Regarding the city of Sarasota's ballot
issue on a charter amendment requiring a supermajority vote to revise the
Comprehensive Plan:
I spoke with David Smith at the city's Planning Department to get some numbers.
I'm providing the following information to counter the argument that the issue
is anti-growth:
City population, in April 2007: 55,644.
Allowable population under the Comprehensive Plan: 216,261 (maximum ceiling).
The allowable population, based on existing zoning, assuming all of the land
will be used for residential purposes: 97,860.
Population if 30 percent is used for residential: 68,502.
There is plenty of capacity within the Comprehensive Plan -- plenty of room for
growth. (Please note that this charter amendment will not affect zoning changes
or variances, which account for the majority of requests.) Yet developers often
want more growth!
The Comprehensive Plan should be difficult to amend because people make
long-term decisions based on it. Lately, the city commissioners have been
viewed as being arbitrary in their decision-making, especially with the
frequent changes in staff and commissioners.
Finally, quite often 60 percent of the people can be wrong, but rarely are 80
percent of the people wrong.
Brian O'Connell
The writer is treasurer of the political committee of Sarasotans
for Good Government.
LEE
COUNTY PROPERTY OWNERS THAT MILK IT
Developers
with a few cows or horses squeeze the tax laws for everything they can get
BY ROGER WILLIAMS rwilliams@florida-weekly.com
T homas Jefferson predicted that if the United States
ceased to be a farm-based nation, we'd be in big trouble.
|
|
"(Farmers)
are the most virtuous, and possess most of the amor patriae (love of
country)," Jefferson said. "Merchants are
the least virtuous and possess the least of the amor patriae."
In those
days, about 98 percent of the population farmed. Now, after the so-called
industrial revolution that Jefferson never saw, along with world wars and easy,
40-hour-per-week city jobs, about 98 percent don't. So how are we doing, and
should farmers be given help, to help them stay farmers?
That
question lies at the bottom of agricultural tax exemptions, which save farmers,
or people who pretend to be farmers, millions of dollars each year, even in Lee
County alone, not just in Florida or the United States.
The
reasons for our urban evolution, and the reasons we have survived it, are
complicated. But they include the now written-in-stone ag-exemptions
on properties that produce food and can show profits or attempted profits from
that production - along with some traditional rural-based uses, such as
breeding horses (horses no longer contribute to food production, but they can
be considered an agricultural use, in the eyes of lawmakers).
|
|
Which
brings us to Lee County, in the year 2007, about 180 years after Thomas
Jefferson died, and more than half-a-century after the so-called greenbelt laws
were passed. Those laws were designed to encourage farmers to keep farming, by
keeping their property tax bills down. The reasoning was simple: if you keep
land in agricultural production, there will be enough food from domestic
sources.
Inevitably,
those laws have helped some others keep their bills down too, which costs the
rest of us.
"There's
nobody who is a stronger supporter of legitimate greenbelt than I am,"
says Ken Wilkinson, Lee County's property appraiser, who has actively wrestled
to pin down abuses since the turn of the decade, if not much longer.
"I
also know there are still abuses out there, of course there are. Get rid of
abuse, and that has the effect of preserving bona fide farmers."
They may
be abuses in the view of the property appraiser, perhaps, but they appear to be
legal tax opportunities to developers or investors.
For
example, this week the property appraiser's office faces the final appeals of
the year made by owners who sought an agricultural exemption, and were denied.
Although officials won't discuss pending cases in details, tax records reveal
that one property, of about 11.5 acres, lies near the corner of Colonial
Boulevard on Ben C. Pratt Six Mile Cypress Parkway, across from a B.J.'s
Wholesale Club. The assessed value is listed at $3.27 million, which means the
owners, named as Rabbi Horace and Doris Zemel and
Florida Family Investments LLC of Newark, New Jersey, could pay as much as
$60,000 in taxes on it.
That is,
unless they won an appeal, in which case, the assessment on the property for
tax purposes could come down to only a few thousand dollars, says Roger Alejo, an agricultural specialist in the property
appraiser's office. That would reduce their tax payment to just a few dollars.
"There
are a bunch of development companies around there, and one in particular is
trying to get the 'ag' classification for
cattle," says Alejo. "But it's completely
overgrown, and there are cows on each side of it, and the cows walk from point
A to point C by going through point B, which is this property."
At least
two other properties owned by partnerships that include the Zemel
name exist in this year's list of denials, too, one of them a 139 acre piece
pressed against a Lee County 20/20 property (public land) known as the Alva
Scrub, and the other a square mile (640 acres) off Burnt Store Road.
The
139-acre Alva property has stood vacant for years, and along with slash pines
and scrub palmetto is now home to junked boats and trailers (possibly stolen),
other dumped dry goods, and little human activity except the occasional passage
of four-wheelers, whose drivers can access the property because no fence now
exists around it. Also, the extremely rare and threatened Florida scrub jay
lives on the property, local residents say.
Other
names of property owners on the list of more than 500 who sought to call
themselves farmers, but were denied, include Florida Power & Light, Harper
Brothers, Inc. and Florida Rock Industries, Inc., Hawks Haven Golf Course out
of Jacksonville, Koreshan/Cypress View LLC, and the
Diocese of Venice.
In his
effort to get rid of abuse, however, Wilkinson has worried about some
legitimate farmers, he says - which is why he is reaching out to them.
Next
month, for the first time in its history, the property appraiser's office will
begin to consult a committee of so-called bona-fide farmers - the greenbelt
committee, designed to protect agricultural interests in Lee, and to identify
fake agricultural interests.
"We're
trying to get the agricultural community involved, we're trying to work with
legitimate farmers," says Julie Dalton, a supervisor in the property
appraiser's office. "Abuse will always come from development, so we're
trying to get the word out as well, that we're here to help the farm community,
but also to stop abuses."
Dalton
and others have a lot of sympathy for the real farmers, they say. (Two of them,
however, chose not to return calls or discuss their membership on the greenbelt
committee over the telephone last week: Aron Troyer
of Troyer Bros., and Darrell Prevatt of Kinzie Nursery and the Pioneer Cattle Company.)
"For
us, it's been a bad year," Dalton explains. "Whenever you turn
somebody down, they're not happy. A lot of them, or
some of them feel it's been a legitimate ag business
all their life. They don't want to hear that they don't qualify for an
exemption.
"You
might have a legitimate farmer, hit by hurricane or drought or the construction
industry downturn, and their palms that they've cultivated for years are no
longer desirable for putting into a new subdivision, and they're caught in
middle too.
"So
this is about communication, to let them know what's happening. It's our job to
work with these people."
The
greenbelt committee will take its seat at the gravy table just as applications
for new agricultural status from "farmers" have reached a high -
about 480 this year, of which 310 were approved and 170 denied, says Alejo.
"About
110 challenged our ruling, which is 60 more than last year and 50 more than in
previous years," notes Alejo, who blames the
rise in numbers on a down market and struggling economy, in which large
property tax savings provides a compelling reason to go into farming, or appear
to.
The most
significant challenges come from developers, or landowners holding their
properties until they can sell them for development. And usually that means
finding somebody to put a few cows or horses on the property, and pretend it's
an agricultural use - even if the property is zoned for commercial use anyway.
"If
you read the state statute (193.461g) it seems that nobody could abuse this
law," says Wilkinson. "But as happens over time,
that's been challenged in courts. And the courts have pretty much
ignored the different ways a property appraiser would have had to deny an
exemption. In effect it's been, if you see the cow,
they get the exemption. But that doesn't preclude us from having to enforce the
statute."
It does
mean, however, that even if property is zoned for commercial use, let alone
zoned for agricultural use, an owner can bring in cows or horses and seek an ag exemption. The court-okayed
mandates suggest that the property appraiser cannot make a ruling merely based
on zoning, which is good for many a developer, officials say.
So
lately, the property appraiser has been taking closer looks at the agricultural
use of property, whatever the zoning.
"We
look at a lot of things, like the ratio of animals to land," says Alejo. "We look for acceptable commercial practice.
One cow on one acre doesn't cut it. Are there fencing improvements to the
pasture, do you have a cow well? And sometimes you can see all this on an
application. If they don't turn in intangibles, expenses, if they have no
receipts, that pretty much tells you what you need to know."
Lee
County's property appraiser counts more than 580,000 parcels of taxable
property, zoned in various ways for various uses, including some 21,000 zoned
for agricultural use of one kind or another. Of those, about 3,600 actually
maintain agricultural tax exemptions, which means they can pay very little on
the land itself, or buildings used to further agriculture.
Residential
houses standing on farming operations are assessed differently than the
surrounding property - they don't get agricultural exemptions even on working
farms, in other words - and the standard policy excludes one acre around the
house, too, from the exemption.
There are
various rules that officials use as guidelines, they say. For example, citrus
land should be at least 5 acres, with proper irrigation and cultivation, and
cow pastures should be at least 10 acres, with evidence of fertilizing, mowing
or maintaining. In the property appraiser's new brochure, due out in a matter
of days, 50 cows on 100 acres is considered "a bona fide use."
Not far
from the Zemel's Alva property - less than 200 yards
- is a legitimate small farmer named Lloyd Marsh, who appears to be the
antithesis of the corporate farmer (as many who farm more than 11,000 acres of
citrus in Lee County prove to be), but also a for-profit agricultural man.
Now in
his mid-70s, Marsh grew up on a farm in Nebraska. On his 18 acres along Bedman Creek he grows persimmons, citrus, bananas, he
grazes cows, and he works constantly to maintain the sophisticated and
sometimes ingeniousseeming irrigation and fencing
required to make his land produce food.
Assessed
at just under $1 million, his property earns an agricultural exemption that
amounts to more than $600,000, which still leaves him a hefty tax bill.
Nearby
are others who do the same thing - Dan's Nursery, on three acres just down the
road, for example, another legitimate agricultural business.
"It
would be very difficult without the exemption," says Ruth Danforth, who owns the nursery with her husband, Dan. She
echoed comments made earlier by Lloyd Marsh.
"They're
the kinds of people who need the ag
exemption, and deserve it, "says Wilkinson.
Although
both Marsh and Danforth are longtime farmers - and
previous agricultural use of the land is one of the key qualifications - there
are also 310 properties who are new to the benefits of
agricultural exemptions this year. And there will be more next year, predicts Alejo.
If you're
going into farming, now is the time to get ready, since the operation has to be
up and functioning by January 1.
It might
be hard work, but if you can produce food or rear horses, not only can you save
a lot of money on property taxes, but you can prove that you, too, have amor patriae.
And that
ought to be worth something.
l Agricultural tax guidelines:
>>
Citrus Land:
5 acres,
planted according to accepted schedules
>>
Pasture Land:
10 acres,
fenced, maintained, with proper soil to produce grazing grass, and if leased,
with a lease on file by Jan. 1.
>>
Timber:
10 acres
of planted pine, or 30 acres of natural timber with a
management plan on file for the property. >> Bees: the bee yard
must include an extraction house.
>>
Aquaculture:
requires
at least one acre for shrimp, tropical fish farms or others.
>>
Crop land:
minimum
of 10 acres for hay, wheat, corn. Peppers, cabbage,
vegetables, minimum of 5 acres.
>>
Horses:
at least
4 breeding horses (including 3 brood mares) or 4 boarding horses with leases on
file. Property fenced, with proper stalls and breeding
facilities.
>>
Nursery:
must have
water source with proper irrigation, above ground or inground
growing palms, oaks, ornamentals or others saleable, and if wholesale, a state
certification.
>>
Other:
Poultry,
pig, goat, or commercial rabbit operations are on a case-by-case basis. >>
Info from the Lee County Property Appraiser
How to
qualify for an AG exemption
>>
By Jan 1:
Get the
farm up and running >> By Jan. 31: File annual application >>
By July 1: You'll be told if you're denied >> By
30 days after denial: file appeal >> After July 1: Board meets
to hear appeal >> 15 days before appeal: provide information to
board
>>
7 days before appeal:
property appraisers gives information to petitioner
>> By 20 days after last board meeting, board issues decision in writing
>> New tax rules for property go into effect >> Information
from the Lee County Property Appraiser
Freeze on Residential Development Proposed
By Tom Palmer
The Ledger
BARTOW | Polk County voters could get a
chance next year to put the brakes on the redrawing of local growth maps that enable
more and more subdivisions to spread across the countryside.
Environmental activist and Polk County Planning Commissioner John Ryan has
proposed an amendment to the county charter that, if approved, would freeze the
total amount of residential development to the level it was at the time of the
referendum.
Ryan will ask the County Commission on Oct. 31 to put the amendment on the
ballot.
"What we have on the ground is not working,'' Ryan said.
"It's adverse to the interests of taxpayers and the preservation of
Polk's open spaces.''
Ryan said his proposal is an attempt to rein in the problem. Unlike the
proposed Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment to the Florida Constitution,
which also may be on the November 2008 ballot, Ryan's proposal does not require
referendums for most growth plan changes.
However, it does require a referendum if local officials want to expand the
urban growth boundary. The area within the urban growth boundary is the section
of the county where the most intense development is allowed. Areas outside the
boundary typically have less intense development because there is no central
water and sewer service and no plans to expand the services.
Ryan is bringing his proposal to the County Commission after receiving an
attorney general's opinion answering key questions concerning the referendum.
According to the Oct. 8 opinion, the referendum conditions can apply to growth
plans in cities as well as within the unincorporated areas of the county and
the measure could be proposed in a single countywide referendum rather than
requiring separate referendums in each city.
Scott Coulombe, executive director of the Polk County
Builders Association, said he understands Ryan's concerns but disagrees with
his proposed solution.
"I don't really believe there's a need for this,'' he said. "We're concerned about this because it's a
mini-Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment.''
Instead, Coulombe said he wants to allow Polk's
Growth Management Director Merle Bishop to work on a proposal to establish a
firm countywide urban growth boundary.
Bishop was not available to comment for this article.
But Coulombe said he didn't know if there were any
legal obstacles to doing this because it would involve limiting cities' ability
to annex. There is nothing in the county charter or its development code that
would allow county officials to oppose those kinds of limits on city officials.
Assistant County Attorney Anne Gibson confirmed the county has no authority to
control city growth plans and that is not part of the proposal.
She said what has been proposed is some changes in the boundary of the county's
plan as part of an evaluation and appraisal report that's under way.
Coulombe said he also was concerned with Ryan's
proposal to set up some kind of transfer of development rights system, which
local builders have opposed.
A transfer of development rights system would allow landowners outside the
urban growth boundary to sell whatever development rights they have to
landowners inside the boundary. The transfers would allow the person buying the
development rights to develop his land more intensely.
County development regulations already contain a provision allowing transfer of
development rights, though it has rarely been exercised.
The idea has been discussed in other contexts, primarily farmland preservation,
in meetings in the county in the past two years.
[ Tom Palmer can be reached at 863-802-7535 or
tom.palmer@theledger.com. Read more views on county government at
http://county.theledger.com. ]
Crowd: no bypass, no sprawl
Residents opposed to growth in South Hillsborough pack a
transportation meeting.
By MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times Staff Writer
Published October 24, 2007
RUSKIN - The population of south
Hillsborough County is expected to more than double in the next two decades,
and to quadruple by 2050. All those newcomers will need roads to drive on,
county officials say.
But many of the people already living
there don't want a population boom. They made that clear at a community meeting
Tuesday night to discuss the new South County Transportation Plan.
They don't want a six-lane bypass highway,
they don't want a bunch of new roads and bridges, and they definitely don't
want 400,000 new neighbors.
They vowed to fight tooth and nail against
the plan, which recommends upgrades to south Hillsborough's road network over
the next four decades.
"This whole plan needs to be thrown
out," said Ruskin activist Mariella Smith.
"Instead of asking how many people are coming, and saying we have to ruin
our neighborhoods and give up our farmland and parks to shovel these people in,
we need to ask: How many people do we want?"
That got a huge round of applause from a
standing-room-only crowd of 130 who packed a county building in Ruskin.
Peter Aluotto,
the county's director of planning and growth management, responded that putting
a population cap on Hillsborough County isn't realistic or constitutional. The
government can't force farmers to keep farming if they choose to sell their
land for subdivisions.
"Everybody in this country has a
right to live someplace," he said. "These roads we're planning are
for your children and grandchildren."
Because the South County Transportation
Plan is being heavily criticized, officials have tabled it for now. They will
revise the plan after hearing from the public at two more meetings - one
tonight at Riverview High School, and one in two weeks in Lithia.
No matter what, some neighborhood
residents will be fighting to keep these proposed new roads out of
Hillsborough's comprehensive plan, a blueprint for how the county will grow.
That fight now has been delayed until at
least mid 2008, the earliest county commissioners could consider a revised
plan.
* * *
Much of the criticism of the plan has
focused on a potential bypass or beltway that could be built to divert cars off
I-75.
On a map of the South County
Transportation Plan, the bypass is a wide swath, its exact location still
undetermined. From the Hillsborough-Manatee line, it loops east of Brandon and
Riverview, heading northeast through rural Wimauma
and Lithia toward Plant City.
It follows the southern spur of a longer
four-county beltway that was proposed and then dropped last year by the
Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority.
County officials say they wouldn't build a
new highway, and that it's on the map to recognize that the state or a toll
road agency might build it someday.
The road's critics call it "the Swath
of Death" and say it would fuel sprawl and threaten the property rights of
those in its path.
County officials are well aware that it
and other roads in the plan are unpopular. But they argue all of this is
necessary to keep up with expected growth.
* * *
Tuesday night, numerous people were upset
about how the long-range transportation plan would disrupt their neighborhoods,
in the form of widened or extended roads. They also said several routes would
go through environmentally sensitive land.
"It makes no sense to destroy a
community that has been here for decades to help the people who haven't even
moved here," said Bob Minthorn, who objected to
a proposed bridge over the Alafia River at 78th Street in Gibsonton.
He said a bridge would destroy a rare salt
marsh, and that widening the street would destroy homes and funnel traffic past
an elementary school.
The plan maps out 245 miles of new or
expanded roads, two new bridges, and three new interchanges along I-75.
