Smart Growth News

Florida

County Backs Developer Move to Increase Subdivision Density

The 556-acre Oakmont subdivision planned for the designated Urban Cluster around Gainesville was first approved by the Alachua County Commission in 2005 with a 999-home cap. Still not yet constructed, the project now may eventually include up to 2,224 dwellings, as well as other mixed-use buildings and access to future transit, reports the Gainesville Sun.

In the first step of a likely multi-year process to better align the project with the county's updated 2020 plan, the County Commission voted 3-2 to submit to the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) the developer's application to remove the cap. Noting the project's 20-to-30-year timeframe, developer representative Garry Diedenbach told commissioners he seeks elimination of a ''biased'' policy that limits Oakmont to two instead of the four homes per acre usually allowed in other subdivisions in the same low-density, residential land-use category.

The county limited the prospective density for the southern 480 acres of the Oakmont site in the mid-1990s, when it included the land in the urban service zone. When the initial development was approved in 2005, the total density cap kept the project under the 1,000-home threshold that would have triggered the ''more cumbersome'' Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review process by the DCA. Once the county population exceeded 250,000 this year, state law automatically raised the DRI review threshold to 2,000 homes.

After DCA reviews the developer's land-use change application and sends it back with comments, the County Commission will vote again, likely in October.   7/15/2010

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com/

Where We Live Can Determine Our Health

Where we live not just “matters to our health''; it ''can determine our health,'' writes Volusia County Health Department Director Bonnie J. Sorensen in a Daytona Beach News-Journal guest column, explaining why better public health requires neighborhood improvements, social equity and smart growth. ''After decades of sprawl,'' she observes, ''there is a new realization that smart growth and new urbanism not only preserve our natural environment but also reduce vehicle gases and encourage more physical activity.''

As officials champion the concepts, several cities – including DeLand, Orange City, New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach – are working to transform their downtowns into destinations where people live and works. Some cities have invested in Community Redevelopment Areas to eradicate blight and improve neighborhoods with mixed uses, affordable housing, public transportation, and green space. In addition, the county's ECHO (Environmental, Cultural, Historical, Outdoor) Grants-in-Aid program – funded by a special property tax of one-fifth of a mill – helps communities acquire, construct, renovate or upgrade the targeted facilities.

All this promises better quality of life. Now, Director Sorensen writes, Volusia County ranks 10th among the state's 67 counties in health care services, but 37th in public health. Why? ''Very simply, because health care accounts for only 20 percent of what determines our health,'' she tells readers. ''Forty percent of our health is determined by our personal behaviors, such as wearing seat belts or helmets or avoiding tobacco, mind-altering substances and risky sexual encounters. Another 40 percent of our health is determined by socioeconomic factors such as income, education, vocational training, literacy, food accessibility, transportation and family support.'' And in this crucial socioeconomic category, Volusia drops to the 47th rank. That's the problem.

''Neighborhoods that have high levels of poverty often have more fast food, liquor, gun and tobacco stores than grocery stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. These neighborhoods also tend to lack parks or green space but have railyards or industrial parks, air or soil pollution, segregated housing, unsafe streets and crime. These conditions put neighbors at risk for homicide, asthma, substance abuse, heart disease, high blood pressure and mental stress, among others,'' Sorensen points out. ''Unfortunately, there is a direct relationship between wealth and health. The more wealth a person or family enjoys, the longer they live. Therefore, although our efforts to increase green spaces and healthy food in neighborhoods will improve healthy options, improving the social inequity in our community will be necessary to improve our health.''   7/12/2010

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/

Sustainable Florida-Collins Center Announces Best Practice Award Winners

The Sustainable Florida-Collins Center has announced the winners of this year's Best Practice Awards program. The competition included 109 entries with only one award winner in each of the seven categories. The program awards companies, non-profits, and government for their effort in developing sustainable practices. The best practice categories included: business partnership, green building, government, large business, small business, non-profit, and leadership.

The panel responsible for choosing the winners was comprised of government leaders, business, academic institutions, and civic/environmental organizations. The nominees were judged on the outcomes achieved, the ability to duplicate the effort, and the overall success of the initiative.

''All of those being recognized today illustrate the highest in best performance standards in the integration of environmental, social and economic factors for the long-term sustainability of Florida,'' said Joe Kilsheimer, chairman of the board for Sustainable Florida.

Read all about the winners at the link below.   6/4/2010

Resource(s): www.prnewswire.com/

Venice, Florida, Plans for Compact Mixed Uses and Long-Term Livability

After its 2030 Envision Venice Comprehensive Plan was found to be too restrictive on density, affordable housing, and other points, the Venice City Council has now cast a unanimous first vote for the amended text, which includes affordable-housing density bonuses.

A maximum density increase from 18 to 25 units per acre gives developers financial incentives for low-income projects, says Sarasota Herald-Tribune correspondent Terry O’Connor. The plan also ensures that developers cannot push through designs that clash with city building codes. They will have to detail their proposals much earlier in the city process, said Mayor Ed Martin, stressing, ''Development brings with it the burden of compatibility.'' That means, the correspondent observes, a 10-story condo couldn't be built across from a one-story home as some proposed in the past.

In response to attorney Jeff Boone, who felt the plan would invite lawsuits against restricting property rights and didn't want officials to create ''multiple opportunities for people to go to court,'' Mayor Martin pointed out that tight code enforcement is in the interest of residents and developers alike.

The plan clearly and legally specifies what isn't and what is allowed. Its six chapters focus on land use and development; transportation and community connectivity; public services and infrastructure; the environment; implementation, through capital improvements and through regional partnerships and coordination; and school concurrency and facilities.

''The City supports the State legal requirements designed to impede urban sprawl,'' its executive summary says. ''This includes Livable Communities principles calling for compact, pedestrian oriented mixed-use development. Modest density increases for affordable, work-force housing and accessory dwelling units for lower income workers and seniors are also supported in the Plan. Land use and compatibility standards are required for new projects to provide a sense of place, use land more efficiently without compromising livability, and incorporate site and development plan, open space, landscape, massing and architectural design requirements. The Plan also includes additional pedestrian amenities, sidewalk, greenway and landscape design standards for more attractive travel corridors.''

The correspondent notes that the plan may pass with a second reading, possibly at the council's next meeting June 8.   5/27/2010

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Editorial Defends Department of Community Affairs as Indispensable for Smart Growth

With the Joint Sunset Committee due to recommend by July 1 whether lawmakers should leave alone, limit or abolish the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA), a Tampa Tribune editorial warns against yielding to developer pressures, calling the DCA ''essential to the state’s welfare.''

Over the past three years, more than 100 local governments each year amended their comprehensive plans, and the DCA reviewed a total of some 1,800 such changes for ''compliance with state laws and smart growth policies.'' Under Secretary Tom Pelham’s ''exemplary leadership,'' the editorial says, the DCA ''stands as a check to those counties and municipalities that rubber-stamp development plans without regard for the ultimate costs.'' If these plans defy state policies or area data, the department sends them back for correction or resolution.

Still, that’s only part of its job. The DCA also administers community development and housing programs, distributes Florida Communities Trust money for parkland purchases and green space protection, and provides support, strategy and resources whenever disaster strikes. ''If money is a concern, lawmakers should give the department the authority to start charging reasonable fees to review land-use amendments,'' the editorial stresses, ''Local governments should pass on these costs to developers. The state shouldn’t review for free amendments initiated by private developers.''   3/20/2010

Resource(s): www2.tbo.com/

Freezing Transportation Impact Fee Would Negate Space Coast Smart Growth

Alarmed by the loss of Space Coast jobs, especially in construction, Brevard County countered last March with a two-year moratorium on transportation impact fees from projects granted permits before this March. But the slump continues and the commissioners have now moved to extend the permit deadline for another year. Though the county waived and returned $6 million in impact fees since March to spur construction, reports Florida Today, developers seek more help. ''I have queried many of my peers in the commercial and residential industry. And many of them fear they’ll be out of business in the next year or two,'' said Home Builders and Contractors Association of Brevard CEO Franck Kaiser. ''We’re just trying to hold on to what we have.''

Commissioner Andy Anderson called the impact-fee moratorium a kind of ''marketing tool'' that encourages builders to break ground earlier then they would have otherwise. ''We need to get businesses up an running that would employ people,'' he told his four colleagues, with Commissioner Chuck Nelson expressing concern about some fee waivers and asking county administrators to look into possible alternatives. The county, he noted, waived a $782,000 fee for Sam’s Club opened just four months after the moratorium took effect. ''They were ready to open – and we basically gave them back $800,000,'' he said. ''Here’s national company that certainly could afford to have paid those impact fees.'' Nevertheless, the commissioners unanimously decided to draft an ordinance giving builders an extra year to secure permits with impact fees payable later, expecting it ready for their vote on March 23.

A Florida Today editorial has mixed feelings. Noting that the end of the shuttle flights later this year means massive layoffs at the Kennedy Space Center and that cancellation of the Constellation moon-landing program adds to the Space Coast’s economic problems, the editorial’s author hopes that ''the waived fees can get some building projects off the ground'' and spur jobs. ''However, we remain worried that when times get better, the impact fees won’t be reinstated,'' the editorial says. ''Developers will be lobbying hard to ditch them permanently, and commissioners who take their campaign donations could toss the smart-growth safeguards.'' With big landowners seeking approvals for almost 64,000 homes in Brevard and adjacent counties, the Space Coast could face ''disastrous'' consequences. Concerned that ''the next boom will mean grater gridlock on roads, more infrastructure repair backlog, worsened public safety and higher bills for taxpayers who’ll be left holding the bag.'' The editorial concludes, ''The fees should be put back on the books as soon as possible.''   2/10/2010

Resource(s): www.floridatoday.com/

New Miami Mayor Seeks Changes to the City’s Recently Approved Smart Growth Code

Hailed by smart growth advocates nationwide, the form-based Miami 21 zoning and design code passed on a City Commission 4-1 vote in October. But new Mayor Tomas Regalado, who voted no as a commissioner, took advantage of “changed political dynamic at City Hall,” reports the Miami Herald, to halt the code’s secheduled February 19 implementation until May 20.

With his two allies, newcomers Frank Carollo and Francis Suarez, joining re-elected incumbent Marc Sarnoff, and with two seats still open for a special election January 12, the three agreed to delay Miami 21 for three months. Mayor Regalado said the delay is needed to make the code better. “I will pledge to you,” he told them before their vote on his last-minute addition to their regular meeting’s agenda, “Miami 21 will be implemented, but with the input from the new commissioners.”

