Global Warming May Put Heat On Economy
Published: Oct 31, 2006
LONDON - Unchecked global warming will devastate the world economy on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression, a British government report said Monday, as the country launched a bid to convince doubters that environmentalism and economic growth can coincide.
Britain hired former Vice President Al Gore, who has emerged as a powerful environmental spokesman since his defeat in the 2000 presidential election, to advise the government on climate change - a clear indication of Prime Minister Tony Blair's dissatisfaction with current U.S. policy.
Blair, President Bush's top ally in the Iraq war, said unabated climate change would eventually cost the world between 5 percent and 20 percent of global gross domestic product each year. He called for "bold and decisive action" to cut carbon emissions and stem the worst of the temperature rise.
"It is not in doubt that, if the science is right, the consequences for our planet are literally disastrous," he said. "This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime."
The report emphasized that global warming can only be fought with the cooperation of major countries such as the United States and China, and represents a huge contrast to the Bush administration's wait-and-see global warming policies.
Sir Nicholas Stern, the senior government economist who wrote the report, said that acting now to cut greenhouse gas emissions would cost about 1 percent of global GDP each year. He recommended a "low-carbon global economy" through measures, including taxation, regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon trading.
"That is manageable," he said. "We can grow and be green."
U.S. Biggest Gas Emitter
Bush kept America - by far the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming - out of the Kyoto international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases, saying the pact would harm the U.S. economy. The international agreement was reached in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 and expires in 2012.
Blair made his displeasure with U.S. environmental policy clear when he signed an agreement this year with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to develop new technologies to combat the problem. The measure imposed the first emissions cap in the United States on utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants in a bid to curb the gases that scientists blame for warming the Earth.
Blair and the report also said that no matter what Britain, the United States and Japan do, the battle against global warming cannot succeed without deciding when and how to control the greenhouse gas emissions by such fast-industrializing giants as China and India.
Stern's 700-page report said evidence showed "that ignoring climate change will eventually damage economic growth."
"Our actions over the coming decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century," he said.
The report said at current trends, average global temperatures will rise by 3.6 degrees to 5.4 degrees within the next 50 years or so, and the planet will experience several degrees more of warming if emissions continue to grow.
It said such warming could have effects such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, declining crop yields, drinking water shortages, higher death tolls from malnutrition and heat stress, and widespread outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever. Developing countries often would be the hardest hit.
The report acknowledged that its predictions regarding GDP relied on sparse data about high temperatures and developing countries, and placed monetary values on human health and the environment, "which is conceptually, ethically and empirically very difficult."
Britain Will Lead Charge
Treasury Chief Gordon Brown, who is expected to replace Blair as prime minister next year, said Britain would lead the international effort against climate change, establishing "an economy that is both progrowth and progreen." He called for Europe to cut its carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2020 and 60 percent by 2050.
Under the 1997 Kyoto accord, 35 industrialized nations committed to reducing emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
But Britain is one of only a handful of industrialized nations whose greenhouse gas emissions have fallen in the last decade and a half, the United Nations said Monday.
The United Nations said that Germany's emissions dropped 17 percent between 1990 and 2004, Britain's by 14 percent and France's by almost 1 percent.
Overall, there was a 2.4 percent rise in emissions by 41 industrialized nations from 2000 to 2004, mostly because former Soviet-bloc countries, whose emissions declined in their economic downturn of the 1990s, increased emissions during the recent four-year period by 4.1 percent.
British Report Highlights
Key conclusions of the British government report on climate change.
•GREENHOUSE GASES: Emissions in the atmosphere must be limited to between 450 and 550 parts per million of carbon dioxide. The current level is 430 parts per million of carbon dioxide. At the start of the industrial revolution in the 18th century, the carbon dioxide levels were at 280 parts per million.
•DEFORESTATION: The loss of forests globally contributes to more carbon dioxide emissions each year than the transport sector. Studies to determine the best way to reduce deforestation must begin soon.
•INTERNATIONAL AID: Climate change must be integrated into development policy. Rich countries must increase support for poor countries' development.
•RECOMMENDATIONS: To effectively counteract climate change, the report suggests a common global price for carbon be created through taxation, emissions trading and regulation. It also suggests that government policies encourage the development of highly efficient products; and says funding for low-carbon technologies must increase fivefold.
Gators may fall from protected, comfy existence to life on lam
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Those alligators basking on the banks of canals and ponds in Donna Brosemer's Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood soon may be fair game for hunters and homeowners.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released recommendations Monday that alligators be downgraded from "species of special concern" to "game" within five years. The state still would manage the alligator population, which has surpassed a million, in the state's core river systems and waterways, program coordinator Harry Dutton said.
The commission also suggested allowing homeowners to kill nuisance alligators on their property or pay a nuisance-wildlife trapper to do it for them.
Nearly 40 years after American alligators appeared on the first federal endangered species list, they have swelled in population to the point that state officials also might allow hunters to pursue them like deer.
The recommendations leave some questions. If a homeowner could kill an alligator on his property, what would he do with it? It's likely that selling the alligator wouldn't be allowed, but a homeowner could eat it at home, Dutton said.
Brosemer is ready to take the problem into her own hands.
"We are way past the endangered species list," she said. "It's just stupid to put the welfare of gators ahead of the welfare of people."
The changes were recommended after the first comprehensive review of the state's alligator management program in its 20-year history. The commission will consider them at its December meeting.
Dutton, who made his proposals after an online survey, said they have nothing to do with the state's three fatal alligator attacks in May.
"It all seems to be connected but it's really not," Dutton said. "I wish the three fatalities didn't happen, and if they didn't, this would still be going on. It's just a timely thing to do."
After alligators killed three women in a week, callers overwhelmed the state's nuisance-alligator hot line, (866-FWC-GATOR). It had fielded 19,013 calls through Monday, compared with 18,443 all last year. Trappers rushed to buy permits for the limited hunting season, which ends Wednesday.
Floridians have gotten into trouble for trying to get rid of dangerous alligators. A woman on the west coast was warned this year, and could have been fined, after shooting one that chased her dog onto her porch.
Dutton said the commission could have allowed more hunting in the 1980s, when the alligator population had rebounded enough to sustain it. Now officials know for sure that more hunting won't decimate the population, he said.
"It's not so much that the alligator has recovered, because it was always pretty strong in the core areas of its remote habitat," Dutton said. "A lot of people think it was down to the level of the condor, but it was never that imperiled."
More hunting could mean smaller gators and a sharp drop in the population in a limited area, said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife scientist. But the population can sustain it, he said.
"It shows how successful management has been," Mazzotti said. "The days of seeing the overall state goal with increasing the alligator population are probably gone. Now we're looking at having a sustainable population and reducing it in part in areas because of safety concerns."
If the commission allows homeowners to hire trappers, they probably would pay much more than the $30 a gator that trappers receive from the state, Dutton said. Trappers also can sell the meat and hide.
Lake Worth trapper Rick Kramer expressed concern that some amateurs would try to do the job on their own.
"You'll have a lot of hurt people and injured gators running around," said Kramer, who has trapped gators for 12 years and whose father was a trapper. "You make a mistake with an alligator, and it can do some damage."
Most trappers don't want the changes, he said.
If the commission buys the recommendations, the state will have public meetings early next year.
The changes wouldn't go over well with everyone, Dutton said. The survey gathered responses from a few people who wanted to end all alligator hunting, a few who wanted to exterminate all gators and a broad swath in the middle.
"When you talk about alligators, like when you talk about anything emotional, you have a core middle group and an obvious fringe group," he said.
The commission also plans to launch a public-education campaign about alligators. The key is understanding Florida residents' unusual relationship with the animals, Mazzotti said. He's conducting another survey on Sanibel Island and in parks such as the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge west of Boynton Beach.
"We did a similar survey with crocodiles," he said. "Most people would rather not see a crocodile killed in response to complaints about them. At the same time, people don't want to have crocodiles in their back yards. You have to develop a management program around that."
Wildlife officials recommend downgrading alligator classification
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- State wildlife officials have recommended that alligators be downgraded from species of special concern to game within five years.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also ruled Monday that homeowners be allowed to kill nuisance alligators on their property or hire a trapper to do so. How to dispose of the animal once captured is still in question, said program coordinator Harry Dutton.
"It's likely that selling the alligator wouldn't be allowed, but a homeowner could eat it at home," Dutton said.
The recommendations come after the first comprehensive review of the state's alligator management program in its 20-year history. The commission will consider the recommendations at its December meeting.
