Florida Cracker Tells It Like It Was
By MICAH DYALmdyal@highlandstoday.com
LAKE PLACID — Through poetry, Hank Mattson tells folks of another Florida long before there were tourists or even cities.
The Lake Placid poet is a working Cracker cowboy who has spent his life preserving Florida’s past by chronicling the life and times of Florida’s cowboys in his own poems.
“Over time true tales had a funny way of growing tall and rhyming just made them easier to remember,” he said.
Mattson considers himself a rare breed, a Florida Cracker, a species he said that is almost extinct. He wears a black felt hat tipped over his tanned forehead. Beneath the battered brim, a silvery-gray handle bar mustache distinguishes the cattleman.
His warm brown eyes appear above a bushy gray beard. He wears a light blue, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of rugged blue jeans. The lifelong Lake Placid resident is upbeat, yet quiet. His family has been part of rural Florida for more than a century.
Today, Mattson is a cattle farmer in Avon Park. He’s soft spoken, blunt and knows how to speak “Cracker.” Several generations of his family have lived off Florida’s lands.
But this last generation, he said, especially his three children, have turned soft. They’ve learned how to e-mail and play Xbox and program DVD players. Youngsters have forgotten how to castrate calves, dig water troughs, and taste the wind.
“You got to love what you do, it’s not the money,” he said. “Just like everybody else my kids went after the almighty dollar.”
When Mattson is not cattle ranching, he’s at schools and festivals reading old poems to people young and old about Florida’s old-time cowboys.
He tells that Florida’s cowboys had a unique way of herding cattle. Back then, he said most cowboys used a 10- to 12-foot-long whip made of braided leather. Snapping these whips in the air made a loud “crack.”
That sound brought stray cattle back into line fast and earned cowboys the nickname of “crackers.” Many rode rugged, rather small horses known as “Cracker ponies.”
Raising cattle is still a large business in Florida. He said Florida’s ranchers raise the third largest number of cattle of any state east of the Mississippi. Their herds represent many centuries of dreams. They link the sweat and success of ancient Spaniards and other pioneers with today’s modern cattle ranchers.
Years ago, he said cattle rustling was prevalent throughout Florida. This was because the state was an open range. There was not a fenced pasture anywhere in the state.
The early cowboys would round up cows over miles and miles of open plains, in the hammocks and by the rivers and streams. Then they would drive them to market.
He said the earliest American tunes and poetry came from the trails of the working cowboys, influenced by the spirit of the songs and poems of their ancestral balladeers.
“Life for them pilgrims was hard, dangerous, and often times lonely,” he said. “Them who lived to tell about it learned early on to look at their trials and tribulations as tomorrow’s humorous stories.”
He said for folks who want to know, who want to learn, who want to remember, it’s almost impossible to track down these old-timers, to witness the old ways.
That’s why, several times a year, Mattson leaves the comfort of the farm and braves the bigger cities. His next appearance will be at the 18th annual Cracker Storytelling Festival in Bartow on Oct. 14.
To learn more about Florida’s old cowboy’s, call Mattson at
699-0562
Interior Department Loose With Money
Tampa Tribune editorial Published: Sep 29, 2006
Indications are that the U.S. Department of Interior is a poor steward of the public's money.
The agency is supposed to collect royalties from oil companies that drill on public land. However, in-house auditors say agency leaders have stood in the way of collecting more than $30 million from oil companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico - money the auditors believe was purposely underpaid.
"The agency has lost its sense of mission, which is to protect American taxpayers," auditor Bobby L. Maxwell told The New York Times. "These assets belong to the American public and they are supposed to be used for things like education, public infrastructure and roadways."
Maxwell and three colleagues have taken the unusual step of filing lawsuits against the agency.
The Interior Department has become too cozy with the oil industry under this administration. A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that between 1989 and 2001, the department averaged $176 million in collections from enforcement measures, an average that dropped to $46 million between 2002 and 2005.
The department even stopped issuing subpoenas for documents, a key to finding fraudulent reports.
Congress should investigate Interior's collection practices and get to the bottom of this slippery affair.
HIGH SPRINGS – Area residents who want to protect
local springs need to start looking at the broader picture, officials
said at a Sept. 20 Springs Summit.
Rivers and springs in the area flow across city and county lines,
taking no heed of traditional political boundaries.
Similarly, the summit called upon local, county and state officials to
try to break outside of political boundaries and form a cooperative
effort for the entire area.
The gathering of officials from the state, Alachua and Gilchrist
counties and the cities of Alachua, High Springs and Newberry made the
meeting a success, said Fay Baird, coordinator of the Santa Fe Springs
Working Group.
“Overall I was absolutely thrilled with the meeting,” she said,
adding that there were about 100 people who attended. “It was better
than I ever expected. Between officials and staff, there were probably
at least 10 people representing the county and cities.”
With issues regarding springs and their protection
becoming greater and greater in the area, she said, people are
realizing that they need to do something.
“I think everyone wants to know what they can do,” Baird said.
Over the past several years, she said, the water quality of area
springs has been degrading because of nitrates, or nutrients, from
wastewater, fertilizers and land development that wash into the
springs.
The once-clear water at Camp Kulaqua’s Hornsby Spring, where the
meeting was held, now has a slight green tint, said Chris Bird,
environmental protection director for Alachua County.
Residents who want to help curb the problem should begin to look at
the overall picture of how they affect the springs basin, he said.
“Every time there’s a decision to allow a piece
of property to change land use, that can either positively or
negatively impact the water quality that feeds the springs,” Bird
said. “When you add all of those individual properties up, it can
have a tremendous impact. So far, we’ve had more of a negative
impact.”
Bird said the change is largely from a growing population.
And that’s ironic, he said, since many of the people who move to the
area because they want to be close to the springs end up unknowingly
damaging those springs.
The water that feeds into springs in this area comes from 250 to 350
square miles of land, Bird said.
The group at the meeting didn’t discuss specific topics such as a
proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Alachua that has been the topic of
much controversy.
“We realize that if we’re really going to tackle this problem,
it’s a lot more complicated and far reaching than one Wal-Mart
Supercenter,” Bird said. “Sure, we need to be concerned about
shopping centers and large-scale development but we have to be
concerned about a whole area.”
Some ideas that the group considered to reduce nitrate levels would be
to create a wastewater utlility, label fertilizers so people know harm
they can cause, raise the cost of more damaging fertilizers and use
the proceeds to promote awareness, educate all home buyers about the
risks of septic tanks and fertilizer and raise water quality
standards.
“The working group is an ongoing effort,” Baird said, adding that
by the time the group meets again in winter, people will have gone out
and made improvements.
Baird was especially proud of the meeting’s attendance, she said,
because education is a large part of preventing further damage of the
springs, since so many people do not understand how they contribute to
the problem.
“This was beyond my wildest dream as far as turnout,” she said
X-Way Must Run Tighter Ship To Continue Building Vital Roads
Tampa tribune editorial Published: Sep 29, 2006
State auditors have begun digging into the operation of the Hillsborough Expressway Authority, and that's a good thing. Their findings in a few months will give the beleaguered board a road map for how to rebuild public confidence and hold off efforts to disband the toll-funded agency.
To survive, the expressway authority must shape up fast. It doesn't need an auditor's direction to begin fixing three problems: out-of-control contracts for lobbyists, bloated contracts for lawyers and leadership that tolerates excesses.
The authority has been paying its lobbyist $175 an hour, which last year came to about $360,000. That's more than twice the salary of the Tampa mayor. It should hire a lobbyist who will work for a reasonable flat rate.
Likewise, the authority's law firm has run up bills of more than $600,000 a year, over and above the salaries of an in-house counsel and specialty lawyers hired to handle the lawsuit on the authority's reversible bridge.
The governor's special counsel observed that "the lucrative nature of the outside general counsel contract" is "seen as a major plum."
Expressway Chairman Tom Gibbs tells us, "We can do it a lot less expensively," and of course he's right.
That the authority has spent money like water must be blamed on its executive director, Ralph Mervine.
Phone records show Mervine calls the lobbyist daily. Given that Mervine is paid more than $200,000 a year, he shouldn't need so much outside help. Indeed, his umbilical cord to lobbyist John Beck makes it appear that the lobbyist-consultant is calling the shots at the authority.
Mervine also has poorly handled a proposal for a toll-funded beltway linking four counties. He took the proposal to the county commission and won support to continue planning the road, even though he has never made a formal presentation to his own board. Indeed, the expressway authority has never voted on the controversial beltway.
Gibbs tells us that Mervine will explain the project at the board's next meeting.
Mervine is an engineer who was hired to save the authority's flawed reversible-bridge project. He proved himself a capable troubleshooter. But he immediately led the authority into unnecessary controversy by botching an attempt to hire a new law firm. The county commission voted no confidence in him.