Above all, the mayor wants to get additional feedback from developers and local activists, and to open the code to previously rejected amendments. Some developers and zoning lawyers, led by the Bilzin Sumberg law firm, continued to fight the code after its approval, claiming it would illegally limit big projects. They found “strange bedfellows” in civic activists, who thought the code did not curtail big development enough, especially near residential neighborhoods. Mayor Regalado specifically mentioned the Miami Neighborhoods United group as one that offered numerous changes — most of which were rejected.

The Planning Advisory Board (PAB), reports South Florida Business Journal, also had mixed feelings about Miami 21, with its former member Maria Sardina Mann applauding the delay of the code implementation and hoping for improvements. “Miami 21 was meant to protect single-family neighborhoods,” she said. “It didn’t do that.” A Miami Herald editorial admits that “Miami 21 is not perfect” and “worth fixing,” but worries about a push “to potentially undo” the code before residents “have had a chance to see how it would work in action.” The code “would foster a more pedestrian-friendly city and discourage boxy, drab construction at street level in favor of welcoming store fronts, hidden garage entrances and attractive landscaping,” the editorial observes, uneasy about the mayor’s willingness to continue letting petitioners who lose at the Planning and Zoning Board seek reversal by the City Commission instead of a judge. “If this allows civic groups to feel empowered in public forums, then so be it. But there’s a caveat to the status quo: commissioner are susceptible to powerful interest groups that make campaign contributions,” the editorial stresses. “A judge is likely to be less politically inclined in zoning decisions.”

See the Miami 21 code and related information at www.miami21.org.   12/18/2009

Resource(s): www.miamiherald.com/ ; southflorida.bizjournals.com/

Florida Governor Crist Signs Bipartisan Passenger-Rail Bill as Vital for Jobs, Economy

''Today we celebrate because Florida’s transportation future moves into the 21st century,” said Republican Governor Charlie Crist as he signed a massive bipartisan passenger rail bill at the Capitol in Tallahassee. Crist told the audience, in a message repeated later in Tampa, Orlando, and Dania Beach near Fort Lauderdale – three urban areas first to reap the benefits – that the state moved “one step closer” to linking rail with roads, airports and seaports, to creating “more economic opportunity and more jobs,” and to winning some $2.6 billion in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail.

He also pointed out, reports the Tallahassee Democrat, that the new rail plan, approved by large majorities in both chambers – 84-25 in the House and 27-10 in the senate – will help improve the environment by taking cars off the road, facilitating access to tourist attractions, and making mobility easier for the disabled and others who depend on transit. And overall, the bill is about “jobs, jobs, jobs,” paramount in today’s economy and in the struggle for a better future. This view is shared by the main Democratic contender in the 2010 gubernatorial election, Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, but decried by her potential rival and Republican nomination hopeful, Senator Paula Dockery, who led a fight against the bill at the special legislative session early this month.

“The rail legislation signed today by Governor Charlie Crist might be good for Florida if only its hopelessly optimistic claims were true,” Dockery wrote in an e-mail to reporters. “What this legislation really does is pay the highest price ever paid for a rail line, while creating yet another Wall Street subsidy that sticks Main Street businesses with the bill.” Despite her similar assertions during the week-long debate, lawmakers earmarked $432 million to buy 61 miles of CSX railroad track for the Orlando area’s SunRail commuter rail, pledged up to $15 million a year in extra subsidies for Tri-Rail in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, provided money for the initial two-city segment of the prospective high-speed rail between Orlando, Tampa and Miami, and endorsed creation of a $60-million-a-year State Rail Enterprise to oversee the planned statewide passenger rail network. Commenting on the bill, Chief Financial Officer Sink stressed in her statement that commuter rail lines and the state’s commitment to high-speed rail are “important for Florida’s jobs, infrastructure and long-term economic growth.”   12/16/2009

Resource(s): tallahassee.com/ ; miamiherald.com/

State To Brevard County: Reject Farmton Mega-Development or Ensure Major Changes

In a setback for Chicago-based Miami Corp, which plans intense development on about a quarter of the 59,000-acre Farmton tract, the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) advised Brevard County against adoption of its part of the company’s plan, promising to complete an “objections, recommendations and comments” (ORC) report on the plan’s Volusia County part later this month.

The entire plan, reports DeLand Beacon writer Pat Hatfield, envisions construction of 29,500 housing units and more than 4 million square feet of commercial space over 50 years. The plan includes 4,600 units and 1.25 million commercial square feet on the 3,700-acre Brevard County tract, whose current agricultural zoning permits only 2,306 dwellings and nothing commercial. Both counties have recently approved the necessary amendments to their comprehensive plans, but DCA is legislatively obliged to review all such changes for so-called Developments of Regional Impact, and its ORC report on the Brevard County part of the Farmton development, the writer observes, “doesn’t bode well for approval of the Volusia County piece.”

The report suggests nine revisions, with the sentence “Recommendation: Do not adopt the proposed amendment” following 11 of its 20 specific concerns. The countryside tract is unsuitable for such a dense development, the report says, pointing to its wildlife and flooding, but also to plan inconsistency, and the lack of provisions for transportation, schools, water supply and infrastructure capability, along with a clear risk of sprawl and inefficiency, but without a demonstrated need for the construction’s scope.

Volusia County Schools, the city of Deltona, and the Growth Management Commission share DCA concerns over the potential development impact, all three unwilling to endorse the comprehensive plan amendment without developer commitment to help fund roads, schools and public facilities. Brevard County, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Ludmila Sellis, has three months to change or approve the projects, with approval likely to trigger an administrative clash with the state and require an administrative law judge verdict.   12/3/2009

Resource(s): www.beacononlinenews.com/ ; www.orlandosentinel.com/

Lee County, Florida, Adopts Complete Street Resolution

Alarmed by 32 pedestrian deaths in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers Metropolitan area in the past two years, the Lee County (Florida) Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted its Smart Growth Committee’s Complete Street Resolution. The resolution requires officials to make county roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists and transit passengers. Commissioner Brian Bigelow said the area lacks worthwhile transportation alternatives as compared to “how easy it is to get in your car and ride.”

The county, reports Naples Daily News, will now be considering pedestrian, biker, and transit user safety in plans and designs for its present and future roads, also focusing on carbon emission reductions and efforts to promote exercise and healthy lifestyles. “We’re going to have crashes in this society with so many vehicles, and so many roads and so many people on them,” worried Commissioner Frank Mann. Commenting on a complete-street plea by a biker hit by a car, Commissioner Bigelow stressed, “She is a victim of what’s really wrong with the way that we’ve been kind of singularly focused on accommodating automobiles in our county. It’s been quite literally to the exclusion of other alternative modes of transportation.”   11/10/2009

Resource(s): http://www.naplesnews.com/

Miami to Become More Pedestrian-Oriented with New Zoning Code

The City of Miami recently adopted a new urbanist form-based code that calls for convenient, walkable neighborhoods and gentler transitions between high-intensity and lower-scaled development. The new code known as Miami 21 ''promises a healthier city and friendlier walking corridors,'' reported the Miami Herald in its coverage of the vote.

The new code encourages residences, schools, shops, parks and other amenities to be within walking distance. Instead of focusing on use, it guides the form of what's built, calling for storefronts, office entrances, house stoops and other active uses lining sidewalks, while pushing off-street parking to the rear of lots. Miami is now mapped with ''transect zones'' which describe the form and intensity of urbanism from close-knit neighborhoods of two- and three-story buildings to the high-rises of the urban core and of other waterfront areas.

''This is a giant step forward for walkability, livability, preservation, green space, transit, job creation and building a better future for the next generation through the visionary Miami 21 plan,'' said City Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez.   10/24/2009

Resource(s): http://www.cnu.org/

Sunshine State Sees First Population Decline Since WWII

Drawn by its sun, beaches and lack of state income tax, retirees and other newcomers from everywhere swelled Florida's population from about 2.8 million to more than 18.8 million between 1950 and April 2008, but the number dipped by almost 58,300 just 12 months later -- the first dip since post-World-War-II demobilization in 1946 and though small a quite troublesome one -- with University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) Director Stan Smith and other experts attributing it to the impact of the national economic crisis on their state, so long reliant on the popular image of its rich assets and on construction-generated revenue.

''The population decline is really a reflection of how severe the national recession has been. Traditionally, Florida's growth has been spurred by both a booming economy and a booming housing market, and both have seen substantial losses over the last couple of years,'' he said of the newest BEBR annual estimate. ''This reflects a very abrupt change from three or four years ago, when Florida was experiencing some of its largest population increases ever. What is different now is that we're seeing an actual decline in the population and not just a slowdown in the growth rate.''

The decline, reports Miami Herald writer Marc Caputo, will likely make state economists revise downward their estimate of this budget year's tax revenue, just days earlier put at $147 million less than previously anticipated.

And with a record of 392,800 jobs lost in a year, one in every 154 homes in some form of foreclosure, and 400,000 empty homes for sale, the smaller population also means fewer potential buyers, said the Legislature's Office of Economic & Demographic Research Coordinator Amy Baker, while Associated Industries President and CEO Barney Bishop voiced alarm over the state's chance to start cutting its $32 billion backlog of unbuilt roads, bridges and sewers.

What's more, experts think the out-of-state influx, reduced both by the lack of jobs and by potential newcomers' inability to sell their homes elsewhere or obtain loans, will be slower once it resumes in the wake of an economic upturn.

''The demographics of the state have changed,'' explained University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith to St. Petersburg Times writer James Thorner. ''Coming out of this recession we won't have what we've had to pull us through recessions before. One of those things has been population growth. We've kind of lost that mantle of being a cheap place to live.''

Although optimists see the pause in growth as an additional prompt for policy changes, report Associated Press writer Ron Word and Palm Beach Post writer Jeff Ostrowski, there isn't much hope for a substantial positive shift anytime soon.

''This gives us an opportunity to step back and make some different choices about how to create a sustainable economy,'' noted West Palm Beach Economic Development Research Institute Executive Director Greta von Unruh, with 1,000 Friends of Florida President Charles Pattison saying that would really happen in an ideal world.

''The state has always had ups and downs on the population curve,'' he commented. ''We think there is still going to be pressure to have more population growth. The whole Florida phenomenon is based on low cost, low taxes, cheap to live.''

1,000 Friends community planner Joanne Davis had stronger words.

''Florida has managed to uglify itself, in terms of lack of diversity of employment, sprawl, having to have a car to get around,'' she stressed. ''There's only so much paradise you can sell. Pretty soon, it becomes congested, it becomes expensive.''

On his side, Senate Select Committee on Florida's Economy Republican Chairman Don Gaetz saw the need for tying the state's economic policies ''to economic reality'' by removing impediments to business activity, with lawmakers already eliminating some restrictions.