Dutton said the suggestions were made through input from an online survey and partially because the alligator population has topped one million, not because there have been three fatal alligator attacks in Florida since May.
"It all seems to be connected but it's really not," Dutton said. "I wish the three fatalities didn't happen, and if they didn't, this would still be going on. It's just a timely thing to do."
Yovy Suarez-Jimenez, 28, was apparently dragged into a Sunrise canal and eaten by an alligator in early May. Her dismembered body was found May 10 by construction workers. She did not return from jogging the previous night.
Annemarie Campbell, 23, of Paris, Tenn., was attacked by an 11-foot-4-inch, 407 pound alligator while snorkeling in Jupiter Creek on May 14. The body of Judy W. Cooper, 43, of Dunedin, also was found May 14 in a canal 20 miles north of St. Petersburg. Authorities say she suffered animal bites consistent with an alligator.
Lake Worth trapper Rick Kramer said many of his colleagues do not support the new recommendations.
You'll have a lot of hurt people and injured gators running around," Kramer said. "You make a mistake with an alligator, and it can do some damage."
Green sea turtle nests soar; loggerheads down
With
the end of turtle nesting season today, experts say endangered
green sea turtles dug an unusually high number of nests on local
beaches this year.
Volusia County prohibits any light source
from being seen from the beach, or casting a
shadow on the beach during turtle nesting
season, May 1 to Oct. 31. Artificial light can
disorient nesting sea turtles and their
hatchlings. The name for loggerhead sea turtles refers to
the reptile's large head. SOURCES: Turtle Time Inc., U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service An 18-year study shows a consistent decline in loggerhead
nests, possibly due to an unknown illness that often leads to
death. Seven ill ones now are being cared for at the Marine
Science Center in Ponce Inlet.
Meanwhile, green sea turtles amazed officials with a
"pretty darn good year," but experts don't know why
the nest numbers are up, said Blair Witherington, a scientist
with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
Greens normally nest every other year, so the numbers are
usually high for even-numbered years. Last year, the statewide
numbers for this species unexpectedly jumped from 2,600 nests in
2004 to 7,178. This year's preliminary count shows about 3,453
nests.
"I guess they changed the trend because they were head
on, high, low, high, low, for so many years," said Beth
Libert, president of the Volusia-Flagler Turtle Patrol.
Though there weren't as many nests this year as in 2005, the
results "flabbergasted" experts, said Witherington.
Foraging grounds or breeding cycles may have changed, he
said. "It might be that a particular cohort of green
turtles just decided to get together and breed in 2006 . . .
it's a mystery."
Experts also wonder why the number of loggerhead nests are
declining. According to reports from Volusia County and the
Canaveral National Seashore, there were about 108 fewer
loggerhead nests than last year for a species that's been called
the most common in the area.
By tracking nest counts from hundreds of organizations, the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found a
roughly 40 percent decline since 1998. Many of the threats for
loggerheads lurk far from Florida's beaches, Witherington said.
The sea turtles are drowning in trawls used to catch shrimp and
being entangled or hooked by long lines set to catch sharks,
tunas and swordfish.
The news seems to only get worse for the species, with a
stark prediction that this year will have a record number of
dead and sick turtles. The seven loggerheads at the Marine
Science Center have different stages of an unknown illness,
possibly caused by a neurotoxin.
"Nobody can say what it is, we just know it's affecting
their ability to function properly -- to open their mouth to
bite and to lift their head to breathe," said Amber
Bridges, an environmental technician with the Center.
In Ponce Inlet, the marine center is trying to nurse the
turtles back to health from the mysterious illness while taking
care of "washbacks," baby sea turtles that wash ashore
on seaweed.
So far, the Center is caring for two washbacks, a loggerhead
and a Kemp's ridley -- one of the rarest and most endangered sea
turtles in the world, which typically nest off the coast of
Mexico.
Only four Kemp's ridley nests have been documented in Volusia
County and this was the second confirmed nest in the park's
history, said biologist and resource management specialist John
Stiner.
"The one this year didn't do (nearly as) well and it's
hard to tell why," Stiner said. "There are a lot of
different factors that affect hatching success."
Nests can only take a certain amount of inundation during
high tide and dune vegetation can affect nests if the roots grow
into it, he said.
A sand dune restoration project in New Smyrna Beach didn't
help or hurt local nesting numbers this year, said members of
the Volusia-Flagler Turtle Patrol.
Although the season is over, about 200 hundred nests remain
in the seashore and about nine in Volusia County. Officials said
they will continue to watch for hatchlings for several more
weeks.
kelly.cuculiansky@news-jrnl.com
Lake
levels down
But the more common loggerhead sea turtle may be in trouble.
Turtle lighting cases
· 2004: 97 cases; $16,500
in fines paid; 41 cases withdrawn
· 2005: 57 cases; $6,000
in fines paid; 35 cases withdrawn
· 2006: 33 cases; $1,000
in fines paid; 28 cases withdrawn
Did you know?
· Hatchling green turtles
eat a variety of plants and animals, but adults
mostly feed on sea grass and marine algae.
· The Kemp's ridley is
the most endangered and smallest of the sea
turtles. Adults reach about 2 feet in length and
weigh up to 100 pounds.
· The leatherback is the
largest, deepest diving and most migratory of
all sea turtles. An adult can reach between 4
and 8 feet in length and weigh 500 to 2,000
pounds.
Rainfall
shortage is behind drop; scientists say cycle is normal
Joshua
Davidovich
Staff
Writer
LEESBURG
- Central Florida's "wet season" was
uncharacteristically dry this year, leaving area lakes below
their normal levels and causing concern for owners of lakefront
property.
Water levels in lakes are down about two feet across Lake County
from this time last year, according to hydrologists at the St.
John's River Water Management District. They said, though, that
the drop in water levels is not a cause for concern.
"(Rain) doesn't come in nice rhythmic flows," said Ed
Garland of the SJRWMD. "It can drop dramatically or rise
dramatically. It's part of the natural cycle of Florida."
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the area has seen extremely dry conditions over
the past nine months.
That pattern is borne out in lake level totals. Lake Harris,
which was at 63.21 feet at the end of October 2005, is barely
above 61 feet today.
Other lakes, such as Lake Eustis and Lake Dora, are showing
similar decreases. Those numbers might have been even lower
before a rainstorm that moved through the area Saturday morning.
Garland said the fluctuations are actually good for the lakes.
When water levels drop, vegetation that normally is underwater
can come to the surface and blow away, which leads to cleaner,
sandier lake bottoms.
"You have a healthier lake body," he said. "But
it's unfortunate for property owners."
Larry Lokhamp, who lives on a canal that feeds into Lake Harris
near Tavares, said he is worried about the drop.
"I took my boat out of the water," he said.
Garland said the drop is not out of the normal range, but Larry
Everly of the Lake County Water Authority said he was concerned.
He said, though, that he has seen the levels lower than they are
now.
"I have thought about it, but what do you do?" he
said. "Hopefully it won't worsen and hopefully El Nino will
come through for this winter."
Forecasters are expecting an unusually wet winter, in contrast
to the dryer than normal summer and fall, because of the El Nino
weather pattern.
Until that rain comes through, though, water levels in lakes
throughout the area will continue to drop.
"It could bring lake levels back up quite a ways,"
Garland said. "But rainfall is so spotty here in
Florida."
Water
districts combine efforts
Nicole
King
Staff
Writer
Hoping
to streamline decisions, the Southwest Florida Water Management
District has established a partnership with two other districts.
The Action Plan for the Central Florida Coordination Area will
coordinate decisions about permitting, groundwater flow, models
and planning for alternative water supply projects. The
partnership is between the Southwest Florida, South Florida and
St. Johns River water management districts. The coordination
area includes Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Polk counties,
southern Lake County and the city of Cocoa service area.
"This establishes a framework for water use permits,"
said Hal Wilkening, director of the Department of Resource
Management. "We're amending our rules to adopt the
framework. It goes into effect immediately."
Water authority officials are hoping the plan will help meet the
growing water supply needs of the area as well as protect the
water and natural resources. The districts will help identify
the area's future water needs and available ground water, and
then ensure equal distribution of the remaining ground water and
the development of alternative water supplies. Those goals are
expected to be completed in 18 months.
"I think it will promote development of water supply
projects. We need some other sources besides groundwater. It's
all about developing groundwater supplies," Wilkening said.