Now, lawmakers from neighboring counties want to abolish the Hillsborough authority. In its place, they want to create an eight-county agency that could take Hillsborough's tolls for roads in other counties.
Regional solutions are needed, but they shouldn't come at the expense of Tampa commuters.
Hillsborough needs a creative, responsive expressway board to tackle projects that the state, city and county cannot.
And the authority needs an executive director who gives the board better advice, someone with the skills to lobby on the expressway's behalf without constantly leaning on costly experts.
The expressway authority should stay but Mervine should go.
Expressway Authority to reopen lobbyist's contract
By S.I. ROSENBAUMWith the pact too broadly written, says the board's attorney, he was paid triple what other authorities pay.
Published September 29, 2006
TAMPA - The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority's new lawyer told the agency Monday that it should retain the services of controversial lobbyist John Beck - with one caveat.
She said Beck's contract was written so broadly that he could bill the authority for almost anything and that he's earning more than three times what authorities elsewhere in Florida pay their lobbyists.
Beck has been under scrutiny since it was revealed that he met with one of the candidates bidding to become the Expressway Authority's new lawyer, at the behest of board member Bob Clark.
The candidate, law firm Gray Robinson, subsequently won the bid, despite being ranked the second choice by the board's hiring committee.
The authority's own legal affairs director called the meeting a violation of the state's Government in the Sunshine Law, but a governor's office investigation into the matter found that Clark and Beck did not break any laws.
Nonetheless, the authority board threw out the entire bidding process and asked their new interim lawyer, Rhea Law, to examine the authority's policies and its relationship with Beck.
On Monday, Law reported back to the board that Beck's contract defined his duties as including almost anything that would constitute the "general promotion" of the agency.
"When we looked at his last bill ... all the services were within that definition," she said.
Beck was originally hired in 1999 as a subcontractor by the law firm Ruden McClosky, the authority's legal counsel at the time.
Law said it was unclear whether the position was ever advertised or reviewed by the authority's staff.
In April, Beck's contract was automatically renewed, while the contract with Ruden McClosky was put up for rebid.
Law recommended that the board reopen Beck's contract and rewrite it to make his duties more specific and limited.
Furthermore, she said, most of the other authorities in the state paid their lobbyists by the month, rather than the hour. A 2004 contract she had seen from another authority gave its lobbyist a yearly salary of $80,000, paying by the month, she said.
So far this year, Beck has charged the authority about $300,000, said executive director Ralph Mervine.
"Who drafted the contract?" asked board chairman J. Thomas Gibbs.
From the audience, legal affairs director Mary Hall raised her hand. She had drafted the contract, she said. "Mr. Beck also had some input to it," she said.
Member James T. Hargrett Jr. said Beck's work in Tallahassee was too important to interrupt.
"You got plantin' season and harvestin' season," he said. Now, he said, was the time for lobbyists to work on legislators in preparation for the next session.
Board member Thomas Scott disagreed. Local legislators are already talking about dissolving the Expressway Authority, he said, in part because of the controversy surrounding Beck.
"Do you send a lobbyist who has been the subject of questions to those people, if you want to be effective?" he asked.
In the end, the board voted to accept Law's recommendations, keeping Beck but renegotiating his contract.
They also accepted Law's recommendation that the agency have a yearly workshop on the state's Government in the Sunshine and open records laws.
S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com
Widening Project Delayed Until April
Published: Sep 29, 2006
WESLEY CHAPEL - The widening of County Line Road and its junction with Bruce B. Downs Boulevard won't start until April under a deal struck by a developer and county officials Thursday.
The Spanos Corp., an apartment builder with projects on State Road 56, was supposed to begin the road project last December.
The project has been delayed, in part, by problems finding enough land nearby to hold the project's storm runoff, said Spanos representative Hardy Gillespie.
The work will widen County Line Road between Bruce B. Downs and the bridge over Trout Creek. It also will add a second left-turn lane to the northbound lanes of Bruce B. Downs in Hillsborough County.
The north side of the road is completely developed, so Spanos has been talking with developer GL Homes about sharing a retention pond in the subdivision GL Homes plans to build on the south side of the road, Gillespie said.
The widening is one of three road projects in the immediate area that have fallen behind schedule.
Seven Oaks is more than a year behind schedule widening Bruce B. Downs from County Line Road to State Road 54. The company recently secured the $38 million it will need to widen Bruce B. Downs but is waiting for permits from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, attorney Ben Harrill told the county's Development Review Committee.
County officials are still waiting for Pulte Home Corp. to begin extending S.R. 56 east from Bruce B. Downs. Pulte has submitted designs for the road to the county.
Also Thursday, committee members:
•Approved the development of Bexley Ranch in central Pasco. The 6,872-acre project lies north of Tower Road between the Suncoast Parkway and CSX rail line. The developer, Newland Communities, also built Fishhawk Ranch in Hillsborough County.
When finished, Bexley Ranch will have 7,000 homes, more than 500,000 square feet of office space and nearly 300,000 square feet of shopping. The proposal still must win approval from the county's land planning agency and county commission.
•Approved plans for a new shopping center off the northeast corner of State Road 56 and Interstate 75. The 209,000-square-foot plaza is to include, among other things, an Ashley Furniture store and a Haverty's furniture store, according to documents filed with the county.
Those stores would become the third and fourth furniture outlets on the brief stretch of S.R. 56 between the interstate and Bruce B. Downs. An Ethan Allen furniture store has staked a claim to land on the south side of S.R 56 from the new plaza. Rooms To Go opened this year at S.R. 56 and Bruce B. Downs.
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
Developer denied extra road right of way
By ANDREW MEACHAMThe request was deep down in the builder's larger request to reduce the amount of retail space required at Triple Creek.
Published September 29, 2006
RIVERVIEW - It looked like a routine request. A developer wanted to extend an existing road into a new neighborhood and needed county approval.
But before the dust settled, Commissioner Kathy Castor accused Centex Homes of asking the county to violate its own ordinances protecting environmentally sensitive property.
The developer's request was buried within six pages of minutiae: condition 33 out of 55 in a zoning request.
With thousands of undeveloped acres in Hillsborough yet to be ruled upon, including a proposed 70-mile beltway connecting four counties, it wasn't a precedent Castor wanted to embrace.
Commissioners voted to give Centex its road, without the extra right of way it originally requested.
The flap started in August, when Centex asked the County Commission for permission to modify the Triple Creek development southeast of Big Bend Road and U.S. 301.
Triple Creek, which will have 1,745 houses and condominiums and 300 apartments, got the zoning it needed in December. The community is expected to have its own school, library and fire station.
The plan includes up to 70,000 square feet of shopping, too much to build all at once, Centex argued. The developer appeared before the commission in August to ask for permission to reduce the initial installment of retail space from 19,000 to 9,000 square feet, and to remove a requirement to build the entire 70,000 square feet of retail.
Planning and Growth Management staff recommended the proposal. But when commissioners considered the request in August, Castor zeroed in on a single innocuous line in the developer's list of proposed conditions.
That item added a stipulation to an agreement that Centex would extend Big Bend Road into the Triple Creek property and widen it to four lanes.
Under the new language, the county would be "responsible for providing adequate right of way" through the property.
Since the developer wanted to extend that right of way from 100 to 110 feet, the request affected environmentally sensitive land the county is charged to protect.
Centex bought property in 1998 to extend the road, company attorney Vincent Marchetti told commissioners. The sale entailed 100 feet of county right of way.
The county bought the surrounding property in 2003 as part of its Environmental Lands Acquisition Protection Program.
That meant that all of the property up to the edge of the right of way for the Big Bend extension became ELAPP land, which commissioners are required to protect.
Also in 2003, the county expanded its requirement for right of way for four-lane roads, from 100 to 110 feet.
Now Centex needed permission to build the road it had planned for eight years, with an extra 10 feet of county right of way to comply with the new requirement.
But when Marchetti asked commissioners last month to approve modifications to Triple Creek, Castor cried foul.
Her objection: Centex was ushering in a violation of ELAPP rules by asking for more right of way.
Commissioners delayed a vote at that meeting until a representative of the state's ELAPP program could elaborate.
A few days later, Castor wrote to County Administrator Pat Bean to protest the way Centex had tried to get its right of way.
"The applicant attempted to use a minor modification of a zoning condition to violate the ELAPP ordinance," Castor wrote in an Aug. 25 memo.
By the time commissioners reconsidered earlier this month, Centex had ironed out the discrepancies between their request and ordinances protecting ELAPP land.
A day before the Sept. 12 meeting, the county's Planning and Growth Management staff granted Centex a design exception, allowing the road to be built with the original 100 feet of right of way.
Since the road at that width was already exempted from ELAPP designation, the conflict should disappear, Marchetti argued.