Ned Baier,
county transportation planning manager, said many of the recommendations are
intended to improve east-west movement through the area, because it already has
major north-south roads in I-75 and U.S. 41.
Mike Brassfield
can be reached at
brassfield@sptimes.com
or 813 226-3435.
FAST FACTS
If you go
Public meetings on proposed South County
Transportation Plan
Riverview: 6:30-8:30 tonight, Riverview High School cafeteria, 1311 Boyette Road
Lithia:
6:30-8:30 p.m. Nov. 5, Pinecrest Elementary School,
7950 Lithia-Pinecrest Road
Developer gets OK to build 7,000 homes in North Port
area
By KEVIN DALE
kevin.dale@heraldtribune.com
SARASOTA COUNTY -- The developer of Thomas Ranch, an area which is primed for
15,000 homes, will be allowed to extend the town-sized development into one of
the last remaining rural tracts in south Sarasota County.
In a 3-2 decision, the Sarasota County Commission on Tuesday ignored its
planning staff and granted Thomas Ranch developer Stan Thomas a land-use change
that will allow more than 7,000 homes just south of North Port's portion of
Thomas Ranch.
The 2,850-acre property's rural land use already allowed about 1,000 homes in
an area that county planners said could be overburdened by the more than 15,000
homes already approved for south Sarasota County and North Port.
"There is not a need for additional capacity" in housing, county
Planning Director Anne McClung told the commission Tuesday.
In addition to the 15,000 homes North Port has approved for Thomas Ranch,
McClung pointed out that the county has approved nearly 3,000 homes between Stoneybrook in Venice and Sarasota National on U.S. 41.
In the past county commissioners have been reluctant to
approve such large developments in the area because of the lack of roads, sewer
lines and other infrastructure needed to accommodate them.
County planners repeated that concern Tuesday, saying the proposed development,
the Gottfried Stewardship Village, would generate tens of thousands of vehicle
trips for two-lane South River Road, which the county has no funded plans to
widen.
"We have serious concerns about the additional residential units coming
online," McClung said in a strong recommendation for denial.
But three commissioners -- Joseph Barbetta, Shannon Staub and Paul Mercier -- granted the more than 500 percent
increase in housing density, despite the testimony of planners and Englewood
residents who opposed the dramatic increase in homes.
"This property will develop one way or the other," Barbetta said.
"If you're going to have an area develop, do it
right."
Barbetta said he liked the developer's plans -- none
of which are binding at this stage -- to create a network of South County
roads, including West Villages Parkway, a north-south artery connecting U.S. 41
to Englewood.
Jeffrey Boone, the developer's lawyer, also argued that an approval would make
the developer more likely to extend Manasota Beach
Road to South River Road.
Boone said it would be at least five years before any homes would be built on
the property, which connects North Port's section of Thomas Ranch with
Englewood.
The proposal included very few binding project details, but Mercier said he was
comfortable granting the land-use change.
"We're going to have many bites at the apple before final approval,"
Mercier said.
The decision comes only two weeks before county residents will vote on a
measure that would require density increases to the county's comprehensive plan
to be approved by four out of five commissioners, a so-called supermajority.
Commissioner Jon Thaxton has said requiring such a
super-majority vote would have little impact since in the last decade only two
of the nearly 150 requests to amend the comprehensive plan to increase the
density on a property or the intensity of the land's use has
resulted in 3-2 commission vote.
Thaxton and Commissioner Nora Patterson, who voted
against the plan, said they could not approve more homes in area that may not
be able to support them in the long run.
"It's just a lot of units for an area that is very weak on
infrastructure," Patterson said.
The dissenting commissioners echoed the comments of residents, who questioned
both the need and the timing of the proposal.
"Call me crazy," said Englewood resident
Kellie Pearson, "but I don't see why we need another 6,000 homes."
Activists
Sound Sprawl Alarm
By JEROME R. STOCKFISCH and MIKE SALINERO,
The Tampa Tribune
Published: October 24, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - The worst-case scenario is
projected more than 50 years out, but environmental activists said Tuesday that
the time to start protecting Florida's agricultural lands from urban
development is now.
'This is a crisis. The land conversion of
the last 10 years is terrifying,' said Nathaniel Reed, chairman emeritus of
1000 Friends of Florida. 'I'm bullish enough to say that you have to start with
an idea. Now we need some constructive thinking about how. I'm past the stage
of 'when.' The 'when' is now.'
Last year, 1000 Friends commissioned a
University of Florida research group to develop a population distribution
scenario for the state. It projected a frightening 2060 scenario of paved
paradise, with coast-to-coast urbanization of the central state and full
build-out of Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and several other counties.
This year, 1000 Friends gathered conservationists,
developers, planners and agricultural leaders to come up with a plan to protect
vanishing natural lands and avoid that worst-case situation. Long on the spirit
of inclusion but short on detail, the 'Call to Action' unveiled Tuesday is designed
to avoid a do-nothing approach.
There is one element any strategy will
require: Money.
'The people of Florida have got to
recognize that there is a different future for the great agricultural lands of
Florida, but you have to be willing to pay to keep those wonderful lands in
agriculture,' Reed said.
How much? 'I have no idea,' he said at a capital news conference. 'If we give preservationists $100
million a year, $200 million a year, and say, 'Go and preserve the very best of
Florida agriculture,' that's what I'd like to do.'
That money could be used to purchase
easements, which would compensate farmers and ranchers for conserving the land
they would continue to own. That could combat the temptation of a much greater
payday from developers willing to pay a premium for rural land.
Peter Spyke, a
citrus grower in Martin and St. Lucie counties, said the old agricultural model
doesn't work because crops can be grown at much lower costs in countries such
as Mexico and Brazil. For Florida farmers to stay in business, they have to be
compensated for the environmental benefits their land provides.
For instance, cities and counties are
facing millions of dollars in costs related to cleaning up polluted waterways.
Some of those costs could be reduced by draining water from urban areas onto
citrus groves, where the nitrogen can be taken up by the trees.
Farmers could be paid or given other
financial incentives, such as tax breaks, to use their land as water-holding
and recharge areas.
'They're paying big bucks to build
reservoirs to attenuate stormwater for the Indian
River and the Everglades,' Spyke said. 'Instead, pay
the farmer. We can do it cheaper and better and it will accomplish the same
purpose.'
In Hillsborough County, environmental
officials are reworking wetlands rules to lighten the regulatory burden on
farmers with small, isolated wetlands on their property. Rick Garrity, executive director of the county's Environmental
Protection Commission, said farms provide a direct environmental benefit, and
the government should help farmers stay in business.
'We're better off green than paved,' Garrity said. 'The slower the rain falls off the land, the
more it can be absorbed onto permeable surfaces such as crops and forests.'
The 1000 Friends' 'Call to Action' also
endorses redirecting infrastructure spending to existing cities and downtowns,
re-examining growth management laws, and allowing greater densities only to
accomplish public benefits.
For decades, Florida's political
leadership, both Democrat and Republican, has used public money to guide growth
toward cheap, open land instead of rehabilitating cities, said Sam Poole,
former executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. The
sprawling development around Brandon, east of Tampa, is a perfect example, he
said.
'We can talk about regulations trying to
regulate growth,' Poole said, 'but until we start spending our capital dollars
on rehabilitating cities, until we make our public investments in those places,
we're not going to do anything about the consumption of land for private
development.'
Reporter Jerome R. Stockfisch
can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or jstockfisch@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or
msalinero@tampatrib.com.
Inspectors
Find Problems At Angelo's Aggregate Landfill
By NICOLA M. WHITE The
Tampa Tribune
Published: Oct 24, 2007
DADE CITY - The small landfill off
Enterprise Road is supposed to be the final resting place for cardboard, carpet
and other construction debris.
But during an unannounced visit by state
Department of Environmental Protection officials last week, inspectors found
"excessive amounts" of household garbage, "strong gas
odors" and "poor" cover on top of one of the landfill cells,
among other possible violations.
Angelo's Aggregate Materials, the
Largo-based company that operates the Class III landfill north of Enterprise
Road, has not received any fines or citations as a result of the findings.
However, the inspection report could damage the company's campaign to win
public support as it vies to build a 90-acre household trash landfill nearby.
Critics cite the DEP report as proof that
Angelo's isn't qualified to run a larger, more complicated operation.
"The main takeaway is that it's along
the lines of what we believed all along: That they're not really skilled at
running a landfill," said Carl Roth, spokesman for Protectors of Florida's
Legacy, a group of mostly east Pasco County residents opposed to the proposed
landfill.
"Their abilities as far as cutting
costs and things like that show how they operate."
Angelo's will clean up any problems found
by the DEP, said John Arnold, project manager for the landfill. He downplayed,
however, some of the noted problems, calling them "housekeeping
issues."
The report, for example, cited a tire seen
through the cover of one of the landfill cells.
Arnold said workers routinely pull out
hundreds of tires a day and that one must have gotten through.
"It is normal. It's within what's
allowed by the rules," he said. "We know the department will give us
a fair review when we get all the facts, and we're going to review them and
take it from there."
DEP spokeswoman Pamala
Vazquez said the department takes any violations seriously.
"Any time we find a facility that has
possible violations, and that means it's not in compliance with its permit,
it's serious," she said.
DEP inspectors found toys, comforters and
sheets, clothing, shoes, food containers and bottles and an Igloo cooler.
They also found a used oil filter and
patches of erosion.
In their Oct. 15 report, inspectors
checked "Not OK" to several questions, such as, "Are only
permitted wastes disposed at the facility?" and "Is the operation
plan substantially followed?"
DEP officials visit all Class III landfills
three times a year.
Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at
(813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.
Residents urge Charlotte leaders to to reject phosphate mining deal
By KATE SPINNER
kate.spinner@heraldtribune.com
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- Dozens of Charlotte residents urged their commissioners
Tuesday to stand firmly against a compact that would prevent the county from
opposing phosphate mines in the Charlotte Harbor watershed for the next 30
years.
Under the compact, which would end six years and $12 million worth of taxpayer
funded litigation, Mosaic Fertilizer is offering to abide by more stringent
environmental standards on its future mines and provide land for a drinking
water reservoir.
Residents, doubtful the county stands to benefit from Mosaic's proposal, said
they did not elect their commissioners to give up their rights and the rights
of future elected officials.
"The thought of you guys tying your fellow commissioners' hands for 30
years seems downright negligent," said Debra Highsmith,
a Punta Gorda resident.
With the price of phosphate soaring in response to a growing demand for
fertilizer, Mosaic is also hoping to get Sarasota and Lee counties and a
regional water provider to sign the same agreement. Sarasota officials will
hear advice from its attorneys and Mosaic on Thursday.
Commission members voted to allow county staff and experts to continue
negotiating with Mosaic and report back to the commission in two weeks.
More than 40 residents of Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee, Lee and DeSoto counties told Charlotte commissioners that the
proposed settlement is weak and puts the counties at a disadvantage.
They criticized several components of the compact, including:
The proposal not to mine within the 100-year floodplain applies only to current
floodplain maps, which are undergoing revision.
*
The design standards for clay settling ponds, which hold mine waste, are not
strong enough to weather a major hurricane.
*
The $50 million insurance policy Mosaic is
offering to cover the cost of an environmental catastrophe is not enough, based
on past cleanup costs following phosphate spills.
*
The language is too vague and promises no
substantial impacts to water quality in rivers and streams, rather than
specifics. Charlotte attorneys wanted language to guarantee that water quality
would not degrade at all.
*
"The counties need a new document with real concessions," said
Theresa Martin, a local small-business owner and citrus grower.
She said the counties need more information on how all of Mosaic's pending
mines will affect water quality and quantity in Charlotte Harbor. Mining
watchdogs have been calling for such a study for years.
"We need to start fresh with a new document once these impacts are
understood, not one written by Mosaic," Martin said.
Mosaic attorney Richard Mack said most of the provisions in the compact,
including the 30-year gag order on complaints or suits over Mosaic mines, were
proposed by county representatives when negotiations began in private last
year.
"If the idea is to reject the compact and force Mosaic into major
additional concessions, that may not be realistic," Mack said.
He added that many of the people who voiced their opinions on Tuesday would not
agree to any sort of compact.
"It is the very concept of reaching peace itself that is objectionable to
them," Mack said.
Lynn Seabird, a Boca Grande resident, told commission members that the
negotiations revolved around money and stemmed from the 62 percent increase in
the price of phosphate.
She said the money counties have spent on litigation has been well spent and
has resulted in "important and essential protections for our
watershed."
Charlotte commissioners on Tuesday said they had grown weary of the expensive
legal battles, regardless of the concessions gained.
Commissioner Tom D'Aprile said the county would not
have had to bear such costs if the regulators did not issue permits that did
not meet standards.
"Why is it our fight and only our fight when these organizations are
supposed be protecting us?" D'Aprile asked.
D'Aprile also said neighboring counties need to take
on a larger share of the litigation costs if they want the legal battle to
continue.
Heavy rains blamed for fish kill
By Karen
Voyles
Sun staff writer
7:38 am, October 23, 2007
The Santa Fe River has had one of its
largest fish kills on record, an incident state
wildlife officials said was part of a natural cycle.
On October 12, the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission began getting reports about hundreds of dead
fish appearing at about the same time the river level was rising.
"We had been getting a lot of rain
and it was making its way to the river through the swamps and forests,"
said Karen Parker, a regional spokeswoman for the commission. "Because it
had been so dry for the last couple of months, a lot of organic material leaves
and branches that
had started to decompose."
As the materials were being washed into
the river, they continued decomposing, a process that consumes the oxygen in
the riverwater.
"There just wasn't enough oxygen left
over for the all the fish," Parker said.
Officials said some residents along the
river saw fish leaping out of the water and gasping for oxygen. Thousands have
reportedly died.
"This is part of the natural cycle
and we expect it to end and the fish population to spring back over the next
year or two," Parker said.
If You Pay For The Risk, You Can Still Build Here
By BAIRD HELGESON, The
Published: October 23,
2007
TIERRA VERDE - When Howard Isaacs bought his
land in 1985, he used a machete to bushwhack his way
onto the property.
Isaacs and three other property owners eventually
cleared enough space among the mangroves, sabal palm
and red cedar to build waterfront homes. They did so knowing they would have to
build a road themselves and buy expensive private flood coverage for their
homes, some valued at nearly $2 million.
The 25-acre peninsula is included in the Coastal
Barrier Resources Act, known as COBRA. Lawmakers designed the act to ensure
taxpayers weren't subsidizing development on environmentally sensitive land by
withholding federal money for roads, bridges and government-backed flood
insurance.
As vacant waterfront land has become scarce,
some developers and wealthy property owners such as Isaacs have decided the
reward for living on these low coastal areas outweighs the loss of federal
subsidies.
In the
Isaacs initially wanted to fight for an
exemption from the law. He planned a campaign and contacted a local
congressman.
But then he realized his enclave had little use
for the subsidies.
The $250,000 cap on policies for the federal
flood program wouldn't come close to covering the luxury homes in the gated
community. Instead of a paved road, residents built one of crushed seashells that winds around 400-year-old oaks.
The coastal protection act includes land in six
areas of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, mostly property with little threat
of development such as Fort De Soto Park, Egmont Key and
But it is on the fringes of the protected areas
where the desire to build is most intensely in conflict with the law.
How The Coastal Act
Works
A few property owners in other areas of
In August, The Tampa Tribune reported that some
wealthy or politically connected landowners have persuaded Congress to exempt
land from the program, unlocking federal subsidies that make it easier and
cheaper to develop the property.
Congress created the coastal protection act 25
years ago in what was dubbed a free-market approach to conservation.
Rather than buying storm-prone coastal property,
the federal government cut off more than 50 subsidies to limit the incentives
to develop. Landowners could still build on the land, but they would have to
shoulder the cost of building and rebuilding after a storm.
In some cases, the act's restrictions have
helped local governments buy land for preservation.
Five years ago, Pat and Judy Milam of Gibsonton bought 54 acres along
The land is protected by the coastal protection
act and includes nearly a mile of shoreline.
Pat Milam, an environmental consultant, started
clearing Brazilian pepper that had grown so thick it made the land nearly
impassable on foot.
For the Milams, the
land provided what they thought could be their last chance to live a secluded
life in one of the fastest-growing areas of the county.
They wanted a home tucked deep in the mangroves,
far away from people and disruptions. It would have been surrounded by about
720 acres of the Cockroach Bay Preserve, owned mostly by
Over the years, the farmers and businesses had
turned area wetlands into vegetable fields and shell pits. In the past two
decades, the county and the Tampa Port Authority have bought much of land in
and around
When illness scrapped Pat Milam's plans to build
a home, a developer agreed to buy the land for $4.7 million, a healthy profit
on a $150,000 investment.
George Farrell, the developer, said he wanted to
trade the property with the county for land more suitable for an affordable
housing complex.
Farrell said the deal collapsed in 2005 because
of the county's low offer, an amount he couldn't recall. A private appraisal
commissioned about that time valued the land at $5.7 million.
Farrell never bought the property.
The Milams now have a
verbal agreement to sell the land to the county for $650,000 to add to the
preserve.
'In the end, we decided we'd like the county to
own it,' said Pat Milam, who discovered the property when he was hired to plant
native trees in the nearby preserve.
Kurt Gremley,
acquisition manager for
Lands Are A Potential
Windfall
John Delhorbe lives a
few miles northeast, on the shores of Little Cockroach Bay in Ruskin.
Delhorbe admits there's nothing special about the
three-bedroom, stucco home, but he considers the expansive waterfront view
priceless.
'We have complete privacy,' said Delhorbe, who works as a computer specialist in
Nobody told Delhorbe
about the coastal barrier act when he bought the home in 1989 for $170,000.
Delhorbe's home is on the line of the act's
He and other neighbors said they have watched
nearby waterfront lots sell for close to $1 million.
Delhorbe knows he is sitting on a fortune if he decides
to sell. He doubts the coastal barrier act would do much to deter someone who
had the will and money to build a high-rise condo.