Growth options' effects disputed
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
STUART — Hundreds of residents listened to a consultant evaluate the impact four options for growth and development rules could have on Martin County's rural land on Monday night. The crowd then quickly started shouting over one another and hurling accusations of bias.
''It's a dog and pony show," former county commission candidate Odias Smith said of the four options proposed by Orlando-based consultant Glatting Jackson. "They're not based in reality. It's all cemented to their cause."
Martin County commissioners paid Glatting Jackson $528,000 to study the county's growth rules. The firm will recommend several development rule options next year, including keeping the county's existing minimum lot size of one house per 20 acres in rural areas, said consultant David Barth.
The other four options being studied involve forms of clustering, in which dense pockets of houses would be built and surrounded by large pieces of preserved open space.
Supporters of clustering say it would allow them to preserve a huge swath of land leading through the western part of Martin County that would restore the natural flow of storm water and allow wildlife space to move around the Treasure Coast.
But opponents say they don't trust the county or anybody else to really preserve the land set aside as part of clustering, and think it would later be covered by homes and urban sprawl.
"What guarantee do we have that the land will be kept in perpetuity and won't be built on?" asked Pauline Becker of Palm City.
In Monday night's workshop, consultant Tim Jackson graded each of the development options' effects on environmental preservation, water quality, costs to taxpayers and other criteria using a hypothetical 3,000-acre site.
The existing 20-acre minimum lot size did not have a positive impact on any of those criteria but did have a negative impact on the ability to create connected areas of wildlife habitat, Jackson said. The clustering options would have a positive impact on the ability to create wildlife habitat areas and the cost of providing services to rural residents, among other criteria, Jackson said.
The consultants said that under the existing development rules, most of the urban areas of the county have been developed into low-density suburban neighborhoods that have led to a high cost of living and a monotonous character.
Critics said they doubted Jackson's evaluation of the effects of clustering and said taxpayers would end up paying more for services if more people are allowed to live in rural areas. Opponents on Monday also called the consultants biased toward clustering.
"It seems like the more dense you get, the better it gets, and that makes no sense," resident Jerry Hansen said.
Other residents, such as John Hennessee, owner of a marina and restaurant in the Manatee Pocket, said they agreed with the way the consultants graded the impact and thought clustering stacked up as the best option. Hennessee said clustering allows a government agency to maintain large pieces of natural land, but keeping all 20-acre lots did not provide any control over how landowners could maintain their rural property.
"It leaves it up to the individual as to whether they are going to turn it all into four-wheeler paths or put fences everywhere," he said.
Wiregrass House Building Begins
Published: Oct 31, 2006
WESLEY CHAPEL - Pulte Homes Inc. has begun work on its first neighborhood in the Porter family's massive Wiregrass Ranch project.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District earlier this month cleared Pulte's second stormwater-management permit for its DiVosta project.
The neighborhood is under construction with the first leg of a Chancey Road extension linking Bruce B. Downs Boulevard with Morris Bridge Road.
The construction began nearly two years after county officials cleared Pulte to build 1,999 residences on Wiregrass.
Pulte Vice President Scott Neil said the company hopes to have model homes ready early next year with properties for sale by mid-2007. Pulte's other projects - its senior citizens-only Del Webb community and a traditional-neighborhood project - remain tied up in permitting.
Both of those projects depend on Pulte extending State Road 56 eastward from Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. Work on S.R. 56 has been delayed until next spring while Pulte and the state Department of Transportation sort out the details.
Pulte has begun work even as the larger Wiregrass Ranch project is making its way through the regulatory process. The 5,000-acre development of regional impact must clear regional and county officials.
Earlier this month, Wiregrass officials gave the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council their fifth and final revision to the DRI.
WHAT'S NEXT
Pulte must receive further regulatory approval to proceed with plans for 10,000 more homes, 3.2 million square feet of retail space and 2 million square feet of office space for Wiregrass Ranch.
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.
Environmental
groups object to plans for annexed land
Palm Bay
dispute centers on nearly 1,500 acres near conservation area
BY LINDA JUMP
FLORIDA TODAY
Brevard commissioners will be urged today to object formally to the city's plans to allow denser growth on nearly 1,500 acres it annexed between county conservation land and the St. Sebastian Buffer Preserve.
Palm Bay annexed the Logan property in May and approved a request from the owners to allow multifamily, single-family and commercial use on the land at a higher density than the county's one housing unit per acre. More than 11,000 housing units are proposed, with density of 2.5 to 20 units per acre, by developer Rochelle Lawandales.
Maureen Rupe, president of Partnership for a Sustainable Future, a coalition of 17 Brevard County groups, said only one home per acre was allowed under county jurisdiction.
"Palm Bay would increase that by 600 percent," she said.
The city soon will send a request to change its comprehensive land-use map to the state Department of Community Affairs. That gives the public and other municipalities an opportunity to comment.
The county owns two sites totaling 2,871 acres to the north of Palm Bay's site. The lands were purchased through the county's Environmentally Endangered Lands program for nearly $5 million.
Mike Knight, EEL program manager, said his group had been interested in the land because it connects other conservation sites. Isolated conservation land may harm species diversity.
"When landscapes are fragmented, it's harder for the gene pool to pass," Knight said.
He said the land also was identified as a connector for an east-west corridor planned to connect county EEL land with the St. John's flood plain.
City Manager Lee Feldman said he hoped the county would abide by the Joint Planning Agreement.
"If it's of value to them, then the county could purchase the land from the private property owner," he said.
Rupe wants the county to intervene through the courts to stop the developer's plans because of the effect on neighboring conservation land, which was purchased with taxpayer money.
"This many new houses and commercial area has a big impact," she said. "The ecosystem is threatened."
Dave White, a 20-year Palm Bay resident, rides his bicycle along Babcock Street and in the preserve areas.
"I want to see the economic, cultural and environmental benefits to what the city wants to do," he said. "I see no benefit."
White said the daily traffic count on Babcock is projected to go from 12,000 to 56,000 daily trips.
"This is a serious impediment to quality of life," he said. "This development is in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Contact Jump at 409-1423 or ljump@flatoday.net.
Developer plans inner-city living in cow pasture
BY CHRISTOPHER O'DONNELL
Business owners would live in apartments above their stores, residents could stroll across a leafy plaza to coffee shops and restaurants, and cars would be virtually unnecessary.
Southwest Florida native John Billeris, 52, is planning to turn 13 acres of Parrish cow pasture into a community where residents can live, work and shop, all without leaving their village.
The approach could hardly be more unusual for Parrish, where vast tracts of farmland have been snapped up to build sprawling subdivisions for residents who commute to Tampa or Sarasota and must drive miles to the nearest store.
"I'm willing to take that risk to build a town and a community," Billeris said.
"In order to get cars off the road you have to design for people instead of cars."
But the project has its skeptics.
Planned suburban communities like Lakewood Ranch in Manatee and Thomas Ranch in North Port are creating their own downtowns. But residents would still drive to those areas, and the stores would be supported by several thousand homes.
Without enough nearby homes, Parrish Commons would have to rely on traffic from U.S. 301, just like any other competing retail project, said Manatee County planner Norman Luppino.
"It's very small and there's no connectivity to other developments," Luppino said.
A Long Island-based real estate broker, Billeris originally designed Parrish Commons as a conventional 145,000-square-foot retail project.
But he found himself frustrated with how the area where he was born and grew up is rapidly becoming a bedroom community.
He decided another strip mall was not what he wanted to leave on the land he inherited from his parents.
A member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a group that advocates walkable communities and a diverse range of housing and jobs, Billeris decided to follow the principles of the New Urbanism philosophy.
The approach typically includes sidewalks, bicycle lanes and housing within walking distance of shops and workplaces. The city of Sarasota adopted the approach for its downtown master plan.
Supporters say it reduces how long people spend in traffic and produces more affordable housing. They also argue it makes more sense to use existing road and sewer networks than to extend them into new suburbs.
But some doubt that the approach can work on such a small scale as Billeris is proposing.
Tim Chapin, a associate professor in urban and regional planning at Florida State University, said most new urbanist projects are at least several hundred acres.
"It will be a challenge to achieve that successfully, particularly to see if the market would bear that," Chapin said. "Would anyone rent out the shops and would they survive?"
But Billeris believes the mix of homes and retail will prove popular with the budding business owners who he says have called in droves since he put up a sign on the site overlooking U.S. 301.
"Up here in New York you have a loft over a shop. Woodmakers, seamstresses, computer experts are willing to live above the place of their business," he said.