The commission agreed and approved the developer's request by a 6-1 vote, with Castor dissenting.
Though the Centex modification passed without a conflict over ELAPP lands, Castor remains unsure about how close the application came to sailing through untouched.
"The other concern," Castor said in an interview, "is that Planning and Growth Management staff understand and communicate with the ELAPP department so that these inaccuracies don't wind up as conditions.
"The public relies on commissioners, and commissioners rely on staff to get it right."
Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com.
[Last modified September 28, 2006, 08:12:44]Of course it's helpful to know that the writer of the letter below is chairman of the board of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce. Of course he would think a mall was more important than a watershed.
Mall's Positive Effects
Pasco Tribune letter to the editor
Regarding "Development Not Worth Impact," Sunday:
The impact of Cypress Creek Town Center depends on what side of the creek one stands on.
As stated in the editorial, the Southwest Florida Water Management District owns or manages more than 64,000 acres of land in Pasco County. In question is a mere 67 acres of wetlands. Hopefully, a permit will be issued soon that will allow a developer to build a much-needed open-air mall along Cypress Creek in the Wesley Chapel area.
The editorial said this land would be "destroyed" by the developer; I strongly disagree. Southwest Florida Water Management District has already placed exceptionally stringent controls on this development, therefore meeting its responsibility without bringing carnage to the overall project.
I do not feel this ratio of wetland and surface waters would be lost to construction; rather, I see that the mall would be beneficial and accommodating for Pasco residents. This land would be used to build retail and other commercial businesses, plus offices and hotels. The development is projected to create more than 3,800 jobs. This information alone indicates to a prudent individual this development is worth the impact.
The annual revenue of the future Cypress Creek mall to Pasco is estimated at $6 million, with an additional estimate of $2.4 million annually to our school system. Let's add this financial base to the fact that a mall in central Pasco would be convenient for residents, who would be able to reduce travel times and gas expenses incurred while driving to other nearby malls, which, by the way, are in another county.
The majority of Pasco residents want this mall and are ready to support local commerce. It would be a place to work, eat and enjoy family time together while spending and keeping Pasco dollars in Pasco. Let's encourage construction of the Cypress Creek Town Center.
I vigorously object to the suggestion of changing permitting rules to give Swiftmud members more regulatory authority. Translated, this means greater government control over our lives. And who pays for these greater controls? We, average citizens, do, through higher costs in products, services and taxes. Let us remember some of the teachings of Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations," written in 1776.
PETER HANZEL
Wesley Chapel
DEP back at Wakulla BeachMore samples are taken of mystery muck
WAKULLA BEACH - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection collected new samples Thursday of a sticky muck that has plagued the shoreline of Wakulla Beach for two weeks.
Tallahassee Democrat readers, meanwhile, are offering various theories on what's causing the foul-smelling substance along the shore in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
DEP has said the material was a die-off of microscopic algae called diatoms. But other scientists have disagreed, and one said the muck is more consistent with sewage.
Russel Frydenborg, a DEP environmental administrator, said after collecting new samples Thursday that it's premature to say someone dumped something there.
"I don't see how that could happen," he said. "It just doesn't make sense to me it was a human source."
He said the material, which had some dead sea grasses in it, was found up to 32 feet from the shore and extended about 1,000 feet to the east and less than a half-mile to the west.
Water-quality expert Sean McGlynn of Tallahassee has said the material is more consistent with sewage because it contained high bacteria levels. But he also said he doesn't know how the sludge-like material could have gotten there.
Some readers suggested that a septic tank pump-out service may have dumped its tanker truck along the shore. McGlynn said it would have taken many trucks to dump that much material, and he said there were no signs of heavy trucks. He said it could have been dumped from a boat or a barge.
One theory offered by Jennifer Wolny, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is that organic material from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico was stirred up and washed ashore during a storm. However, McGlynn said there haven't been any recent storms to stir up the bottom.
Another theory offered by readers is that the material may have floated across the Gulf of Mexico from the Buckeye Florida cellulose mill in Perry. Frydenborg said it's unlikely the material would travel more than 35 miles from the Fenholloway River and arrive at a single spot.
"We need to gather the facts before we make a conclusion," he said.
McGlynn said the material could be pulp-mill fibers, dead seaweed or sewage, and it is difficult to tell the difference without further investigation. Frydenborg said test results for bacteria should be available in a couple of days. He said a nutrient analysis of the material will take about a week.
Realtors unhappy with some officials' words of criticism
By Terry WittOfficials from the Realtors Association of Citrus County took issue this week with statements they say infer that Realtors manipulated the market to drive up property values.
John M. Finley, president of the association, and broker Barry Cook said real estate agents did not manipulate the market and don’t have the power to drive up prices.
“The idea that we drove up prices or manipulated the market just isn’t true,” Finley said in an interview with the Chronicle Editorial Board. “We can’t do that. It’s not possible.”
Finley and Cook were referring to comments made by County Commissioner Dennis Damato in a Sept. 20 Chronicle story where he accused real estate agents of pressuring commissioners for tax relief late in the budget process.
They also sharply disagreed with a quote from Property Appraiser Melanie Hensley in a Sept. 16 Chronicle story where they say she implied real estate agents had driven up property prices.
“We just kind of felt they beat on us,” Cook said. “I don’t know if it was deserved.”
Damato was critical of real estate agents he said had pressed commissioners for a big tax break at a Sept. 19 tax hearing. He said they showed little regard for the needs of the county or approved projects.
Finley said real estate agents told commissioners the market had taken a downturn and they expected the board to show more fiscal responsibility in the budget process. He said the real estate agents felt it was a reasonable request.
Damato responded Thursday that commissioners delivered on the real estate agents’ request by reducing the millage rate, but he said he never accused them of manipulating the market or driving up prices. He said individual real estate agents attended the hearing and demanded the board adopt the rollback millage, the tax rate that would generate the same level of revenue as the previous year.
He said it would have been better if the real estate agents had met before the tax hearing, taken an official position and had one person speak for the entire organization.
“I think that would have had more credibility,” he said.
Finley and Cook also felt Hensley had tried to lay the blame for rising property values at the doorstep of real estate agents. They cited a quote attributed to Hensley in which she said, “Realtors discovered they could get higher prices for homes and it started there. Once there were willing buyers who would pay $500,000 for a home, it started the ball rolling and people believed real estate was worth more.”
Finley said the job of real estate agents is to connect willing sellers with willing buyers. He said the buyers and sellers determine what a piece of property is worth. The said real estate agents merely provide the vehicle for the sale to take place.
Hensley responded on Thursday that she did not intend to intimate or infer that real estate agents were manipulating the market or were responsible for rising property values.
She said if a homeowner knows the house is worth $200,000, but they want the real estate agent to ask for $500,000, the real estate agent will do what the client wants them to do.
“The Realtor is going to do what the seller wants, and low and behold, if someone is willing to pay $500,000, the sale goes through,” Hensley said. “It wasn’t that I meant the Realtors are at fault. They work for the seller.”
She added, “I didn’t mean it was directed at Realtors, that it was their fault. They don’t manipulate the market, but they are a player. They are part of the free market.”
Alachua says 'no' to
concrete plants
ALACHUA - A proposal to build two concrete plants in
Alachua near Hunter Marine was denied Tuesday by the city's Planning
& Zoning Board, citing incompatibility with nearby neighborhoods.
The developer, Trinity Materials, can still ask for the proposal to be
considered by the Alachua City Commission.
Officials with Trinity Materials said they had chosen the site on U.S.
441 because the two proposed plants would be bordered on one side by
railroad tracks and on the other by industrial businesses - Hipp
Construction and Hunter Marine.
At Trinity Materials’ proposed batch plant, concrete would be
dropped into concrete trucks - commonly referred to as cement trucks -
that would then take the concrete to various job sites.
The second plant would be a concrete masonry block plant. It would be
housed in an approximately 32,600-square-foot building where cement is
mixed, then placed into a mold to produce concrete block.
Residents showed up in force at Tuesday's Planning
& Zoning Board meeting, filling city hall and leaving people
standing in the hallway and waiting outside.
Residents said they did not want the noise and traffic they felt the
two plants would produce.
Representatives from Trinity Materials said the noise would be no
greater than the noise produced by traffic on U.S. 441 and, in fact,
at the property's edge, would be no louder than normal conversation.
As for traffic, Trinity Materials officials produced reports showing
how traffic would be directed onto and and off the land at the Hipp
Construction entrance.
But Alachua city staff recommended denial of the project, saying the
sites cannot "coexist in relative proximity to adjacent
residential land uses in a stable fashion over time."
This is the developer's second time to appear before
the Planning and Zoning Board. At the first meeting a few months ago,
the developer asked for the proposal to be considered at a later
meeting because the city produced a new traffic report a half-hour
before the meeting's start.