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Evans, R-Del., an author of
the coastal protection act, worries that local property appraisers and real
estate agents generally don't know about the restrictions of the law.
'Most people have never heard of it,' said Evans,
who is building support for legislation to withhold federal money for massive
redevelopment on barrier islands. 'Yet, everybody wants subsidies.'
The opposite is true of Isaacs in Tierra Verde,
located just north of Fort De Soto Park.
These days, Isaacs
scoots around the property in his dusty golf cart with his Boston terrier,
Willie, removing vegetation and making sure the trees stay healthy.
Isaacs, who owns several lots in the area,
considers himself a conservationist.
He doesn't plan to sell to anyone with plans for
a condo tower. The homes are elevated about 16 feet above sea level; none have
swimming pools or tennis courts.
'I am protecting it from overdevelopment,' he
said.
From what Isaacs knows about the coastal
protection act, he figures he's doing exactly what the law was intended to do.
Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or
bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.
Petitioners
Want Lawsuit Inclusion
Lawyer
argues the law is ambiguous about clients' rights in zoning case.
Their lawyer, John Frost II in Bartow,
filed a motion in Circuit Court to intervene in the lawsuit between Lakeland
developer Highland Cassidy and the city. Frost's home is next to the proposed
Wind Meadows South subdivision.
In its lawsuit against the city, Highland Cassidy argued that state law
prohibits residents from using the petition process in zoning cases such as
this one.
Chief Judge David Langford issued a preliminary order Oct. 8 stopping the city
from validating the petitions, which contain more than 2,200 signatures, until
the legal question about the state law can be addressed.
In his motion, Frost argued that those sponsoring the petitions should be able
to participate in litigation concerning its validity.
In a second motion, on the assumption that the intervention is granted, Frost
maintained that the city's charter allows residents to use the petition and
referendum process to rescind the zoning approval, despite what state laws
says.
Finally, Frost said in his motion that the state law cited by Highland Cassidy
is ambiguous and requires judicial clarification.
Bartow lawyer Jonathan Stidham, representing the city
in this litigation, sent a letter to the court saying Bartow had no objection
to allowing the residents to intervene.
The residents are trying to stop Highland Cassidy from building 835 houses on a
272-acre site along
Frost and his wife, Terry, were among the first to challenge development in
that largely rural area, but they live outside the city limits and weren't
eligible to gather signatures in the petition effort.
Under the city's charter, only 10 residents may be authorized to witness
signatures in this kind of petition drive.
Called electors, the nine who are parties to the lawsuit are Paula White, John
R. Peterson Jr., Trish Pfeiffer, Wayne Lewis, Kristen Bloodworth,
Theresa Pickard, Sheran Walker, Nell Nelson and
Patricia Hall.
The 10th elector, Pam Wyant, said Monday that she
couldn't be reached for permission to include her name when they lawsuit was
being drafted, so she wasn't included as an elector in Frost's motions.
She said she would have joined the lawsuit if she could have.
The group had to get the signatures of 1,688 voters, representing 20 percent of
those registered for the city's election last April.
If enough signatures are valid, the City Commission will be required to
reconsider its vote approving the Highland Cassidy zoning.
If the zoning is again approved, the issue will go to a binding voter
referendum and the City Commission will be obligated to follow the will of the
voters.
Should that referendum block the zoning, Highland Cassidy could submit a
revised zoning proposal or sue the city for denying its zoning request. Damages
from a lawsuit could cost the city millions of dollars.
In his motion, Frost said, the nine electors thought they were doing the right
thing.
"Citizens relied, in good faith, on the (city's ordinances,) working to
exhaustion in the belief that if they followed the City Code, the petition
drive would be valid," he wrote.
Frost also argued that Highland Cassidy won't be harmed if the signatures are
verified.
"The most 'adverse' action (Highland Cassidy) could face is that there
will be enough petitions for the City Commission to vote or to hold a (voter)
referendum," he said.
"Certainly, (Highland Cassidy) does not want to suggest that a normal
course of the political process imminently harms or damages (Highland
Cassidy's) interest," he wrote.
A hearing date in the lawsuit has not been set.
[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be
reached at
suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com
or 863-533-9070. ]
Georgia's dry, but guv
sounds like a wet hen
By FRED GRIMM
Recriminations have been flowing out of
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has been
squealing like a stuck pig, claiming
The
Down in Apalachicola, the nasty talk
out of
POLITICAL MUSSEL?
Perdue and the North Georgia crowd are
upset because the Corps makes sure that at least 5,000 cubic feet of water per
second flows out of
Perdue claims the Corps only persists
in draining
TO HECK WITH US
But sound bites flowing out of Georgia
sound like lies in Apalachicola. More than mussels would be endangered
if
But Perdue declared a disaster in
Other natural disasters -- tornadoes,
hurricanes, earthquakes, floods -- inspire neighborly outpourings of sympathy,
charity and caravans of relief trucks. Droughts inspire something else.
''Droughts bring out the worst,'' said
Mark Svoboda of the
YEARS OF NEGLECT
Perdue told National Public Radio
Monday evening that drastic, unneighborly measures
were necessary because
Not since 1988 anyway. But the drought
of 2007 hit after 19 years of unmitigated growth with no planning for the water
demands of so many more people. It was as if water was an unlimited resource.
It wasn't. Not in metro
''Somebody down the road is going to
have to make some tough decisions,'' Svoboda said. ``You can't keep hooking up
more people to the water supply.''
Proposed area plant may join bottled
water debate
By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
A plant proposed in
"It gives us a backup so we don't
lose 30 to 50 jobs and don't hurt the economy of the whole area," he said.
The plant, which Cheeseman
said he's still months from formally proposing, would be at least the second in
the region to bottle "purified" tap water. Since last year, Creative
Water Concepts has bottled purified tap water at a plant in Williston.
About 44 percent of the bottled water
sold in 2006 was purified water, said Gary Hemphill of the Beverage Marketing
Corp. Unlike spring water, purified water can come from municipal sources or
groundwater.
The water is then distilled or put
through a process such as reverse osmosis that can remove contaminants.
High-profile examples of purified water include PepsiCo's Aquafina
and Coca-Cola's Dasani brands.
Hemphill said the purified water
segment of the bottling business is growing. Companies are finding reduced
operating costs and lack of customer preference for particular types of bottled
water, he said.
"At this point it really doesn't
appear it's a huge factor in consumers' buying decisions," he said.
PepsiCo announced this summer it would
label Aquafina as tap water as a concession to
critics. The company uses municipal sources such as the city of
In
Spring water is different from other
types of groundwater in coming from underground surfaces found to directly feed
springs.
While companies can gain a marketing
advantage by bottling spring water, they also open themselves to criticism. The
group Our Santa Fe has rallied local residents to oppose water-bottling plants
because of their potential to reduce spring flow and cause other environmental
impacts. In
Williston City Manager Jim Coleman said
the fact that the plant uses municipal water helped avoid controversy. Unlike
other bottling plants, he said, Creative Water pays the city utility rates for
using the water.
"They're a good utility customer,
they've created jobs (and) so far they're a good corporate citizen," he
said.
Creative Waters bottles water for
home-delivery services and customers such as the Breakers Hotel and Resort in
"It's just having a little element
of class," he said. "It's promoting their brand even more."
The company also has bottling plants in
The plant is located in the old Dixie
Lily Foods building off
Cheeseman is considering a
location on U.S. 27 southeast of
George said he would prefer a bottling
plant on the site to industrial uses similar to the nearby cement plant.
"I'd rather have water trucks
coming up and down our roads than the cement trucks we have now," he said.
Cheeseman has a permit to pump
100,000 gallons per day from Santa Fe Springs. Water from the spring would be
trucked to the plant to be bottled along with purified municipal water.
Our
But group member Merrillee
Malwitz-Jipson said she's less concerned about his
use of municipal water.
While she said municipal sources
drawing from groundwater might also impact the environment, the group is focused
on pumping that could directly reduce spring flow and harm habitat in the
river.
"Our biggest concern is the
river," she said.
Cheeseman would need to seek
changes to his permit with the Suwannee River Water Management District. The
permit now requires a bottling plant to be built on a neighboring property, but
a district official said changes could be made.
"It's not written in stone,"
said Jon Dinges, the district's director of resource
management. He said Cheeseman could get changes to
the permit if he shows they are reasonable, beneficial and in the public
interest.
Cheeseman said the plant could
eventually employ 30 to 50 people. He said he'd be contributing to the town
through municipal water fees and also give money to
groups promoting water quality.
He expressed frustration with critics
of water bottling. He pointed to figures showing bottling represents 1 percent
of groundwater pumping in the district and said bottlers have a vested interest
in protecting groundwater from pollution.
"The water bottling industry . . .
is one of the cleanest industries that exist," he said.
Nathan Crabbe can be reached at
352-338-3176 or crabben@gville sun.com.
ISSUE: Commissioner Bartell wants to
discuss a desalination plant.
By Chronicle
As the region plans its future water supplies, desalination is certainly one
option, and one that should be explored, particularly at a time when other
water districts are looking around the region for new sources of water.
However, because of the technology involved and the energy consumed in a
desalination plant, water from these plants costs significantly more than water
from other sources such as groundwater and reservoirs.
With our coastal location, we could produce desalinated water for our own use
long term, and if neighboring counties are looking for new sources of water, we
could offer them desalinated water as an alternative to our groundwater or
river water.
However, even as we work toward development of a desalination plant, we need to
look hard at how we can extend our existing water supply through conservation.
Our county commission has long talked conservation, but has done little to
really encourage it. Since lawn watering and irrigation account for up to half
the water use of a typical home, increasing the county’s
focus on conservation is cheap way to extend our present water supply.
It is encouraging that county officials say they are now developing stiffer
conservation enforcement measures, including working with the sheriff’s
office to use citizen patrols to identify and warn water restriction violators
and dedicating a code enforcement official to enforcing watering restrictions.
The county should also accelerate the development of wastewater use for
irrigation on golf courses and other large areas, encourage Florida-friendly
landscaping, get serious about limiting the amount of trees that can be cut and
replaced with water-consumptive grass, and adopt conservation rates for water
use that charge users more for higher levels of consumption.
The era of cheap, abundant water has long been over in areas to our south, and
it is rapidly ending for us. We need to be making smart choices now to get the
maximum benefit from our current supply while we develop new sources that will
assure us fresh water to support our community in the future.
Developers abandon taxing-district request
Tuesday, October 23,
2007
STUART — Martin
County's slow-growth advocates are celebrating word that plans for a special
taxing district in a rural area west of Interstate 95 have been withdrawn.
The developers of the
proposed Polo Club and Dressage neighborhoods, two projects on 20-acre lots,
dropped their application with the state to create the district, would have
allowed them to levy taxes on the residents to build roads, utility lines and
drainage ditches.
The consultants for
the developers said they dropped their call for a taxing district because
residents and commissioners had lined up against it.
"It had to do
with protests and
Slow-growth advocates
bitterly opposed the district idea when it surfaced in April, saying it would
make it easier to the developers to incorporate the 1,740 acres into a town and
skirt the county's growth rules.
"This is another
victory for the environment and
The consultants in
April said the developers were not trying to incorporate the land and denied
that the district would make incorporating any easier.
"It would have
been one more layer of government," said County Commissioner Sarah Heard.
"Hopefully, we'll continue to oppose these districts successfully."
The developers of the
Polo Club and Dressage projects would be allowed to file a new application for
a taxing district next year, but Wodraska said he did
not think they had any interest in trying again.
Global warming in
Jack Chang | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: October 22,
2007 06:50:10 PM
SAN JOSE DE MAIPO,
Giant glaciers are disappearing.
Mudslides are becoming more common. Snow no longer falls in the spring,
replaced instead by tepid rains.
Last May, an entire lake in southern
“Without a doubt, global warming
is the cause,” said Gino Casassa, a researcher
at the nonprofit
The answers have been coming in at an
alarming rate as scientists scramble to record the changes happening up and
down the country’s mountainous spine.
Chilean researchers have found that
more than half of the 120 glaciers they monitor are shrinking,
with many disappearing at twice the rate recorded just a decade ago. That
includes glaciers near the capital of
In central
Average temperatures in the region over
the past century have risen by half a degree to 1.26 degrees over the past
century, enough to melt glaciers and snow.
The rising temperatures have produced a
rise in water levels in the short term, but are likely to result in long-term
shortages when the glaciers are gone, Casassa said.
Adding to
“It’s like we’re
killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” said Jorge Quinteros, 75, a veteran alpinist who researches snow and
water levels for
The damage isn’t limited to
“What’s happening in
The changes have been both big and
small.
Mario Martinez, 82, said the weather at
his mountain lodge in the shadow of the San Jose volcano in central Chile is
the same as it was — cold — when he first arrived 30 years ago. In
fact, the worst winter he remembers hit recently, in 2002, when snow nearly
buried his two-story house.
But the volcano is often no longer
snowcapped, he said, “while the bottom part is
covered.”
Jose Manquez
said declining snowfall has cut the ski season from three months to one month
at the Lagunillas resort he helps manage. New
snow-making machines, especially on lower-altitude runs, are his only hope for
drawing customers.
The country’s mining industry,
which produces about two-thirds of Chilean exports, is researching new ways of
doing business, said mining minister Karen Poniachik.
Miners use vast amounts of water to crush, screen, wash and extract minerals,
and disputes over water in the country’s dry north, where many of
“The availability of water is
definitely a concern,” she said.
For Quinteros,
who has spent decades roaming
He remembers when the foothills above
“I see the changes every time
I’m in the mountains,” Quinteros said.
“The impact of all this has been impossible not to see.”
State fertilizer law not good enough,
Martin says
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
STUART — The
state's new law controlling phosphorus in fertilizer is not good enough for
County commissioners told staffers today
to revive a proposed county ordinance that would ban the sale or use of
fertilizer in
But state officials asked the county to
put its law on hold last year while the state created a statewide phosphorus
ban. The ban, passed earlier this year, limits fertilizers across the state to
containing only 2 percent phosphorus.
Martin County Commission Chairman
Michael DiTerlizzi said that after all the waiting
"Their rule is a little
weak," DiTerlizzi said. "Their intentions
were right but they didn't go far enough." He told the county's water
resource manager, Paul Millar "You can dust off the original ordinance we
worked on." Millar said that one of the reasons the county put its law on
hold originally is the state would be responsible for the cost of enforcing the
statewide law.
When the ordinance came up last year,
opponents said that a single-county ban would not be effective because
residents could go to adjoining counties that do not have bans and buy
fertilizer with phosphorus. County officials would have to catch them using it
on their lawns.
St. Lucie County and
Millar suggested that the county could
try a different approach, similar to what
School impact fees set to soar
Developers warn that recommended hikes
in
David Damron
Erika Hobbs and Dave Weber, Sentinel
Staff Writers
October 23, 2007
Developers are warning that the state's
struggling housing market would be further crippled if
They're asking
County staff members, however, support the increases and are pressing ahead for
a vote today.
In Seminole, home builders oppose an effort to nearly quadruple the existing
school fees levied on new homes, saying the jump from $1,384 to $5,068 on a
single-family home is too drastic. The fees haven't climbed since they were
first set in 1992.
After previous delays, it's unclear whether the Seminole increase has enough
political support.
Both fights today pit home builders against school leaders, with county
officials who control the fees in the middle.
For years, builders have grudgingly tolerated the fees used by local
governments to help offset the added public costs that new homes place on
roads, schools and parks. Home values soared, so the additional costs could be
added onto a house's sale price with little impact on the market.
But with
Buck said continued increases in local impact fees could keep
At the same time, state lawmakers are pushing to lower property taxes at the
local level, also in part to help fix the slumping housing sector.
City and county leaders are already warning that they could make up for any
lost revenues by increasing user, impact and other fees to cover tax-revenue
losses.
So far, local school leaders avoided the tax hits that most local governments
absorbed this year, but another looming property-tax-cut threat in
"Every day they delay our impact fees is another day our students lose a
day where we can't build [new schools]," Orange School Board member Joie Cadle said.
If
However,
The current
Under its construction program,
Local home builders are sparring with the School Board over two key issues that
could lower the impact fees. They have been debating how many portable
classrooms the board is willing to let remain on campuses during the next 10
years. And recently, the association asked for reduced fees because they
contend some of the money is used for renovating old campuses.
Developers say that the state attorney general should weigh in on the legal
dispute, and that home builders would abide by whatever ruling emerged.
"We had supported the impact fees," said Carmen Dominguez, president
of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando. "What we're looking for
is just a delay."
Ardaman said she was "disappointed" that
home builders filed the last-minute fee delay. "It's just
disingenuous," she said.
Tanya Caldwell and Claudia Zequeira of the
Sentinel staff contributed to this report. David Damron
can be reached at ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311. Erika Hobbs can
be reached at ehobbs@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6226. Dave Weber can be
reached at dweber@orlandosentinel.com or 407-320-0915.
Bartow Leaning Toward
Openness
By Suzie Schottelkotte
The Ledger
BARTOW | After months of grappling with
the issue, the City Commission is poised to make a decision regarding
discussions about city business with residents outside of a commission meeting
that involve land use and zoning issues.
The five commissioners appear ready to opt for full disclosure instead of
silence.
Usually, discussions with residents aren't a problem, if they are related to
poor service or interest in a
But problems surface when those conversations shift to land use and zoning
issues, which most cities handle differently than other issues.
In those cases, commission hearings preceding those decisions are handled much
like court cases and are said to be quasi-judicial.
For that reason, commissioners must limit their decisions strictly to the
evidence presented during a hearing, much like a judge.
Recognizing the quandary that leaves for elected commissioners, the state
Legislature has left local governmental boards with three options:
Not having any communication with constituents about land use and zoning
issues.
Compelling commissioners to disclose any written or oral communication they've
had before a vote is taken.
Enacting a policy that turns the proceedings into judicial
hearings by swearing in witnesses and allowing cross-examination.
Bartow's city commissioners have decided to go with
the second option, which will require them to disclose who they talked with,
the substance of the conversation and any personal investigation they did on
their own.