''In the '80s and '90s, the No. 1 issue was growth management,'' he declared. ''Now we wish we had some growth to manage.'' -- Univeristy of Florida News, Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Palm Beach Post   8/18/2009

Resource(s): http://news.ufl.edu/ ; www.miamiherald.com/

Sustainable Gardening Book: Lifestyle Changes Can Start in Your Backyard (Or on Your Balcony)

Governments and industries face the toughest job in the battle against global warming and environmental degradation, but individuals can greatly help through lifestyle, consumption and routine practice changes, one of which botanist Ginny Stibolt champions in her book ''Sustainable Gardening in Florida,'' recommended by Daytona Beach News-Journal reviewer Karen Gallagher as ''a lesson in taking care of Earth one plot at a time.''

Published by University Press of Florida, the 265-page book, with a glossary, plant list, bibliography, web links and drawings by artist and architect John Markowski, offers academic insight and indispensable gardening tips beneficial for everyone.

''Whether you have a balcony, a 10-foot-by-10-foot patch of green split by a sidewalk or massive acreage of lawn and trees, this book will open your eyes to wonderful ideas for helping the environment,'' the reviewer writes. ''Keep in mind that this is an educational adventure, not a quick read.''

The author's sustainable gardening in 8 complex steps include: ''1. Having minimal impact on the environment; 2. Making the best of available resources; 3. Saving time and money; 4. Reducing carbon dioxide and increasing oxygen in the air; 5. Offsetting some of the heat absorbed and stored by buildings and roads; 6. Increasing habitat for wildlife; 7. Preventing damage to underground infrastructure; 8. Preparing for hurricanes, fires and drought.''

Half of royalties from its sales go directly to the Florida Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

More details at www.sky-bolt.com/sustainable. -- News-Journal   8/16/2009

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/

Crist, Cabinet Reject Miami-Dade Development Boundary Expansion

In a somewhat cushioned blow to the Miami-Dade County Commission's sprawl-friendly block, which overrode County Mayor Carlos Alvarez's veto of expansion of the county's western Urban Development Boundary (UDB) in two sections for a Lowe's Superstore and an office/retail complex, Governor Charlie Crist and the elective Florida Cabinet -- Attorney General Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson -- voted 3-1 to deny the UDB change for Lowe's, but over the secretary's objection to allow it for the other project.

The vote, report Miami Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau writer Mary Ellen Klas and South Florida Business Journal writer Oscar Pedro Musibay, affirms a decision by administrative law Judge Bram D.E. Canter.

The judge, reported Herald writer Matthew Haggman in May, ruled that the UDB expansion on 52 acres for Lowe's violates state law, while the 42-acre expansion for the commercial project complies with the law, but is unlikely to serve other developers as a precedent for their encroachment into areas limited to one dwelling per five acres, because the site's odd shape -- between a big residential development and an arterial roadway -- reduces its agricultural value.

Citing the county's Department of Planning and Zoning data, which show enough commercial land within the UDB to last through 2023, Judge Cantor agreed with the Washington, D.C.-based National Park Conservation Association (NPCA) and 1000 Friends of Florida that there is ''no need for more commercial land, and no need for a home improvement store, in the area of the Lowe's site.''

For the same reasons, the UDB expansion antagonized county and state planners, civic leaders, conservationists and Miami Herald editors.

''With empty land available to build stores and homes in Miami-Dade County's designated urban area and with thousands of vacant homes waiting to be bought in this recession why would commissioners push for development out in the western fringes?'' the daily asked ahead of the governor's and the cabinet's vote, expecting them to reject such a ''lame-brain'' idea.

They did -- with the allowed change for the smaller project broadly seen as an inconsequential exception -- and now Lowe's has 30 days to decide whether to appeal.

NPCA officials and other environmentalists feel vindicated.

''This is a momentous decision and sends a clear message to Miami-Dade County that the UDB is a line that needs to be held to protect our parks and natural environment,'' said NPCA Sun Coast Regional Office Biscayne Restoration Program Analyst Kahlil Kettering, with Everglades Law Center Counsel Robert Hartsell adding, ''The cabinet has shown their commitment to promoting smart growth in our state. This ruling tells us that expansions of the UDB should be few and far between, and allowing urban sprawl that threatens America's Everglades is not sound growth management policy.''

Still, other prospective UDB-change applicants wait on the sidelines, with observers focused on Parkland, a proposed suburb on 961 acres near the Everglades, which could house some 19,000 residents. -- Miami Herald/Times, South Florida Business Journal   7/29/2009

Resource(s): www.miamiherald.com/ ; http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/

Panel Reviews, Offers Advice on Volusia/Brevard County Land-Use Amendment

Although Miami Corporation has no immediate need to develop some of its long-owned 59,000 acres south of Edgewater in Volusia County and in northern Brevard County -- known as Farmton and now used for tree farming, grazing and hunting -- its officials are already seeking changes to both counties' comprehensive plans for an eventual mixed-use development in line with smart growth, concerned that the Florida Hometown Democracy group, despite counteraction by business-based Floridians for Smarter Growth and 130 other organizations, may force a November 2010 ballot on a state constitutional amendment to make such government-approved changes dependent on local referendums.

If that happens and if area voters were to bar any comprehensive plan changes for greater density, ''then we're stuck with ranchettes,'' said Miami Corporation local attorney Glenn Storch at a recent all-day public forum, held at the Daytona State College campus in New Smyrna Beach. The current Farmton land-use designation, he explained, allows 1,600 to 4,692 housing units; the proposed change would leave half of the land, or almost 30,000 acres, for permanent conservation, while ensuring higher density on the other half -- up to 29,500 dwellings and 4 million square feet of business and commercial space, with initial development mostly in the tract's northern sector, south of Edgewater, and nothing else projected until after 2025.

At the forum, report DeLand-Deltona Beacon writer Pat Hatfield and Daytona Beach News-Journal writer Dinah Voyles Pulver, company representatives sought and got both advice and criticism from a nine-expert panel, led by former Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Secretaries Jim Murley and Steve Siebert, and from the audience, including many county and municipal officials.

The panelists liked the land conservation efforts, advised the company to set up a ''stewardship council'' involving area communities in long-term development oversight, stressed the need for overall clear design and sustainability standards, and called for plan details, especially on water and wastewater systems, energy efficiency, transportation and schools.

Florida ecology expert Richard Hilsenbeck, conservation director for the state chapter of the Nature Conservancy, pointed out that since the Farmton tract abounds in wetlands unsuitable for development, they should be excluded from calculations of its prospective residential density, and that its wildlife corridors would not only cross roads, but also be too narrow and too wet for bears and other large animals.

The company's proposal will go to local planning agencies and the Volusia Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission in August, after which it would need approval from the Volusia County Council and Brevard County Commission, and eventually from the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

More about the proposal and the fight over the state constitutional amendment ballot at www.farmtontreefarm.com/news-mc-comp-plan.html, www.florida2010.org and www.floridahometowndemocracy.com. -- Beacon, News-Journal   6/6/2009

Resource(s): www.beacononlinenews.com/ ; www.news-journalonline.com/local.htm

Editorials Slam Gov. Crist for Signing Pro-Developer Bill

Frustrated like most other newspapers by Governor Charlie Crist's signature under a bill certain to cripple Florida planning and anti-sprawl efforts (SB 360), the St. Petersburg Times told him he ''clearly values the voices of developers and big business -- and their campaign checks for his U.S. Senate campaign -- over the concerns of environmentalists and local governments,'' while Melbourne Florida Today said this Community Renewal Act ''should really be called the 'Pave Paradise And Put Up Another Parking Lot Act' because it eviscerated 25 years of growth management laws that required builders to pay their fair share for roads and protected the environment.''

Noting broad recognition that ''transportation concurrency is unnecessary in urban settings such as downtown St. Petersburg or Tampa'' and that ''the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process was too cumbersome and needed an overhaul,'' the St. Petersburg Times editorial pointed out that the new law ''goes well beyond any reasonable definition of urban and will end transportation concurrency in small towns and suburbia,'' and that elimination of the entire DRI review will leave ''communities adjacent to giant projects outside their own boundaries with little recourse for coping with the fallout.''

Dismayed by this ''free pass'' for developers, the editorial calls the bill enactment ''one of the most serious mistakes Crist has made since taking office in 2007,'' and also ''at odds'' with most of his record.

''The governor who appointed growth management expert Tom Pelham to head the Department of Community Affairs has just eviscerated growth management,'' the editorial concluded. ''The champion of restoring the Everglades has just endorsed urban sprawl. And the booster of better mass transit and visionary rail systems has just become Governor Gridlock.''

The Florida Today editorial took the political implication further.

''The measure was pushed by the development industry, which used the recession as a smoke screen to claim it was needed to remove restrictions that stymied construction and hurt Florida's economy,'' the editorial said. ''But that's nonsense because the laws didn't stop the over-development that led to the collapse of the state's housing market, with 300,000 housing units sitting vacant and development plans already approved for 630,000 more.'' -- St. Petersburg Times, Florida Today   6/3/2009

Resource(s): www.sptimes.com/home.shtml ; www.floridatoday.com/

Gov. Crist Signs Controversial Community Renewal Act

A month-long campaign by local governments, public interest groups and the media against enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 360 -- the Community Renewal Act, which exempts many projects from the state's transportation concurrency requirement and Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review -- had only one effect: Republican Governor Charlie Crist signed the bill in private instead at a photo event, with the Florida Chamber of Commerce grateful for his ''courage'' to resist ''a last minute push to politicize smart growth,'' and with a disappointed 1000 Friends of Florida ready to gather opponents in work on strategies ''to promote smart growth within the new parameters.''

In a ''terse'' announcement, news writers note, the governor's press office said the bill does five things to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

It ''incentivizes entrepreneurs'' for economic development in designated urban areas; prescribes ''a study of a mobility fee system'' to replace lost developer transportation-impact fees; extends the validity of current development permits for two years; changes affordable housing programs ''to ensure affordable homes'' for the needy, including young adults who leave the state foster care system; and ''encourages green building and storm resistant construction.''

The next day, Tallahassee Area Chamber of Commerce Growth Management Committee Chairman Todd H. Sperry and 1000 Friends of Florida President Charles Pattison continued the debate about the prospective results in their Tallahassee Democrat guest opinions, the former assuring readers that the bill ''keeps decisions at a local level,'' the latter warning that taxpayers ''will feel the cost of sprawl.''

Calling the governor's signature ''a step in the right direction,'' the chamber official and an Oliver Renovation and Construction partner wrote that through ''concurrency-exclusion zones in urban areas,'' the new law will help steer construction to areas like Tallahassee, without affecting land use in surrounding Leon County.