Having studied theater at the University of South Florida, Billeris is not a typical developer.
After graduation he moved to New York and pursued a career in the theater. But he found that he was more successful at persuading real estate investors to put money into theater productions than he was as an actor.
As his career gradually took him into real estate, he became a licensed broker in both New York and Florida.
The land Billeris hopes to develop has been in his family since 1946, when a customer offered it to Billeris' grandfather to clear his bar tab at the Blue Moon bar in Palmetto.
"Because it's his old family property he wants to do something unique that would be more exciting," said land attorney and childhood friend Caleb Grimes. "I think it's just something he believes in."
Dressed in a business suit, Billeris fielded questions from residents of the neighboring Kingsfield Lakes subdivision earlier this month.
At first they were more concerned about how the project would change the view from their backyards than whether they wanted to have a sidewalk connection to the project.
After the meeting, he ended up kneeling in the grass helping someone at the meeting change a flat tire.
Like other developers, Billeris' project will likely not be approved until plans to widen U.S. 301 are in place. It's a frustration for Billeris, who believes his project will reduce traffic.
"Parrish is a great place in the whole north sector to launch this," Billeris said.
"You have more open space; it will give you less congested roads; the quality of life will be much better than everybody having to get into their cars."
Developer Asks To Build 1,999 Homes
Published: Oct 31, 2006
PARRISH - Developer Reynold Glanz's $32.5 million purchase of land off State Road 62 was one of the biggest vacant land sales in Manatee County history a couple of years ago. Now, he now wants to turn the former Cone Ranch into one of the biggest residential developments in north Manatee, just a few miles south of Hillsborough County.
The California developer filed plans last week for a 1,999-home project that also would include a 40-acre lake and 2.3 acres of commercial development at the site, which is about five miles east of where Interstate 75 intersects with Interstate 275. Still, it remains to be seen whether the Manatee County Commission would approve a project of such scale before northern Manatee's rural roads are upgraded.
That includes Parrish, where the county has asked a consortium of developers to come up with a plan to widen U.S. 301 and build a bridge across the Manatee River by 2012.
"We are not interested in approving any more developments north of the river," Manatee County Commission Chairman Joe McClash said Oct. 24 at a meeting to preview new developments.
Many local residents agree, saying that S.R. 62, a two-lane road that connects Parrish to Duette, cannot handle extra traffic.
"I would think they're going to have lot of problems getting anything done with 62 being the kind of road it is," said Ben Jordan, president of the Parrish Civic Association. "For that kind of thing you would have to look at widening 62."
Developers in northern Manatee generally have tried to sweeten large projects by offering land for schools and parks, although the plans for Cone Ranch do not include any such incentives.
"This is the first, preliminary site plan," said Glanz, who did not offer a firm timeline for the project, which would be built in phases. "You don't offer anything. They tell us what to do."
Northern Manatee has attracted several developers in recent years, with proposals that would add thousands of homes to the area. Land is cheaper than more populated parts of Manatee, and the area also is within easy reach of I-75 and I-275, broadening its appeal to commuters who work in Sarasota, as well as southern Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
"I just think that's basically right where all the action is," Glanz said. "It's right in the growth path. It's just an ideal area for people to get to all the metropolitan areas."
Glanz said it is too early to start pricing homes, especially as sales prices continue to drop throughout the area. Plans call for the development to include 300 affordable homes that the county calls work-force housing. The county's price ceiling for such homes is $201,600.
Preliminary site work likely would not begin until more than a year from now, after what Glanz hopes will be a favorable review process. Projects that include 10 percent or more of work-force housing are normally fast-tracked through the approval process, but county planners have never expedited a project of this size, county planning director Carol Clarke said.
On a project this size, it may take at least a year and a half before the county commission would vote to approve or reject it.
By KAREN VOYLES
FANNING SPRINGS - Development along Florida's Gulf Coast and on other waterfront property in North Florida has left fewer public spaces that could be considered forests.But in the midst of Florida's urbanization is a place that still looks much like it did a century or more ago - Andrews Wildlife Management Area.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission refers to Andrews as "a natural oasis in the rapidly developing Lower Suwannee River Region."
"That's the whole point of wildlife management areas," said Liz Sparks, a recreational planner for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which manages the Andrews property.
"These places exist to protect what we have - to sustain the wildlife - while letting people enjoy the land in its natural condition."
The commission oversees about 2 million acres of state-owned wildlife management areas and another nearly 3 million acres, including some privately-owned land and some areas managed in cooperation with other state and local agencies. Most of the 3,501 acres that make up Andrews are part of what state officials said is likely the last or one of the last big tracts of upland hardwood forest left in the Suwannee River basin.
Andrews is also home to three state champion trees - the largest known of their species - the persimmon, the Florida maple and the bluff oak. Hiking trails have been created to take visitors past all three champions as well as through the forest where turkeys, wild hogs, deer and dozens of species of birds live year-round.
About 14 weekends a year, the management area is closed to the public and open only to hunters with special permits. The hunting-only weekends begin in late September and continue through mid-April. A schedule of when the area is closed is published at myfwc.com/recreation/andrews.
When open to the general public, visitors pay $3 a day for access to 10 miles of trails and hard-packed roads and three miles of shoreline along the Suwannee River. Permissible activities include hiking, biking, birdwatching, fishing, swimming, picnicking or just sitting quietly while waiting for wildlife to appear.
Jayde Roof, the biologist responsible for the day-to-day oversight of Andrews, said surveys are done frequently to determine which species are inhabiting Andrews.
"To protect and manage what you've got, you have to know what you've got," Roof said. Part of the management has been to allow a six-day squirrel hunting season that may be one of the biggest squirrel hunts around.
"We see more than 1,000 gray squirrels (bagged) in many years during that six-day season," Flood said.
A few food plots are planted for wildlife each year, Flood said, but generally the area is able to produce what is needed to sustain dozens of species.
"I like to tell people that Andrews is a lot in a little package," said Jerrie Lindsey, director of the office of recreational services for the wildlife commission. "All of the recreational opportunities focus on people who are interested in viewing wildlife and studying nature."
Florida bought the property in 1985 from the Andrews family of Levy County, which bought the land in 1945. State officials said the family was careful with the property, not allowing commercial logging or other activities that would alter its natural state.
"What we have here today is a place that people can come and enjoy nature with their families," Lindsey said.
Karen Voyles can be reached at 486-5058 or voylesk@gvillesun.com.
An uneven burden
First-time owners, renters, second-home owners and those who add on are losers under Save Our Homes.
Mary ShanklinSentinel Staff Writer
October 31, 2006
Sean and Ashley Butler may have to tap into Ashley's inheritance from her grandmother. Or they could put off remodeling the Florida room of the 55-year-old house they bought last year.
Somehow the young couple have to come up with about $4,000 for taxes for their 1,400-square-foot home in downtown Orlando. The couple who sold the Butlers their first home paid just a quarter of that amount.
"No, it's not something we planned for," Sean Butler said. "It doesn't seem fair."
The Butlers are victims of Florida's two-tier tax system created by Save Our Homes, which often leaves new homeowners faced with tax bills three or four times higher than the previous longtime owner.
Since it went into effect in 1994, Save Our Homes has increasingly shifted the property-tax burden onto first-time homeowners such as the Butlers. They -- along with renters, second-home owners and those who add on to their homes -- are among the losers of Save Our Homes.
And because the tax break gives the greatest benefit to longtime homeowners, its payoff has been elusive for many in Central Florida's highly mobile population, where 60 percent of residents have moved within the past six years, according to a U.S. census report in earlier this month.
Robert Stroh, executive director of the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing at the University of Florida, said the full economic impacts of Save Our Homes have yet to hit the state.
"This could affect our population in the future," Stroh said. "Some people who thought about retiring here are probably having second thoughts: What are your taxes here? The answer to that is going to change dramatically. We've already got a problem. When you throw Save Our Homes on top of insurance costs, housing affordability in Florida is going to become nonexistent."
House trade-off
For two years, single mother Alayna Mora, 25, was living with her parents in Wedgefield while looking to buy a house where her daughters could play. Renting was out of the question, she said.
"The cost of rent has gone up dramatically," she said. "For the cost of rent, I can pay a $900 mortgage."
The problem with buying, though, has been property taxes. Mora learned from credit-counseling classes that she needed to check property taxes of various houses she eyed.
