just wanted to cut her losses and go back to Michigan.

As for the Browns, they are moving the home to Dade City, where they will use it as their residence.

Stassie said she checked with several RV parks before she found Three Worlds.

Most of them didn't have space available, and those that did were farther away than she wanted to move.

A number of her neighbors at Lakewood, she said, have decided to move out of the county because they feel Polk County is developing too quickly and the emphasis is on the kind of development that will bring in more tax revenues.

"Polk County obviously doesn't care for trailer parks," she said. "They're chasing the snowbirds right out of the county because they want condos to be built."

And that is a shame, she said, because the RV and mobile home parks provide an affordable option for those who want to enjoy Florida but can't afford the expensive homes that have become the primary thrust of the vacation home market.

But while the owners of some RV parks such as Lakewood have given into the pressures of large developers offering big money to buy them out, others like Three Worlds are not likely to succumb any time soon.

"Our owners are committed to this remaining a mobile home park," said Three Worlds manager Fred Popson.

He said the land immediately abutting the park is not up for sale. One parcel has a manufactured home community where residents own their own lots.

"That makes it a nightmare for a developer to try to buy the land," Popson said.

Another neighbor is Standard Sand, which runs a huge sand-mining operation.

"They don't sell land, they buy it," Popson said.

So, he said, while there is no land available for Three Worlds to expand its own boundaries, there is also no threat of developers moving in and forcing the RV park out.

Mike Grogan can be reached at mike.grogan@theledger.com or at 863-421-5811.

Fertilizer maker finds a way to grow itself

Mosaic wants to expand and county commissioners are expected to agree, which worries water authorities.

The Mosaic Co., the largest phosphate company in the world, wants to expand its Hopewell mine onto at least 600 acres south of Plant City.

But the region's water supplier maintains that the expansion could pollute part of the county's drinking water supply. Worse, officials at Tampa Bay Water said, if county commissioners let Mosaic expand, they'll be declawing their own water-protection ordinance.

Jon Kennedy, Tampa Bay Water's chief engineer, said Mosaic "doesn't want to be treated the same as everybody else under the ordinance. They want treatment that's different."

Mosaic spokeswoman Christine Smith said that the ordinance simply doesn't apply to the phosphate company.

"We didn't feel we fell under it, because we've been mining for years," she said.

The issue dates to last spring, when Mosaic filed an application to expand the Hopewell mine, which has been in operation since 1982, Smith said.

The county denied the application, citing the 2004 water protection ordinance.

In January, Smith said, Mosaic filed a lawsuit against the county asking a judge to declare that the ordinance did not apply to Mosaic.

"This was a new regulation," she said. "We just figured we could continue to mine. We didn't think that mining came under that ordinance or should come under that."

Before the suit went before a judge, it was settled out of court, Smith said. On April 11, the County Commission is expected to approve the final terms of an agreement with Mosaic that will allow the company to continue its application process.

The eight-page agreement would require Mosaic to provide "reasonable assurance" that it can keep its mining operation from contaminating nearby surface water.

That's not good enough, said Paula Dye, Tampa Bay Water's chief environmental planner.

The proposed agreement violates the county's own water protection ordinance, she said.

"Mining is one of the things prohibited in this location," she said. "We feel the proposed settlement agreement could put the public's drinking water at risk."

More important, Kennedy said, the agreement would make the water protection ordinance meaningless.

"If the protection ordinance can't hold here, what else is it not going to hold against?" he asked.

Tampa Bay Water has no say over whether the agreement is approved or whether Mosaic's expansion gets the green light. Kennedy said the water utility met with Mosaic and representatives of the county to discuss the matter earlier this week, without reaching any accord.

Smith said that Mosaic would stand firm on its right to mine the land.

"The most important thing is we need to have fertilizer," she said. "In order to have food, we need to continue to mine."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

For many, no easy street

For homeowners in plush neighborhoods like FishHawk Ranch, the combination of high property taxes and grinding rush-hour commutes can lead to frustration.

LITHIA

When Don Shelton leaves his driveway here in the Jaeger Glen section of FishHawk Ranch, it takes the 45-year-old software consultant 20 minutes to drive 2.2 miles down two-lane FishHawk Boulevard.

That's the first leg of his daily hourlong commute to downtown Tampa.