The definition of an urban area as one with 1,000 residents per square mile (640 acres) ''was not picked arbitrarily,'' but taken from the Federal Census Bureau, and it means a square mile with all non-residential uses, including right of ways, commercial and industrial space, schools, universities, government property, and parks, he noted, considering interpretation of its density as roughly one house per acre ''very misleading.''

Elimination of the concurrency mandate ''gives more control to our local government'' on growth and transportation, he asserted, expecting the city to become ''more creative with mass transit, bike and pedestrian-friendly design'' and to allow development ''where it makes sense and not just where road capacity exists.''

If the bill were so economically advantageous as supporters claim, countered 1000 Friends President Pattison, it would not have been opposed by the Florida League of Cities and the Florida Association of Counties, which joined many other organizations and most major newspapers in a call for the governor's veto.

Its ''good stated intent'' to spur jobs and economic recovery through development in ''dense urban land areas'' with incentives such as waivers for transportation concurrency and regional impact review, he pointed out, was eroded by the qualifying ''1,000 people/square mile'' density standard, which automatically qualifies 245 cities and eight counties, with all others allowed to designate some areas for the same rule rollback.

''For the Tallahassee area, this new law would mean that projects inside our urban services area, such as Fallschase, Welaunee Plantation and SouthWood, would have paid no road-improvement costs,'' he explained. ''Unless the public wants to pay, all of those impacted roads will only get more congested.''

Similarly, the job-creation argument ignores ''the current backlog of more than 300,000 vacant dwelling units,'' with hundreds of thousands more approved in addition to millions of square feet of commercial and institutional space.

''Relaxing growth controls has nothing to do with 'creating' jobs -- the jobs are there, and the projects are ready to go, but the financing is missing,'' he observed, also concerned that despite the ''positive'' community land-trust language in a broad affordable-housing amendment, ''unnecessary limitations on new affordable-housing developers'' remain, together with other obstacles to better growth.

''What was intended as a scalpel for some selective, focused growth-management improvements turned into a sledgehammer with many unintended consequences,'' he concluded. ''Think of it as a 'tax' either falling onto taxpayers to cover what should be legitimate developer costs or a further decline in our quality of life, which is already strained.''

More at www.1000friendsofflorida.org/reform/09session.asp. -- Tallahassee Democrat, Florida Chamber of Commerce, 1000 Friends of Florida   6/1/2009

Resource(s): www.flgov.com/ ; www.flchamber.com/

More Groups Urge Gov. Crist to Veto Florida Growth Bill

With the June 2 deadline for Republican Governor Charlie Crist's action to ''save smart growth'' just a week ahead, a Fort Myers News-Press editorial restated the arguments of the Florida Association of Counties, environmental groups and many others opposed to Senate Bill 360 and again urged his veto, reminding him that he won in 2006 with a pledge to protect the state from ''runaway growth'' and that he shouldn't forget this commitment to his constituents now while running for the U.S. Senate.

''State growth regulations need reform, but they are not the reason Florida's growth has stalled, which is what 'reformers' claim. Growth was robust despite growth regulations, until under-regulation of the financial industry dropped the country into recession,'' the editorial pointed out. ''SB 360 has some good elements, but it would effectively gut local government's ability to keep roads up with growth in the urban areas where most Floridians live.''

Noting that the House inserted in the bill a last-minute exemption of major developments in so-called ''urban services areas'' from state oversight, which is ''vital in cases where weak local governments sell out the public interest to powerful developers,'' the editorial concludes, ''Crist should kill this bill, and get more involved next year -- his last as governor -- to see that growth control is streamlined without being gutted.''

Read concise criticism of the bill by 1000 Friends of Florida, along with an appeal for public involvement, and follow the governor's action. -- News-Press   5/26/2009

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/

Smart Growth or Sprawl? Debate Continues Over Florida Growth Management Bill

Stung by ''a lot of negative media coverage'' and public calls for a gubernatorial veto of a ''growth-management'' bill (SB 360) he championed but his House colleagues diluted, Senate Committee on Community Affairs Republican Chairman Mike Bennett defends the bill in a long Gainesville Sun column as a recession-related ''attempt to promote both economic development and good planning,'' or smart growth -- a defense ''amused and horrified'' Tierra Verde resident Dan Waite counters in an equally detailed Sun column and a St. Petersburg Times Letter to the Editor, seeing the bill as ''an ill-advised subsidy'' for developers at the expense of other economic sectors and all state taxpayers.

''Senate Bill 360 promotes growth in 'dense' urban areas by removing the state mandated costs of transportation concurrency and the duplicative development of regional impact (DRI) process in those areas,'' writes Senator Bennett, citing Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham's testimony about the failure of the state's transportation concurrency requirement. According to the senator, the requirement is unfair and sprawl-inducive because no project pays to mitigate traffic until traffic exceeds road capacity and must be eased by subsequent developers -- while in some urban areas road expansion isn't even physically and financially possible -- and because those unable to pay traffic mitigation costs may locate in outer areas with sufficient roads.

Besides, local governments can charge the developer impact fees that suit them best, and ''still control development simply by not changing land use types or intensity.''

Similarly, the senator writes, in the context of the state's current comprehensive planning, the 30-year-old DRI process has outlived its efficiency and affordability, and the bill's primary purposes ''are to encourage urban infill and redevelopment by removing costly and unworkable state regulations in urban areas.''

Expressing his ''free-market leaning opinion,'' resident Dan Waite retorts that somebody ''will have to pay for SB 360; it's just a question of how we pay'' -- with clogged roads, worse pollution and increasingly unsustainable water use or with new taxes and public fees to fix the problems.

Neither will help the depressed tourism industry or attract business and create jobs since these three depend on local quality of life and transportation, he points out, calling the industry subsidy ''truly outrageous . . . at a time when the housing market is absolutely flooded with the units the developers have already built and can't sell.''

He expects many developers will eventually profit from their vacant stock anyway, because ''it doesn't cost much to put up a cookie-cutter condo complex or belch out a few hundred chintzy McMansions, especially with cheap materials (imported from overseas) and the cheap immigrant labor that, let's be honest, comprise the bulk of the job creation proponents of SB 360 claim.''

In an analogy to the successful Wal-Mart foreign material and labor model, which reduced consumer prices, but also put a lot of retailers out of business, Dan Waite writes, subsidizing another housing surplus increase will force just about all current property owners across the state ''to lower their prices further and further as supply increasingly outstrips demand.''

By passing the bill, Florida lawmakers have shown willingness not only to make taxpayers ''shoulder a significant portion of the cost of reckless development,'' but also to subsidize ''an increase in the existing glut in the housing market and drive those same taxpayers' property values down even further than their currently abysmal levels,'' he writes, seeing the only hope in a Republican Governor Charlie Crist veto. -- Gainesville Sun, St. Petersburg Times   5/20/2009

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com/ ; http://itsyourtimes.com/

Tampa Bay, Central Florida Partnerships Host ''Super Regional Leadership Conference''

Just as the severity of the economic crisis has been unequal nationwide, so will be the recovery, and the regions ''best aligned to tackle major issues such as transportation, education, land use planning and workforce will emerge faster and grow stronger,'' said an online Tampa Bay Partnership and Central Florida Partnership invitation to their joint Super Regional Leadership Conference, called ''The Power of Coming Together,'' May 7 in Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, with St. Petersburg Times columnist Robert Trigaux hoping that the two economic development groups will finally cooperate on water, smart growth, transportation and other common concerns.

''The meeting acknowledged that growth will soon join the greater Tampa Bay and Orlando areas -- officially in the 2020s -- and then set the stage for that superregion to grow again into what planners call a megaregion,'' he writes, confident that their cooperation would help Central Florida ''emerge more sharply focused, stronger, more competitive and, frankly, a less ugly place to live in the coming decades.''

He and some 400 business and civic leaders in attendance especially appreciated the unanimity of purpose by University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft and University of Central Florida President John Hitt, who talked about their Tampa and Orlando universities as ''intellectual metro engines'' for good jobs.

''This whole area is coming together,'' said the latter, expressing their shared view and asking the participants, ''How do we help the economy develop high-value, high-wage jobs and more wealth for the people here?''

Well, the columnist comments, the next step should be to ensure that the super-regional cooperation really starts.

More about both partnerships at www.tampabay.org and www.centralfloridapartnership.org. -- St. Petersburg Times   5/8/2009

Resource(s): www.tampabay.com/

Growth Management Bill Blasted in Florida

''We believe sprawl is one of the biggest challenges to overcome if we are to successfully address the climate change issues you have brought forward,'' wrote 1000 Friends of Florida President Charles Pattison to Republican Governor Charlie Crist, expressing the views of conservationists, smart growth advocates, and county leaders who want the governor to veto Senate Bill (SB) 360 -- sponsored by Republicans in both chambers, but weakened by the House despite a public warning by his Department of Community Affairs Tom Pelham that it ''will substantially undermine Florida's growth management laws,'' and eventually passed mostly along party lanes 78-37 in the House and 30-7 in Senate.

''While this bill contains important and well-intentioned growth management concepts, we believe it falls far short of the goal of encouraging more and better new growth in already developed areas,'' the 1000 Friends president continued, pointing out that more sprawl means more traffic congestion, ''which already contributes almost 40 percent'' of greenhouse gas emissions statewide.

The bill, backed by the recession-wrecked construction industry as necessary to help it recover and create jobs, reports the Florida press, encourages development in dense urban areas by exempting them from the current law's ''transportation concurrency'' provision and rigorous Development of Regional Impact review -- the first requiring sufficient roads and other mobility infrastructure before construction starts; the other setting detailed state conditions for projects on huge tracts.

Critics of the concurrency provision argued it favors sprawl unintentionally because developers often consider urban areas' road costs too high and go to the fringes where roads are less congested and cheaper to build.

A key SB 360 problem, noted 1000 Friends President Pattison, is its broad definition of a dense urban area as any with 1,000 people per square mile, which would also exempt many rural areas or tracts from the concurrency provision, while its prospective replacement in the form of a ''mobility fee'' is dependent on a task force report to lawmakers by December 1 and their moves at the 2010 session.

Others agree.

''I think the most dangerous thing here is this bill could very well destroy the regional planning concept of growth management in Florida,'' said Sierra Club Senior Regional Representative Frank Jackalone. ''It would allow development in Sarasota County, for example, to threaten the environment of Manatee County without Sarasota County having a say-so in the regional planning.''

Florida Association of Counties (FAC) President Rodney Long expressed the same concern in his letter to Governor Crist.

Seeing the transportation concurrency provision as a cornerstone of the state's growth management policies, and cautioning against its removal as hurtful ''in the long run,'' he wrote, ''Communities that have transportation deficiencies, poor access, and extensive commute times are ones that businesses rarely look to when starting new or expanding existing business.''