Because of Save Our Homes, some longtime homeowners are paying "amazingly low" taxes, she said, but Mora knew she would get no break on the duplex she bought for $155,000 in July. Partly because of high taxes, she had to scale back what she could afford. Her taxes will be about $2,025.
"It affects the amount of house I buy. I think it discourages a lot of people," Mora said. "Eighteen hundred dollars may not be a lot to some people, but for me that's an extra $150 a month on top of my mortgage and insurance. That's $150 I could spend on a newer car, or I could afford a real house."
Half a dozen of her neighbors on Riva Ridge Trail east of Orlando will pay half the taxes she has to pay, even though their homes are larger.
The tax sting hits first-time buyers such as Mora hard, but it is also a reality for every Floridian who buys a home, whether it's a first home, retirement house or dream home.
Orlando retail entrepreneur Mohammed Battla knew that he would face a larger tax bill when he moved from Orange County's Dr. Phillips area to a 6,100-square-foot home overlooking Lake Buck in the Lake Nona golf community. Still the shock of going from a few thousand dollars in property taxes to paying more than $35,000 was jarring.
His father's house in Windermere is worth basically the same amount -- about $2 million -- but the junior Battla pays about three times as much in taxes because he just bought his house, and his father has had his since before Save Our Homes went into effect.
"I just saw my property-tax bill and about had a heart attack," Battla said.
David DeMond, a mathematics instructor at Cypress Creek High School, said he would like to sell or rent his St. Cloud house in a few years and retire. But the $1,400 tax break he gets on his house now will be a factor.
"I would definitely sell my house if I could take my Save Our Homes exemption to my retirement house," he said.
Buyers can be hit unawares that their tax bills may double, triple or quadruple the year after they purchase a house.
Lawmakers attempted to prepare buyers for the tax-bill surprise by passing legislation in 2004 that called on sellers to disclose that property taxes may change because of "reassessments." But new assessments can be minor compared with the sticker shock that buyers encounter when they face a full, market-value tax bill on a house that had been protected by Save Our Homes under the previous owner. The law does not mention informing buyers about the previous owner's exemptions.
Beverly Pindling, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, said lenders and real-estate agents new to the business are not always aware of the law requiring them to alert buyers that their taxes may go up. Though it's an oversight rather than intentional, Pindling said, she acknowledged that agents who don't notify new buyers about rising tax bills are "not meeting the law."
Lenders base mortgage payments -- which typically include projected property taxes for the year -- on the existing tax bill, even if the bill is artificially low because the home seller gets the Save Our Homes exemption. Trying to predict tax bills can be difficult, lenders say.
Florida Mortgage Bankers Association President Greg Hallam said lenders should discuss with buyers how their tax bill can increase dramatically the year after they purchase, which is when they lose the tax break that previous owners enjoyed.
"It is a stress" for buyers, Hallam said. "The answer should be that you shouldn't be caught unaware . . . but all you have to show them [buyers] is the current tax bill."
Rental squeeze
Apartment tenants feel the property-tax squeeze every time their landlords raise the rent to cover escalating property taxes.
"I personally feel like it's ridiculous," said Megan Boatright, 23, who shares a unit near downtown Orlando with her schoolteacher sister. "It just went up another $100, to $920. It's insane. Florida is getting to be such an expensive place to live, almost like California."
Boatright, a sales representative, said she would like to save for a down payment on a house but can't afford to because her rent has risen so quickly.
Whether residents rent a house, condo or piece of property, their rents go up as landlords try to cover their rising tax bills.
Property taxes are so critical to Raymond and Doris Wedlake that they get out a dictionary to parse words in newspaper articles about taxes. For six years, the retirees have lived in Good Samaritan Village mobile-home park in Kissimmee. And though they own their mobile home, it sits on a lot they rent for $400 a month. Their fear is that, as Save Our Homes shifts a greater share of taxes to rental property, lot rents will increase and carve deeper into their fixed income.
"If they would increase it [rent], it would not only make it more difficult to meet; most people here are not getting any additional income," said Raymond Wedlake, 86.
The retired educator and his wife have cut back on their car use since gas prices started fluctuating. But he's not sure where to cut if rents continue to climb.
Transferring the tax burden from homeowners to nonhomeowners puts increasing pressure on renters, said Gary Scarboro, government-affairs director for the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando.
"We need a more comprehensive approach to solving the affordable-housing equation," Scarboro said. "Shifting more property-tax burden to the nonhomestead properties definitely does not help this."
As for the Butlers, they find themselves in the class of those who stand to benefit from Save Our Homes -- homestead-property owners -- but they don't yet see any payoff from it.
Like all new homeowners, they won't enjoy much of a tax break until they've been in their home long enough that its market value climbs. And with real-estate prices showing signs of flattening -- if not dropping -- it could be a long time until their tax break equals that of homeowners who enjoyed the rapid price increases of the past few years.
Sitting in their living room one Friday afternoon during the summer, the Butlers said they had been relieved to escape the spiraling leases they used to face when they rented. They said they had hoped to leave such price hikes behind them.
"This hurts the people who most need the break," Sean Butler said.
Mary Shanklin can be reached at mshanklin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5538.
Masilotti charged
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH — Former Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti faces up to five years in prison and forfeiture of $9.5'million in cash and real estate for his leading role in a land deal conspiracy that stretched from 2000 to this past June, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Masilotti, who in a sorrowful resignation letter said he will plead guilty, is expected to surrender Friday at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, where he will appear for the first time before a judge. Still to be determined: when Masilotti formally will plead guilty and when he'll be dispatched to prison.
be charged even if there was no specific vote involved.
"As an elected official, former Commissioner Masilotti was legally and ethically required to represent the best interests of his constituents and to perform his duties free from fraud and self-dealing," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said at a news conference Monday. "Masilotti repeatedly breached that duty and misused his power and his office for personal gain."
Acosta hinted that more defendants could be charged in the case but declined to elaborate. The grand jury's charging document points to a group of prominent lawyers and developers allegedly involved in the series of tainted land deals that made Masilotti millions.
None of them has been charged. The grand jury identified them by their initials but provided ample information in the charging document to clearly identify them.
The participants included:
• William Boose, a lawyer and lobbyist whose West Palm Beach firm created the secret land trust that Masilotti used to hide his participation in a 2003 Martin County land sale to the South Florida Water Management District. The grand jury accused Boose of lying to federal investigators and falsifying a bill to hide the fact that he didn't charge Masilotti full price for legal services. While working at a deep discount, Boose appeared frequently before the county commission, seeking land use and zoning changes for other clients. Masilotti, while voting on those matters, never disclosed the conflict of interest.
Boose could not be reached Monday.
• Harvey Oyer, a lawyer and lobbyist who represented lead investors David and Jeffrey Lee in the Martin County deal. Oyer was accused of falsifying an ownership statement required by the water management district to hide Masilotti's interest in the deal and, with Boose, helped orchestrate a land swap designed to further conceal Masilotti.
A spokeswoman for Oyer said he was cooperating with authorities.
• Enrique Tomeu, president of Palm Beach Aggregates, owner of 1,200 acres on the outskirts of Wellington. Masilotti was richly rewarded by Tomeu for pushing the rezoning of the property in 2004 to allow for construction of 2,000 homes. Through a shell company, Tomeu allegedly transferred property in Brevard County worth $7.7 million to Masilotti's brother, Paul, a building inspector for the village of Wellington.
Tomeu could not be reached.
• Bruce Rendina, a major developer and close Masilotti friend who, with the commissioner's assistance, acquired 10 acres of county-owned land and development approval for the so-called posse property at the northeast corner of State Road 7 and Belvedere Road. While Masilotti helped Rendina from 2003 until early this year, the developer allegedly provided Masilotti and his family with $100,000 worth of free trips on a private aircraft and other gifts.
The investigation of Masilotti was triggered by an April report in The Palm Beach Post that documented how Masilotti's family made more than $1.3 million in connection with the $40 million Martin County purchase by the management district. Although Masilotti insisted he had no direct involvement, records and interviews with district officials showed that Masilotti had pushed the deal in 2003 without disclosing his family's profit.
Within weeks of the report, the FBI and IRS swooped in and a grand jury was impaneled. The investigation was headed by three seasoned federal prosecutors: John Kastrenakes, Stephen Carlton and Antonia Barnes.
U.S. Attorney Acosta marveled at how swiftly the case was put together. "These transactions were quite complex," he said. "Mr. Masilotti engaged in a variety of complicated schemes to hide his ownership. ... After six months of hard work, our investigation yielded results."