Fun way to start the day.

"The roads," Shelton said the other morning in his driveway, "are horrible."

That's a refrain heard across the Tampa Bay area, but it's not the roads alone that frustrate Shelton. He pays about $6,700 a year in property tax on a 2,430-square-foot-home he bought here for $320,000 in December 2004. All those county-directed tax dollars, and it still takes 20 minutes to go about 2 miles.

It's a nice home, and the amenities in one of Hillsborough County's plushest neighborhoods are great. Try evergreen lawns and movie nights, babysitters clubs and driving daily past Osprey statuary atop a rough-rock fountain.

But because of Florida's Save Our Homes law dating from 1992, Shelton and his neighbors in this newer-than-most and mostly Republican suburban area are taxed on a much higher portion of their property's value than many other homeowners in the county.

A St. Petersburg Times analysis of the property taxes of every homesteaded property in the five-county Tampa Bay area found that boom towns and high-growth areas such as FishHawk Ranch, Bloomingdale and Valrico pay a far higher percentage of home value in taxes than more established neighborhoods surrounding Tampa, places where people have roots. It's the same for Hillsborough's newer northern neighborhoods like Tampa Palms and Arbor Green.

New homeowners are forced to pay the full boat in taxes, while the benefit of Florida's Save Our Homes tax cap is years away.

And those same folks are often buying their new homes in the far reaches of the county, in areas where existing roads and infrastructure can't easily support an influx of new residents.

It creates a conflict of sorts: high property taxes in places where county services are lacking.

If the elderly ladies who were taxed out of their homes were the poster children behind the Save Our Homes legislation, then Shelton, who has a BMW in the garage, kids in private school and doctors and lawyers for neighbors, is the face of the new suburban resistance.

"They don't squawk that often," Shelton said of his tax-burdened community, "but they're starting to squawk."

Though Save Our Homes has shielded homeowners from much of the tax burden while home values have tripled in the past 10 years, the savings don't mean much to people who have moved recently or are trying to move. When homeowners move, they lose the Save Our Homes cap.

"We've created something we're not too thrilled with," said Brad Monroe, president of the Tampa Board of Realtors. "People say they're locked in because they can't afford to move."

Shelton is building a bigger home - 3,700 square feet - behind the gates of FishHawk Trails, but he's now considering selling the home once it's completed rather than moving in and eating a tax bill he estimates would be about $15,000, more than double his current bill.

"A lot of people can't afford to move," he said. "They can't afford the taxes."

Tim Miles, a broker with Eagle Crest Realty, said the legislation benefits some and hurts others, but the jury is still out on how it has affected the real estate market.

"It certainly is not the same for all," he wrote in an e-mail. "I feel for all sides on the issue."

A Florida Association of Realtors study found that the Save Our Homes cap creates in effect a "mobility tax," which encourages people to stay longer in their homes.

"Are people less mobile since they know that if they move, they'll be paying more? I think it's a concern, as is insurance, but people tend to still focus more on whether the payment is affordable to them or not," Miles wrote. "They have to live somewhere."

The legislation has created curious situations across the changing region.

Take Estelle and Tom Mier, for example. The retired couple from Wisconsin downsized from their home of 10 years three years ago because they didn't need so much space, but they are paying about the same in property tax - $4,000 a year - on a much smaller house. That didn't stop them from moving to FishHawk Ranch's Heron Glen neighborhood, but the move didn't free up any extra money either.

The Florida Association of Realtors is asking lawmakers this year to pass a measure allowing homeowners to bring their tax cap savings with them to their new home. Such a program would have benefited the Miers.

Makes sense to Shelton.

He said the homestead exemption introduced years ago is obsolete today. It should be in the $150,000 to $200,000 range to have an impact, he said. Or people looking to move should be allowed to take their tax cap with them.

"There needs to be some kind of carryover," he said. "These taxes are ridiculous."

Shelton's new home is due to be completed in three months. He'll have to decide soon to stay and save or go and pay. Either way, he'll still be facing 20 minutes of teeth-grinding two-lane road each day.

"Something is out of synch here," Shelton said. "We haven't kept up."

Times staff writers Matthew Waite and Michael Van Sickler contributed to this report. Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or 813 661-2443.