And a Palm Beach Post editorial said plainly what many feel.

''The 'growth-management' bill that eliminates Florida's strongest growth-management tools is special-interest government at its worst,'' it stressed, urging the governor to veto this legislative ''disaster'' if he doesn't to be forever known as ''Traffic Jam Charlie.'' -- Miami Herald, Bradenton Herald, Jacksonville Observer, Palm Beach Post   4/30/2009

Resource(s): www.miamiherald.com/ ; www.jaxobserver.com/

Editorial Urges Governor's Input on Plans to Tap Into Ocklawaha and St. Johns Rivers

With the Smart Growth Coalition (SGC) of North Central Florida, scientists, and residents strongly against the St. Johns River Water Management District's (SJRWMD's) long-plotted and increasingly aggressive moves ''to tap into the St. Johns and the Ocklawaha rivers for up to 300 million gallons of water every day,'' a Gainesville Sun editorial fears this ''divisive and angry'' debate can have ''dangerous environmental and economic consequences'' and urges Republican Governor Charlie Crist to step in before it's too late.

At a recent SGC forum in Ocala, the editorial says, scientists and environmentalists pointed out that the planned massive withdrawals, mostly for Central Florida utilities, will destroy the rivers, estuaries, wetlands and wildlife, and that the best short-term solution lies in tough conservation policies.

But one week earlier at a SJRWMD Board meeting in Palatka, ''where 300-400 residents from Jacksonville to Orlando turned out to oppose a Seminole County request to pump 5.5 million gallons a day from the St. Johns Rivers,'' while only one resident and county and district lawyers argued otherwise, the board voted 5-4 to issue the 20-year pumping permit.

Alarmed, the editorial backs St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon, who told the SGC forum it's time to hear from Governor Crist.

''The water districts are ignoring public sentiments, and the people feel helpless; meanwhile, certain decisions are occurring based on uncertain science,'' the editorial observes, stressing that the governor needs to join the debate.

''Better yet,'' it concludes, ''he needs to lead it before we do to our rivers and springs what we have done to our aquifer.''

See details at www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org and http://arcimspub.sjrwmd.com/website/newsrelease/ViewNews.aspx?nrd=nr09-025. -- Gainesville Sun   4/24/2009

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com/

Developer Pledges to Make Babcock Ranch ''First Real Solar City'' in World

''One of the realities about renewable energy is that we will have more of it when people are able to make money from it,'' says a Palm Beach Post editorial on just such a perceptive move by area developer Syd Kitson -- one of many responsive to ''smart-growth building and design techniques,'' but the first ready to power his huge future community on 17,000 acres of the 92,000-acre Babcock Ranch in Charlotte and Lee counties entirely by solar energy, with the nation's largest renewable energy producer, Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), likely to launch on-site construction of a $300 million, 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant by the end of the year.

''Mr. Kitson wants to show that there can be a different way to build. And he's not forgetting the profit motive,'' the editorial observes, noting that he sold off 73,000 acres of the ranch to the state for preservation, and last year obtained $1 billion from Chicago-based Evergreen Real Estate Partners for the project, expected to break ground by 2011.

At a joint announcement of solar power for the development, the developer and FPL, Sierra Club, Audubon of Florida and World Wildlife Fund officials made it clear that ''the very green Babcock Ranch'' will become even greener.

With the developer telling the press in an earlier phone conference that Babcock Ranch will be ''the first real solar city in the world,'' Post writer Susan Salisbury reported that the prospective FPL plant's photovoltaic panel technology of converting sunlight directly into electricity is ''carbon-free, uses no water, produces no waste and will eliminate the need for 1 million barrels of oil a year.''

The built-in ''smart-grid infrastructure'' will include solar panels on commercial building roofs and kiosks for recharging electric vehicles, the developer said, confident Babcock Ranch will be ''a living laboratory'' for companies focusing on renewable energy.

FPL Vice President Eric Silagy pointed out that year-long construction of the 400-acre solar plant will create about 400 jobs, with the development predicted to add 20,000 permanent jobs over 20 years.

Area Republican Congressman Tom Rooney supports the project.

''It's hard to imagine what the world is going to look like when the fossil fuels run out,'' he said. ''I think Babcock Ranch has given us that first look.'' -- Palm Beach Post   4/12/2009

Resource(s): www.palmbeachpost.com/

Sarasota County Sees Economic Slump as Opportunity to Rebuild Development Model

Having banned the use of nitrogen- and phosphorus-laced fertilizers in the rainy season and passed a form-based development code last year, the ban copied elsewhere in the state, Sarasota County leaders see the construction slump as the time ''to ramp up requirements for reducing pollution, energy use and traffic,'' ready to follow New Urbanism and recreate ''the urban streetscapes of pre-World War II America where restaurants, shops and offices were around the corner, people walked more and drove less, and trolleys and light rail were popular,'' reports Sarasota Herald Tribune writer Doug Sword, quoting County Commissioner Jon Thaxton and Administrator Jim Ley.

''Now we're in a recession and there's no better time to rebuild the model,'' said the commissioner, with the administrator pointing out that sustainability is now an industry and that county officials are ''trying to build a platform where we can jump when things turn around.''

Hired by the county to help it craft a redevelopment strategy -- especially for the aged commercial districts along three South Sarasota roads -- Los Angeles-based New Urbanism expert Stefanos Polyzoides told the writer the county needs more flexible zoning and development rules, better landscaping and perhaps light rail to create walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods in areas now dominated by huge parking lots and intersections that make motorists speed up to get through.

''It's not a one- or three-year process,'' he observed. ''It's probably a 50- or 100-year process.''

Developers, who would get incentives to reduce stormwater runoff with cisterns, ''green'' roofs and reuse systems, are receptive to these and other changes.

''The majority of my customers are asking for this; people want to do the right thing,'' said a Sarasota Building Industry Association member, landscaper Trent Culleny.

The prospective incentives, thought Gulf Coast Builders Exchange Executive Director Mary Dougherty-Slapp, could include breaks on impact fees for environmentally conscious projects. -- Herald Tribune   3/17/2009

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Legislation Would Eliminate Florida Department of Community Affairs

Pushed by House Military and Local Affairs Policy Committee Republican Vice Chairman Chris Dorworth and, in a simpler version, by Senate Community Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bennett as recession-prompted bureaucracy and budget reduction measures, bills to abolish the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) created in 1969 and fold its tasks into the Department of State or spread them elsewhere, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Kevin Spear, strike environmental and smart-growth advocates as an underhanded attempt to ''cripple effective growth management.''

Parts of other legislative proposals, including a bill that would give developers breaks for projects in urban instead of rural areas, ''are pretty good, but we can't support anything that includes the transfer of DCA,'' said 1000 Friends of Florida Charles Pattison.

DCA Secretary Tom Pelham, who also led it in 1987-91 -- the early and especially contentious phase of implementation of the 1985 Growth Management Act -- is doubtful that Republican Governor Charlie Crist would allow the now-proposed changes, as ''(h)e's been very protective of the environment and pro-growth management.''

Since Secretary Pelham took the helm again in January 2007, the writer observes, the DCA has blocked several major development proposals in Escambia, Leon, Miami-Dade, Putnam, Taylor and Flagler counties.

And while other developers have continued to press for similar projects that would put thousands of homes and businesses in the Volusia, Sumter and Osceola countryside, critics have urged the agency to strengthen its efforts against sprawl.

The Florida Home Builders Association remains neutral on the DCA breakup bills, with spokeswoman Edie Ousley acknowledging that the state's 300,000 vacant homes represent an almost two-year backlog, but arguing that lawmakers must eliminate bureaucratic redundancy and otherwise help the construction industry recover.

In a campaign against the bills, the writer notes, a coalition of at least nine environmental and smart-growth groups points out that Florida's current woes stem in part from lax development controls, which not only resulted in the huge oversupply of homes, now empty, but also left builders with valid permits to construct ''unknown'' thousands more.

Looking at the problems from his personal perspective as a county commissioner and administrator of three other counties, who retired after 27 years in local government just two years ago, Northwest Florida resident Ernie Padgett stresses in a Sarasota Herald Tribune guest column that DCA growth management worked.

The move by some lawmakers to abolish the DCA is nothing more than ''catering to a few special interest groups'' under ''the guise of helping the state economy,'' he writes, cautioning that ''this bad legislation'' most likely would let developers avoid their responsibility for funding their projects' infrastructure, the cost of which would have to be paid by all local taxpayers.

Details of the DCA's mission, operation and plans at www.dca.state.fl.us. -- Orlando Sentinel, Herald Tribune   3/16/2009

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/ ; www.heraldtribune.com/

Plan for Lee County High-Density Development Draws Criticism

Proposed by the Bonita Bay Group as environmentally friendly and rooted in smart growth, the 2,500-home North River Village project on 1,232 green acres along the Caloosahatchee River in eastern Lee County is seen ''as a critical case pitting development against preservation,'' reports Fort Myers News-Press writer Don Ruane, with County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry, conservationists and most neighbors opposing its density, two times higher than set for the area in the county comprehensive plan.

The county's advisory Local Planning Agency (LPA) has just endorsed an earlier staff recommendation against plan change by a 4-3 vote, but the project is still dependent on a state Department of Community Affairs review and a County Commission decision later this year.

According to Bonita Bay Group officials, the writer observes, North River Village would not only prevent sprawl and save the river from potential septic-tank leaks if another developer was to build fewer homes without water and sewer services, but also generate millions of dollars in impact fees and taxes, and create 3,000 jobs.

In addition, clustering homes would limit its environmental impact.

LPA Chairman Noel Andres and some hearing attendees cited these arguments for the projects, but rural density opponents -- including County Commissioner Frank Mann, also in the audience -- prevailed.

''We will end up with suburbia all over the county,'' said LPA member Cindy Butler, voting against the plan change for the project.

And member Jim Green, a Realtor and official of grassroots ALVA Inc., added, ''It's just in the wrong place.'' -- Fort Myers Weekly, News-Press   2/23/2009

Resource(s): http://fortmyers.floridaweekly.com/ ; www.news-press.com/

''Digital Public Square'' in the Works for Palm Beach and Martin Counties

To spotlight social disparities and facilitate discussion of this and other problems, the nonprofit Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin counties is readying a ''digital public square'' for launch in the spring -- an interactive web site with news, data, links and visitors' input on the environment, health, children services and other hot subjects, report Fort Lauderdale South Florida Sun-Sentinel writer Howard Goodman, quoting Foundation President Leslie Lilly, who mentions affordable housing as especially important now for residents facing foreclosures.

''You have high rates of poverty and high rates of wealth. You have many communities that are communities unto themselves,'' she says. ''You have the seasonal migration that takes place, a huge population of newcomers who are culturally diverse, who come from many different places. It's a place of stark contrasts.''