FBI agent in charge Jonathan Solomon also credited The Post.
"I'd just like to recognize them for their investigative reporting," Solomon said at Monday's news conference. "They did an outstanding job."
All told, the grand jury investigation found that Masilotti was enriched by three land deals while his interest was hidden from the public.
He was accused of coercing the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 50 acres in Royal Palm Beach to a group of investors that included Wellington businessman Daniel Miteff and David and Jeffrey Lee. The Lees and Miteff flipped the property for a $900,000 profit to GL Homes, which built the Nautica Lakes subdivision on it.
Masilotti, who also helped get county traffic impact approval for the property, was paid $50,000 - money deposited in a Bahamas bank account in 2004 to help Masilotti pay off gambling losses at The Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island. Masilotti, the grand jury said, failed to report the income to the IRS.
Miteff is accused of lying to investigators and helping Masilotti hide his profit from the deal in the Bahamas. "D.N.M., under false and fraudulent pretenses, failed to disclose to the Palm Beach County engineer's office that Masilotti had a concealed financial interest in the Diocese land deal with him," the grand jury wrote, referring to Miteff by his initials. Miteff declined to comment Monday.
The Lee brothers have declined to comment. They had Masilotti's help in 2000 to get previously denied development approvals for their 230-acre Black Diamond nursery in Wellington. Around the same time, they agreed to sell Masilotti 150 acres in Martin County at a discount.
By far the biggest illegal windfall to Masilotti - more than $7 million - came from Palm Beach Aggregates and involved Masilotti's older brother, Paul. In 2004, Tony Masilotti pushed the county to rezone the property, which until then had been limited to construction of 120 homes. With approval for 2,000 homes, Palm Beach Aggregates signed a $300'million contract to sell the property to Lennar Homes.
As Masilotti pushed the rezoning, he and his brother acquired an option on 60 acres of the company's Palm Beach County property for $100,000. The company, meanwhile, created a limited liability company called Micco Eastern Holdings to acquire 300 acres in Brevard County that the Masilottis had picked out with the help of David Lee.
The Masilottis released their option on Palm Beach Aggregates property in 2005, a month after Lennar agreed to buy it as part of the 1,200 rezoned acres. In exchange, Palm Beach Aggregates turned over Micco Eastern to the Masilottis - along with the Brevard property it purchased for $7.7 million.
Masilotti, the father of four daughters, owns a prosperous State Farm Insurance agency in Royal Palm Beach, where he served as village mayor before his election to the county commission in 1998. He was elevated to chairman six years later.
His successor will be elected Nov. 7 and sworn into office Nov. 21. Commission Vice Chairwoman Addie Greene is to succeed him as chair.
With his political career destroyed - a felony conviction would even strip him of his right to vote - Masilotti also faces financial losses. He could have to pay a $250,000 fine on top of forfeiting $9.5 million. If Masilotti cannot raise that money, prosecutors want to take his Wellington home, his insurance agency and his stake in a development planned on Cat Island in the Bahamas by his fishing buddy and political supporter, Palm Beach County rancher Billy Bowman.
Masilotti already has pledged his cooperation in the continuing investigation.
"I can only hope that my decision to resign, face my mistakes and cooperate with these authorities will result in mercy from the court, and more importantly, forgiveness from the community I have served," Masilotti wrote in his resignation letter.
Ex-commission chairman charged in land scheme
Associated Press
A former Palm Beach County Commission chairman was charged Monday with conspiracy to commit fraud in a scheme that authorities say made him and his family millions of dollars from secret land deals.
Tony Masilotti resigned from office on Friday and pledged to plead guilty to the federal corruption charges.
Prosecutors want Masilotti to spend up to five years in prison, pay a $250,000 fine and forfeit $10 million in cash and property, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.
Masilotti, 50, has agreed to cooperate with authorities who have been investigating him for six months for alleged abuse of power. Authorities allege Masilotti and his family made millions through secret land deals. Masilotti's attorney, John F. O'Donnell, said Masilotti will plead guilty to one conspiracy charge as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
Turmoil worsens at toll-road authority
A fired consultant turns on the agency as its spokesman quits.
Jay Hamburg and Dan TracySentinel Staff Writers
October 31, 2006
The crisis at the region's road-building authority deepened Monday when its fired marketing consultant told prosecutors what he knows about agency operations and offered to take a lie-detector test to prove it.
Ron Pecora, head of Pecora & Blexrud, said he informed prosecutors about the role of the chairman and executive director of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority in making payments to Doug Guetzloe, a longtime opponent of the agency.
Earlier in the day, Bryan Douglas, the authority employee who oversaw Pecora's contract, resigned, prompting the agency to schedule an emergency meeting Thursday to deal with the turmoil.
Prosecutors this month requested records from the expressway authority but haven't provided details about their reason. They have charged Guetzloe with an election-law violation in an unrelated case dealing with a political campaign flier in Winter Park.
Pecora's firm lost a $1.7 million marketing contract with the toll-road agency last week. Authority Director Mike Snyder said he fired the company because it billed the authority for work it didn't do and provided flawed public-relations services.
In a written statement, Pecora said: "My family has suffered, my reputation has been sullied and my partner and employees are hurting and worried about their future."
Phone calls to Pecora were not returned.
Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, an expressway-authority board member, said he is still trying to "sort out the wheat from the chaff. . . . But this whole thing is a mess. We need to get to the bottom of it."
The authority's problems surfaced several weeks ago when it was revealed that the public agency paid Guetzloe $107,500 for what Crotty has characterized as hush money to mute opposition to a possible toll increase.
The authority said Guetzloe was hired to provide opinion research. But he didn't have a written contract and submitted a two-page report. Guetzloe maintains he fulfilled his obligation.
Who is to blame?
On Monday, Pecora blamed Chairman Allan Keen and Snyder for hiring Guetzloe despite his objections and without board approval.
"I told him (Snyder) this was a very bad idea," Pecora said in the statement e-mailed to friends, clients and the community. "He agreed, but said Mr. Keen directed us to do it and I was to negotiate the least amount of money I could."
Snyder and Keen both declined comment through Mary Brooks, a transportation consultant hurriedly hired Monday afternoon to replace Douglas, who was the authority's in-house marketing and communications director.
Said Brooks: "Ron [Pecora] has the right to put any information out there that he wants to. Obviously, there are some concerns on the authority's part about the accuracy of what he said." She added that the agency was willing to cooperate with investigators.
Snyder previously said Pecora did not counsel against hiring Guetzloe. That conflict was among the reasons Snyder terminated Pecora's firm last week.
Chief Assistant State Attorney Bill Vose confirmed that Pecora met with investigators Monday. Pecora, Vose said, was not subpoenaed and showed up unannounced.
Vose would not divulge what was discussed, saying, "We're involved in an investigation, and it wouldn't be fair to anyone involved to comment on it."
Douglas, 30, said he had intended to stay until he read Snyder's criticism of him in the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday.
Snyder publicly chastised Douglas for not supervising the Pecora contract more closely and for not "diligently" overseeing a project to translate the authority Web site into Spanish.
The Pecora firm had been paid $13,000 two years earlier, but had never done the work, nor returned the money. Pecora, who founded the firm, said that technology issues on the authority's part prevented the project from being completed. He promised a refund.
"It caught me off guard," Douglas said. "I need to know who is talking to the media all the time so I can do my job, and particularly when it's about me."
Snyder said he was surprised the spokesman quit his $84,000-a-year job.
Douglas had worked at the Pecora firm and at the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission before hiring on at the toll-road agency. Although he disagreed with terminating the Pecora contract, "I didn't leave because Pecora got fired. . . . My loyalties have been to the expressway authority."
The firm had handled marketing for the agency since 1997 and has been paid more than $8 million in that time.
Douglas' resignation adds to the woes of the authority, which is starting an internal review of the Pecora contract as well as getting ready for an audit.
The authority's board invited Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie to investigate the agency after the controversy about the Guetzloe payment raised questions about how the agency spends its money, the vast majority of which comes from tolls paid by commuters.
Guetzloe connection
Guetzloe's payments from the expressway authority became public after he was charged in an unrelated case. He is accused of failing to include a political disclosure on a flier attacking Winter Park Mayor David Strong during the March mayoral race. That situation was investigated by prosecutors and led to the release of Guetzloe's finances.
Those records revealed payments from the authority. The State Attorney's Office has not indicated there is anything illegal about the payments.