A few weeks after that meeting, the developer held a community meeting
to better explain the project but less than a dozen residents showed
up.
Resort wants lawsuit dismissed
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff WriterThe Homosassa Riverside Resort argues that a group's lawsuit to block its expansion plans is deeply flawed.
Published September 29, 2006
When a divided County Commission approved expansion plans at the Homosassa Riverside Resort, the Save the Homosassa River Alliance came out swinging.
Now the resort is swinging right back.
The resort this week asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that the alliance filed against the county. The resort says the alliance followed the wrong procedures, filed the wrong type of action and doesn't even have standing to get involved.
Judge Charles M. Harris is scheduled to consider the matter Monday morning. In mid July, a 3-2 commission vote approved the resort's plans to level all buildings on the east side of the main entrance road. They would be replaced by 72 motel suites in buildings of three stories over parking and 15 regular motel rooms in two stories over retail.
The resort said its approach would lead to more preservation of open space. Alliance members and other area residents said the buildings proposed as part of the expansion would be too high. They said the project would be at odds with special development rules designed to preserve Old Homosassa's character.
The alliance filed suit in August, asking a judge to nullify the commission's approval.
The resort has asked the court for permission to be an intervenor. But that's not all. It also is tearing apart the alliance's suit.
In a motion to dismiss filed Wednesday, attorneys Derrill L. McAteer and Carl A. Bertoch said that the River Alliance's petition for a writ of certiorari, basically an appeal of the County's Commission's vote, is improper.
The alliance was not, and in fact never formally sought to be, a party to the County Commission's action, which is considered quasijudicial.
Since the alliance wasn't a party, it doesn't have standing to file an appeal, the resort argued. If anything, the alliance should have sought "declaratory and injunctive relief."
But that avenue presents problems, as well, the resort says.
In their motion, the attorneys note that the plaintiffs - the alliance and three individuals, Homosassa residents Jim Bitter, Rosemary Rendueles and Priscilla Watkins - do not have standing to sue.
Standing is granted to anyone who "has a legally recognizable interest which is or will be affected by the action of the zoning authority in question," the resort said. Such people must have "a definite interest exceeding the general interest of the community."
But none of the plaintiffs own property adjacent to or near the Riverside Resort.
The alliance has stated that its commitment to the preservation and conservation of environmentally sensitive lands and wildlife in and around the river should matter. But the courts have ruled that "mere interest in the environment alone is insufficient to give a person or entity standing to challenge a zoning decision," the resort's attorneys argued.
They said the River Alliance's own attorney, Denise Lyn, has told the County Commission that the alliance "has no environmental quarrel with the approved project."
Two expansion options were presented to the commission: One called for three stories of motel suites over parking with less coverage of the ground space; another allowed two stories over parking with more coverage of the ground space.
Lyn said the alliance would favor the second option.
"A review of the transcript indicates that the alliance's sole concern was the number of floors over parking and its disapproval of the aesthetic effect of three floors over parking versus two," the resort's attorneys wrote. "Thus, the alliance's newfound environmental 'religion' regarding the project proposed ... offered for purposes of standing is fraudulent."
Lyn was not available for comment on the motion Thursday.
Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com.
government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer - sounds good to them.
Developers Prepare For Impact Fees
By CHRIS BUTLERcbutler@highlandstoday.com
SEBRING — They spent most of this summer predicting not only doom and gloom for new real estate but fewer opportunities for Highlands County to acquire much coveted businesses such as Target and Olive Garden.
But three months before they take effect, business and residential developers are taking “a wait-and-see” approach on impact fees.
Commissioners passed fees at 25 percent of an impact fee consultant’s recommendations for transportation and six other fees earlier this month. They made an exception for public schools, passing them at at a much higher 50 percent.
Commercial real-estate developer John Borgemeister said the county’s economy won’t begin feeling effects from the fees until mid-2007 at the earliest.
Borgemeister railed this summer against 100 percent of the impact fee recommendations. The suggestions came from the Orlando-based impact fee consultant Tindale-Oliver. He said the fees would discourage retail outlets such as Target and Best Buy from making their way to Highlands County.
Despite most of the fees now being only one-fourth the original proposals, he said at least some negative consequences await the county.
“They may not know it yet, but everyone will be paying for these fees. We can all be certain the costs will be passed down to all consumers in one form or another,” Borgemeister said.
Lake Placid developer Greg Arnone specializes in residential real estate, but still has his own predictions about future commercial development.
“Those businesses would be beating down the doors to get here if we really had the population growth people say we do,” Arnone said. “But we don’t. Everything (with the market) has been slowing down. That’s just a national phenomenon.”
Residential Developments
Arnone said impact fees at 100 percent for residential developments would have been the death knell for future real-estate developments countywide.
He said his customers told him they wouldn’t have moved to the county under such a scenario. But he said they’re OK with what commissioners passed.
“We will still have a negative effect, but it just won’t be anywhere near as bad as it could have been,” Arnone said. “There’s always a negative effect when you raise prices.”
Impact fees will add to other established negative effects. He said they include high interest rates, a slow real estate market and new county residents not being able to sell their old homes elsewhere.
“I was deathly afraid of what would have happened at 100 percent,” Arnone said.
Lake Placid developer Michael Anastasia also railed against the proposed fees this past summer, saying such fees usually work well in larger, wealthier counties.
“I’m just hoping we fit in the middle somewhere,” Anastasia said. “Everyone I’ve spoken with said they’ll try to work with it at the rate established and hopefully it sticks. But I just hope the county can find an alternative income source rather than just taxing the building industry.”
Meanwhile, Arnone took the opportunity to take another jab at impact fees and what he said are their main flaw.
“Impact fees should have been based on actual growth but was instead based on potential growth. I and other developers always said the basis for the amounts and the dire need for them was flawed.
“But if we are blessed with a tremendous amount of growth the
county commission should only then react and raise the fees – and
the developers are all for that,” Arnone said.
The sacred hill of Philippe Park
By TERRI BRYCE REEVESThe area's biggest remaining Indian mound is in this Safety Harbor park, where a robust culture once thrived.
Published September 29, 2006
SAFETY HARBOR - The Tocobaga Indians knew a good piece of real estate when they saw it.
This rolling piece of land had high ground, great fishing, gorgeous views and awesome breezes off Old Tampa Bay.
A millennium later, people are still enamored of the 122-acre Philippe Park - it had nearly 1-million visitors last year alone. They come to bike, run, walk, fish, boat, picnic, party (sans alcohol), walk the dog or just hang out.
Central to the park's beauty and history is a grass-covered hill known as the Indian Mound.
Deet McGruder, 45, of Clearwater finds peace nearly once a week at this place.
"It's just so tranquil here," he said, looking out over the bay. The park features 1 mile of shoreline.
The experience wasn't quite as spiritual for Robert Cummings, 53, of Oldsmar.
"I was expecting to feel some kind of vibes or a mystical thing, but it's just a steep hill," he said, catching his breath.
A climb for him, perhaps, but to the Tocobaga, it was a place to hold ceremonies. Even the big chief may have lived there. Remains indicate that some kind of structure was built atop the mound, created from layers of sand and shells.
The hill in Philippe Park is the largest remaining mound in the Tampa Bay area, according Vance Perkey, assistant park supervisor, who has researched the Tocobaga. The culture is believed to have occupied the area from around 900 A.D. until the late 1600s. Records suggest that this area in Safety Harbor was the "capital city" of the Tocobaga tribe.
It was an estuary culture of tall, muscular and agile people. They carried bows, arrows and spears. They made many of their tools from bones and shell.
They weren't big on clothing but liked tattoos.
"We know that they were a class society ranked by a birthright or being known as a fierce warrior," Perkey said. "They used tattoos to identify their rank or privilege. I've read that if they tattooed themselves to a rank or status they weren't entitled to, it would be removed, and we aren't talking laser surgery here."
He said the type of pottery they had - the more elaborate, the better - also determined rank. And those with higher status lived closer to the water.
"Some things never change," he said.
Historians aren't certain how big the village was. Estimates range from several hundred people to more than 2,500.
When the Spanish arrived, they brought horses, war dogs and guns - things the natives had never seen. The guns and war dogs, especially, drove fear into their hearts.
The Spanish were not kind to the Tocobaga. One of the cruelest was a commander of the conquistadors named Panfilo de Narvaez, who came to the area in 1528. He and his men pillaged the Tocobagans' ceremonial grounds and huts. They cut off the chief's nose and fed his mother to the pet greyhounds.
Warfare was not the only thing that led to the demise of the tribe. Many were killed by European disease. Any survivors likely merged with other cultures.
Originally the mound was rectangular, but about a third of it was lost during a hurricane in 1848. Count Odet Philippe, for whom the park was named, used it to protect his family from a tidal surge.