Commissioner Leo Longworth said he welcomes the resolution.
"What I have been doing is not talking," he said, "but that's
been hard to do in Bartow."
Longworth said he tries to explain to residents that he can't discuss issues
that the commission hasn't resolved.
"They don't want to hear about that," he said. "They want to
tell you how they feel."
Mayor Brian Hinton said it will take an ordinance or resolution to enact the
policy, and commissioners instructed Interim City Attorney Sean Parker to
prepare a draft document for their review at the Nov. 5 meeting.
"Whatever we decide to do," Longworth said, "we have to make it
clear and where all of us are on the same wave."
[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be
reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]
Natural
The
Published: October 23, 2007
It's not just land being developed that
pumps money into
This is direct economic impact - money
spent by nonlocal park visitors and by park operations.
The state's 161 parks, the study found, generated 18,700 jobs and attracted 19.5 million
visitors.
Among the parks that had the greatest
economic impact were
Preserving springs, rivers, beaches and
wilderness is not just good environmental policy, it
can be a smart economic policy as well.
We hope state and local officials as
well as landowners will consider DEP's finding and recognize that sometimes the
biggest payoff from natural land might come from simply leaving it alone.
DBCC seeks agreement to put birds in
harm's way but expand their ideal habitat
Kristen Reed
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 23, 2007
DELTONA
Three families of
DBCC will plow down tall trees and pull out palmettos, allowing the desert-like
scrub to thrive. That will create an ideal habitat for the scrub--jays now so
the school can eventually clear most of the land for development.
The efforts should increase the scrub-jay population and allow for more genetic
diversity among the species in the area, county officials said. In the end,
even when the college expands, there will be more land suitable for the
scrub-jay -- and more scrub-jays -- than exists today.
The agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service do not allow direct harm
to the birds, but the college would not face fines or prosecution if a bird is
unintentionally killed or maimed. The goal is to allow development while
finding a way to sustain suitable habitat for the blue and gray crestless bird.
"It usually ends up being a win-win situation for everybody, including the
species," Fish and Wildlife spokesman Chuck Underwood said.
DBCC is seeking a "take permit" and something new -- a so-called
safe-harbor agreement, which outlines measures the college must take to
increase and maintain suitable scrub-jay habitat in the near future.
Scrub-jays prefer desert-like, dry and sandy scrub-oak habitats. And much of
that type of land has become prime real estate in recent years, causing the
population decline.
DBCC's land is adjacent to Lyonia Preserve, one of
the largest scrub-jay habitats in Central Florida and the largest in
There, 140 of the songbirds have thrived on 360 acres, thanks in part to
conservation efforts by the county similar to those DBCC is
willing to make.
The college owns 100 acres on
Right now, only 11 acres of land are suitable for the bird. Before the
build-out, DBCC will create and maintain more than 70 acres where the scrub-jay
can survive. In the long term, most of that land will be lost to construction,
but the college will keep roughly 20 acres for conservation.
The build-out will come in several phases, and Steven Eckman,
the school's facilities-planning director, said the next building will not be
constructed before 2009.
An active birdwatcher was pleased the short-term plan would increase suitable
habitat near a thriving scrub-jay population. But he was concerned the
agreement ultimately could be a bad deal for the birds.
"At this point, I can't see any downside environmentally," said David
Hartgrove, president and conservation chair of the
Halifax River Audubon Society. But Hartgrove said
environmentalists will have to see how much land they can save when the school
decides to develop further.
The Fish and Wildlife Service welcomes comments from the public about
Kristen Reed can be reached at kreed@orlandosentinel.com
Thousand
BY JAMES DEAN
VIERA –
Commissioners Jackie Colon and Helen Voltz changed
their votes from a month ago, ensuring the $3.2 million purchase had more than
the four votes needed for approval.
After a lunch break, commissioners will consider a larger purchase of land for
conservation. The $25 million deal for more than 2,000 acres near
FPL willing to pay to please public
over location of power lines
By FRANK GLUCK
frank.gluck@heraldtribune.com
But that extra cash is buying the energy giant something utilities rarely
acquire: the strong support of area residents, environmentalists and some
developers.
Those allies will come in handy for FPL as it begins its legal battle over the
power line route against another big regional player -- Lakewood Ranch
developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch.
SMR has proposed two other routes that avoid an existing upscale subdivision
and future housing projects the firm has planned.
FPL's plan is backed by people in eastern Manatee and northern
An administrative law judge began hearing arguments in the case Monday. The
legal back-and-forth is expected to continue for about three weeks.
FPL plans to spend $25 million to run the 100-foot-high, 230-kilovolt lines in
a zig-zagging path south from
Lawyers for the environmental group ManaSota-88, several community groups and
developers such as Pat Neal argued in favor of the FPL plan Monday. They
believe it will affect far fewer residents and avoid more wetlands.
"Very seldom do we find ourselves on the same side as a utility,"
said ManaSota-88 attorney Barbara Hines. "This time, we firmly believe FPL
got it right."Much of the FPL-backed route would take the power lines
through undeveloped SMR property.
By doing so, it would avoid a large number of existing communities, such as
Panther Ridge and the Bern Creek subdivision farther east.
But it will also run through the center of the property south of
SMR says its project has been in the planning stages for years and is included
in
The power line route also would take the lines to the edge of SMR's
When you consider those planned developments, ultimately more homes will be
hurt by FPL's route, said SMR attorney Doug Hall.
"You have an opportunity to decrease the impact to the environment and
impact the public," Hall told administrative law judge, Bram Canter.
ManaSota-88 believes that building in those undeveloped areas gives FPL the
flexibility to sidestep a large number of wetlands along the way.
The SMR routes, which travel along existing roadways, give construction crews
less room to erect the poles, meaning it would be more difficult to avoid
sensitive habitat along the way, ManaSota-88 said.
For developers like Neal, the issue is simple: The FPL route avoids a
development he has planned along
SMR has proposed two other routes that would extend certain segments of the
power lines farther east.The developer has even
offered to donate $5 million to $6 million worth of land to FPL if the company
changes its proposed power line route.
SMR's Hall also noted that one of its alternate routes would cost FPL millions
of dollars less because it would follow County Road 675, State Road 70,
It is an argument that does not carry much weight with FPL, whose annual
revenues are nearly $16 billion.
A few million dollars here or there does not make that much of a difference,
said company spokesman Mel Klein.
Winning community support was most important, said Klein. The company spent
months gathering community input before proposing its route.
"We never intended for the numbers to be the only drivers here,"
Klein said. "It is only a factor."
Residents will have a chance to weigh into the debate during a public hearing
at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Any route approved by Judge Canter will then go to the Cabinet and Gov. Charlie
Crist for final approval.
Inspector:
Landfill stinks
But the operator, which wants to
expand, says the report doesn't show any violations.
By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published October 23, 2007
DADE CITY - A state inspection last
week found a string of problems at a Dade City landfill operated by Angelo's
Aggregate Materials, including "excessive amounts" of unauthorized
waste, odor levels that reach beyond what they're supposed to, and allegations
that the company hasn't "substantially followed" its permitted
operational plan.
Landfill opponents say the inspection
results for the "Class 3" landfill at
Angelo's officials say the state
Department of Environmental Protection's Oct. 15 findings are preliminary, and
that these problems are typical of all landfills.
"Every inspection has things that
they write about," said John Arnold, the company's project manager.
"It's not an indication that we're bad."
State officials won't say how typical
these problems are, but they are firm that they would prefer no infractions at
all.
"By the nature of having a permit,
DEP expects the permittee to meet the criteria of the
permit," said department spokeswoman Pamala
Vazquez. "We have violations at this time, and they must be addressed
immediately."
Officials who conducted the inspection
weren't available for comment, Vazquez said. She said Angelo's has seven days
to respond to the department's allegations, and the department expects an
answer this week.
The inspection is part of a thrice-a-year
check that state officials conduct.
In her report, inspector Melissa Madden
noted what she observed. Among other items:
"Unacceptable waste was observed
... including excessive amounts of household Class 1 garbage, toys,
comforter/sheets, clothing, shoes, food containers/bottles and 1 Igloo cooler.
One whole tire was seen in cell 4 through the cover."
The cover on a landfill was
"poor," she observed. She saw unacceptable erosion and cells not
filled according to the permitted sequence. Dump loads weren't being sorted
before they were mixed together and compacted. Dumps were quickly moved
"to accommodate more room for trucks to dump," she noted.
"Exposed waste (including one
tire, shoes, mattresses) was observed," she
wrote. "Strong gas odors were observed in this area. Offsite odors were
observed at southern boundary at 8:51 a.m."
As a result, the three-member state
team gave "Not OK" findings on key questions of the report,
including: "Is the operation plan substantially followed?"; "Are
only permitted waste types disposed at facility?"; and "Are all
specific conditions in the permit being followed?"
Landfill opponents say the report
confirms their suspicions of Angelo's abilities to handle waste.
"It's much less rigorous to
operate a Class 3 than a Class 1," said Carl Roth, spokesman for
Protectors of Florida's Legacy. "If there's illegal
materials in their Class 3, should we anticipate illegal materials in
their Class 1? If that's what DEP saw, what else didn't they see? What else is
buried there?"
"The infractions essentially
support everything we've been saying all along," he said.
But the company downplayed the state
findings.
"They have mischaracterized these
things as infractions,"
Angelo's pulls out
"container-loads of tires" from the dump every day,
He said the landfill's gas monitoring
system never picked up odor issues.
"We don't believe there were any
odors," he said. "It could have come from an adjacent chicken
farm."
On cells being filled out of sequence,
he said Angelo's thought it had "verbal authorization" from the
department allowing them to reroute a truck path over one cell in order to get
to another.
"We're getting clarification now
from DEP," he said. "They're just being very strict - and they should
be."
Angelo's has been fined before for
infractions at the same landfill: $1,250 in 2004 and $3,500 in 2006. At a
A county official who used to direct
utilities operations, Bob Tietz, told the Pasco Times
in January that such infractions were "housekeeping" in nature.
State officials say they are still
going through the reporting process.
"This isn't over," Vazquez
said. "We haven't decided whether we issue a warning letter or how else
we're going to move forward."
Chuin-Wei Yap can be
reached at (813)909-4613 or
"cyap@sptimes.com.
By TONY DORIS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The FBI official overseeing the bureau's corruption probes in Palm Beach County says his newly buttressed staff is keeping busy with "good, corroborated allegations," many centered on land deals.
"Everyone is actively engaged," said Timothy Delaney, assistant
special agent in charge of white-collar crime from Key West to Vero Beach.
|
|
The FBI this year shifted six agents and one supervisory position from Miami to West Palm Beach, most of them to investigate public corruption, the office's top priority, he said. That gives the office 16 agents focused on white-collar crime, including corruption, cyber crime and health-care fraud, he said.
Whereas white-collar crime investigators typically follow the money, the shift in manpower stems from an effort to follow land deals, he said. Unlike Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Palm Beach still has a lot of farmland and other open tracts, and much of the area's corruption is tied to development-related transactions, Delaney said.
Since 2006, federal prosecutors have won guilty pleas from two county commissioners, two West Palm Beach city commissioners and a power broker attorney, mostly for acts related to real estate. That prompted the increase in investigative staff.
The current real estate slowdown has had no effect on the level of corruption investigations, Delaney said.
"If you see a thread and pull it out," more and more may emerge, Delaney said. "We're in that mode."
The additional staff also allows the bureau to do more public speaking and other community outreach, which in turn encourages people to come forward and report corruption that they otherwise might just see as a normal and intractable part of doing business, Delaney added.
"Having more agents allows us to get more access to communities."
Tips also come in from people arrested for crimes unrelated to corruption - drug charges, for instance - in hopes their help will result in lighter sentences, he said.
In pursuing public corruption, the bureau does not limit itself to investigating public officials, but also probes others involved in the crimes, he said.
With most classes of crime, such as mortgage or credit card fraud, the FBI can decline to investigate a case. But federal authorities in South Florida place such a high priority on public corruption that the bureau is required to investigate "every instance," unless the U.S. Attorney's Office determines otherwise, Delaney said.
He encouraged anyone with evidence of public corruption to report it. "We take corruption investigations very seriously," Delaney said.
Delaney's comments echo those U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta made at recent speaking engagements. With the convictions of former County Commissioners Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell and former West Palm Beach City Commissioners Ray Liberti and Jim Exline under his belt, Acosta vowed earlier this month to press on with public corruption prosecutions.
"We are continuing to pursue and prosecute these types of cases," Acosta told hundreds of lawyers at the annual Palm Beach County Bar Association's bench-bar conference.
Montgomery Advertiser editorial
Georgia tries to stem water flow
October 23, 2007
Listen to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and you would think Atlanta
residents are being deprived of water to drink just so some endangered mussels
downstream won't be harmed.
But we would remind the Georgia governor that in addition to
mussels, there are people living downstream from Atlanta -- including people in
Alabama -- and that they, too, are suffering from an extended drought.
Perdue is trying hard to frame the issue in terms of people vs.
not-very-cuddly animals such as mussels, and the national news media appears to
be buying into his version of things. But the sad fact is that reduced flows of
water affect people and their livelihoods in Georgia and Alabama and Florida.
Every ounce of water that Perdue succeeds in diverting to Atlanta
means that a little less water reaches Alabama.
While Perdue can stand on what land that was formerly covered by
the waters of Lake Lanier to hold his press conference calling for less water
to be released downstream, the same sort of bare earth can be found in Alabama
in Lake Martin.
Perdue also points to new water conservation steps being taken in
Georgia because of the water shortage. But what he does not point out is that
most of these conservation measures were imposed only in the past few days. For
years, Georgia has refused to face the fact that unfettered growth in the
Atlanta area and the resulting skyrocketing water use has stressed water
supplies.
Perhaps the most egregious example of how Georgia has ignored this
looming problem is that earlier this month, the theme park at Stone Mountain
started using snow-making machines to build a "snow mountain." Only
after the project was ridiculed in the press did the theme park stop what would
have eventually used 1.2 million gallons of water.
For more than a decade now, Alabama and Florida have been involved
in negotiations and lawsuits with Georgia over water-sharing policies. But
Georgia's elected leadership has stonewalled those negotiations, apparently
thinking that metro Atlanta's water needs trump anything downstream.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley wrote President Bush Monday asking him to
deny the request by Perdue to give Georgia the ability to stop the release of
water from Lake Lanier outside Atlanta to communities downstream in Alabama.
Riley pointed out that Perdue's request to further reduce flows
from Georgia lakes would have "dire consequences on people and their
livelihoods downstream in Alabama." He said it could possibly even force the
closure of the Farley Nuclear Plant and other industries on the Chattahoochee
River that depend of an adequate flow of water.
We are sure that Perdue's histrionics play well with the people of
Georgia and some of the national news media based in Atlanta. But Georgia is
not the only place suffering from the effects of drought, and the interests of
Atlanta are not the only interests that federal officials should take into
account.
Forest Co. Investors Eye Lagging High-Value Land Sales
October
22, 2007: 04:50 PM EST
As U.S.
forest-products companies start reporting third-quarter results, investors will
be carefully looking for signs of trouble after several firms announced delays
in the sale of high-value lands.
Spurred
on by profit-hungry hedge and pension funds, these companies have been selling
land near desirable urban, conservation or recreational areas to boost earnings
over the past two years.
Some
company executives have credited these sales of "highest and best
use," or HBU, lands for smoothing shortfalls in lumber, pulp or paper
earnings. But the credit-market crisis and housing slowdown may have slowed
demand for these lands, prompting delays in sales.
"It's
a material item at a number of companies," said Paul Latta,
an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen. "It's fair
to say there's probably some vulnerability in earnings there."
Earlier
this month, International Paper Inc. (IP) cut its forecast for earnings to
below the average if Wall Street expectations of 63 cents a share because it
expects third-quarter land sales to come in around $100 million - $10 million
to $40 million short of previous expectations.
Meanwhile,
Plum Creek Timber Co. (PCL) on Oct. 4 said that several land sales expected to
close in the third quarter will now close in the fourth, cutting third-quarter
real estate segment sales to $94 million, down from initial projections of
between $110 million and $112 million. The company reported earnings Monday.
St. Joe
Co. (JOE), which has significant timber interests, announced a company restructuring
and said it would push harder to sell its lands in Florida, one of the states
hardest hit by the housing downturn.
"Given
the tightening of credit conditions in September, it is not surprising to see
some 'pushing out' of land sale closures," JP Morgan analyst Claudia Shank
wrote in a recent note to clients.
Some
industry watchers are even concerned about outright cancellations.
Some
forest products firms are on the spot because they bought cheap timberland
decades ago that has increased in value sharply in the last ten years. But,
investors don't see much profit unless the land is sold.
HBU land
sales have provided a lucrative way to unlock some of that value and contribute
to the revenue stream for companies including Weyerhaeuser (WY), Potlatch Corp.
(PCH), Rayonier Inc. (RYN), MeadWestvaco (MWV) and Temple-Inland (TIN).
"The
pressure on the companies to do something with their HBU land has been much
higher in the last few years with the strong real estate market and a savvy
group of institutional investors highly aware of land values that seek out
companies that had this hidden asset," Latta
said.
Companies
responded with billions of dollars in asset sales.
International
Paper undertook a major restructuring, selling more than five million of its
6.8 million acres of U.S. timberlands in April of last year to focus on paper
production. IP has reserved the remainder of its lands to sell at maximize
value, said Amy Sawyer, an IP spokeswoman, declining to elaborate on any land
transactions in the third quarter.
At Plum
Creek, which owns or manages 8.2 million acres of commercial timberlands, HBU
property has made up a growing percent of revenue. In 2000, revenue from real
estate sales and land totaled $98 million. For 2007, Plum Creek forecast real estate
segment revenue of $330 million to $350 million, a number now expected to come
in at the low end of expectations. Plum Creek's HBU lands include tracts in
northern Florida, southern coastal Georgia and Montana, in addition to the
Pacific Northwest.