Helped by a contribution of nearly $1 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, her group expects much of the web site's content to come from local public interest and advocacy organizations, including 1000 Friends of Florida, which promised to post smart growth and sustainability news. -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel   2/10/2009

Resource(s): www.sun-sentinel.com/

Edgewater City Council Approves 8,500-Home/Unit Restoration Complex

In the reverse of a frequent situation when the state backs locally opposed countryside development, the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) cautioned the Edgewater City Council, Volusia County, against the planned 8,500-home-unit Restoration complex at a 5,000-acre tract west of I-95 as typical urban sprawl, but the council approved the project by a 3-1 vote anyway, welcoming the recent design changes made by the North Carolina-based Hammock Creek Green LLC developer as consistent with smart growth.

Last October, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Ludmilla Lelis, the DCA concluded that Edgewater officials failed to demonstrate the need for all proposed housing units, that the area lacks sufficient infrastructure, including roads, water supply and wastewater treatment facilities, and that the project is too far away, leaping over undeveloped tracts near cities.

With members of the Edgewater Citizens Alliance for Responsible Development still voicing similar concerns at the council's meeting, Councilwoman Debra Rogers cast the sole vote against the project, saying all these issues should be fully addressed.

On the other hand, city staff cited ongoing discussions with state officials, who will review the plan again, and the three council members in favor of the project noted that the developer would now preserve 3,700 ecologically sensitive acres, restore some wetlands, relocate the commercial town center closer to the interstate, cluster homes, and mix uses in walkable neighborhoods.

''To expect that this community is not going to grow is putting your head in the sand and pouring dirt on top of yourself,'' observed Councilwoman Harriet Rhodes. ''It behooves us to recognize that fact and deal with it in the most environmentally friendly, the most conscientious way we can.''

Audubon of Florida representative Charles Lee agreed.

''We had some serious concerns,'' he said of the initial Restoration plans, but the proposal ''has evolved to the point where it is exemplary.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   2/3/2009

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Lee County Seeks Regional Service Planning Agreement With Cities

Worried that Lee County's efforts to encourage development in the best-suited areas and keep others rural could eventually fail due to aggressive municipal land annexation policies for the past five years -- with Cape Coral having taken 4 square miles, Bonita Springs roughly 5.5 and Fort Myers almost 9 since then -- county commissioners sent its five cities a proposed agreement on zoning, road, and water and sewer service cooperation, expecting city responses to County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry's draft in 60 days.

''These incredible land grabs in the end usurp the county's growth management objectives,'' pointed Commissioner Brian Bigelow, with County Planning Director Paul O'Connor saying, ''We've done our best to create an outline of what the issues are and hopefully we'll be able to move forward on areas that are appropriate for annexation as well as for joint (service) planning.''

Since the county already works with the cities on many issues, said Director Daltry earlier, ''this is to make sure there's no leftover pieces lying on the ground.''

So far, reports Fort Myers News-Press writer Ryan Hiraki, city officials remain cautious.

Bonita Springs City Manager Gary Price hesitates to let the county control water and sewer services on annexed land, concerned that the bills could be too high for city taxpayers.

Fort Myers Community Development Director Bob Gardner thinks resolving utility questions could mean buying part of a county utility.

And Cape Coral Assistant City Manager Carl Schwing agrees with them on the need for more discussions to clarify issues and prevent potential conflicts.

To illustrate the importance of the proposed agreement, the writer cites an unsuccessful Bonita Springs attempt to annex four square miles a few years ago -- a case marked by congressional investigation of a landowner's and others' contributions to fundraising by Alaska Republican Representative Don Young, who subsequently hit an already approved transportation bill with $10 million for a road intersection near the controversial tract.

At that time, environmentalists and county officials, including Director Daltry, cautioned against development in this sensitive area as detrimental to the county's drinking water supply. -- News-Press   1/21/2009

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/

Impact Fee Surcharge Viewed as Best Chance for Pasco County to Fund Future Infrastructure Improvements

To avert the potential risk of Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes sprawling northeast throughout the countryside, Pasco County commissioners adopted a conceptual 2050 smart-growth plan last year to steer development into 11 ''village centers'' in the 22,000-acre Pasadena Hills area, and now a committee of county consultants and local homeowners' attorneys has worked out key design and financial details, recommending a 27.8 percent surcharge on the area's home impact fees, to raise the $630 million required for its future roads, parks, schools and other improvements.

Heidt & Associates consulting firm vice president Pat Gassaway said the committee found such a surcharge necessary to build proper infrastructure for the prospective 45,000 housing units in the targeted area by 2050, with homeowners' attorney Joel Tew hoping commissioners will adopt related ordinances next year, to have them ready once the housing market recovers.

Commissioners Ann Hildebrand and Ted Schrader, notes St. Petersburg Times writer Lisa Buie, welcomed the committee's report.

The county has very few opportunities to ''get it right'' for development, but ''I think this is it,'' commented the former, while the latter described the plan as one ''we can all wrap our arms around.''

The envisioned 11 village centers, linked by a network of two-lane roads, the writer adds, will be self-sufficient and pedestrian-friendly, with development tapering down from dense downtown cores to surrounding 5-to-10-acre home lots. -- St. Petersburg Times   12/16/2008

Resource(s): www.tampabay.com/

Critics Slam Everglades Land Purchase Deal

In a move hailed by Republican Governor Charlie Crist as ''the most historic step taken toward true Everglades restoration,'' but opposed by the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, questioned by South Florida lawmakers, including Republican Representative Juan Zapata, and called by a Tallahassee Democrat editorial ''dubious, rushed and arbitrary,'' the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board approved a $1.34 billion purchase of 182,500 acres from U.S. Sugar Corporation, though the state needs at most 45,000 of those acres for the Everglades cleanup efforts.

''We are in the midst of one of the most severe economic recessions in the history of our region, our state and our nation,'' wrote Representative Zapata recently to SFWMD Chairman Eric Buermann. ''Yet your agency, through an unelected board, is preparing to spend $1.34 billion on land for what appears to be nothing more than a corporate bailout.''

Losing money and incurring enormous debt, the Tallahassee Democrat editorial observes, U.S. Sugar will lease the land back at ''the bargain price of $50 an acre,'' about one-fifth of market rate, for six years of a seven-year contract, to complete farmland conversion for water storage and filtration.

And that's the most important part of the deal ''to environmentalists and the ecosystems south of the Everglades,'' the editorial points out, wishing its other parts were also more in the public interest rather than that of U.S. Sugar.

''Most Floridians no doubt support continuing efforts to clean up the Everglades ecosystem. But all parties need to go back to the negotiating table until more certainty and clarity can be gained in this hugely expensive and vastly complex project,'' the editorial stressed. ''Gov. Charlie Crist has expressed overall support for Everglades restoration, which started as the Everglades Forever Act of 1994. But he needs to re-enter the discussion to ensure a sounder, smarter deal for all.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   12/13/2008

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage ; www.flgov.com/

Volusia County Poised to Adopt Ordinance Protecting Conservation Corridor

Four decades after area planners drew up their farsighted but shelved and forgotten ''How Should We Grow: Some Beginning Considerations,'' Volusia County may finally take a meaningful smart-growth step, with the County Council poised to adopt a ''revolutionary'' ordinance that would strengthen protection for the 50,000-acre north-south Volusia Conservation Corridor, reports DeLand-Deltona Beacon writer Al Everson, by capping residential projects at 600 units and requiring developers to cluster homes, limit car-dependency, ensure sufficient school capacity, and save between 60 and 75 percent of their land as green space, which would qualify them for a density bonus.

''Generally, people in Volusia County are not happy with the sprawl and the transportation gridlock,'' said Council Member Jack Hayman, with County Chair Frank Bruno stressing the need for stricter development safeguards in the Conservation Corridor because ''(w)e just don't have the money to buy all that property.''

A series of connected wetlands and woodlands, the writer observes, the corridor includes sections owned by the county or federal and state agencies, with county officials ready to consider purchase of key private tracts or their development rights and otherwise to impose a density limit of one housing unit per acre.

Drafted by a former County Council member, attorney Clay Henderson, and readied for a council hearing on December 4, the ordinance balances input from developers, environmentalists, business leaders and agricultural professionals, but county officials don't expect a perfect stakeholder consensus, with Growth and Resource Management Director Greg Stubbs saying, ''Everything that gets approved at the end will not please everyone.'' -- DeLand-Deltona Beacon   11/16/2008

Resource(s): www.beacononlinenews.com/

Volusia County Schedules Vote on Development Guidelines for ECO Zone

Early next month, the Volusia County Council will vote on proposed ''conservation development'' guidelines for the unincorporated part of a prospective 300,000-acre Environmental Corridor Overlay (ECO) zone, which would require any developer to preserve at least 60 percent of the site's green space in exchange for an up to 25-percent density bonus, reports Daytona Beach News-Journal writer James Miller, quoting ''smart-growth'' project attorney Clay Henderson, who told the council, ''We are focusing on a must-save area of the county, and we're also allowing market-based incentives to allow private landowners to partner in making that happen.''

Specifically, the writer notes, developers could get such a bonus for preservation of all site wetlands and half of the uplands or three-fourths of the whole acreage, while leaving enough land for schools.

The number of homes in the ECO area would be limited to the 18,000 allowed under current zoning, regardless of any awarded density bonuses, with Deputy County Attorney Jamie Seaman stressing at the council's hearing, ''What you're seeing today with ECO does not affect any property owner's established rights.''

After a December 4 decision on ECO development guidelines, the council may remove land-use exemptions for large-lot rural subdivisions at its December 18 meeting, the writer observes, which would freeze haphazard subdivisions into 2.5-acre or larger lots until the new rules take effect.

While an owner and a contract buyer of almost 5,000 acres near Deltona argued for removal of the tract from the ECO map, Councilman Andy Kelly cautioned against offering unnecessary density bonuses to developers who already benefit financially when they cluster development to save open space.

''I just want to make sure,'' he said, ''we're not allowing opportunities for development in our rural area that may distract from protecting our environment.'' -- News-Journal   11/7/2008

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/

Fort Myers Conference Tackles ''Politics of Density''

Attended by some 70 officials, planners, environmentalists and builders, a recent Urban Land Institute panel discussion in Fort Myers on ''The Politics of Density'' highlighted their common concerns over frequent public misperception and both state and local regulation, all of which hamper smart growth, reports Naples Daily News writer Pete Bishop, quoting panel moderator, Tallahassee-based Collins Center for Public Policy expert Steve Seibert, who said urban density should be seen as ''sustainability with an edge -- to make sure those who come behind us don't suffer from our decisions.''