Scouts turn down 'Dream' offer

Foundation had offered council $6.5 million for Flying Eagle

County, cities get public's input on growth

Residents show officials places where growth is acceptable and learn about problems facing Manatee County planners

Mar 31, 2006

Pristine Passage, Tempting Trap

THONOTOSASSA - There's a sign posted along the Hillsborough River just south of Dead River Park that reads: "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here."

Launch a canoe there and you will be treated to the Hillsborough River in its most pristine state: nature abundant and lacking the telltale garbage of regular use. For all its glory, the Seventeen Runs, between Dead River Park and John B. Sargeant Park, is the most treacherous segment of the river and is getting more dangerous with each season.

"I would say we've had to go out and rescue someone at least once a month over the last six months," park ranger Joe Humble said. "It always has been a problem, but it seems to be happening more frequently."

Several factors combine to make the Seventeen Runs so treacherous for canoeists. It's the one segment of the river's canoe trail where the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department does not clear fallen trees - allowing the ecosystem to remain in its natural state - and trail markers are difficult to see.

River guides describe the area as confusing. The slow, shallow river narrows and then splits into a series of smaller channels that give the segment its name.

"You take a turn and you think it's the river, and all of a sudden you're on dry land and you have to back-paddle," said John Brill, parks department spokesman.

In other sections, it gets so wide the current is imperceptible. Canoeists can lose their sense of direction.

Park ranger Jack Coleman said the past two hurricane seasons have felled about 40 trees, making the passage even more laborious. It's surrounded by swampland and takes an experienced ranger at least five hours to complete.

"It's difficult to navigate regardless of the water level," Humble said. "If the level is low, then people tend to pick certain runs where they get stuck by downed trees. They have to keep getting out and picking up the canoe to lift it over the trees. People get tired, and they get stuck out there."

Stranded Overnight

That's what happened March 11 when three Tampa men set out in a canoe from Hillsborough River State Park for an overnight camping trip. Daniel Gerena said he and his friends were awed by the river and planned to camp overnight in one of the county parks. None had ever been on the river.

"Everywhere, there was an obstacle," Gerena said. "After going over 17 or 18 of them, it gets you."

Then it started to get dark. The three came to a dead end.

"There was no way around the trees. There were spiders everywhere," he said. "I was concerned about snakes. If one of us had been bit by a water moccasin, we'd have been done for."

Gerena's friend Michael O'Neill called his fiancee on a cell phone to tell her they were turning around. He asked her to pick them up at Dead River Park. He was on the phone with her when they capsized. The phone went dead.

"We had to scramble to get everything out of the water," Gerena said. "All we could do was pitch a tent and wait until morning. We were soaking wet."

O'Neill's fiancee called 911, launching an all-night search by air and water.

Coleman, a 25-year veteran of the parks department, canoed the river until 4 a.m. looking for the stranded canoeists. By the time he made it back to the park, his legs were completely cramped. He knew it would be his last nighttime rescue.

All the while, a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office helicopter searched in vain. Gerena said they tried to signal the helicopter, but their flashlight battery died.

Cpl. Rick Jahnke commands the sheriff's office aviation unit. "We are finding ourselves out there more frequently," he said. "In many cases, they have a cell phone and they call 911. This was a case where the fiancee called it in."

The tree coverage in Seventeen Runs is so thick that pilots cannot see the river in daylight. After dark, they fly with night-vision goggles and infrared cameras.

"We have to use a topographic map to find our way," Jahnke said. "When we do find the canoeist, we drop a [digital] marker on them and get the [Global Positioning System] coordinates. Then we'll radio the rangers and they head out in a canoe."

Park ranger Michael Murphy, who is stationed at Sargeant Park, persuaded the department to buy a hand-held GPS device so he could chart that section of the river and better coordinate with the search helicopters.

Murphy eventually met up with Gerena and his party the next morning and led them back to the park.

"They were lucky they had a tent, but they weren't planning on camping in a swamp," he said. "They had a grill and a cooler full of steaks that they never got to eat."

More often, stranded canoeists aren't so fortunate. Brill said they usually don't have tents, or even flashlights, because they expect to be off the river well before dark.

Mosquitoes, Alligators, Snakes

"I've heard where people have spent the night in trees getting eaten alive by mosquitoes because they were afraid of the alligators," Brill said.