As many as four people from the Comptroller's Office will meet with expressway officials next week to set the groundwork for an unrestricted audit. Haynie is expected to attend the session.
"We are going to look at the big picture," Haynie said. "We are going to look at a lot of stuff."
Jay Hamburg can be reached at jhamburg@orlandosentinel or 407-420-5673. Dan Tracy can be reached at dtracy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5444.
Toll road will get built despite turmoil, official says
The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority director says a plan to shorten commutes is progressing, if unconventionally.
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 31, 2006
Despite turmoil within the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, the proposed New Tampa toll road that has been on the books for years will get built, its executive director, Ralph Mervine, assured New Tampa residents Thursday night.
During a meeting called by the New Tampa Community Council on the day bidding for the project was closed, Mervine told about a dozen residents that the project is moving forward through unconventional means.
The Expressway Authority is considering proposals by two foreign companies that would make the road the first project in Florida where a private company teams with a public agency to build a road and collect tolls. Called a public-private partnership, or P3, it would be the fourth such project in the country.
"We're trying to work with everyone who wants to move transportation forward in this county," Mervine said.
The toll road, projected to cost $150-million, is to be a 3.1-mile stretch of asphalt connecting Bruce B. Downs to Interstate 275 through West Meadows.
It is expected to shave off 12 minutes from the commute from New Tampa to downtown.
Another setback is the cost of a bridge that the city of Tampa is supposed to build, which would connect Commerce Park and New Tampa boulevards over Interstate 75.
That project was put on hold because of skyrocketing construction costs. Currently, the bridge is estimated to cost $16-million.
The city has $8-million in the bank.
"If the city doesn't start by next September, we have the right to build the bridge," Mervine said.
He said the Expressway Authority will begin negotiations next month with the two companies - Plenary Roads, Tampa, a subsidiary of an Australian firm; and a Spanish company called Obrascon Huarte Lain SA..
They hope to select one of the two groups by January.
Mervine, at the center of controversy because of the firing of the authority's former board attorney, assured residents that the agency is being forthcoming with all inquiries into its actions.
"We have welcomed the reviews by everyone - anything it takes to move on to work together to bring transportation issues forward," he said.
"I'm busting my butt to build a system that has been in the works for 20 years."
Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at nguyen@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5312.
Road Bidder Plans High Tolls
Published: Oct 31, 2006
TAMPA - One of two bidders for Florida's first privately built toll road is already anticipating opposition to the project, including complaints from the drivers who will use it.
According to the company's bid documents, the toll for the 3.1-mile link between New Tampa and Interstate 275 would rise to $2.75 within five years of the road's opening. After that, it would continue to go up at least 4 percent per year.
Tampa area drivers aren't used to paying such high tolls, said the company, Plenary Roads of Tampa, in its bid to the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority. But anything less and it wouldn't be able to recoup its costs, Plenary said.
The other bidder, OHL, of Spain, also anticipates financial complications. Because of high construction costs and low revenue projections, the company said it needs a subsidy from the expressway authority of up to $1 billion over 40 years.
The road's high cost, roughly $150 million plus operation and maintenance costs, stopped the city of Tampa and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise from building the road, despite the growing traffic congestion in New Tampa.
So the expressway authority took on the project earlier this year as a public-private partnership. The plan is for a private company to build the road, accepting the risk that it will make its money back, and some profit, through tolls collected over a 40- to 60-year period.
Several of these projects have been completed across the country, with mixed results. This would be the first in Florida.
Bids Evaluated Last Week
In its request for proposals, the expressway authority stated that bidders should pay all building, maintenance and operation costs "without financial cost or risk" to the authority.
The two companies' bid packages were given late last week to an evaluation committee, an advisory committee and the authority's seven board members.
The evaluation committee consists of board Chairman Thomas Gibbs, three expressway employees, a Tampa representative and the deputy executive director of Florida's Turnpike.
Board member Robert Clark Jr. was out of town and hadn't reviewed the bids but said "a billion-dollar subsidy is naturally out of the question."
Board member Tom Scott, a Hillsborough County commissioner, had yet to review the bid documents as of Monday. Scott said he had heard about OHL's request for public support from the authority.
"My impression was we wouldn't pay out anything," Scott said.
Gibbs said Monday that he was reviewing the two proposals. "We got to go over them, go through them, then I guess we meet, negotiate, then we decide who the guy is supposed to be," he said.
The winner will be named early in 2007. The road is expected to take at least two years to build.
Because this is such a different kind of project, Plenary, a subsidiary of a consortium with offices in Canada and Australia, said it would hire a local media consultant to create a speakers bureau and prepare a "crisis communication plan."
The project has other weaknesses, it said, including the location of the corridor across an environmentally sensitive area and the possible "perception that tolls are going to the private sector rather than to the State."
The company is only two years old, but its executives have put together other public-private partnerships in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It would use PCL Civil Constructors to build the road. Financing would come from Deutsche Bank.
OHL Touts Experience
The other bidder, OHL, said its experience would help it overcome the hurdles of constructing and maintaining the New Tampa road, including environmental challenges. In business 94 years, it has 10 years' experience financing, operating and maintaining toll roads - mostly in Spain and South America.
Money is clearly the main concern. Because of high costs and low traffic revenue projections, "a 100% transfer of cost and risk to the private sector would not be achievable."
OHL proposes two financing plans. The first would cost the authority $956 million over 40 years. But the payments could drop if traffic counts exceed the projections of roughly 9,000 vehicles per day.
With the second alternative, the authority would pay $806 million over 40 years, but that would split the project into two phases. At first the company would build only two lanes, then add two more by 2020.
Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834. Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915.
Girding ourselves against land grabs
By HOWARD TROXLER, Times Columnist
Published October 26, 2006
With the days dwindling until the Nov. 7 election, my in box is filled with messages saying, "You aren't paying enough attention to Topic X." Whatever the topic, it's probably true.
So I'm trying to go down the list in order of demand. This brings us today to Amendment 8, the last of the proposed changes to our state Constitution on the ballot.
Amendment 8 is meant to keep the government from condemning private property and turning it over to a different private party.
It means the government couldn't condemn land for "economic redevelopment" such as an office park or retail project. Government could take land only for roads or other truly "public" purposes.
(This ban wouldn't be absolute. Amendment 8 would allow the Legislature to create exceptions by a three-fifths vote.)
Our Legislature put Amendment 8 on the ballot. It's a reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year in a well-known case named Kelo vs. City of New London.
In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that taking private property for commercial redevelopment was a "public purpose" permitted by the Fifth Amendment. It was a close 5-4 ruling, but it is the law of our land.
So Florida and a lot of other states have proposed their own, tougher rules. The Legislature already has passed a law, but laws can be easily changed. Amendment 8 would put the ban in our state Constitution as well.
On top of that, a few cities around here have a local version of this ban on their ballot, too. If those items pass, we will be wearing both a belt and suspenders, as the old saying goes.
There are two arguments against Amendment 8.
The first is that we don't need it. We already have laws. Condemnation is not being abused here anyway. Why tie our hands unnecessarily?
The second argument is that, by gum, sometimes taking private land is a good idea. One example that gets cited a lot is BayWalk, the shopping and movie complex in downtown St. Petersburg. It might not have happened without condemnation.
Yet the ruling in the Kelo case gives government practically unlimited power. A legitimate "public purpose" can be whatever the government declares it to be, the ruling said.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned in her strong dissent:
"Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded. ... Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."
In sum, the Kelo ruling gives the government the power to decide that somebody else can use our property "better" than we can.
It is too much power. So I'd rather have the belt and suspenders.
* * *
It's not as though I haven't typed the name "Citizens for Responsible Growth" a hundred times, but my Tuesday column renamed that St. Pete Beach group "Citizens for Responsible Government." They're probably for that, too, but it's still no excuse.
BARTOW -- Regional water officials are banding together to figure
out how to supply water to fuel exploding population growth without
causing serious environmental damage or spending years in court.
The area affected covers parts of three water management districts
and includes Polk, Orange, Osceola and Polk counties, southern Lake
County and the city of Cocoa service area.
Last week the Southwest Florida Water Management District's
Governing Board approved an 18-page plan that lays out the agencies'
goals and the methods they will use to approach the problem.
Water management officials are scheduled to meet with county
commissioners next month to go over the plan.
The impetus for the agreement involves the fact that water managers
in the Orlando area have concluded what managers in the Tampa area
concluded more than a decade ago -- water-use limits are
unavoidable.