For builders, density ''is a lot of hard work,'' said King Ranch vice president for real estate Mitch Hutchcraft. ''The system encourages low densities rather than long-term planning and accommodating areas of higher density in the right places.''

This, he pointed out, results in a costly piecemeal approach, incremental growth, and sprawl instead of regionally connected ''nodes of development.''

Florida Wildlife Federation field representative Nancy Payton restated environmentalists' readiness to work with developers on every tough issue, including transfer of development rights from ecologically fragile to more suitable areas.

''Higher density can bring about lower density for sensitive lands,'' she observed. ''You've got to earn it, the density has to come from somewhere else.''

Estero Council of Community Leaders member Don Eslick expressed similar willingness to cooperate both with builders and local officials.

The council and other Estero residents, he noted, have already participated in smart planning that ensures several high-density projects, including the Coconut Point development, with 1,500 housing units and 2 million square feet of retail and office space, along busy U.S. 41.

The public accepted the complex thanks to its compatibility with adjacent properties and its quality.

''Are you going to give us quality?'' he asked developers. ''We are willing to give more density if you're willing to do it.''

Former Collier County planner, now RWA Consultants member Bob Mulhere also stressed the importance of quality and good design in pursuit of dense development.

''Higher density is not appropriate everywhere,'' he said. ''But it's certainly appropriate in certain areas; some of the places with the highest density are the most expensive places to live in, and the most desirable.'' -- Naples Daily News   10/15/2008

Resource(s): www.naplesnews.com/

Alachua County Considering Extensive Rapid Bus Transit Network

Unable to approve some projects because of state-set concurrency conditions, including sufficient local road capacity and developer traffic impact fees, Alachua County officials saw an opportunity in the state's Department of Community now ''promoting a new way to look at things,'' said Assistant County Manager Rick Drummond, and they quickly told staff to redraw a previously outlined concurrency management plan, focused on road construction and expansion, into one aimed at creation of an extensive bus rapid transit network along dedicated traffic lanes -- all funded mostly by a new ''mobility fee'' related to development location and type, with rates lower for mixed-use and higher-density projects near urban centers.

A developer of a standard single-family-home subdivision on the fringe would pay more, reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, because its residents would be more dependent on cars.

Confident the plan could become a model for sustainability ''in terms of coordinating land-use and transportation,'' the assistant county manager said, ''There are a lot of opportunities if we can be forward thinking enough. If we get the buses running regularly with a10-minute headway, we believe the ridership will come as long as the buses are not sitting in traffic with the rest of the cars.''

County planners, the writer notes, have increasingly believed that an expanded bus rapid transit system and dense development in its corridors ''made better sense for future growth'' than roads alone, and negotiations on a planned mixed-use Newberry Village complex in northwest Gainesville -- a project that exemplifies New Urbanism but fails the road capacity test -- engendered the dedicated bus-lane concept as a practical solution, with developers committing its seed money.

Nevertheless, the writer observes, state Department of Transportation (DOT) officials and some developers think there may be drawbacks.

''The department is very interested in what has been proposed here. It's an interesting concept and . . . we will be watching it very closely,'' commented DOT urban engineer James Bennett. ''I can say that the department is not willing to allow all impacts to (Newberry Road) to be mitigated by transit. That's not realistic.''

Builders Association of North Central Florida President Brian Leslie and Government Affairs Chairman Adam Bolton worry about the demand for the county's preferred dense mixed-use development in and near urban centers.

''There will always be people who don't want to live in a high-rise. This will push them out of the county and increase traffic coming in from outside of the county,'' said the former, while the latter acknowledged that in some areas ''mixed-use development is very appropriate, and, well done, it can be very attractive,'' but predicted a problem for builders ''trying to serve the marketplace and deliver the products and type of homes people in Alachua County want to live in.''

With several county commissioners signaling a lot of questions but favoring the direction, the writer adds, staff will continue work on the plan, its details expected to emerge over the next several months. -- Gainesville Sun   9/29/2008

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com/

Lee County Grapples With Funding Cuts, Need for More Bike Lanes

As elsewhere around the country, the ranks of recreational and commute cyclists in Lee County are swelling and seeking equal treatment as taxpayers and road users, with Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Chairman Dan Moser asking the county to convert some 250 miles of paved right road-shoulders into designated bike lanes, but Department of Transportation (DOT) Director Scott Gilbertson cautioning that he would need $901,000 more for annual maintenance despite a $541,000 operational cut next year -- a problem of spending priorities the commissioners want the Smart Growth Department to help resolve by October.

Currently, report Naples Daily News writer Charlie Whitehead and Fort Myers News-Press writer Ryan Lengerich, the county has 276 miles of sidewalks and just about six miles of designated bike lanes, with most of the 250 miles of paved road shoulders, or undesignated bike lanes, blocked by trees, telephone poles, parked cars and everything else.

''If they're designated bike lanes they have to be kept clear,'' pointed out Dan Moser, doubtful whether 100 miles of the paved shoulders are fit for cyclists.

Wishing he didn't need to make the argument and calling it better ''if we were not working against ourselves,'' he asked, ''Are we going to have smart growth and complete streets or are we going to go away from them?'' ''There is some ambiguity and overlap in the definition of bike lanes, paved shoulders, and designated and undesignated bike lanes,'' Director Gilbertson responded, saying the $3 million-$5 million shoulder conversion could be covered from a bike path retrofit budget, but the county's annual maintenance costs would increase from $226,000 to about $1.127 million because designated bike lanes should be swept and edged each month rather than every three months.

''Everybody wants to do good things for bikes,'' said Commissioner Frank Mann, while voicing concern over the DOT budget.

Commissioner Tammy Hall stressed the county's need for a complete-street policy that ensures streets can be safely shared by cars, buses, cyclists and pedestrians.

Agreeing that ''(e)verything we designate as a nonmotorist lane we have to maintain,'' she said the issue of debris clogging paved shoulders and making them dangerous for cyclists can be addressed in a line item this budget season. -- News-Press, Naples Daily News   8/4/2008

Resource(s): http://news-press.com ; www.naplesnews.com/

Manatee County Density Variances Hampering Smart Growth Efforts

At ease that Manatee County residents and newcomers from the Northeast and other densely populated regions ''don't want high-density developments 'in their back yard,''' county commissioners routinely deviate from the comprehensive plan and approve at most 9 units per acre instead of the allowed 12, or 6 instead of 9, on given unincorporated tracts, respectively, writes Bradenton resident Sandy Kirkpatrick, a retired Realtor and banker, in a Bradenton Herald guest opinion, pointing out that although privacy, elbow room and similar amenities are pleasant, they come with downsides and leave out smart growth.

''Every errand involves a car trip, and not just for each of us -- for all the others clogging State Roads 64 and 70, Manatee Avenue and Cortez Road,'' he notes. ''Once just inconvenient, these trips at $4-plus per gallon are a strain on family budgets.''

When large lot and home costs add up, incomes decline, roads fail and construction bottlenecks appear everywhere, approaching ''all land-use decisions with the single blunt instrument of low-density is too simplistic -- the issues are too complex, and the needs of our people are too diverse,'' he writes, stressing the need for smart growth, ''with lifestyles in which people can walk to the grocery, the dry cleaners and the movies.''

Since a county commission election is scheduled for August 26, Sandy Kirkpatrick asks readers, ''With unprecedented gas prices, infrastructure problems and housing affordability issues facing us, isn't it time to ask the candidates to stand up and be counted on this outmoded and overly simplistic development model?'' -- Bradenton Herald   7/28/2008

Resource(s): www.bradenton.com/

Lee County DOT to Eliminate Bike Lanes in Road Resurfacing Projects

An avid cyclist, she has ''watched with great dismay the increasingly 'cycling hostile' community that Lee County has become,'' writes the Sanibel Bicycle Club's Government Issues Committee past chair Darla LeTourneau in a Fort Myers News-Press guest opinion, hitting the recent Lee Department of Transportation (LeeDOT) decision not to designate bike lanes on any county maintained road, and to remove present lanes while resurfacing roads, as incompatible with the county's Smart Growth policy and the efforts of Republican Governor Charlie Crist's Action Team on Energy and Climate Change.

Despite pleas from area cyclist clubs, the Responsible Growth Management Coalition and the Southwest Florida Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Association at a county Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting, LeeDOT refused to reconsider its bike lane policy, she writes, calling it a symptom of a larger problem with the agency, including sloppy road expansion and bridge repair.

Biking and walking would enhance the local quality of life, help the environment, benefit local economies, and facilitate ''more healthy lifestyles for people of all ages,'' she stresses. ''And most importantly in the current climate of $4-plus-per-gallon gas, it is an alternative mode of transportation that saves money and reduces our 'carbon footprint.' It is truly a win-win approach.''

Accordingly, with 48 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions coming from transportation -- two-thirds of those due to car travel, the governor's action team ''is developing recommendations that include smart growth planning, transit-oriented development, and increased bike and pedestrian infrastructure,'' she points out.

''Smart Growth must be more than a plan -- it must change reality on the ground, which requires all the county agencies to be committed to Smart Growth,'' she concludes. ''As a first step, the commissioners should overturn LeeDOT's bike lane policy and tell them to 'get with the program.''' -- News-Press   6/24/2008

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/

Lawsuit Seeks to Restore Ballot Measure Requiring Voter Approval of Changes to Land Use Plans

Aggrieved by the state Department of Elections' dismissal of a proposed constitutional amendment ballot that could have forced local governments to seek voter approval for all pro-development deviations from their comprehensive land use plans -- an initiative opposed by 110 organizations in the Floridians for Smart Growth coalition -- the Florida Hometown Democracy Group and their leaders asked a federal court to declare the dismissal unconstitutional.

According to the lawsuit, reports Palm Beach Daily News writer Michele Dargan, the group gathered 820,034 signatures under its petitions to put the initiative on the November ballot -- significantly more than the required number of 611,009 -- but the department credited it with only 595,368.

''They're making it more difficult for citizens to amend the constitution,'' complained Florida Hometown Democracy deputy treasurer Barbara Herrin. ''In addition, our petitions received disparate treatment in the 67 different counties, which violates our equal protection rights. Tens of thousands of signatures were unlawfully rejected.''

The group also claims, the writer notes, that its signature collection process was handicapped by a 2004 constitutional amendment, which moved the submission deadline from 90 days before an election to February 1 of the respective year.

Floridians for Smart Growth Executive Director Ryan Houck scoffs at the arguments.