An entire high school wrestling team had to be rescued by park rangers this past summer after becoming stranded.

"These were young, healthy guys," Humble said. "People get caught out on the river. They don't realize how physical a run it is. It's very strenuous."

Jahnke remembers another search this past summer when a kayaker became stranded and called 911.

"We located him before dark, but we couldn't get anyone out there, so the night shift dropped him a strobe light and a marker," he said. "His cell phone died in the night. He had abandoned his kayak and walked to find some higher ground. He had to spend the night out there with no provisions."

Helicopter pilots located him in the morning after a prolonged search and dropped a police radio with a note explaining how to operate it.

"We're learning as we go," Jahnke said. "The GPS is just one more tool. Now that the rangers have a hand-held GPS in their canoe, it should help."

Worries About 'Weekend Warriors'

Still, county officials fear the Seventeen Runs will claim more victims this spring and summer as the river grows in popularity. Coleman said he dreads the day he gets a call that a canoeist has been bitten by a poisonous snake. The area is home to water moccasins, coral snakes and rattlesnakes.

"That's my worst fear - that a child gets bit by a water moccasin and we can't get to him in time," Coleman said.

Murphy canoed the Seventeen Runs under a full moon to prepare for his first night rescue. It took him six hours.

He did the run again last week in the daylight to clear debris with a handsaw. As he headed back to Dead River Park, he encountered eight canoeists from the state park who had missed the take-out point and had unknowingly entered Seventeen Runs.

Jahnke thinks better signs on the river could help solve the problem. "It needs to be prominent, with reflectors, at Dead River Park that says 'No Canoeing Past This Point' or 'Canoe at Your Own Risk.'"

Brill said the parks department has to strike a balance between safety and maintaining the only truly primitive section of the river.

"We've put up signs at the park to let people know it's for experienced paddlers only," he said. "But you get people in from out of state or you get these weekend warriors who are out with their family, and they don't want to look like they're not manly.

"It's not a fun trip if you don't know what you're doing."

State Parks

Dead whale washes ashore along Hutchinson Island

HUTCHINSON ISLAND, Fla. (AP) -- The body of a rare, melon-headed whale washed ashore hours after three other whales had to be euthanized because scientists determined the animals were too sick to be saved.

The fourth whale was found about 11 p.m. Wednesday on South Hutchinson Island, said Steven McCulloch, executive director of marine mammal research and conservation at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.

Another dead whale washed ashore Wednesday morning in Vero Beach. It is believed the animals belonged to the same pod.

"It's been kind of a wild goose chase, and we're not sure it's over yet," McCulloch said.

All of the whales were about 7 to 9 feet long and appeared thin and malnourished, said Greg Bossart, director of marine mammal research and conservation at Harbor Branch, a research facility north of Fort Pierce.

Necropsies showed that the animals had ulcers in their stomachs, a sign of stress, and had not eaten for weeks.

Mar 31, 2006

Environmental Impact Fees A Remote Possibility

That means anyone hoping environmental impact fees will be implemented throughout the county might be disappointed.

Jim Polatty, the county’s development services director, announced at Wednesday’s Natural Resources and Advisory Committee meeting that no environmental impact fees can be found elsewhere throughout Florida.

Polatty said counties such as Volusia and Martin have instead adopted parks fees, used to purchase environmentally sensitive land for parks.

St. Lucie and Orange counties, meanwhile, previously made unsuccessful attempts to develop environmental impact fees.

Bob Wallace, vice-president of the Orlando based Tindale-Oliver, the firm studying how best to implement impact fees in Highlands County, said legal experts in Orange County weren’t comfortable with the idea of environmental impact fees.

“The proof of benefit to the fee-payer is not as strong as fees for roads or fire-stations or parks, for instance,” Wallace said, adding impact fee consultants use a “dual rational nexus” test to determine when and where impact fees should be implemented.

According to a Dec. 23 memo supplied by Wallace from Tallahassee attorney Robert L. Nabors to Joel Prinsell, the deputy Orange County Attorney, the “dual rational nexus” test must satisfy the following criteria:

• Impact fees are valid when a reasonable connection exists between the anticipated need for more facilities and population growth
• Impact fees are valid when a reasonable connection exists between the expenditure of impact fee proceeds and the benefits generated from the growth of those proceeds.