The count is credited as being the first to adapt the grapefruit to Florida culture on his plantation, St. Helena, now Philippe Park. He also introduced cigarmaking to Tampa.
In 1979, stone retaining walls were built around the mound to stop further erosion and deter removal of arrowheads, ceramic pottery fragments and bones. Anyone who finds an artifact should report it to park officials.
Fast facts
* The park opened in 1948 and is the oldest in the county.
* Number of picnic shelters: eight
* Record number of park weddings in one day: nine
* Biggest month for weddings at the park: April
* It has a new $120,000 adventure course made of composite rocks and ropes. The nontraditional playground is said to be the first of its kind on the U.S. East Coast.
* * *
Philippe Park is at 2525 Philippe Parkway in Safety Harbor. The park is open daily from 7 a.m. until dusk. Call (727) 669-1947 for information.
Big blue house cruises to its new home: Ruskin
By BEN MONTGOMERYA developer wanted the land for condos. The history-minded wanted to save the house. It ended up win-win.
Published September 29, 2006
They came behind oxen to the shores of the Manatee River, a Mississippi banker with his wife and eight kids and a kettle full of Confederate gold. Someone pointed them south, toward an uncharted place that became Palmetto, where one of the banker's sons built himself a mansion by the sea.
And there it stood, Asa Lamb's Queen Anne Victorian, from 1910 forward, watching Florida fill up with people and their things.
The blue paint chipped. The porch sagged. It became a refuge for the mentally ill. It became less than eye-pleasing. It then sat abandoned, to face the uncertainty of time in a place where history often bows to money or the wind.
Its fate came to town a few years ago with a dream-chasing developer from Kentucky, and folks in Manatee County were concerned. The developer, Bob Breeden, wanted the land under Lamb Manor for a seven-story condo tower to be called Regatta Pointe.
But the history-minded authorities had a condition for Breeden: preserve the blue house.
Breeden shopped for a buyer and found one last year in George and Nancy Corbett, a Winter Haven couple who operate a North Carolina retreat, Canaan Land, for Baptist ministers. The Corbetts own land 20 miles north, in Ruskin, on the Little Manatee River, a perfect plat for such a home.
But how do you move a three-story, 220-ton, five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home from Palmetto to Ruskin?
By water, came the answer, and on Monday, men from Brownie Moving and Heavy Hauling used hydraulic lifts to put it on a barge, and pushed it toward the bay. It was reported the move would cost $250,000, but the company wouldn't say what it charged the Corbetts.
Tuesday morning, the tugboat Regina T pushed it toward open water while boats circled and the news media hovered in helicopters. The house looked uncomfortable on the bay. Someone wondered what its ghosts were thinking.
"Not everything old is worth saving," Breeden said while monitoring the move with others from a yacht nearby. "But there are a few things that are worth the time and trouble."
As it moved toward the Sunshine Skyway bridge, motorists pulled to the side of Interstate 275 for a look before they were shooed away by police.
Lenore Stewart, 84, the great-granddaughter of that Mississippi banker, was relieved that folks saw fit to preserve the home. She turned and watched a piece of Old Florida move at 3 knots toward its future.
"I mean, just look at it there," she said.
Breeden popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.
"To the blue house," he said.
Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or 813-661-2443.
Activists Seeking To Rein In Oil Use
Published: Sep 28, 2006
TAMPA - Volatile gas prices, an ongoing Mideast war and global warming are all reasons the United States needs a new energy policy that moves away from fossil fuel dependence and toward renewable energy.
That was the message at a news conference held Wednesday at the Museum of Science & Industry by a coalition of environmental groups who challenged all Florida candidates for federal office to adopt the groups' energy platform.
The platform calls for the country to reduce oil consumption by one-third through higher fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles, more energy-efficient buildings and a $30 billion investment in research and development of renewable energy sources.
"This has been a do-nothing Congress in addressing our energy needs in a meaningful way," said Mark Ferrulo, director of Environment Florida, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group.
"The president says we're addicted to foreign oil," Ferrulo said. "So what does Congress do? They find us fatter needles to feed our addiction."
Holly Binns, Environment Florida's field director, said Americans are concerned about a host of energy-related problems ranging from rising fuel costs to the ongoing Iraq war.
"We're calling on all our congressional leaders to put our national security, global climate and children's future ahead of the interests of the big oil and coal companies," Binns said.
Environment Florida sent pledge cards to all 46 candidates for federal office in Florida, asking them to support the platform, Ferrulo said. The group plans to release the names of candidates who signed the pledges Oct. 27.
"The real goal would be to elevate the debate of energy policy while they are campaigning," he said. "Once they are in office, we are going to hold them accountable."
A report given out at the news conference said the nation's energy usage could be cut 10 percent by 2025 through energy-efficient homes, businesses and industries.
Brian Frost, an energy consultant, said there are a number of small "quick fixes" that can improve energy efficiency in buildings. He showed a device called the Vending Miser, that can be attached to soda machines. The miser powers down the cooling element in the machine when it is not needed.
Other groups represented at the event were the Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, The Ocean Conservancy, and the Marine Fish**er Conservation Network.
Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com
Conservation group woos congressional hopefuls
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN, Times Staff WriterEnvironment Florida wants candidates, especially in the 9th Congressional District, to back its platform.
Published September 28, 2006
TAMPA - Crime, education and taxes typically dominate the political debate during Florida elections.
But renewable energy?
One conservation group hopes to bring the topic to the forefront in the weeks leading up to Election Day, and make sure those elected take action to support it once they're in office.
Environment Florida, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group whose mission is to protect Florida's air, water and open spaces, held a news conference Wednesday at the Museum of Science and Industry where it called on congressional candidates to pledge support for its goals.
While the group was addressing all candidates, it specifically targeted the 9th Congressional District race between Gus Bilirakis and Phyllis Busansky.
That district, which includes parts of Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, is among the more closely watched races.
Environment Florida sent out packets to all congressional candidates in Florida asking them to support a platform containing four points:
- Raising the auto fuel efficiency for cars and public transportation, thus reducing the dependency on oil.
- Mandating strong efficiency standards for new homes and buildings.
- Committing $30 billion by the federal government toward research of technology that would move the country toward a future with sustainable energy.
- Dramatically increasing renewable energy sources.
Candidates, including Busansky and Bilirakis, have been given until Oct. 27 to sign the pledge.
Liz Hittos, Bilirakis' deputy campaign manager, said Wednesday afternoon that Bilirakis had not had a chance to thoroughly review the documents, which were sent to them on Tuesday.
"Certainly, he's supportive of initiatives to better the environment," she said.
Meanwhile, Busansky's campaign manager, Rob Becker, said they, too, did not receive the papers until Tuesday evening.
"We're not opposed to all that," Becker said. "We're going to look at it and we'll let them know."
Environment Florida was joined in the news conference by representatives of a number of other groups, including the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Ocean Conservancy and Clean Water Action.
Environment Florida will release the list of candidates who signed the pledge, said director Mark Ferrulo, although it has not decided when.
"We're not trying to influence the outcome of elections," Ferrulo said. "We'd just like to see what they believe are critical issues."
Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at 813 269-5312 or nguyen@sptimes.com.
[Last modified September 28, 2006We need more wetlands, not more malls
St. Pete Times Letter to the EditorPublished September 28, 2006
Three cheers for the citizens and conservation groups opposing the potential loss of almost 60 acres of wetlands due to the proposed construction of the Cypress Creek Town Center mall.
Why is the Southwest Florida Water Management District even considering permitting the loss of these critical wetlands? That seems a questionable way at best to protect the natural systems that the district is charged to safeguard.
Wetlands are essential to the hydrologic cycle and are key elements of a healthy watershed. These wetlands, essential parts of Cypress Creek and the Hillsborough River watershed, should be completely protected and preserved.
We have enough malls and parking lots in Florida, but we could use more protected and functional wetlands. Government regulatory agencies like the district have a responsibility to the public to protect watersheds and wetlands. The district is failing in its mission if it grants permits that will degrade water quality, degrade natural systems, imperil water supply and potentially lead to flooding problems. The public, and the Hillsborough River watershed, deserve better.
Joe Murphy, Ridge Manor
Conflicting views cloud water debate
St. Pete Times Letter to the EditorPublished September 28, 2006
Re: Public works site polluted aquifer water, Sept. 24 Times:
The article makes a person wonder who they can believe.
Hernando County officials insisted for years that an underground clay layer protected the aquifer. Now we learn that may not be the case. Even the "powers that be" aren't in agreement.
County engineer Greg Sutton said, "It's not good." Linda Young, director of Florida's Clean Water Network, said, "I don't want to drink it." Gary Kuhl, our county administrator, said, "You hope it hasn't spread very far." And the Brooksville superintendent of utilities said, "It meets all the current standards."