Plum
Creek spokeswoman Robin Keegan declined to give details about the delayed
sales, but said transactions can be delayed for various reasons, including land
inspections, title searches and closing dates.
Late
Monday, Plum Creek said it earned $59 million, or 34 cents a share, on revenue
of $407 million in the third quarter, compared with $92 million,
or 51 cents a share, on revenue of $454 million a year ago.
Spokesmen
for Weyerhaeuser and Potlatch declined to comment on their land sales, citing a
quiet period ahead of their earnings releases. Spokesmen for St. Joe and
Rayonier couldn't immediately be reached.
Weyerhaeuser's
HBU land sales average about $100 million a year. Potlatch at year-end 2006 had
identified about 250,000 acres of non-core land with high recreational value to
sell over the next decade.
For
Rayonier, a deal to sell 3,100 acres in Florida to an industrial buyer brought
$46.6 million, raising the company's third-quarter operating income by a
projected 54 cents a share. The company now expects earnings to be between 83
cents and 88 cents a share.
Investors
are also watching for any signs of a slowdown in timberland sales, which have
been strong recently as pension funds and other institutional investors look
for long-term stability and profits.
Analysts
say that's unlikely, at least for now.
-By Paula
L. Stepankowsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 360-636-2008; paula.stepankowsky@dowjones.com
Daytona Beach News Journal blog
Hometown money
Make no mistake: The Florida Hometown Democracy
constitutional-amendment fight has high stakes.
Three groups fighting over the proposed growth-management
amendment raised a combined $1 million from July 1 to Sept. 30 --- and have
raised more than $2.3 million overall.
Oh, and by the way, the 2008 election is still more than a year
away.
Floridians for Smarter Growth, a business-backed group that
opposes the amendment, raised $706,925 during the three-month period and has raised more than $1.5 million total.
Another anti-amendment group, known as Save Our Constitution Inc.,
raised $133,100 from July 1 to Sept. 30, the first quarter of its fund-raising.
The Florida Association of Realtors contributed a total of
$250,000 to the two groups during the three-month period.
Meanwhile, Florida Hometown Democracy Inc., which is pushing the
amendment, raised $174,422 during the period. Overall, it has raised $658,261
since 2003.
Among Florida Hometown Democracy’s contributors: The
Volusia/Flagler Sierra Club, which gave $10,000 in August, according to state
records.
The Florida Hometown Democracy amendment would require referendums
on local land-use changes, giving voters final say about many development
issues. Supporters of the amendment face a Feb. 1 deadline for collecting
611,000 petition signatures to get the measure on the November 2008 ballot.
Bartow Zoning Decisions on Hold
The city wants to update its land
development measures.
By Suzie Schottelkotte
The Ledger
Bartow reporter
Dept.: East Polk News
(863) 533-9070
suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com
BARTOW | Developers seeking land-use or
zoning changes in the city may have to cool their heels for a while.
City commissioners are suspending any zoning decisions for three months while
they update the city's land development regulations.
Initially, commissioners talked about a moratorium, which would have prohibited
developers from seeking a change in zoning or land use.
But they've decided instead to institute a "zoning in progress"
status, which will delay any applications until after the changes take effect.
Mayor Brian Hinton said he like that idea more.
"They can file for zoning, but they are going to have to change to
whatever we change to," he said.
Commissioner Leo Longworth said he likes the zoning-in-progress idea better
than a moratorium, and the 90-day limit shouldn't inhibit developers from
considering Bartow.
"To me, that just sends a message that we don't want growth," he said
of a moratorium, "and I don't feel that's the way it is with this
commission. But that's the message it sends."
The commission has grappled with Bartow's land-use
regulations for more than two years.
Commissioners have held joint meetings with the Planning and Zoning Commission,
poring through the existing regulations and discussing possible changes.
Specifically, they want to identify areas where development should be less
dense, either with larger lots or smaller lots with more consolidated open
space.
The plan now calls for a public meeting during the three-month hiatus to talk
about the city's options. After that, the commission will make the necessary
changes to the regulations.
If approved, a final vote will be taken Nov. 19.
"That will take us to mid- February," Parker said.
Bob Wiegers, the city's planning director, said the
city's efforts may be for naught. He said he's not aware of any proposals
poised to come in for zoning or land-use approval during that time.
"Things are really quiet right now," he said. "There's not much
happening out there."
[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be
reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070.]
Historic
BY CAMMY
The military fortress named after
President Zachary Taylor housed Union soldiers during the Civil War and served as
coastal protection during the Spanish-American War and World Wars I and II.
But the crumbling brick fort turned
historic state landmark and park never hosted a real battle -- until now.
At stake: the fate of about 800
Australian pine trees that provide a canopy of shade and peaceful place for
residents and tourists to enjoy the rocky beach and breathtaking sunsets.
Some have dubbed it ``The Battle of the
Tree Huggers.''
On one side is the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection, which plans to continue its phased removal of the
invasive exotic trees from Down Under. State biologists say the pines harm
native species and wildlife, and say they will replace them with indigenous
trees and vegetation.
On the other side is a passionate
citizen brigade called Save Our Pines, which loves the precious green space as
it has been for decades and is on a mission to ``Stop the Massacre.''
The two sides met last week in a packed
room at the
Before hearing the first of 30 citizen
speakers, Lew Scruggs, a planning manager with the state DEP that oversees the
Park Service, said:
``We agree with you folks 100 percent
that shade is absolutely important. It's one of the most important recreational
amenities . . . But our plan, and the removal of invasive exotics, has been
policy of state parks and all state lands for 20 years.''
It was a long night for Scruggs and
other state employees, whom Key West songwriter Ben Harrison, quoting Joni
Mitchell, called 'the villains in `Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.' ''
Although the management plan centers
around a $9.7 million project to preserve the 162-year-old fort, the boisterous
crowd showed up primarily to object to the tree removal and the proposed
construction of a pavilion at the prime sunset location.
One after another, birders, botanists,
lawyers, retirees, artists and a New Jersey tourist pleaded their case with
science, anger against state intervention, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and
anecdotes.
It's a place where they have gone to
paint, write, celebrate Thanksgiving, spread ashes of deceased loved ones and
simply enjoy beauty and serenity.
The Key West City Commission and the
Monroe County Commission have already passed resolutions against the tree
removal.
But Keys-based biologist Randy Grau of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission said the Australian pines are pests that cause many environmental
problems.
''They invade natural areas, poisoning
the soil for other plants,'' he said. ``They don't provide food benefits for
wildlife, especially migratory birds that rely on the Keys for stopovers. They
cause coastal erosion instead of stabilizing it and they don't stand up to
hurricanes well.''
Longtime residents disputed how much
damage is done by the small clump of Australian pines at
''While this [eradication] may be good
policy in some parts of the state, it is wrong for this park,'' said artist
Helen Harrison, head of Save Our Pines.
The 56-acre state park is one of
''This is a magical place,'' retired
scientist Nils Muench said while strolling under the
Australian pines. ``When the wind blows, it rustles through the trees and
sounds beautiful.''
Muench's mood changed when he
came upon a cleared site: ``Look what they've done. It's devastating.''
In March, 88 Australian pines got the
chainsaw during the first of a $200,000, 10-year removal plan.
Attorney David Paul Horan, working for
Save Our Pines, said a June 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that the
Army Corps of Engineers does not have jurisdiction in such matters.
Regardless, the state said the invasive
exotic trees must eventually go. On Navy property adjacent to the state park,
the 60 Australian pines were cut down last year and replaced with indigenous
vegetation.
Scruggs told the crowd he understands
that removing all the Australian pines at once at
''By the time they grow tall enough to
provide shade, we'll all be dead,'' said Muench.
The state has a 54-page revegetation plan that includes using large native trees 20
to 25 feet tall to more quickly replace lost shade, state DEP spokeswoman Katie
Flanagan said.
But those at the workshop vowed the
fight wasn't over.
Said
Governments turn to CRAs to pay for a
better future
Christopher Sherman
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 22, 2007
When Jeff Brown moved to
But that changed with an infusion of tax dollars that helped build condos and
restaurants around the lake and paid for free events, including concerts and
fireworks. Now, the lake is a jewel for downtown, and the 38-year-old Realtor
enjoys it and the vibrancy of the nearby
Where did the money come from? Something most people have never heard about: a
Community Redevelopment Agency.
Governments set up CRAs with specific geographic boundaries, such as downtown
But critics of CRAs grow louder in tight budget times because they think they
should be allowed to use those funds to pay for broader community needs, such
as police and fire services. And even the Florida Supreme Court is taking up
how CRAs spend their money -- saying voters need to approve when the money is
used to issue bonds for bigger projects, such as the proposed downtown
performing-arts center. The court is pondering the issue, and in the meantime
And because a CRA exists for 30 or 40 years, "it limits local governments'
ability to adjust for changes that occur over a long period of time," he
said.
That's part of the fundamental question that has always swirled around CRAs:
Are they fair?
Brown gets the benefits of a theater, new street planters and other projects
nearby.
Steve Hafer, on the other hand, lives in Colonialtown outside the CRA. He likes the benefits of
living near a successful downtown because that success spills over to his area,
where new development is transforming his neighborhood. But his taxes go toward
serving the entire city and county -- not just his own neighborhood.
And in a way, he's subsidizing Brown's neighborhood, because Hafer pays for countywide services such as police and fire
that benefit the CRA where Brown lives. A smaller proportion of Brown's taxes
go to pay for such things. CRAs aren't allowed to pay the normal costs of
running government. Their expenses must be tied to redevelopment.
Hafer, however, sees the benefits that CRA proponents
tout.
"Downtown is central," said Thomas Chatmon,
executive director of Orlando's Downtown Development Board and CRA. "It
belongs to everybody."
Since state law made CRAs possible in 1969 to address blighted neighborhoods,
hundreds of CRAs have formed in
Interpretations of "blight" are expansive, ranging in
"These CRAs, unless someone is looking over them, are doing whatever they
want to do," Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan
said. "There's no watchdog group looking over this."
But many credit downtown
Without the districts there would not have been growth in the first place,
proponents argue, so they should be allowed to reinvest the return they've
created in hopes of spurring more growth.
And the infusion of tax money cleans up neighborhoods -- enough to reduce their
need for government services, some say -- and makes them attractive for private
capital.
Eventually, proponents argue, the areas will be returned to the general budget
as significantly more valuable properties.
CRAs can leverage their dollars for major projects because they can borrow
against what they collect. Many issue bonds, but a decision last month by the
Florida Supreme Court could jeopardize bond sales throughout the state.
The state's top court reversed earlier decisions and ruled that in the future,
CRAs would have to get voter approval before issuing bonds backed by their
property-tax revenue.
It would be like having to save the $250,000 for that house you've had your eye
on rather than getting a mortgage, moving in and paying it off over 30 years.
"It's definitely not a positive development for any CRA that was planning
to issue bonds next year," said Jim Freeman, Polk's deputy county manager.
Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com
Tavares
aims to ease pains of growth
City officials set aside land for a
mega-complex, which would include athletic fields and other facilities.
Martin E. Comas
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 22, 2007
TAVARES
This city's population is expected to
double to more than 26,000 residents within 25 years, according to Tavares
officials.
But already the city feels the pressures of its growth. Its police and
public-works departments squeeze into small spaces. Police officers routinely
work in hallways and closets on the bottom floor of City Hall. And public-works
employees are crammed into an old building off
Meanwhile, the city sorely lacks athletic fields, officials argue. Tavares
shares three baseball fields and a softball field at Stover Sports Complex with
teams from
"We're really beyond our capacity as it is," City Administrator John
Drury said.
Looking ahead, the City Council agreed Wednesday to set aside almost 90 acres
near Woodlea and Captain Haynes roads to build a megacomplex. It would include new public-safety and public-works
facilities. The site also would provide enough land to expand the city's
wastewater plant.
About 40 acres would be used to build a new Woodlea
athletic complex, including 10 baseball-softball fields, two soccer-football
fields, basketball courts and volleyball facilities. The existing skate park
also could be expanded.
The entire city site would be built in phases during the next 25 years, city
officials say.
City Council members also agreed to take bids for a contractor to construct,
operate and maintain the expanded Woodlea sports
complex. Tavares would still own the land, but a private company would build
and run the facility.
"That way our citizens would get the best of both worlds: They're not
having to pay a tax to build and maintain a sports park, but they would get to
use it," Drury said.
Council member Nancy Clutts said the city desperately
needs additional athletic fields to accommodate the young families moving into
the area.
"I don't think there are enough fields now," she said.
"There are a lot of people converging on one spot. . . . People are
virtually bumping into one another [at practices and games]."
After the public-works department moves to
In March, the city hired Bellomo-Herbert and Co., an
Orlando planning and design firm, for $58,760 to put together an inventory of
Tavares' facilities and available land.
The firm also developed a conceptual master plan, including the proposed
complex.
It's important for the council to set aside the land southwest of the downtown
area now for new facilities, city officials say.
"The growth of this community is headed in that direction," Drury
said.
"We want to reserve that land now so that future councils will have that
opportunity to use it. . . . If you don't have a plan for the future and you
don't have any land, then that's not good."
Martin E. Comas can be reached at mcomas@orlandosentinel.com or
352-742-5927.
Wal-Mart says it's still going to open
in Alachua
By Rachael Anne Ryals
Herald Staff Writer
ALACHUA -- A proposed
Quenta Vettel,
public relations spokesperson for Wal-Mart, said that because the proposed site
is located next to a major roadway, more studies and discussions are needed
before permits from the Florida Department of Transportation can be finalized.
"We are continuing to work with
traffic and making certain we have finalized everything," she said.
The location of the proposed
184,000-square-foot Wal-Mart is at the intersection of U.S. 441 and Interstate
75 on roughly 36 acres behind the McDonald's restaurant.
Gina Busscher,
public information officer for the Florida Department of Transportation, said
that Wal-Mart needs two separate permits from the department, one for drainage
and one for access.
"The permitting process is nowhere
close to being completed on the access issue," she said. "But the
drainage permit could be completed as soon as we work out the final
details."
The department is still in the process
of reviewing the permit and is now waiting for Wal-Mart to send revised access
information, Busscher said.
Before the Wal-Mart can be built,
permits must be obtained from the Suwannee River Water Management District and
the Department of Transportation, Vettel said.
Other requirements include the city of
So far, only the water district permit
has been awarded.
For almost two years, Wal-Mart has been
in the process of trying to build in the city of
"It is a very unique location at
the top of a hill in a sensitive drainage area," Busscher
said.
Some have argued that the location is too
environmentally sensitive to safely support a large development.
A sinkhole on the property leads
directly to the aquifer and to an underwater river that flows from the Wal-Mart
property to as far away as Hornsby Spring in
The concern of the Florida Department
of Transportation, however, is the possible flooding of U.S. 441 if the
retention pond is not designed correctly, Busscher
said.
Vettel said that the
project is moving forward.
"I think were
getting pretty close in finalizing information," Vettel
said.
The department needs more time to
address all the concerns with traffic and access, Busscher
said.
"It's going to be built," she
said. "But it just takes time."
Workshop set to discuss proposed Lowe's
ALACHUA -- A neighborhood workshop will
be held to discuss the proposed development of a Lowe's in the city of
The proposed 23-acre site is located
behind the Food Lion on U.S. 441, slightly to the northwest of the grocery
store.
The workshop will be held from 7 p.m.
to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25 at the Alachua Elementary School Media Center
located at
The neighborhood workshop gives
residents a chance to learn about and express concerns about the proposed development.
The workshop also allows the applicant to address those concerns before
applying to the city.
A representative from Lowe's, as well
as a representative from the survey company, Upham
Inc., will be at the meeting to explain the proposed development and answer any
questions from the public.
The public meeting is required by the
city of
At this point, no official paperwork has
been filed with the city, but the city has held a pre-application meeting with
the future applicant to explain the requirements of the application, Winburn said.
Winburn also said that the
proposed Lowe's has many steps to take before coming to fruition.
Those steps include conducting the
public workshop, filing an application with the city that includes a summary of
the workshop and addresses the concerns of residents, allowing at least two
months for the city staff to review the application, presenting the application
to the Planning and Zoning Board and then presenting the request to the City
Commission.
For
more information, contact Leslie Hinzman of Upham Inc. at 386-672-9515, ext. 204.
Sunday's Editorial: Walk the
walk on water
Tallahassee Democrat
In their historically shortsighted approach to regional water
policy, Georgia's congressional delegation and other Peach State leaders last
week sought suspension of regulations associated with the Endangered Species
Act because of the current drought.
If they get their way, the flow of water from Atlanta-area Lake
Lanier to the Apalachicola River would be cut, and the consequence for
threatened mussels and sturgeon downstream probably would be dire.
Appropriately, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Secretary Michael Sole sharply criticized the proposal. In a letter to the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, he said this would harm our natural resources and also
cause "a profound disruption of the socioeconomic foundation in Florida's
Panhandle region."
In its long-running water dispute with Georgia and Alabama,
Florida consistently has taken the high ground, promoting both the
environmental and economic well-being of the Apalachicola River and Bay, and
the people and wildlife that depend on the important ecosystem.
For Florida to remain credible, however, it must take the long
view in other aspects of water policy, which will profoundly affect how well,
or poorly, the Sunshine State manages growth. Yet legislation passed in the
budget-cutting special session - SB 24-C - would undo much of the progress our
state made two years ago with passage of a water-quality and sustainability
program, which received national recognition.
Despite financial pressures, Gov. Charlie Crist
shouldn't hesitate to veto this recent legislation, which is both shortsighted
and irresponsible, since traditional water supplies are diminishing in the face
of extraordinary population growth.
In 2005, lawmakers passed SB 444, the product of a diverse coalition
of interests that worked for a year to find common ground on water. The result
was creation of a $100 million water-supply trust fund, and an additional $100
million for existing water-improvement programs that had been neglected. It's a
cost-sharing program among the state, water-management districts, local
governments and water suppliers.
Lawmakers also passed a growth-management bill that connected the
supply of water with new development, and required local governments to
coordinate land-use plans with regional water plans.
Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, was so successful at brokering a
water agreement that Governing magazine named her the top state
legislator in the nation that year.
Now Ms. Dockery is urging a veto of SB 24-C, which she says would
permanently harm the state's ability to find alternative supplies of water,
expand water-reuse projects and improve water quality.
The bill would cut $20 million from the Water Protection and
Sustainability Trust Fund during the current fiscal year,
and $30 million a year in future years.
The senator, who met with Mr. Crist on
Thursday, says she is hopeful that he will just say no to the entire plan to
cut the water program, or, as a compromise, allow the $20 million cut this year
to stand but reject the permanent cut of $30 million in future years.
"The best water policy in the world doesn't matter if there
aren't the dollars to go with it," she said.
In a letter to Mr. Crist, Ms. Dockery
was blunt: "I recognize that we were forced to make tough decisions during
this tight budget year, but there is no issue as important as a safe and
adequate water supply."
We'll drink to that.
By Jeremy Cox
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Its snarling image adorns countless sports team jerseys, refrigerator magnets and license plates.
But its pop cultural prevalence belies a painful truth: The Florida panther stands as close to disappearing as any living thing on the planet. About 80 to 100 panthers remain, three times the number that existed barely a decade ago. But the controversial breeding program that saved the panther from extinction has ushered in a new era of greater problems and tougher solutions. In this three-part series, the Daily News examines the challenges that the panther faces at this new crossroads and what must be done to help an underdog thrive once again.
While other Southwest Florida pioneers were hunting Florida panthers to the brink of extinction in the 1930s, Lester Piper was trying to save the tawny cats.
Piper and his brother Bill gained fame as the proprietors of Everglades Wonder Gardens, a Model T-era tourist attraction in downtown Bonita Springs. A sort of Steve Irwin of his day, Piper would keep his pens snapping with alligators, snakes and other critters, prizes from his routine slogs into the yet-to-be-tamed wilderness.
Conspicuously absent from his growing collection initially was the Florida panther. He sometimes heard its screams in the middle of the night but had never seen one in the flesh.
The Wonder Gardens’ panther collection began when a hunter, familiar with Piper’s compassion for ailing animals, left a batch of newly orphaned kittens in his care. The collection swelled as more panthers showed up on his doorstep and he began breeding them.
The National Park Service sanctioned the release of at least seven of Piper’s cats into Everglades National Park between 1957 and 1967. But the real story lies with the untold number of big cats he let loose around southern Florida without leaving a paper trail.
Could it be that a Southwest Florida woodsman’s covert conservation efforts sustained the panther’s stock through its dimmest years? His grandson thinks so.
“He’d put them in the back of his truck in these real simple structures and then open his doors and say, ‘Go be free,’ ” said David Piper Jr., a former Bonita Springs city councilman who still runs the family business.
“He was the first person to ever have them in captivity and to ever breed them successfully and to release them into the wild.”
Cat at a crossroads
“It’s the last vestige of the wildlife resources that we had in North America. As a nation, we’ve become powerful because we have this plentiful amount of natural resources. Some people think we haven’t done a good job being stewards of it, and this (the Florida panther) is an example of it.” — Darrell Land, state panther team leader, in a Daily News interview
There is only one Florida panther, and it is standing at a crossroads.
The path so far has led the lonely panther to the edge of extinction and back again.
The journey hasn’t been easy and not without controversy. Some say the panther now standing before them is not the same animal it once was.
But it is healthier and more abundant than it has been in at least a half-century.
An array of paths await the panther’s next move.
No one is quite sure where they will end up. Prosperity? Status quo? Extinction?
On this, experts agree: Panthers won’t reach a sustainable population unless their caretakers find more space for the cat. And that is unlikely to happen without a high political and financial cost.
“It’s going to be a rough future for the panther,” said Deborah Jansen, a National Park Service biologist who has tracked panthers in Southwest Florida for more than a quarter-century.
“I think we succeeded with finding out why its numbers were so low, and that was the inbreeding problem. But we failed over the last 25 years to buy the land it needed when it was at an affordable price,” Jansen said.
The humbled predator looks to the greatest source of its problems for help: Us.
Panther background
Panthers once ranged from Louisiana to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Appalachian Mountains to the Florida Keys.
The sleek animal is one of 32 types of cougars that pad about the wilderness from the Yukon to the tip of South America. They go by many names: panthers, cougars, mountain lions, catamounts, pumas.
Litters of mixed Texas cougar and Florida panther blood were not uncommon, a happenstance that would become the key to the latter’s salvation centuries later.
To the untrained eye, the various cougars are indistinguishable from each other.
But scientists over the years have enumerated several subtle differences peculiar to Florida panthers: coarse fur, a redder color, inflated nasal passages, smaller feet, a broader and flatter skull and longer legs (perhaps for navigating in the mucky Everglades). Other unique characteristics such as cowlicks and kinked tails have been chalked up to inbreeding-induced genetic depression.
Their survival is linked to having enough forests for cover, enough prey (particularly deer) and enough open land to roam.
All three came crashing down in the 19th century as American settlers mowed down forests for timber, sliced up the frontier into homesteads and towns and killed deer herds. People used shotguns to deal with their fear of the large predator in their midst, causing local extinction, or extirpation, in many areas.
By the turn of the next century, the panther had been exterminated throughout its range with the exception of a dangerously small population in Florida’s most isolated corners. Later studies would show the territorial creatures had become confined to 5 percent of their historic kingdom — virtually all of it in Southwest Florida.
In 1896, Charles B. Cory published a paper called “Hunting and Fishing in Florida” in which he described the “Florida panther” as a creature lurking “in the more unsettled portions of the state.” A photograph of the bearded Cory from that year shows him kneeling behind a dead panther as if it were a trophy, his right hand curled around the barrel of a shotgun.
Two years later, the scientific name Puma concolor coryi would be ascribed to the panther in honor of Cory and his discovery, an unwitting tribute to the animal’s near-catastrophic persecution.
Until 1949, Florida hunters could shoot panthers as they pleased. The following year they became a regulated game species. The progression came full circle in 1958 when the state ordered its protection and in 1967 when the federal government listed the panther as endangered.
Many believed the panther was a lost cause. Population estimates guessed there were anywhere from none to 300 left. Florida’s game commission considered the panther extinct.
In 1972, the World Wildlife Fund hired a renowned big cat tracker named Roy McBride to determine once and for all whether the Florida panther still existed. He found the answer cowering from his hounds at the top of a tree near Fisheating Creek, just west of Lake Okeechobee.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” said McBride, recalling his surprise at rediscovering the panther. The first specimen to have been recorded in decades was a sickly looking, tick-infested female of about 10 years of age.
“I’d never been to Florida and I couldn’t believe there was something like this still over here. I’d always heard it was getting too crowded (with people),” said McBride, a private man who rarely speaks with the media.
Now that the Florida panther’s existence had been confirmed, the real work began.
Going downhill
Chris Belden never expected his life to take a three-decade detour that would position him as the go-to authority on Florida panthers. He was the mammologist with the state’s Wildlife Research Lab when the Audubon Society invited him to give a lecture at a March 1976 conference devoted to the plight of the panther.
“At the time, I didn’t know anything about Florida panthers and neither did anyone else,” Belden said, adding that he gleaned the bulk of his talking points from rummaging through the lab’s cabinets for yellowing studies.
It turned out that the conference’s speaker roster would form the foundation of the first Panther Recovery Team, with Belden at the helm. (He is now the lead panther researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)
The group began by creating a clearinghouse of panther sightings; thousands streamed in from across the state but few were verified.
By 1985, McBride estimated there were 30 panthers left by analyzing tracks he found scattered across the southern tip of the peninsula. A decade later, the population had neither grown nor shrunk.
“That population stayed about the same and we couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t grow,” McBride said. “There was no one killing them and not that many cars killing them.”
Their numbers were so small, scientists feared the rest easily could have been wiped out by an eruption of disease or a powerful hurricane. Researchers were alarmed when two panthers died after a high concentration of mercury found its way into their bodies.
But the panther’s greatest obstacle to recovery lay at a molecular level. Inbreeding was taking an enormous toll on the health of the remaining animals. Males were born without testicles. Some succumbed to heart defects. The panther was going downhill fast.
Enter the hybrid
Researchers concluded in the late-1980s that Florida panthers and Texas cougars had once interbred. The finding provided the necessary rationale to move forward with a breeding program to save the Florida cats from oblivion.
A two-page U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo in 1994 cleared away any legal doubts about affording federal protection under the Endangered Species Act to the Texas/Florida progeny. The memo urged careful scientific control to ensure that the kittens “most closely resemble the species as listed.”
A decade after eight female Texas cougars were introduced to Southwest Florida’s balmy climate, a vocal band of detractors, including some scientists, continue to question the decision.
A 2005 Duke University study found that 118 purebred kittens and 54 hybrids had been born since the genetic infusion began. Of those, 13 purebreds and 20 hybrids survived to adulthood, a sign that the hybrids were stronger and healthier than their Florida-only brethren.
The overall panther population tripled to between 80 and 100 cats.
By early August, McBride’s annual panther survey had turned up an estimated 99 cats, not including the 19 known deaths since the year began. It’s the most he’s ever counted by that time of year, he said.
Such figures show the effort was successful, said Darrell Land, the Naples-based panther team leader with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“If we didn’t do anything, they were going to go extinct, so which is the worse of the two poisons?” he asked. “I don’t have any problem with defending them as Florida panthers.”
The state scientist who hired Land to work for the wildlife commission in 1985, however, disagrees.
“The bottom line is we’re potentially changing the animal into something that was different from what the early naturalists described,” said Dave Maehr, who left his state post in 1994.
He’s now a University of Kentucky professor concerned that the hybrids’ success has swamped the Florida panther gene pool. Maehr said the animal should still receive federal protection, whatever it may be, because it is isolated from other cougars.
Critics frequently point to a 2000 National Cancer Institute study that suggested that the 32 puma subspecies should be reduced to six because of genetic similarities. Under such a scenario, the Florida panther would find itself in the same category as all other pumas found throughout North America.
Some outdoors enthusiasts and local officials assert that the hybrid panthers look and act differently than those of pure lineage.
“They don’t even resemble the Florida panther anymore,” said Kevin Dugan, a Collier County transportation official in charge of seeking federal approval for new road projects in panther territory. “They’re very cougar-like. The Florida panther had long legs, skinny legs with little feet. These cougar hybrids have short, stubby legs, very muscular.”
McBride, the big cat tracker who has captured dozens of panthers and hybrids in support of research and radio-collaring efforts, said he, too, has noticed a change. But it’s for the better, he added.
“They’re healthier, that’s for sure. They weigh more on average. They’re certainly wilder. I hear people say we changed them and they’re more dangerous now. But, gosh, they’re shy. We’ll have to tree them four or five times before they let us get a dart in them,” McBride said.
Critics blame a recent rise in panthers attacking pets and livestock on the hybrid cats.
So far this year, the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has documented five panther attacks, all of them in eastern Collier. The state confirmed seven attacks in 2006 and one in 2005, according to the state. (No instances of a Florida panther going after a human have ever been documented except for a sketchy account from the 1800s.)
“We encroached on its territory,” said Stephen Kreynus, who lost at least four goats to a hungry panther about five years ago at his property on 30th Avenue Southeast in Golden Gate Estates. “But I told the wildlife commission that we need a better solution than having a meeting and telling us to build pens.”
The state wildlife commission has created a controversial panther safety tips flier that recommends, among other things, that residents avoid letting their children outside alone at night.
The environmental group Defenders of Wildlife has reacted by building a pair of prototype animal pens in Golden Gate Estates in the hope others will follow its lead. The group has said it will buy more pens for those who can’t afford them.
“The largest impediment to panther recovery is going to be human intolerance,” said Elizabeth Fleming with Defenders. The pen program “is a way to make people feel they can take action.”
Recovery vs. development
“Even with no net loss in population size due to planned development projects, the likelihood that the South Florida population could reach 240 within 30 years as the plan projects is surely a fantasy. You would have to triple the density of panthers in the known area or triple the area of occupied habitat. ... Such a major change would require massive changes in policy and land use, very different from work proposed in this draft.” — Frances C. James, a retired Florida State University professor, in an e-mailed review of the 2006 draft of the Florida Panther Recovery Plan.
Last winter, a radio-collared male panther known as FP131 left the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge just north of Alligator Alley on a trip to the north. Not quite 10 miles into his journey, he stopped dead in his tracks.
He had no choice.
“He regularly crosses Oil Well Road, travels up a cypress slough called Camp Keais Strand and hangs out on the edge of the construction area” of Ave Maria, a planned 5,000-acre town and university, wrote Layne Hamilton, the refuge’s manager, in a recent newsletter.
She added: “Perhaps as he stands there he is lamenting over the loss of more panther habitat as he watches the bulldozers, cranes and construction workers.”
With 1,000 new residents moving to Florida every day, evidence is mounting that the panther is facing more competition for space than it can handle. So far, 15 panthers have been killed this year after getting run over, four more than the old record of 11 reached in 2006. “The No. 1 threat for panther recovery is development pressure,” said Paul Souza, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Vero Beach office. “This is an animal that requires a lot of space.”
A hundred square miles is only big enough for two or three panthers, he added. A male panther will kill another male to protect his territory. Last October, on one of his walks beyond the northern boundary of the panther refuge, FP131 injured another male, FP135, so badly that state biologists had to euthanize the animal.
The solution lies outside Southwest Florida, according to the federal recovery plan, written by a team of scientists appointed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The plan called for at least 480 panthers — in two populations of 240 — to be established for 14 years before the species can be moved from the ranks of the threatened list.
It also suggests relocating a handful of males that have ventured north of the Caloosahatchee River (no female has followed them). And biologists hope to establish new panther populations in other southeastern states.
Officials with five southeastern states have said they are sour on the prospects of accepting the predator into their states. For instance, Sam Polles, head of Mississippi’s wildlife department, wrote to the Fish and Wildlife Service that the “sociopolitical aspects of long-term panther recovery will likely be more challenging than the biological ones.”
Piper’s cats
It is unclear whether descendants of Lester Piper’s panthers are still roaming the Everglades, said Sonny Bass, a longtime National Park Service biologist. The cats have weathered some controversy over the years, including claims that some actually contained genes from Costa Rican stock, an assertion David Piper denies.
By 1995, when the modern genetic restoration program began, the park’s panther population had been whittled down to a single panther. Now, its population stands at 12, Bass said.
There are three panthers whose bloodlines can be traced definitively to Piper’s beloved cats. Their names are Audrey, Seymour and Kitty, and they reside at the Wonder Gardens.
•••
Florida panther FAQ
Q: What is the panther’s scientific name?
A: Puma concolor coryi
Q: How big is a typical grown panther?
A: Between 115 to 140 pounds, 2 to 3 feet high at the shoulder and 5 to 8 feet long
Q: What do panthers eat?
A: A top-of-the-food chain predator, a panther will eat deer, hog, raccoons, squirrels. In some cases, the big cats have ventured into livestock pens and backyards to attack turkeys, ducks, domestic cats, dogs and donkeys.
Q: What is a panther’s lifespan?
A: Eight to 15 years in the wild, 10 to 20 years in captivity.
Q: Where do panthers live?
A: A century or two ago, panthers ranged as far west as Arkansas and as far north as Tennessee. Hunters and bulldozers have driven the remaining cats onto 2.5 million acres in Southwest Florida, an area representing 5 percent of their historic range. All but a handful of male cats live south of the Caloosahatchee River.
Q: What kinds of habitat do panthers like?
A: They prefer to live in a mosaic of piney woods, cypress swamps and upland forests. Panthers, though, will hunt prey and disperse on lower-quality lands, such as cow pastures, marshes and crop fields.
Q: How many panthers are there?
A: In the mid-1990s, experts believed the population hovered around 20 to 30 cats. A breeding program with female Texas cougars tripled their ranks. The current population is 80-100 cats, but new estimates suggest it may be above 100.
Q: Are there black panthers?
A: No, their coats are tawny or tan.
Q: What’s killing Florida panthers?
A: Data from radio-collared panthers provide the least biased sample, scientists say. Of the 84 tracked panthers that died from 1984 to 2005, panther turf battles led to 42 percent of deaths. Unknown causes (24 percent) and vehicle collisions (19 percent) followed.
Q: What are the federal government’s recovery goals for the panther?
A: Maintain and expand the panther population in southern Florida, acquire and restore habitat in potential reintroduction sites and increase public awareness and education. Downlisting may be considered when there are at least two populations of 240 cats.
Sources: www.fl oridapanther.org, Daily News reporting
---
Jeremy Cox is a correspondent for the Daily News. He can be reached at jcoxreporter@yahoo.com.
© 2007 Naples Daily News and NDN Productions. Published in Naples, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.
By KRIS HUNDLEY and MICHAEL VAN SICKLER, Times Staff Writers
Published October 21, 2007
LABELLE
-- It was a family fracas fit for tabloids, featuring larger-than-life
characters and spoils worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nearly seven years ago, the descendants of
citrus and cattle baron Ben Hill Griffin Jr. wrangled over his fortune. A
courtroom battle settled how the empire would be split, but not before the
public got an inside look at the pettiness and greedof
one of the state's most prominent families.
The settlement established a new dynastic status quo, which masked
further discord among family members controlling one of Florida's leading
agricultural companies.
Now that mask is slipping again, revealing another power struggle,
but with far greater implications.
This time it's a duel between Griffin's grandsons, both state
lawmakers. One favors keeping much of his grandfather's land -- an area bigger
than Pinellas County -- in agriculture. The other wants to aggressively develop
it.
Unlike feuds from years past, this one will be decided in the
corporate boardroom, not the courthouse. And the prize isn't just about money.
It's about shaping the future of the state.
Will tens of thousands of acres in central and southwestern Florida
remain rural and agrarian? Or will it be developed, with the help of tax
dollars, a massive new toll road and the diversion of scarce natural resources
like water?
So far, the showdown looks to be a rout. The grandson who wants to
develop has a strong upper hand.