The fees cover needs such as those for transportation, parks and recreation, fire, emergency medical services, libraries and public buildings.

They also cover law enforcement, correctional facilities and solid waste.

County commissioners will decide June 27 whether to implement impact fees, based upon Tindale-Oliver’s recommendations.

Impact fees would be implemented for the new fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1, assuming county commissioners go along with the idea.

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Homebuyers' Past May Be Scrutinized

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 28, 2006

WESLEY CHAPEL - A Meadow Pointe neighborhood will consider at its annual meeting tonight a measure requiring all new residents to undergo criminal background checks.

The homeowners association of the Longleaf neighborhood, a gated town house community within Meadow Pointe, will consider the proposal at 7 p.m. at Sand Pine Elementary School on County Line Road.

Proponents say the proposed amendment to the association's rules aims to keep sexual predators out of the 220-home subdivision.

Neighborhoods surrounding Longleaf have been home to sex offenders in recent years. This week, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement alerted residents of The Woodlands that a sex offender had moved to their area.

Critics say Longleaf's proposal raises concerns about privacy and fair-housing laws.

The proposal "is very frightening to many residents of Longleaf," resident Denise Brand said.

If the proposed rule change passes, background checks will be conducted on buyers before they can close on a sale. The association could deny the sale if a check produces an unacceptable result.

The subdivision's property manager, Rampart Property Management, would conduct the checks, association President Tim Koralewski said.

Rampart officials declined to comment.

Similar restrictions are frequently part of sales in co-op buildings or condominiums, real estate experts said.

"This type of restrictions are not common in town houses or single-family developments," said Walter Moloney, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

That said, there's nothing to prevent any homeowners association from requiring presale background checks, said Ellen Hirsch de Haan, a Pinellas County lawyer specializing in such associations.

De Haan is a past president of the Community Associations Institute, a Virginia-based group representing homeowners associations and similar groups.

Anyone rejected because of a background check would have little room to sue, de Haan said.

"A person who is applying for housing has no standing against the association," de Haan said.

If they require a background check, Longleaf residents must also decide what kind of criminal activity can block a sale, de Haan said.

"My personal rule of thumb is: It has to have some reasonable impact on living in a multifamily residential community," she said. "You've got to look at all the facts."

A long-past drug conviction probably wouldn't be enough to justify blocking a sale, de Haan said. A recent conviction for armed robbery or a sex crime could be a different story, however, she said.

"The criminal background check is definitely a case-by-case situation," she said.

Ultimately, though, the proposal may not be needed, said Bruce Jacob, a professor at the Stetson University College of Law.

Much of Longleaf lies close to Dr. John Long Middle School, now under construction on land bordering the neighborhood to the north. State law bans sex offenders whose victims were under 18 from living within 1,000 feet of a school, park or other facility where children congregate.

"If that's what they're after, why not use the state law?" Jacob said.

Neither the National Association of Realtors nor the Florida Association of Realtors could say how the restrictions might affect home sales in the neighborhood.

"There's no data on that," Moloney said. "Personally, I don't think that it would negatively impact sales."

The measure may create a false sense of security, however, said Brad Monroe, president of the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors.

"I may not have a criminal record today, but what about tomorrow?" Monroe said.

Should they approve the change, Longleaf residents could be treading a fine legal line as they weigh the results of future checks, said Tom Jones, president of the Carrollwood Association of Neighborhoods.

"We're restricting a person's right to sell," Jones said. "It's a minefield when you start going into that area."

Dade City Looks At Noise Limits

By JO-ANN JOHNSTON jfjohnston@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 28, 2006

DADE CITY - The last time Dade City set standards for how loudly people may play music or blast a stereo, heavy metal hadn't been invented and The Beatles hadn't even formed.

City Attorney Karla Owens advised the city commission Monday evening that she wants to update the rules on the books, which were set in 1954. People now have stereo systems loud enough to carry sound across a block, and amateur bands practice on their electric instruments in garages near to neighbors.

"We've had a lot more development since 1954, and we're living closer together," Owens said.

She said she thinks new rules should set decibel standards for how loud a business or a resident can be, and those standards should be set by the time of day.

The standards would also be consistent with the Pasco County noise ordinance, she said.