Now what's what, or who's who? What's the real deal?
Any carcinogenic chemicals in our water is not acceptable!
Marlene Foster, Weeki Wachee
Board is right to go slowly with parkway project
A Times EditorialPublished September 28, 2006
Florida's Turnpike Enterprise officials left their meeting with the County Commission on Tuesday with somewhat less than they had hoped to receive.
That is only fair, considering that they brought less than the commissioners and the public had reason to expect.
The state officials hoped that the commissioners would give their full backing to revive 8-year-old plans to extend the Suncoast Parkway II through Citrus County. Previous boards have been unanimous in their support of this project, and the expectation was that this board would follow suit.
The commissioners, however, gave the state only a yellow light, not a full green to go. They agreed to support moving ahead with the planning and design phase of the project on the condition that the state return within eight to 10 months with updated information about the economic feasibility, environmental impact and traffic projections for the parkway extension.
The commissioners took the correct step. While the board remains in favor of the project overall, there are serious questions that must be answered before construction is allowed to begin.
For starters, the state must address the key points raised by the parkway's opponents: Will the highway harm the Citrus County environment, particularly the county's karst base and the aquifer? Will the extension facilitate more development? And is the highway even needed?
Commissioners rightly noted Tuesday that they would not move ahead with a county road project without this sort of information, and they should hold the state to this same basic standard.
The state is relying on a 1998 study of these issues, information gathered long before the recent building boom that has brought tremendous environmental and social changes to Citrus County.
Also, there are legitimate questions about the projected use of the parkway extension: not just the expected numbers of drivers but how much, if any, the new highway will ease congestion on local roads.
Commissioners also had questions about the number of interchanges envisioned, three or five, and where they will be located.
The state officials promised to return in several months, when the design is 60 percent complete, with updated information. This raises more questions.
Who will be doing the update? If it is the state, or a consultant paid by the state, can residents and commissioners have any real confidence in the objectivity of the evaluation? Plus, at the point the update arrives, the design will be more than halfway complete. Pulling the plug then will open the board to charges that they wasted time and taxpayer money.
While it is unfortunate that the state did not have up-to-date information Tuesday, that can be explained in part by the detour the process has taken in recent years.
In 2001, the state changed gears when officials thought that they could snag federal dollars for the project. That led to a basic reinvention of the wheel as officials began looking at numerous alternative alignments and other factors required by the federal agencies.
In 2004, that study stopped as the federal funds disappeared. Now, because of several changes in state growth management laws, the officials think Florida can finance the estimated $879-million project. That means dusting off the 1998 studies and moving ahead.
The turnpike officials, however, should not have expected that the commissioners would back this controversial project without current data.
They also should not have cloaked their latest initiative in an unnecessary and unproductive veil of secrecy.
Weeks ago, the officials arranged to appear before the commissioners, but they steadfastly refused to provide any details to their supposed partners, the commissioners and the community, or to the media, about the purpose of their visit. Instead, they met individually with commissioners Monday and with the local editorial boards Tuesday morning, just hours before the commission meeting.
Considering that the state already tripped over itself on the subject of disclosure when residents successfully challenged the agency in court for closing public access to meetings, the officials should have gone out of their way to share their intentions with Citrus County to allow the residents and the decisionmakers ample time to digest the information.
If the state hopes to maintain the support of the commissioners, and to win over the substantial opposition among the public, it must be fully open and cooperative.
Much of what the officials presented Tuesday was not new. The preferred alignment for the extension tracks the Progress Energy transmission lines running north and west from the Citrus-Hernando county line to U.S. 19 at Red Level. The projected construction dates are far off, the earliest being 2013. The road would mirror the design of the parkway in Hernando County, including a paved bicycle and jogging trail.
The commissioners' views Tuesday also were not new. The highway project still enjoys the backing of the majority of the board, several of whom pointed out that a large segment of Citrus County wants the highway to come here. Even the lone opponent, Commissioner Joyce Valentino, said that if a referendum showed a majority of residents backed the extension, she would support it.
The state officials now must get busy and provide the commissioners and the residents current and irrefutable information on the parkway's feasibility and impact. They must also be ready to face community challenges as the project winds its way through the lengthy permitting process.
If this highway truly is as essential to regional transportation planning as the state officials and the highway's proponents maintain, it should be an easy sell to the commissioners and the community
"It's another piece of the puzzle," said Bill Stanton Wednesday. But it's not time to celebrate yet, said the executive director of the Jackson County Development Council, which acts on behalf of the county and the City of Marianna in matters of economic development.
Other grants have yet to be awarded and a contract signed.
Governor Jeb Bush announced the awarding to Marianna of a Rural Infrastructure Fund Grant in the amount of $608,945, earmarked for improvements to roads, wastewater collection, water distribution and natural gas lines at the Jackson County Distribution Park.
The park is locally described as "the Marianna/Jackson County construction services park," being adjacent to the distribution park near the interchange of Interstate 10 and County Road 276.
The announcement from the governor also revealed the name of the company, Oldcastle Precast Inc., a leading manufacturer of pre-cast concrete products, a company publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Until this press release, the company was known only as Project Old for reasons of confidentiality.
Oldcastle's tentative $11 million capital investment would bring 110 jobs within five years ? 14 to start and up to 50 by the third year ? with wages starting at about $10 an hour.
Its plans are to build first on a 20-acre site and later on another 20-acre adjacent site.
The city's estimated cost for providing what Oldcastle needs is $2.133 million. The city has also applied for other grants that will help pay for extension of the water, sewer and natural gas lines and the road in the industrial area.
Mayor John Roberts expressed appreciation for the grant announced this week.
"I want to thank the Governor and his Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development for assisting us with funding from the Rural Infrastructure Fund for the Oldcastle project here in Marianna. These funds will provide for important infrastructure improvements needed to attract businesses, like the Oldcastle, to our industrial park and to diversify our economy."
The other applications are for a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $700,000, also for utility lines; and an Economic Development Transportation Fund Grant, in the amount of $825,000, to extend Family Dollar Parkway.
Another grant, known as Qualified Target Industry, would go to Oldcastle if a contract is signed. Based on the number of jobs the company would create, it would be between the company and the state, and would give the company credit against its corporate income tax for a period of four years.
As Stanton does at each step of such endeavors, he advised Wednesday that the Rural Infrastructure award is just another step.
"It doesn't mean they're coming," he said. "It is not giving any finality to the project.
"A contract has to be signed by the city and the company and it will not take place unless we get all of the other grants necessary to make this happen.
"And until we get (this), we will not announce this as a done deal," he said.
Receipt of the other grants, however, does look promising. In a letter to the Marianna mayor, the director of the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development, called it "an excellent project and one which will bring significant benefit to your community."
In the governor's announcement, Bush said the grant is "a good example of the worthwhile economic development projects annually funded by the state's Rural Infrastructure Fund."
Jackson County was named one of the state's "Rural Areas of Critical Economic Concern" shortly after Bush took office. The county and seven of its neighbors make up one of three such areas in the state.
St. Pete Times
Five signs of trouble bubble up at local level
Published September 24, 2006
Funny, but the reason local governments have been increasing the impacts fees and costs to build is because GROWTH/INCREASED DENSITY DOESN'T PAY FOR ITSELF IN THE LONG RUN. And developers keep strong-arming local governments with the chant that "growth is inevitable" and pushing their high-density developments because lower density is not cost effective . But now that the market has slowed, these developers are asking local governments to subsidize their profits! Unbelievable. and who do you think ultimately pays the price? Existing homeowners.
Builders can't rein in prices for homes
A report by an industry task force may urge the government to help with affordability issues.
Jerry W. JacksonSentinel Staff Writer
September 28, 2006
Major Florida home builders and developers are preparing a report that will call on government to share more of the expense of building lower-cost housing statewide.
The white paper by the Affordable Housing Task Force, created this year by the Association of Florida Community Developers, could serve as a blueprint for the debate that developers will engage in as pressure mounts to build more homes at prices below market averages.
"We're willing to be part of the solution. But government needs to be part of the solution," said Ted R. Brown, co-chairman of the task force and an influential development-industry lawyer with the Baker Hostetler law firm in Orlando.
Brown, in an interview Wednesday, said developers recognize that forces have converged to price entry-level housing out of reach for many working families in Florida. Soaring prices for land and building materials are key factors.
The Florida Association of Realtors reported this week that the median price of a used home, year-to-date through August, was $250,000, up 9 percent from a year earlier.
And a survey released Wednesday by Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate found that new homes of about 2,200 square feet sold in Orlando for an average price of $383,300 this summer. Homes that size in Miami sold for an average of $690,855; six Florida cities averaged more than $500,000.