Forget about growth management rules and market trends. In Florida,
family squabbles can still decide the fate of an entire region.
* * *
Born during a hurricane in 1910, Ben Hill Griffin Jr. tore through
the next 79 years at top speed. Working from Frostproof,
a flyspeck of a town in Polk County, Griffin amassed a citrus and cattle empire
that made him one of the world's wealthiest men.
He died in 1990. His anointed successor, Ben Hill Griffin III,
inherited his father's autocratic management style, but not his authority to
keep family members from bickering over the nearly billion-dollar estate.
In 2000, his four sisters and their families filed suit against him.
They accused Griffin of self-dealing at the expense of the family.Though
they settled the lawsuit -- 40 percent went to Griffin III, 60 percent was
divided among the four sisters -- the close-knit Griffin clan was splintered.
The brother who was shunted aside,
65-year-old Ben Hill Griffin III, now manages his share of the inheritance from
his daddy's wood-paneled office in Frostproof. From
here he oversees the state's fifth-largest citrus operation that, like the
University of Florida's football stadium, bears his father's name.
"It was inevitable, unfortunately inevitable," he said of
the breakup of the family business. "The larger the family became, the
more diverse we became, not focused on the same direction."
* * *
The remaining portion of Griffin's fractured empire is headquartered
about 80 miles away from Frostproof, in another rural
outpost.
In Hendry County, in a modest brick office in LaBelle, is the headquarters
of Alico Inc.
The company came under the control of Ben Hill Griffin Jr. in the
1970s and was folded into his agricultural empire. Alico
remains one of the state's largest landowners and leading citrus growers, with
$77-million in sales last year.
Though publicly traded, Alico is
controlled by Griffin's descendants, who own just more than 50 percent of the
stock.
Those family interests are now represented by Alico's
chief executive, John R. Alexander. Married to the second-eldest Griffin
daughter, the 71-year-old Alexander was brought into the family business
straight out of college.
After decades taking a back seat to the founder's son, Alexander was
installed by the family as Alico's chief executive
three years ago. He began rethinking the use of the company's 136,000 acres.
The sign at headquarters on Main Street reflects the change. Under
the Alico name, the words "Citrus, cattle, sugar
cane" have been replaced. It now reads "Land management."
Alexander saidAlico isn't moving away from
agribusiness, it's just "expanding the scope of what we do with the
land."
Under his direction, Alico has put
developers, not agricultural experts, on the Alico
board. Mike Rosen, Alico's former vice president of
real estate, said the company gave him clear marching orders.
"They had full intention to develop the land, which is quite a
departure, a total change in direction of where the company had been,"
said Rosen, who left in April to join another developer.
Alico's
efforts to find new use for its land are aided by an influential state lawmaker
working behind the scenes to steer resources and craft policy to beckon
development.
Sen. J.D. Alexander, a Republican from Lake Wales, has become a
legislative powerhouse over the past nine years. He also happens to be the son
of Alico's chief executive.
A few years ago, Alexander helped draft a law that makes it easier
to build dense and more profitable residential and commercial projects on
agricultural land, which his family is now trying to apply to some of its
holdings.
The senator also backs the proposed Heartland Parkway, a 152-mile
toll road that would cut through Central Florida's swamps, ranches and farms.
In addition to the Alico land, the family
owns 62,000 acres of groves and cow pasture that are almost entirely within the
proposed route. The toll road would transform this remote swath of agricultural
land into the region's boldest development gambit and could pay off in a cash
windfall for nearby landowners.
J.D. Alexander, 48, declined to be interviewed for this story. He
has said that his support for the Heartland Parkway reflects his desire to see
the region grow economically, not to enhance his private interests.
He left the Alico board in 2005, after his
aggressive style triggered the resignation of five independent directors. His
father remains a staunch supporter.
"I value his vision," the senior Alexander said of his
son. "I'm looking at the next five years. He's looking at the next 25
years."
The toll road is part of that future. "It's probably the most
way-out thinking I've seen happen in this state in my lifetime," the
father said. "It's not critical to the development of Alico's
land, but it's desirable."
While Alico may cash in with development,
opening rural lands in Florida's heartland will cost the public.
Tom Pelham, Florida's secretary of the Department of Community
Affairs, said his office has identified plans to develop about 1-million acres
in the state's midsection. That worries him.
"The water supply is going to become an increasingly huge
problem in that part of the state," he said. "Developments of that
magnitude will steer money for infrastructure away from other, more developed
areas. It's something we should all watch closely."
To advance its interests in Tallahassee, Alico
helped finance the nonprofit group lobbying for the Heartland Parkway. It also
chipped in $140,000 to groups opposing Florida Hometown Democracy, a ballot
measure that would give the public, not elected officials, veto power over
major changes in local land uses.
Lesley Blackner, president of Florida
Hometown Democracy, said Alico's political ties
illustrate why voters need more say over development plans.
"This state is run like it was in the 1950s, when it was an
agricultural state run by a handful of good ol'
boys," Blackner said. "Now that same group
grows houses, not food."
* * *
Not all of Griffin's descendants are in the pro-development camp.
The new generational feud features former allies: J.D. Alexander and
his younger cousin, Baxter Troutman.
Troutman, a Republican who occupies the House seat his cousin
vacated in 2002, wants most of his family's 200,000 acres to stay in
agriculture.
"Everyone keeps talking about development, but look at where we
are today in Florida," said Troutman, who has been on Alico's
board since 2004. "We can't even balance the state budget because the
housing market has come to a standstill."
The Heartland Parkway, Alexander's pet project, doesn't fit into
Troutman's vision for tomorrow.
"If you're looking to pave the state, the Parkway would be
okay," he said. "I'd want to move real slow (on development), have a
real conservative approach. Once you make changes, it's gone forever."
Feeling stymied in the family business after his grandfather's
death, Troutman started his own staffing services company. Now 40 years old,
he's worth about $33-million.
That's more than three times the net worth of Alexander, who tapped
some of his shares in the family business to bankroll a video-rental business
that failed in the 1980s.
But Troutman's success as an entrepreneur hasn't translated to the
political world.
Unlike Alexander, who chairs key Senate committees and is known for
his fundraising prowess, Troutman is a backbencher, never leading a committee
or driving major legislation.
Troutman acknowledged his cousin's legislative accomplishments.
"To swim in that fishbowl of sharks and be productive and successful --
and he has -- speaks to his ability to perform." He repeatedly described
Alexander as "cunning."
Though willing to be overshadowed by his cousin in Tallahassee,
Troutman is balking at Alexander's growing control over Alico.
In January, Alexander is slated to rejoin Alico's
board, most likely bumping Troutman off.
If Alexander becomes an Alico director,
Troutman said there would be little resistance left on the board to blunt the
push for development. The nine-member board includes Alexander's father,
brother-in-law, college roommate and a former business associate.
Troutman feels powerless. "I'm upset, frustrated, disappointed,
downright angry," he said. "I'm pretty put out with leadership using
its position to push one agenda over another.
"It's no secret that J.D. and his team are really highly eyeing
development."
Troutman is galled by his odd-man-out status, because he owns a
greater number of shares of Alico stock than his
cousin. But after the court settlement, the family members had agreed that all
their shares in Alico would be treated as a single
block and voted by one of them: J.D. Alexander.
"I feel like I'm being held hostage with my own gun,"
Troutman said.
Blackner,
the Hometown Democracy proponent, said it's no surprise that family dynamics,
not public consensus, can play a dominant role in today's regional planning.
"It's like the 19th century, isn't it?" Blackner said. "This isn't the way the system is
supposed to work. I can't comment on the psycho-dynamics of the family. But it
sounds like Mr. (J.D.) Alexander is empire building."
Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com
or (727) 892-2996. Michael Van Sickler can be reached
at mvansickler@sptimes.com or
(813) 226-3402.
By Jeremy Morrison Panama City News Herald
If Bay County’s property tax struggle is successful, resulting in widespread evaluation drops, a logical consequence would be a smaller budget. But an offshoot of this struggle might prove to put additional dollars into the county coffer.
Though the predominant local outcry to the state has concerned sharp increases on property values, questions also have been raised over the county’s agricultural land, which generates nominal tax bills.
The loudest voice on the subject belongs to Greg LaPlante. He repeatedly has asked county commissioners to address the matter and pressed his case with poster-board presentations and a special on the evening news.
When the Florida Department of Revenue, or DOR, came to town in September to discuss property taxes, LaPlante became too loud. He threw around words such as “bribery” and “tax fraud” and passed off a collection of papers to DOR officials before Commission Chairman Mike Nelson had him escorted away.
But complaints from LaPlante and others have prompted the DOR to plan a review of the county’s agricultural properties, and the county property appraiser will require agricultural property owners to complete a new legal form.
‘A dying breed’
Bay County traditionally has been St. Joe land. The former timberfocused company owns a lot of land, on which quite a few trees are grown. Over the years, the paper company has sold some of its agricultural land and morphed into a real estate company.
“Going forward, a restructured Joe will enable us to accelerate the transition of our land to higher and better uses,” CEO Peter S. Rummell promised in an Oct. 8 letter to shareholders.
Last week, the company continued a trend and had 567 acres off U.S. 231 rezoned from AG-2 (timberland) to R-5A (multi-family). Until a parcel undergoes such a change, the landowner benefits from an agricultural tax rate; this is, indeed, good for stakeholders.
“At whose expense?” LaPlante argues. “At the expense of the people that live in the counties where Joe pays $2 an acre.”
The St. Joe Co.-owned land isn’t an anomaly: large swaths of northern Bay County are zoned for agriculture.
Nestled within the pines off State 77 is a labyrinth of baby-smooth pavement. Empty streets lace wooded lots clustered along the southern rim of Merial Lake. A model home offers a glimpse of the future: Phase I of Lake Merial, a gated community.
The Lake Merial master plan depicts an additional phase farther around the lake. This secondary phase currently is listed as agricultural land.
“That’s one of the biggest rip-offs out there,” LaPlante said.
But Eric Seymour, an agricultural appraiser at the Bay County Property Appraiser’s office, said the Lake Merial claim is legitimate.
“Until they make that move, until they record that plat,” Seymour said, the agricultural status stands.
Michael Kline, who sells real estate for the development, said the secondary phase will not be developed anytime soon.
“It’ll be a long time,” Kline said. “Years and years and years.”
LaPlante bases his argument on a state law that stipulates agricultural land may not be purchased for more than three times the worth of its crop. The Lake Merial Development Company Inc. purchased the 500 acres in 1998 for $5 million. The currently listed agricultural value is $61,058.
Seymour said the Lake Merial deal happened before his time and appeared to be multi-layered and possibly involved other properties the company owns in that area.
“The whole thing about that was screwy,” he said. “I have to look at it like it’s grandfathered in.”
Nowadays, Seymour said, the appraiser’s office does not grant very much agricultural land, mainly because it does not meet the state standard LaPlante cites.
“It’s pretty much a dying breed,” Seymour said. “It’s tough to get Ag on a piece of land for what you have to pay for it.”
Spring cleaning?
Although Deputy Executive Director Lisa Echeverri said she was caught off guard when approached by LaPlante at the property tax forum, she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with his concerns.
“There are several people over there that are sending information to us,” Echeverri said.
Standing in his den, LaPlante proudly produced a thick stack of pending taxfraud cases to which he had alerted the state.
“What I did was, every time I found one of these rats, I’d turn ’em in,” he said with a laugh. “It became a game for me.”
Echeverri said because of the amount of concerns raised, the state will conduct an in-depth review next year of Bay County’s agricultural properties. The analysis will begin in the spring and stretch into summer.
The DOR will not determine if any improprieties have occurred, Echeverri clarified; the review is only to ensure properties found to be improperly assessed are corrected.
But the bulk of the responsibility in verifying the legitimacy of agricultural land, Echeverri said, falls at the feet of each county’s property appraiser, who enjoys a fair amount of leeway.
“Property appraisers, they’re constitutional officers; they’re interpreting the law,” she said. “There are definitely statutes and rules, but they are open to interpretation.”
Bay County’s new property appraiser, Zane Spitzer, has said he will require agricultural property owners to fill out a secondary form, DR482, which should verify their intentions.
“It’s a relatively simple form,” Spitzer said.
The form requires owners to list such information as the past four years’ agricultural income, as well as how much was paid for the property.
Spitzer said he is not reacting to any accusations of fraud but simply is pursuing an accurate tax roll.
“I’m not being influenced by anybody,” he said. “This is not a witch hunt or anything else.”
LaPlante said he is happy to see the DR482, a staple in his presentations before the County Commission.
“He could get tens of millions of this county’s
money back from these thieves,” LaPlante said
of Spitzer’s decision. “This is the form that will hang
them.”
Conservationists say swap of Sand Lakes Tract in Indian River County
may be 'damaging'
By Ed Bierschenk
Sunday, October 21, 2007
VERO
BEACH — Opponents of a regional government's decision to return
conservation land to private ownership have gathered more ammunition in their
efforts to have the decision reversed.
The
dispute involves a 1,265-acre parcel of land owned by the St. Johns River Water
Management District in the western part of Indian River County. It is bordered
on the east by Interstate 95 and approximately halfway between County Road 512
and State Road 60. The district will receive a 460-acre parcel of land and
other considerations in exchange.
Local
conservationists, including members of the Pelican Island Audubon Society,
contend the property has significant conservation value and allowing the land
to be returned to private ownership would be setting bad precedent.
Earlier
this month, petitions to review the decision of the St. Johns River Water
Management District were filed with the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory
Commission. The two petitions were filed separately by Indian River County and
a coalition of the Pelican Island Audubon Society, Friends of St. Sebastian
River and local conservationist David Cox.
Pelican
Island Audubon Society President Richard Baker contends the land swap was done
for political expediency and cites a 2001 St. Johns publication that spoke of
the ecological importance of the Sand Lakes tract.
Assistant
County Attorney George A. Glenn, who is handling the county's appeal of the
district's decision, said he thinks the information in the technical
publication is "quite damaging" to the district's case.
Tuesday,
Vero Beach officials voted to throw their support behind the effort after
hearing presentations about the land swap by St. Johns' representative Robert
Christianson and Baker. Sebastian officials earlier had voted to support the
effort of the county and local conservationists.
Not
joining the forces opposing the transaction, is Rep. Ralph Poppell,
R-Vero Beach, who contends St. Johns officials made
the right decision in the land swap. He said land being obtained by the
district in the transaction, while smaller in size, has more conservation value
than the land it is giving up.
The
adjudicatory commission, comprised of Gov. Charlie Crist
and his three-member cabinet, could hear the appeal by the end of the year if
it decides to review the decision. The district has filed a motion to dismiss
the case for technical reasons and also requested extra time to file a
statement in opposition to the requests for a review of the district's
decision.
"We
feel this is a very favorable exchange," Christianson told council members
Tuesday.
District
officials contend the Sand Lakes tract is no longer needed for conservation
purposes, although they acknowledge a 50-acre portion of the site contains
habitat suitable for scrub jays, which have been spotted there in the past. The
district will retain a conservation easement for this portion of the land.
BATTLE
OVER SAND LAKES
• The 1,265-acre parcel known
as the Sand Lakes Tract is part of the 3,283-acre Berry Grove site St. Johns
River Water Management District purchases in 1999 with state preservation
money.
• The original plan is to use
the Berry Grove property for a reservoir, but district officials later acquire
other property they contend is better suited for that purpose.
• The district exchanges 2,018
acres of the Berry Grove site last year for other property to the west.
• The district's Board of
Governors this year approves exchanging the remaining Sand Lakes tract for a
460-acre parcel owned by the Pat Corrigan Family Partnership and Hugh Corrigan
Family Partnership. The family, which owns more than 7,000 acres bordering the
Sand Lakes Tract, also will receive a cash payment of $657,300.
• District officials say the
exchange will settle a dispute with the Corrigans
involving the District's operation of its Blue Cypress Water Management Area,
which the Corrigans reportedly contend is causing
flooding on the 460 acres being obtained by the district. Conservationists say
the land is valuable habitat that should remain in public hands.
Sarasota Herald Tribune editorial
Proposals
would unnecessarily hamper county and city governments
Is it too
easy to change the comprehensive plan in the city of Sarasota and Sarasota
County?
It depends on whom you ask.
Neighborhood associations, environmental groups and their allies say yes.
Developers, business groups and their supporters say no.
The truth lies somewhere in between.
As a result, both the proponents and opponents of supermajority proposals on
city and county ballots make valid points.
The plans in the city and county are not easy to change -- the amendment
process generally requires detailed proposals by proponents, reviews by
government staffs, citizen planning boards and a state department, local public
hearings and votes by elected officials.
But the so-called comp plans are not the predictable policy guides that they
were intended to be. Many Sarasotans and Floridians
perceive that proposed amendments are perpetually in the pipeline. There's a
reason for that perception.
"The problem is too many plan amendments," said Thomas Pelham,
secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, referring to
statewide trends. In a speech last month to an association of professional
planners, Pelham added, "The frequency of amendments has undermined the
credibility of local plans ... It is time to consider reasonable limitations on
the frequency of plan amendments."
Beyond a 'simple' majority
The supermajority proposals for Sarasota city
government and Sarasota County are slightly different but both would require
comp-plan amendments to gain the approval of four of five elected
commissioners. Currently, amendments require approval from a "simple"
majority -- three of five commissioners.
In other words, a comp-plan amendment currently requires 60 percent of the
votes cast. The supermajority proposals would require 80 percent.
Proponents of the supermajority requirements have likened comprehensive plans
to state and federal constitutions.
Comp plans have significant impacts on the expenditure of public revenues and
on the private lives and investments of people, but they aren't constitutions
-- which create the framework of government and establish the fundamental
rights of the governed.
Even if the comparison were valid, consider this: Amending Florida's
constitution only requires 60 percent of the votes cast in a statewide
referendum (last year, we opposed the amendment that raised the requirement to
60 percent from more than 50 percent). Amending the U.S. Constitution requires
two-thirds votes in the legislative branches and approval in three-fourths of
the states.