Swiftmud officials imposed permanent year-round water restrictions
in 1991, but officials at the St. Johns and South Florida water
management districts didn't approve similar restrictions on lawn
irrigation -- except during severe droughts -- until the past few
years.
A key goal of the plan is to come up with a consistent method for
evaluating permit requests, which includes an analysis of how
efficiently utilities and their customers are using the water they
already have.
The evaluations are intended to avoid further environmental damage
that could affect such things as spring flow and maintenance of
natural wetlands.
Additionally, the plan is designed to head off the kind of lengthy
and expensive "water wars" that occurred in the Tampa Bay
area in the 1970s and 1980s.
Earlier this year it appeared events were heading in that direction.
In February, Polk joined Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties in
questioning the Orange County Utilities Division's request for a
permit to pump 61.1 million gallons a day. South Florida Water
Management District officials later joined the counties.
If Orange County's permit had been approved, it would have limited
how much water other Central Florida utilities could get because
Orange's withdrawals would affect aquifer levels as far away as
Northeast Polk County.
"Hopefully this action plan will provide a level playing
field," said Jeff Spence, Polk's director of natural resources.
"We don't want a situation where the first big utility with a
lot of money and consultants gets all the water," he said.
The goal of the new action involves a combination of working with
utility officials to develop alternative water supplies.
The tasks in the action plan are supposed to be completed by the end
of 2008 with an eye toward weaning utilities within the region
covered in the plan from groundwater by 2013.
That's actually a pretty short time frame to develop alternative
supplies, Polk County's Spence said.
"It probably takes eight to 10 years," Spence said,
explaining developing alternative water supplies takes such things
as completing the studies, justifying the water permit, constructing
the infrastructure and delivering the water to customers.
One of the key goals is sustainability, which means water use
practices that look at long-term rather than short-term impacts of
water consumption.
For instance, a consultant study recommended last spring that Polk
officials consider tapping the Kissimmee River.
However, no one knows how much water may be available from the
Kissimmee River until after the South Florida Water Management
District determines how much water the river needs to function
properly as required by state law under minimum flows and levels.
That study will not be completed until 2008, Spence said.
Other features of the plan include:
• Developing better methods to figure out how much water
everyone can withdraw without causing permanent environmental
damage.
• Developing lists of alternative water supply projects and
funding sources to implement them.
• Developing a list of conservation and efficiency measures
and effective monitoring programs utilities must use.
Despite the hope that the measures will prevent legal controversies,
not everyone's sure that will happen.
Roger Griffiths, a member of the Polk County Water Policy Committee,
is one of the skeptics.
"Whenever they adopt the rules and start telling people they
can't have any water, you'll see lawsuits," he said.
Polk County's Spence said another question is how things will sort
out in the long run.
"Everyone will have 20-year permits and 20-year plans, but what
happens in the 21st year?" he asked.
Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com
or 863-802-7535.
Proposed Hillsborough Flow Rule In Need Of More Oxygen
Tampa Tribune editorial published: Oct 30, 2006
There's no question that doubling the amount of fresh water that must flow into the lower Hillsborough River would improve the river. It's less clear whether it will restore the environmental health of this much-abused waterway.
And it's time that reviving the lower river became a community priority.
Fortunately, local scientists are asking tough questions about the minimum flow levels proposed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Both the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission and the technical advisory committee of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program have raised concerns to the district.
And those concerns will be addressed, thanks to a process that calls for a peer review of the proposed rule before it goes to the governing board for final approval. A panel of independent scientists will scrutinize the plan and local objections.
There's no minimizing the tough task the district faces in developing realistic and affordable standards. The river's flow is halted by the city of Tampa's dam, which creates a reservoir that supplies most of the city's drinking water.
As a consequence, for much of the year the lower river receives little natural flow of fresh water, which would cleanse the river and provide the oxygen essential to fish.
For years there were no flow requirements at all, and the lower Hillsborough often was little more than a stagnant canal. But about 10 years ago the district began developing freshwater standards and eventually adopted a requirement that the flow below the dam must average 10 cubic feet per second, or about 6.4 million gallons a day.
But the requirement did little to help the river. Doubling it should have an impact. But other scientists say a flow of about 30 to 40 cubic feet per second is needed. More importantly, they point out the district plan would bring the river's dissolved oxygen level only to 2.5 milligrams per liter, while the state standards require an average of 5 milligrams per liter.
District executive director David Moore says the new standard should dramatically improve the river, particularly the stretch from the dam to Sulphur Springs. This 1.8-mile section has suffered the most from the lack of fresh water, yet it also has the greatest potential for restoration since its banks are relatively natural.
Moore points out the river beyond that point is affected by tidal flow. And he stresses that runoff, seawalls and the destruction of natural water systems, including a network of springs, have affected the river in ways that can't be remedied by dumping in more fresh water. He says the river will be monitored and standards can be toughened if they prove inadequate.
City of Tampa officials say even meeting the district's proposed standard will be difficult. To meet the requirement, they intend to continue piping water from Sulphur Springs to the foot of the dam, pipe water from the bypass canal and store water in the aquifer. This, they believe, will allow them to increase flow below the dam without reducing the city's drinking-water supply.
Those are worthy efforts, but it's possible that with tougher water conservation efforts and perhaps buying more water from Tampa Bay Water, the regional water utility, the city could allow more water to flow from the reservoir.
There are a lot of moving and complicated parts to the minimum flow debate. Still, it seems clear the district's proposal could do better by the river. At the least, the agency should adopt the state's minimum dissolved oxygen levels.
Any additional flow will help and the peer review process may result in further improvements. But the proposal seems more a compromise than the long-needed aggressive effort to resuscitate the lower Hillsborough.
Wal-Mart Wants To Move Tortoises
Published: Oct 30, 2006
HOLIDAY - Wal-Mart has dropped plans to destroy nearly a dozen gopher tortoises on land where the company plans to build a supercenter.
The property, at the southwest corner of State Road 54 and Grand Boulevard, covers about 26 acres formerly occupied by a Cox Lumber yard. Just less than half of the property is suitable gopher tortoise habitat.
An environmental survey last year found evidence of nine tortoises on the site. In March 2005, Wal-Mart asked the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for permission to destroy the tortoises, which are protected by state law.
In exchange, Wal-Mart offered to pay $22,628 to the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council's mitigation bank, enough to preserve three acres of land.
Last month, as local opposition to the proposed store heated up, Wal-Mart dropped its proposal to destroy the tortoises.
In a letter to state wildlife managers Sept. 13, Wal-Mart officials asked for permission to move the tortoises to another site. The letter didn't specify where the tortoises would go other than to say they will be moved "off-site."
Wal-Mart attorney Glenn Smith couldn't say where the tortoises will go. Odds are good they will be sent to open land in eastern Pasco where others have been sent, said Tom Connolly, whose Gopher Tortoise Services Inc. handles tortoise relocations.
Wal-Mart opponent Cynthia Besio said this week she was happy about the relocation plan, but disappointed at the prospect of losing the tortoises.
"The tortoises have lived there so long [and] they visit the homes adjacent to the site to the south for water regularly. They will be missed," Besio said in a statement.
Besio leads a group of residents near the Wal-Mart site who contend the land is the wrong place for the 208,000-square-foot store.
County commissioners last week sent the proposal back to the county's Development Review Committee for a Dec. 12 hearing.
State wildlife officials are rewriting the rules for managing gopher tortoises. This summer, wildlife commissioners raised the tortoises' status to "threatened" from "special concern."
The new rules will go out for public review early next year, said wildlife commission spokesman Willie Puz.
In the meantime, the existing rules, which allow take permits for tortoises in the path of development, remain in effect.
Biologists describe gopher tortoises as a keystone species because many other animals rely on them.
Gopher tortoises were given state protection in 1991.
Since then, the state has issued thousands of take permits that allow landowners to destroy them.
The number of take permits has increased dramatically in recent years. In Pasco alone, the state gave out 29 take permits in 2005, up from seven in 2000, according to commission records.
County vetoes
development
Commissioners reject plan because 50-acre site
is too close to canopy road
Leon County commissioners have nixed a proposed development of 53 homes along a rural stretch of Old St. Augustine Road, one of the county's protected canopy roads.
Commissioners last week unanimously denied approval of Mariana Oaks, a 50-acre site a quarter of a mile east of Williams Road. Commissioners and some who live in the area were concerned that lot sizes were too small compared with nearby lots and that the development would have septic tanks rather than sewer service.
They also expressed concern about stormwater and traffic. The site is on a