Many of the forces pushing up housing prices, Brown said, are created by government in the form of impact fees, land-use restrictions, zoning densities and other rules. Yet cities and counties are increasingly calling on builders to include below-market-price units, or subsidized housing, in their projects without adequate compensation for lost profits, Brown said.
"We need help in bridging that gap" between the profits generated by market-based housing and those of less-expensive units, he said. One partial solution, he said, would be for cities and counties to allow more units per acre in the market-based portion of a development. The effect would be more profit per home, to offset the thin margins or outright losses on the remainder of the project.
Developers also would like to see the state set aside more money for affordable housing from the documentary-stamp fees that are generated when homes are sold, Brown said. Earlier this week, the Florida League of Cities said that its new Institute for Community Housing will hold seminars in Orlando, beginning next month, to help local governments find solutions to the affordability crisis.
The seminars will bring together local officials, developers and housing experts in eight, one-day sessions concluding on Aug. 15, 2007. The Florida League of Cities is the umbrella group for 411 cities, towns, villages and chartered counties in Florida.
"There's not a silver bullet out there," Housing Finance Corp. Executive Director Steve Auger said in announcing the seminars.
Brown, whose Affordable Housing Task Force represents builders and developers such as Centex Homes, Ginn Co., the St. Joe Co., Pulte Homes and KB Home, said the industry fears that governments will increasingly rely on "inclusionary zoning" and legal mandates that could create more problems than they solve.
A "market correction" is already under way, Brown noted, with record inventory of homes for sale and downward pressure building on prices. As time goes by, the gap between wage growth and housing price growth should narrow, he said.
"It's not good public policy to make long-term decisions based on short-term market situations," he said. The industry white paper is expected to be completed and released by early November.
State
of Clermont's lakes cause for concern
Officials
seeking to improve quality of water in Green Swamp, Clermont chain
Nicole
King
Staff
Writer
TAVARES
- The Lake County Water Authority is looking for ways to improve the
quality of the Clermont Chain of Lakes. Elevated levels of phosphorus
and algae blooms have been reported in the chain.
The Clermont Chain originates within the 560,000-acre Green Swamp.
Water quality and flow in the chain depends on water quality in the
Green Swamp. So far, the quality has kept the chain from being listed
as an impaired waterbody, but the northern reach of the Palatlakaha
River is listed for the levels and kinds of nutrients in its water.
A major drought in the state from 1998 to 2002 severely affected the
Green Swamp. Algae blooms have occurred in some of the smaller
connected lakes such as Lake Winona, and blooms were reported for the
first time in Lake Minnehaha and Lake Minneola.
"Not only did we have a drought, but we had lots of new
developments, lots of impervious surfaces," said the Water
Authority's Lance Lumbard. "The biological indicators suggest
that something's occurred. There's an increase in phosphorus and a
decrease in total lake conditions."
The Water Authority has been collecting phosphorus data from Lake
Minnehaha and Lake Minneola. Since 2000, data indicates that
phosphorus in those two lakes is double what it was 30 years ago.
Concerned citizens bring in samples from the lakes that are recorded
by Water Authority staff.
Chairman Larry Everly Sr. said he is reluctant to spend money to clean
up the lakes, considering the influx of housing developments being
approved in that area.
"I could see us spending millions of dollars to correct something
and they just OK something further down the road," he said.
The Board discussed ways to reduce the pollution in the chain at
Wednesday's meeting. Among the solutions mentioned were stormwater
retrofitting and sending letters to homeowners on lakefront property.
"I want to put some money in the budget for notifying shoreline
property owners, send them a letter," said Board member Nancy
Fullerton.
Fullerton also discussed the possibility of board members going to
city councils in the Clermont Chain area to talk with them about
potential solutions. The possibility of an ordinance prohibiting the
use of fertilizers close to shore lines was also mentioned.
Everly said he is curious as to what Lake County does with its
stormwater funds.
"The county collects half a million in stormwater fees. Do they
pass it back to the cities?" he asked.
Fullerton backed a suggestion to speak with the county about the
funds.
"I think we need to talk to the county. We really don't know
what's going on with their stormwater projects," she said.
The board approved a commercial development order that will allow McCoy's Septic Tank Land Spread to be located on a tract of land just west of the intersection of Springs Cemetery Road and Poplar Springs Road.
It lies a few miles from Merritt's Mill Pond and is within the Jackson Blue Spring Basin.
Sludge waste that has already been treated to the point that it has reached a liquified state will be deposited on the site for its final treatment phase, according to a representative who spoke at the county meeting. The entire parcel of land is 15.4 acres, but the "land spread" will be limited to four acres and the remainder of the land will be left wooded, according to county staff who brought the matter to the board for review.
The parcel is in the Agriculture 2 zone.
In another commercial development order approved by the board Tuesday, CVS Pharmacy plans to build an 11,945 square-foot pharmacy with a drive-through. It will be located just east of the Beeline gas station on U.S. Highway 90 in Marianna, in an area commonly referred to as "the Y."
CVS currently has a pharmacy in the shopping center nearby.
The county board also approved two preliminary subdivision plats.
The largest project, called "Sky Valley Phase I" involves a 92.4-acre site off County Road 167 (Old U.S. Road). The subdivision includes 75 lots for home sites, varying in size from less than one acre to just over an acre.
The smallest would measure .67 acre, the largest 1.09 acres. The 92 acres is part of a larger overall site that encompasses 214 acres in total.
The county also granted a variance from a requirement that each lot have at least 100 feet of road frontage. Two of the lots will have less, one of them with just nine feet of frontage.
Predominantly surrounded by a dairy and other farmlands, the property was once part of Torbett Dairies and lies within the Agriculture 2 zone.
The board also approved preliminary plats for the Green Meadows subdivision. The 14.8-acre site is located less than a mile north of the Marianna city limits on Bump Nose Road. It is to include 28 lots, all of which measure less than an acre. Their sizes range from .28 to .8 acres.
As they did with the Sky Valley project, commissioners granted Green Meadows a variance relating to road frontage requirements. The variance was granted on 14 of the 28 lots.
It is surrounded predominantly by residential lands, and most of the property was formerly used for large-lot residential sites or farming. It is located in the residential zone, with 1.5 acres on the east side of the parcel located in the "special flood hazard area inundated by 100-year flood."
Is Construction Slowing?
By GARY PINNELLgpinnell@highlandstoday.com
SEBRING — At the Highlands County building permits office, a customer inquired about more than 100 sets of plans, stacked in boxes against a partition and under the counter. Builders are applying for permits before the end of 2006, when a $5,218 impact fee will be imposed.
But that, said home builder Mark Stewart, is a false reading.
“In January, it’s going to drop substantially,” he assured on Wednesday. Highlands County’s volatile building boom is over.
“It’s peaked. There’s no doubt about it. Six months ago, we had trouble finding all kinds of trades,” Stewart said. Tradesmen such as drywallers, plumbers and electricians were in short supply. “Now they’re calling me.”
The pace of commercial and residential construction, he thinks, has returned the same as it was two years ago. “It’s dropped back to a reasonable, normal pace.”
Highlands County officials have said 100,000 people already live here, and they expect another 50,000 to move here in the next two decades.
Debra Worley, a real estate agent and a Lake Placid councilwoman, believes that will still happen. She said her business hasn’t fallen off, and more than a dozen subdivisions are still planned.
“Everybody who told me they were coming are still coming,” she said. “Nothing has changed.”
The builders she works with are still buying lots, she said. But lots, not houses are the hardest hit portion of the real estate industry, she said.
Greg Spiro, vice president of National Recreational Properties Inc., plans to develop 3,700 lots for Sun ’N Lake of Sebring. The latest phase is unit 12.
“We’re moving ahead with that,” he said. But impact fees, he said, will contribute to a slowdown in construction.
“Implementing 25 percent is a real great improvement,” Spiro said. Commissioners decided on Sept. 5 to reduce impact fees to 25 percent of the original amount – more than $15,000 for a 1,500 to 2,499 square-foot home. The remaining 75 percent of the impact fees are to be phased in during the next few years.
Higher mortgage interest rates also contributed to the slowdown, and so are higher taxes and up to 80 percent hikes in insurance premiums for some homes.
NRPI plats the undeveloped lots, then brings in water, sewer and electricity. The lots are sold to builders or individuals who hire builders.
Spiro said demand for those lots “has been dramatically reduced. It could be as high as 50 percent. And it’s going to remain like that for a period of time. It’s definitely going to remain that way through the middle of next year.”
Spiro and Stewart said all those factors combined to drive speculators out of the real estate market in Florida and around the country.
“We’re coming off that incredible high, where the market was out of control,” Spiro said. “Speculators ... were a big portion of the buyers of lots.”
Both Spiro and Stewart don’t see the same immediate slowdown in commercial construction.