It would be possible to grant waivers to businesses already up and running when the ordinance is passed - a reference to Osceola Tavern, which hosts live musical groups, she said. Tavern owner and city commission candidate Mike Agnello said in an interview that the noise limits are unrealistic.

Mayor Hutch Brock said he wanted more time for the specific discussion of details, so a workshop was set for 4:30 p.m., April 25, before the regularly scheduled city commission meeting.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Attorney General Charlie Crist wants state regulators to crack down on those responsible for polluting one of the Florida's most famous springs, or he might take legal action.

Wakulla Springs, the state's third largest spring, has become more polluted has become increasingly dirtied by nutrients. They have damaged water quality and caused an explosion in the growth of hydrilla and algae that have altered the natural ecosystem.

"Unfortunately, the once-pristine spring is now adversely affected by increased levels of nutrients," said Crist, who described Wakulla Springs as "a unique jewel" in the state's park system.

And the problems may be coming from the city of Tallahassee, which sprays up to 20 million gallons a day of nutrient-laden wastewater on a treatment field about 10 miles north of the springs.

Crist said Sunday he was concerned with the pollution and "diminishing value" of the spring, and stressed its importance as a natural resource and tourist attraction.

"It's a state treasure," Crist said by telephone, adding he'd sent a letter to Tallahassee's mayor with concerns about the city's water treatment possibly fouling the springs.

Crist, who is also seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said "avoiding litigation would be great," but he would keep that option open if a solution isn't found.

City officials say they are working on improvements at the wastewater plant that will reduce the amount of nitrogen that may be seeping into the groundwater and, eventually, into the spring.

However, state lawmakers have yet to take steps to protect more than 700 springs across Florida's landscape. Many suffer from the same problems as Wakulla.

Developers, farmers, businesses and other interest groups who fear stronger regulation of the land around the springs may harm their interests, have opposed such legislation.

This year, state Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, and state Rep. Dwight Stansel, D-Wellborn, have filed bills (HB 693 and SB 2358) to create a task force to raise the visibility of the issue designed to win more protections for the springs.

David Gluckman, a lobbyist for the Florida Wildlife Federation, said the state must get a handle on development, septic tanks, sewage treatment discharges and stormwater runoff from urban areas if it hopes to save the springs across the state.

But Gluckman said stronger state regulation of the activity around the springs is unlikely to happen in a Republican Legislature.

Argenziano is concerned the bureaucracy will bog down.

"You know how government is," she said. "We work in baby steps. If we keep taking baby steps, we may find that we don't have those springs anymore."

Author speaks on child-Nature link at conservation banquet

Children need to reconnect with nature, and Gainesville is one of the places that allows that relationship, news columnist and author Richard Louv said Wednesday night at the the Alachua Conservation Trust's Conservation Stewards Banquet at the Savannah Grande.

"This is a very, very special place," Louv told more than 250 people who attended the banquet, while praising the trust for its land preservation efforts.

"Kids are being raised under a virtual house arrest nowadays. What we really need is a 'Leave No Child Inside' campaign," Louv said to waves of applause. Louv was making a tongue-in-cheek reference to the No Child Left Behind Act - a federal education reform law.

Louv, the author of seven books and a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune who has contributed to the The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and other newspapers and magazines, asserts that children are suffering from "nature-deficit disorder," in his latest book, "Last Child in the Woods."

Louv lamented the "intellectualization of nature" by younger generations who are out of touch with the environment.

But the work of the Alachua Conservation Trust and other like-minded organizations, Louv said, is key in reversing the trend.

"The work that you do is more important than you give yourselves credit for," Louv said. "You're giving these kids hope."

Louv's words came after three area residents - Al Burt, Murray Laurie and Fritzi Olsen - were honored for their efforts in local environment conservation.

Burt is an author of more than 20 books and is a former award-winning Miami Herald columnist who lives in Melrose. Laurie, a historian and preservation consultant in Gainesville, did the research that enabled the trust to acquire and restore the Haile Homestead.

Fritzi Olsen, the executive director of Gainesville-based Current Problems, was selected by Fine, Farkash and Parlapiano Attorneys-at-Law for its Environmental Eagle award. All three honorees are University of Florida graduates.

Deborah Ball can be reached at (352) 338-3109 or balld@gvillesun.com

carol.lee@heraldtribune.com