The supermajority threshold of 80 percent for comp-plan amendments would be
even higher than those requirements.
City and county charters are more like constitutions for local governments, but
they can be amended -- as the supermajority proposals seek to do -- by a simple
majority of the votes cast in a referendum, 50 percent plus one.
As Community Affairs Secretary Pelham has said, supermajority proposals are
preferable to the alternative pushed by the "Hometown Democracy"
movement in Florida -- requiring local voters to approve or reject comp-plan
amendments.
Planning process wouldn't change
Proponents of the supermajority ballot initiatives contend the higher bar would
result in fewer, but better, comp-plan amendments because developers would
recognize the need to gain more neighborhood and community support before final
votes are taken.
Perhaps.
But the supermajority initiatives offer no such guarantees. Neither of the
proposals on the ballot would limit the frequency of comp-plan amendments.
Neither would change the planning process, which nearly everyone --
neighborhood activists, developers, elected officials -- agrees has not produced
the desired results.
Comprehensive planning in both the city and county warrants reform, but we're
not convinced that supermajority requirements would produce the desired
results. After all, in the city, there were only two 3-2 final votes on
comp-plan amendments from 2003 to 2006, according to a report compiled by the
city clerk. In the unincorporated county, according to Commissioner Jon Thaxton, only two 3-2 votes during the past decade produced
comp-plan amendments that increased the density on a property or increased the
intensity of the land's use.
Too high a threshold
There is no right or wrong threshold for approving
comp-plan amendments: Some local governments in Florida have supermajority
requirements; most don't.
We don't underestimate the importance of comprehensive plans and their impacts
on the lives and investments of people. The plans are assembled with broad
public input, multiple hearings and review by professional staff and
politicians. Proposed changes warrant substantive scrutiny.
But a supermajority requirement in local government establishes a threshold too
close to unanimity. And that, it seems to us, would unnecessarily hamper local
government's ability to adapt to changing needs and desires in the community.
We recommend voting NO, against the supermajority vote for comprehensive plan
amendments in the city of Sarasota. We also recommend voting NO, against the
supermajority proposal in Sarasota County.
For other viewpoints for and against the supermajority charter amendments, see
the guest columns on the front page of this section and on Pages 3F and 5F.
Financial Woes Drag Neighborhoods Down
By SHANNON BEHNKEN, The Tampa Tribune
Published: October
21, 2007
TAMPA - A grandmother strolls behind two toddlers navigating their
tricycles down a sidewalk in Carriage Pointe, a new subdivision in Gibsonton.
They pass rows of
two-story pastel homes with picture-book lawns and identical black-iron
mailboxes. A neighbor waves as he pulls weeds out of his front yard.
One street over, the scenery
is vastly different.
Vacant homes with
'For Sale' signs on lawns and 'For Rent' signs taped to windows line the block.
Weeds are knee-high, and moldy newspapers, some dating back to June, are piled
high on doorsteps.
Neighbors have
vanished, some loading moving vans in the middle of the night. The homes are
products of a mortgage and foreclosure wave leaving a lasting imprint on the
Bay area. New neighborhoods such as Carriage Pointe, where speculators bought
homes several at a clip and homeowners stretched their budgets with creative
financing, are particularly hard-hit.
'It's depressing,'
said Greg Gibbons, who has lived in the neighborhood 1 1/2 years and has a view
of several empty houses. 'No one has ever lived in those two homes across the
street. This is not where I wanted to live.'
As many as 69 percent
of the 381 homes in Carriage Pointe are owned by people who don't live there,
county officials estimate. This year, 31 of the homes have slipped into
foreclosure, and many other homes are heading that way as owners struggle to
make mortgage payments or just stop paying. Some investors drastically cut
rents.
At the entrance of
Carriage Pointe, on Symmes Road near Interstate 75,
stands a wooden sign urging buyers to call about Phase Two, 'with homes
starting in the low 200s.' That's the phase that was supposed to include a
swimming pool and other amenities.
But the builder seems
to realize the home-buying boom is over.
The phone number at
the sales office is disconnected.
Foreclosures
Skyrocket
Carriage Pointe is
just one example of what's playing out in hundreds of neighborhoods throughout
Florida and the Bay area.
The Sunshine State's
foreclosure rate of one filing for every 248 households is second only to
Nevada. In Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, the number of foreclosure
filings through September was 19,226, up nearly 131 percent compared with the
same period last year, according to RealtyTrac, a
California company that tracks foreclosures. That's up from 9,476 in 2005, the
first year the company began its reporting.
Just last month,
there were 4,365 filings in the three counties, and lenders took the keys back
from 502 homeowners, RealtyTrac said.
The Tampa Tribune set
out to find pockets of the Bay area that are feeling the foreclosure pinch more
than others. The Tribune interviewed experts and homeowners, and analyzed
public records and data provided by RealtyTrac and
ForeclosuresDaily.com, a local company that sends researchers to courthouses
daily.
The data show no
neighborhood or price range is immune. Those in default are a mix of investors
and people who bought primary residences. Neighborhoods with clusters of
foreclosures were typically popular with speculators who purchased multiple
homes. Many bought beyond their means with adjustable-rate and interest-only
mortgages that fueled the 2005 real estate boom in Florida.
The idea was to sell
or refinance before the low teaser rate went up. Now that the real estate
market has slowed, that's no longer an option for many. Homes are sitting on
the market for months, and prices are dropping.
The Bay area real
estate market is expected to stabilize over the next two years, but experts say
the neighborhoods where foreclosure rates are highest could suffer much longer.
'Those neighborhoods
will have sharper drops in prices because you'll see more aggressive pricing to
move homes,' said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research in
Jupiter. 'And when there are a lot of renters, prices could drop because
renters don't typically take as good of care of the home as homeowners do.'
RealtyTrac's data show the ZIP codes with the most
foreclosure activity were in Port Richey, New Port Richey, Wesley Chapel and
Riverview. The areas tended to be more densely populated and, in most cases,
had intense residential growth.
But out of 145 ZIP
codes in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, the one for Port Richey in
Pasco topped the list with 716 filings, RealtyTrac
data show. As retirees have moved out in recent years, first-time homeowners
have moved in, often using nontraditional financing. The area also was a hot
spot among investors looking for rental property.
In Pasco,
foreclosures in New Port Richey and Wesley Chapel, where hundreds of new homes
were built during the boom, have risen dramatically in the past year, too.
In Hillsborough, ZIP
codes with new subdivisions were hardest hit. The Riverview ZIP code had 573
filings, more than any other in the county. But it was followed closely by an
area north of Ybor City and the Sulphur
Springs area in Tampa, which had 528 and 538 filings, respectively.
Hillsborough and
Pasco had ZIP codes with the highest total foreclosures, but Pinellas also has
been susceptible. Some areas, such as neighborhoods in south St. Petersburg,
have had a lot of foreclosures because of high investor activity.
Homeowners' Woes
It was May 2006, and
Jesus and Hayley Torres had a baby and a newborn on the way.
They had never owned
a home, and they wanted a nice neighborhood to raise their growing family. The Torreses were neither investors nor buyers of exotic
mortgages; nevertheless, they were tripped up by Florida's other real estate
phenomena: rising taxes and insurance.
They paid $203,000
for a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,395-square-foot home
overlooking a pond in Carriage Pointe. They got a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage,
even though friends urged them to buy a bigger home with an adjustable-rate
mortgage.
'We budgeted for all
our bills and had only about $10 to $15 left over each month,' Jesus Torres
said.
The couple made it
work until the property taxes shot up. The Torreses'
tax bill went from $1,436 to $2,959. Combined with rising property insurance,
Torres said, the monthly mortgage payment went up by $500.
'There's no way we
could pay that,' Torres said. 'Some months, it really became, 'Do I pay my mortgage or feed my kids this month?''
They put the home on
the market in March but have been unable to sell it. They haven't made a
mortgage payment since April and received the foreclosure notice in late
September.
Torres is hoping to
work something out with his bank so he doesn't have a foreclosure on his
record.
Banks don't want the
inventory, and some are willing to take back the deed to the home without a
foreclosure. Others do a short sell, meaning the bank sells the home at a low
price and the homeowner owes the difference. However, this is typically offered
only on primary residences.
The Torreses' neighbor, Walter Childress, hates to see all the
foreclosures. He feels bad for people losing their homes, but the result has
affected his life. He thinks there's more crime in the neighborhood and worries
about his property value.
Childress bought his
Carriage Pointe home in April 2006 and is the only resident on the board of the
homeowners association. The board tries to enforce the area's deed
restrictions, which require homeowners to take care of the property. But there
is little the board can do, he said.
'If it doesn't get
better in a couple of years, I'm out of here,' he said. 'I'll move back north
or to a gated community.'
The Investor Factor
During the housing
boom, investors camped outside new subdivisions and bought multiple homes.
Builders, eager to meet demand, overbuilt in the Bay area, said Per Gunnar
Berglund, senior economist at Moody's Economy.com.
For example, one
investor in Carriage Pointe purchased six homes. All of them are now in
foreclosure.
Of the 31 homes in
foreclosure in the neighborhood, more than half were financed with
nontraditional financing, according to ForeclosuresDaily.com and public
records.
Many of those loans
had adjustable rates that have caused mortgage payments to skyrocket.
Some Carriage Pointe
residents blame the builder for the influx of investors. When the market
slowed, they say, Lennar Homes cut prices and sold excess inventory to
investors.
Mike Southward,
division president, said Lennar typically limits investors to purchasing every
fifth house.
'It was a good
selling community for us,' Southward said. 'I don't
remember that there was need to sell to investors. What's happened in Carriage
Pointe is unfortunate, but I think it's still a nice neighborhood.'
No one can say for
sure how many investors purchased homes in the Bay area, but Moody's recent
report on loan origination data approximates likely investor purchases.
In 2006, 18 percent
of loans in the Bay area were made to people who said they weren't going to
live in the home. That was up from 8 percent in 2001. In Florida, the number of
nonresident buyers was 19 percent in 2006, up from 12 percent in 2001. Across the
nation, 12 percent of loans in 2006 were for non-owner-occupied homes, up from
7 percent five years earlier.
Doug Duncan, chief
economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the numbers still may
underestimate investor purchases.
'One lender recently
told us that many of their loans in foreclosure were supposed to be to people
living in the home,' Duncan said. 'But when they investigated, they learned
some were actually investors.'
Duncan said he
expects foreclosures to peak during the fourth quarter of 2008.
'It won't surprise me
if it's at least a couple more years before things turn around in Florida,' he
said.
'We Can't Do This
Anymore'
The effect of
foreclosures can also be seen at local real estate sales offices. Of the 21
homes sold through Greg Armstrong's Coldwell Banker office last month, 12 had
been foreclosed on by lenders.
'I've been in this
business for 17 years, and I've never seen the bank be the No. 1 seller,' said
Armstrong, president-elect of the West Pasco Board of Realtors.
Homeowners who want
to move or those seeking to avoid foreclosure by selling can't compete, he
said. And every time a lender cuts prices dramatically to move a home, values
in the neighborhood go down, he said.
'Lenders can afford
to go much lower in price than homeowners can,' Armstrong said. 'The banks
don't want all these homes, so they'll sell them for whatever they need to.'
That's part of the
reason Brianne and Robert Thompson have decided to file for bankruptcy and walk
away from their first home, a three-bedroom in the Thousand Oaks subdivision in
New Port Richey.
The couple bought the
home four years ago and took out a second mortgage nearly two years later. They
had equity at the time and wanted to upgrade their home. Two months after
signing the paperwork, Brianne Thompson discovered she was seriously ill and no
longer could work.
For a year and a
half, they made it work, barely making mortgage payments each month. With their
second mortgage and home prices falling all around them, however, the Thompsons
now owe more than they can sell the home for.
Robert Thompson has
decided to give up his job at a nursing home to re-enlist in the Army, in part
so the family can get help with housing.
'We hate to just let
this house go,' Brianne Thompson said. 'We love it, but we can't do this
anymore.'
In Thousand Oaks
East, a Lennar subdivision in New Port Richey, 128 of 191 homes are either
listed for sale or have slipped off the listing after six months on the market
without a sale. Of the 12 homes in the community in foreclosure, half are on Lenton Rose Court. All along this street, homes sit empty,
with 'For Sale' signs beckoning buyers. '$60,000 under the appraised value,'
one sign says. Still, the home has been on the market for months, a neighbor
said.
Kelley Felicciardi and her husband have rented a home on the
street for four months. They have an option to buy but have decided not to, she
said, citing the foreclosures.
One house on the
corner, where neighborhood children catch a school bus, appears abandoned. Neighbors
take turns cutting the lawn, she said, so the children don't have to stand in
the weeds.
A few doors down is another renter, Gary Pirie. His landlord was heading to
foreclosure before Pirie's family moved in, he said.
'It looks like a
perfect neighborhood on the surface,' he said. 'But even a beautiful
neighborhood like this will eventually go bad when there are so many
foreclosures.'
October 21, 2007
"Green" means
besides light bulbs, solar energy and eco-building --
saving woods, rivers, grasslands and coastal strands. Two potential amendment
godsends for those galled by domino-style "planning" are Florida
Hometown Democracy and something advanced by the Florida Wildlife Federation:
constitutional status and permanent funding for Florida Forever through the
Taxation and Budget Revision Commission. The commission, whose purview it is to
adjust the tax code and review funding levels for important Florida projects,
meets once every 20 years.
Florida Wildlife Federation wants to apply 50 percent, instead of the current
10 percent, of documentary-stamp tax dollars to Florida Forever. As President
Manley Fuller puts it, "There is a logical nexus between this source of
revenue and land conservation needs."
Accomplishing dedicated funding for Florida Forever could occur more quickly
through the revision commission and be on the 2008 ballot, thus enabling the
state to tap the housing slump when landowners are more likely to sell for
conservation. The wildlife federation is concerned that chances to acquire
crucial links between existing preserves will slip by if the future and funding
of Florida Forever are left to the vagaries of politics.
We can't risk Florida's ecological future on the whims of whomever
takes office. Wilderness conservation is broadly in the public interest. All
Floridians need the quality of life inherent in a well-planned lands program.
Also, counties (like Orange) whose land purchases haven't matched that
destroyed should step up. Sands in the hourglass are running out.
Both proposed amendments on the 2008 ballot could help volumes toward
preserving our unique way of life and natural heritage.
REBECCA EAGAN
Winter park
Indian River Shores says no to FHD petition
By Hillary Copsey
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Town
Council's opposition to Florida Hometown Democracy, the proposed constitutional
amendment that would give voters final say over development, has riled some
residents.
Indian
River Shores is the first Treasure Coast government and one of only 10
municipalities statewide to formally oppose Hometown Democracy. The proposed
amendment would require expensive referendums and leave complex planning
decisions to uneducated voters, according to the resolution unanimously adopted
last month by Town Council.
"Government
by referendum just doesn't work," Mayor Tom Cadden
said. "It's just that simple. And people that feel strongly about
something need to take a stance on it, instead of just sitting."
But
some Indian River Shores residents say Town Council shouldn't use taxpayers'
money to lobby voters.
In an
Oct. 9 letter sent to all 2,800 Indian River Shores homes, council members
urged residents not to sign the petition required to put Hometown Democracy on
the 2008 ballot and asked those who had signed to have their names revoked.
Postage for the mailing cost $680.
"What
are they going to do next, support a presidential candidate?" said David
Green, a 20-year resident who has signed the Hometown Democracy petition.
"Doesn't that seem to be outside the duties of the town?"
Local
government attorneys say municipalities can use public cash to educate
residents and offer recommendations in the public interest.
Hometown
Democracy organizer Lesley Blackner, though outraged
by the Indian River Shores mailing, was not surprised to see some governments
opposing the amendment.
"They
don't want this reform," Blackner said.
"They like the status quo where they have the complete power. "
The
Florida League of Cities has opposed Hometown Democracy, and Floridians for Smarter
Growth, an anti-Hometown Democracy group, is lobbying every municipality in the
state to denounce the constitutional amendment.
FLORIDA
HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY
• The organization proposes a
constitutional amendment requiring voter approval of all changes to a city or
county's comprehensive plan.
• To get on the 2008 election
ballot, Hometown Democracy must collect 611,000 signatures by Jan. 31. They
have 331,000 verified signatures.
• For more information, visit
www.floridahometowndemocracy.com.
ONE
OF TEN
• Indian River Shores is one
of 10 municipalities that formally have opposed Florida Hometown Democracy.
• The others are: Casselberry,
Coral Springs, Kissimmee, Longwood, Winter Springs, Hallandale Beach,
Lauderhill, Palm Shores and Palmetto.
• Floridians for Smarter
Growth, an anti-Hometown Democracy group backed by the Florida Chamber of
Commerce, wants all local governments to oppose the amendment and has sent out
sample resolutions against it.
Here’s a
clear and objective assessment of the problems facing Callery-Judge
Grove. Keep in mind, the folks who wrote that pap are
realtors.
After long meetings and two years of discussing the future of the farmland west of Royal Palm Beach ended with the county commissioners on the advice of their attorney scrapped the 2005 Comprehensive Plan. The State of Florida planners have not yet approved the Sector Plan and now the plan is in court waiting for a judge to decide. The county and the state have different ideas as to how to develop the western area of the county. The state says the county should do more impact studies and research. The county says that by this scrapping of the 2005 plan gives them the chance to start all over again and decide what type of building should go on in the western farmlands.
Landowners of large parcels are not very happy with all of this mess. Callery-Judge Grove who owns the orange groves in the western area wants to develop his land. The county wants to tell him what to build and there are many area residents who do not want him to build at all. So much for private land rights. Some residents in the area say that by the county scrapping the 2005 plan that will just open the door for the landowners to start submitting their own plans for each development. The county still has to approve each plan. Callery-Judge and GL homes both say they are going ahead with their plans and will present them to the county. This has been an ongoing situation and now it looks like it is not going to be decided for some time to come.
The western farmland is west of Royal Palm Beach, North/west of Wellington and next to the Acreage and Loxahatchee Groves.