“Retail commercial follows residential,” Spiro said. “Office commercial, that’s not necessarily the case.”
“It’s not going to be as frantic as it was in the past year or two,” Stewart predicted. Builders won’t build as many “spec” houses, which are built on the speculation that a buyer will come along, he thinks.
“I don’t see the large projects slowing down,” said Stewart,
referring to as yet unrevealed plans to build restaurants, bookstores
and the like along U.S. Highway 27, between Lowe’s and Sun ’N
Lake.
City residents turn out in droves to give commissioners an earful
More than 200 people, the large majority opposed to Tallahassee's participation in a coal plant proposed for Taylor County, overfilled the city commission chambers Wednesday evening to give elected leaders a piece of their mind.
But by the end of the evening, one question remained unanswered: What was it all for?
Without a staff recommendation for commissioners to choose from, speakers at the hours-long public hearing on the city's 20-year energy plan were left to share their impressions about the plant, which is one of four options city staff have determined could meet the city's energy needs over the next 20 years.
"There's no recommendation," said attorney and coal-plant opponent Deb Swim, wondering how to fill out a form to speak in front of the commission. "So how do you gauge whether you're pro or con?"
Two other options include using power produced by coal; a fourth is an all-natural gas plan. City leaders last month committed to putting in place conservation measures and looking at renewable energy sources, such as solar power, regardless of which option is adopted.
A decision on which plan to adopt was set for Sept. 13, but has been delayed. Commissioners have yet to determine a new date.
Many of the residents who attended Wednesday's meeting were dressed in blue, the color of clean skies. They wore "Clean Energy First" stickers, waved fans reading "No fan of coal" and held posters and signs decrying coal plants' impact on health and the environment.
"I'm 14; I'm going to be here for a while," said Anna Annino, who came to the meeting with a poster of the city of Tallahassee logo spewing black fumes. "I really don't think it's the right choice for Tallahassee."
Others responded with concerns about rising electricity prices for residents and businesses.
Without endorsing the coal plant per se, Merrill Wimberley, the assistant superintendent for business services for Leon County schools, said energy costs should be at the top of commissioners' minds when they make their decision.
He pointed out that the schools' electricity bill for the fiscal year that ended June 30 had risen $1.2 million, to $6.4 million, over the past year. Taking growth into account, that amounts to a 19-percent increase in cost per square foot, he said.
"We support your efforts to diversify energy sources for electricity," Wimberley said. The recent increase "would pay the cost of 19 teachers."
The back and forth was reminiscent of the arguments made before last fall's referendum on the coal plant, when 60 percent of voters authorized the commissioners to consider participating in the plant, alongside three partners. And, like last year, emotions ran high.
Coal plant opponent Ed Deaton had a run-in with police and private guards when he tried to enter City Hall with 200 free copies of the Apalachee Tortoise, a local publication whose current issue contains an anti-coal article he wrote. Initially barred from bringing the newspapers inside because of a policy that bars vendors and solicitors, Deaton was finally allowed in with all his copies.
Development deal adds conservation land
by DAVID BAUERLEIN The center is bounded by Philips Highway, Interstate 95 and
Baymeadows Road. The development contains office parks, apartments and
a movie theater, but when its owner sought to expand by filling in
wetlands, environmental organizations and neighborhood groups fought
back by saying it would hurt the headwaters of Pottsburg and Julington
creeks.
In the new proposal, The Goodman Co., which is the developer, would
turn over 665 acres to the water management district. The district
would own 80 of those acres outright and control the rest of the land
through conservation easements.
Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said the city is talking with the
district about ways to create a park on some of the land at the
Freedom Commerce Centre site.
In exchange, the water management district would give Goodman 357
acres in northern St. Johns County.
The proposed land swap would let Goodman retain ownership of 69
acres, including 32 acres of wetlands that the company wants to fill
in for office buildings, shopping centers or apartments. In May, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to let Goodman fill in about that
much wetlands.
However, the corps' decision left open the possibility that Goodman
could come back later and seek permission to fill in another 80 acres
of wetlands. The proposed land swap with the water management district
would give the district ownership of those wetlands.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon said protecting the 80 acres
of wetlands from future development would be a victory for
"public pressure and community involvement." However, he
said The Goodman Co. still wants to build on wetlands that is
"not a small amount of habitat. That's why we're not willing to
sign off on this yet and say it's a good thing."
He said he also wants to study the environmental impact of Goodman
gaining ownership of the St. Johns County land, which is a small piece
of the 22,000-acre Twelve Mile Swamp Conservation Area. Most of the
conservation area is east of Interstate 95. The Goodman Co. would gain
ownership of land west of I-95. The highway makes it hard to manage
the land west of the highway for conservation, said David Graham,
chairman of the board for the water management district.
The district's board will consider the land swap at its Nov. 7
meeting.
david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581
The Times-Union
A big chunk of woods and wetlands on
Jacksonville's Southside would fall under the control of the St. Johns
River Water Management District in a proposal unveiled Wednesday for
the Freedom Commerce Centre.
Beach
'goo' finding disputed Some water quality experts are disagreeing with state environmental
officials' conclusions regarding a sticky substance in the shallow
waters and along the shoreline at Wakulla Beach in Wakulla County.
A Florida Department of Environmental Protection inspector earlier
this month determined that the material wasn't sewage. A DEP biologist
examined samples and determined that it was a microscopic algae called
diatoms, department spokeswoman Sally Cooey said.
Sean McGlynn, who was Leon County's lake testing contractor until
earlier this year, said the material seems like sewage but he can't be
sure without more testing.
He said the material contains few diatoms and is almost all organic
matter and fiber. He also said there were high bacteria levels in the
water consistent with sewage.
"I have never seen or smelled anything like that,"
McGlynn said. "It was absolutely awful."
"I would suspect something was dumped or spilled in that
area," he said. "If it was a bloom, it should be more
widespread coming from offshore. It also was odd for an algal bloom
(to be) in just one little inlet."
A research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission said she also concluded that there was not a
diatom bloom in the samples she examined.
Jennifer Wolny, a research scientist with at the commission's Fish
and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, said Wednesday she
didn't know the source of organic material.
"There were diatoms in the water but not at bloom
concentrations," she said. She also said she did not see high
concentrations of bacteria.
Cooey said a report from the DEP inspector has not been written.
She said a local Health Department official also made the
determination that it wasn't sewage.
"We were not the only agency that made that evaluation,"
she said.
A Wakulla County Health Department employee determined on Sept. 15
that there was no signs of dumping or sewage, said Padraic Juarez, the
department's environmental health director.
The department last week issued an advisory against swimming as a
precaution. Juarez said samples were collected Wednesday to determine
whether the area was safe for swimming.
McGlynn said he didn't know how so much of the material could have
been dumped at Wakulla Beach, which is at the end of a dirt road in
the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
Jack Rudloe, vice president of the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in
Panacea, said the state should launch a criminal investigation to
determine the source of the material.
"I am outraged DEP is calling this a diatom bloom,"
Rudloe said. "There is serious negligence going on here. I don't
know why it's being covered up. I don't know why it's being
ignored."
Cooey responded that DEP will return to the area to look for a
potential source of the material. She also said department officials
will contact Rudloe and McGlynn to learn about their analyses.
Go to Tallahassee.com to watch a video report on Wakulla Beach Protected spaces could be made official as
development goes on
Experts suspect sewage, not algae
Villages rules rewritten
The commissioners voted 3-2 to rewrite the rules about how and when at
least half of the land within a village must be set aside as preserved
open space.
The move is intended to rescue Sarasota 2050, a growth plan that
promotes villages of clustered housing and conserved land as an
alternative to large-lot subdivisions in selected rural areas.
The county invested more than $2 million in crafting Sarasota 2050 and
defending it in litigation.
"We've spent an awful lot of money and time on this,"
Commissioner Shannon Staub said. "I don't feel like today is the
day to do away with all of it."
Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the developer of Lakewood Ranch, is working
on plans for what would be the first -- and possibly only -- village
to be built using Sarasota 2050's detailed regulations.
The 3,500-acre site south of University Parkway could have 5,500 homes
in a compact village surrounded and isolated by untouched land.
Developers accumulate rights to build homes in a village by
transferring development rights off land to be preserved in perpetuity
as open spaces and greenways.
Yet SMR balked at a requirement that all of that preserved land must
be surveyed and put into legally recorded conservation easements in
advance, before any construction begins.
"The status quo scenario is not going to work for us," Todd
Pokrywa, SMR's vice president of planning, told the commissioners.
SMR did not want to determine the precise boundaries of those
easements up-front, saying it needs flexibility to adjust locations of
roads, buildings and other features as it builds the village in
phases.
Commissioners Staub, Paul Mercier and David Mills decided that the
conservation easements could be recorded with each phase of the
development.