''I think the lawsuit is uniquely hypocritical. They're seeking to overturn the February 1 deadline that was passed by voters in a fair election in 2004,'' he pointed out. ''On one hand, they're campaigning on the mantra of empowering voters, and on the other hand they're asking a federal judge to overturn the express will of the people. I think the rhetoric has changed from 'trust the people' to 'blame the people.' '' -- Daily News   6/12/2008

Resource(s): www.palmbeachdailynews.com/

Tampa Comprehensive Plan Update Offers ''Hope for Smart Growth''

With a revived interest in urban living and widespread frustration with long commutes likely to boost Tampa's population of about 333,000 in 2006 to nearly 430,000 by 2025, the city can reinforce its future prosperity through ''a thoughtful'' comprehensive plan update prepared by the City-County (Hillsborough) Planning Commission and city staffers, say Tampa Tribune editors, glad that the update encourages development or redevelopment ''in places that need it'' and ''gives citizens and businesses hope for smart growth.''

Updated every 10 years, the plan now emphasizes the need for ''tight development along major roadways, where mid-rise residential buildings, offices and stores ''will allow people to live closer to where they work, shop and play,'' with improvements ensuring access to mass transit.

At the same time, redevelopment will expand corporate and research facilities near the University of South Florida, businesses in East Tampa and housing in the Westshore area.

The changes ''should ease the fears of those living in stable, vibrant neighborhoods where new development is neither welcomed nor needed,'' and they also should uplift residents of rundown neighborhoods, where developers ''would be highly encouraged to include sidewalks, bike lanes and appropriate landscaping in their projects.''

Completed with extensive public input at neighborhood meetings, workshops and ''study circles,'' the 500-page update document also proposes numerous policy changes in the interest of water conservation, neighborhood playgrounds, historic buildings and flood-prone zones, the editors observe, expecting the City Council and Mayor Pan Iorio ''to put some muscle behind the vision.''

Adoption of the plan, they stresses, ''will mean little unless its goals guide zoning decisions -- even in the face of intense pressure.''-- Tampa Tribune   5/18/2008

Resource(s): www.tbo.com/

Energy Bill Would Cut Vehicle Miles Through Land-Use Planning Requirements

''Transportation and transportation costs will be a big factor in how cities continue to develop,'' said state Republican Senator Burt Saunders, co-sponsor of milestone energy legislation under which the Department of Community Affairs could require local jurisdictions to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and tailpipe emissions through land-use plans, a requirement likely to spur dense urban redevelopment, with mixed uses and with expanded transit options including bike lanes and pedestrian walkways -- all key smart-growth measures against sprawl and now increasingly urgent to combat climate change.

With transportation responsible for 41 percent of the state's greenhouse-gas emissions, and daily VMT on a growth curve from 300 million in 2005 to more than 1 billion by 2050, reports Tallahassee Democrat writer Bruce Ritchie, Republican Governor Charlie Crist moved last July to cut emissions to 2000 levels by 2017 and more later, reiterating on this Earth Day his belief ''that climate change is one of the most important issues we will face.''

Some planners and scientists, convinced that land-use and development patterns must be changed now to make future emission cuts possible, are working on research techniques to measure how project design can reduce or increase car use, the writer observes, citing the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Growing Cooler study, which found 25 percent less driving in the most compact cites, including New York, San Francisco and Boston.

The Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) agrees with 1000 Friends of Florida on the need for land-use changes. Without changes, ''the overall goal of discouraging sprawl and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions becomes difficult to achieve,'' said FHBA spokeswoman Edie Ousley.

Considering land use the most cost-efficient tool for tailpipe emission cuts, Friends Executive Director Charles Pattison stressed, ''You're not saying 'No' to development. You are saying how it should look on the ground, which to me has to be as cheap as it can be.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   4/27/2008

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/

Editorial: Density Transition Between Urban and Rural Land Is Part of Smart Growth

Smart Growth includes constraining density in transitional areas between urban and rural land, says a Tampa Tribune editorial, agreeing with Dade City that although developers scaled down their Citrus Ridge plan for 112 unincorporated Pasco County acres from 450 to 358 homes, the project -- in the city's transition area, along a scenic two-lane St. Joe Road, and at the edge of the Northeast Pasco Rural Protection area -- is still too dense and requires further reduction.

Its currently proposed three homes per acre would simply extend the city's overall density pattern, while transition-area density ''should be lowered, not maintained,'' the editorial observes, noting that nearby homes sit on at least half-acre lots and that a new local subdivision will have such lot minimums, too.

What's more, the need to evaluate transition area projects for compatibility with rural protection areas is clearly stated in the county's comprehensive plan, the editorial points out, which ''should ensure that citylike densities don't ruin the character of rural areas or result in sprawl.''

To address local concerns over the project, county and city officials should get together and review again the once-dismissed annexation option for the Citrus Ridge site at lower density, the editorial adds, since the land ''is essentially an enclave, and it would make better sense if it was included in the city, especially considering that the land directly west already has been annexed.'' -- Tampa Tribune   4/13/2008

Resource(s): www.tbo.com/

Referendum Would Require Unanimous Commissioner Vote to Change Sarasota's Urban Service Boundary

Viewed by the industry as Florida's toughest place to build in since mid-2006 -- when the Citizens for Sensible Growth group and its allies turned public anger over development side effects into a string of four electoral victories against masters of sprawl -- Sarasota County may soon become even more difficult, with County Commissioners approving a May 6 referendum on whether they must vote 5-0 to make any changes in the 12-year-old Urban Service Boundary, which protects the county's larger rural part east of I-75, a requirement reportedly seen as a foregone conclusion.

The ballot is supported not only by Citizens for Sensible Growth and the Sierra Club, reports Sarasota Herald-Tribune writer Doug Sword, but also by the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, the Sarasota Association of Realtors, the business-based Argus Foundation and the Siesta Key Association.

What's more, the business and conservation groups, for years at odds, decided to begin meeting on contentious issues, the writer observes, quoting Argus Foundation Executive Director Kerry Kirschner.

''We've spent so much time in this constant bickering over development,'' he pointed out, saying since the referendum will make sure the countryside east of I-75 is off limits for most projects, it is time for joint work to rebuild older areas, especially the commercial stretches of U.S. 41 along the gulf coast.

The Urban Service Boundary has kept density east of I-75 as low as one home per 100 acres, while the west side is zoned for as many as 25 units per acre, the writer reports, with Citizens for Sensible Growth founder Bill Earl and others crediting it for limiting sprawl and helping coastal cities economically.

Calling the county a model for slow growth, he said, ''We are the bellwether. We are progressive because we're going to have sustainable development as opposed to Manatee County (just to the north and east), where sooner or later they will have a citizen revolt.''

In Sarasota County, the writer notes, the revolt began with the election of Commissioner Joe Barbetta in September 2006.

Next, in March 2007, 70 percent of voters gave the County Commission the right to make a final decision on development of land annexed by North Port and Venice.

And in November 2007, more than 60 percent of county voters passed a measure requiring a 4-1 commissioners' supermajority for approval of any project larger than is allowed in the county's land use plan, while Venice voters ousted three pro-growth incumbents.

Commissioner Barbetta and like-minded Commissioner Jon Thaxton think the 5-0 consensus requirement now on the May 6 ballot would likely have precluded several large eastside projects currently in the pipeline, including a 600-home subdivision originally proposed with 1,488 homes, and a proposed Publix-anchored shopping center.

''It's projects like that, I think, that electrified the community,'' said Commissioner Barbetta. -- Sarasota Herald-Tribune   3/23/2008

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Developer Backs Out of Port Charlotte Mixed-Use Project

Having borrowed $93 million between 2003 and 2005 to buy 870 acres in Port Charlotte for its long-proposed mixed-use Murdock Village, or a true Charlotte County downtown, the County Commission must still wait to see the urban area revitalized, with Kitson & Partners -- a third prospective developer in the past several years -- forfeiting $200,000 and backing out of its October 2007 tentative development agreement because of the national economic downturn.

Under the agreement, reports Sarasota Herald-Tribune writer Kate Spinner, the Kitson company was to buy the land for $72 million and build homes, stores and offices, with the county expecting to repay its loan through the prospective sales tax and other revenue from the development.

In a fax to the county, the company said it can't go through with the deal due to ''unfavorable economic conditions in both the credit market and the housing market,'' offering $3.35 million for 40 acres to build a retail component, an indication that the commercial sector remains strong.

Although a surge in loan interest increased the county's debt to $105 million that October and even more now, officials declined the offer, determined to keep the land until the economy improves and real estate rebounds.

''We're caught in a perfect storm,'' observed Commissioner Tom Moore. ''It is good land. It is valuable land and when the market comes back, its value will be evident and we will be able to sell it.''

Commissioner Adams Cummings said the land could be cut into smaller parcels to attract developers and ''increase the competition for each one.''

A community revitalization expert, Lee County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry, stressed the socioeconomic need for Charlotte downtown.

''Now you have a quarter-million people that have demand for central city amenities,'' he pointed out. ''If you're not going to put it there, it's not going to exist.'' -- Herald-Tribune   3/12/2008

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Florida Developer Includes Wildlife as Community Asset

''People want to see and enjoy wildlife and they should be able to do it from home,'' says Florida developer Bobby Ginn, who redesigned part of his luxury golf course Tesor (Treasure) community in south Port St. Lucie several years ago, setting aside 120 acres of prime lakefront -- at a potential development value of some $40 million -- for an Audubon-controlled conservation tract, just to ensure survival of a nesting pair of bald eagles that he considers ''as big an amenity as golf or tennis or a pool,'' and that eventually bore two eaglets earlier this year, reports Associated Press writer Brian Sokoloff, noting that the developer also pays for their scientific monitoring program.

''Wildlife doesn't have to suffer. It can coexist with development,'' Bobby Ginn stresses. ''There's got to be a mix, particularly as we're more and more crowding the planet.''

Audubon of Florida advocacy director Charles Lee commends the developer for his environmental commitment and model role.

''Whenever we talk to local governments, other developers and land owners, we cite Bobby Ginn's development as an example of someone who's really done the right thing,'' he says. ''These are the techniques that if Florida's environment is going to survive in the face of population growth that is coming here, more and more developers are going to need to adopt.''

With a Web camera aimed at Tesor's eagle nest already allowing the public to watch the eagles in real time, the writer observes, scientists have now put a satellite tracking device on one of the eaglets to monitor its migration route as it leaves the nest in a few weeks and flies toward Canada, its movement also shown for view online.

Removed from the federal endangered species list after four decades last year, the writer adds, the American bald eagle still faces an uncertain future.

''The more data we have as to where these birds go the better off we are protecting them,'' points out Audubon of Florida Eagle Watch coordinator Lynda White. ''And we've got to find a way to strike a balance between development and preserving these species, since now that they're de-listed, we don't know what is going to happen.''

Read more about the Tesoro community or check out the eagle camera. -- Palm Beach Post   3/7/2008

Resource(s): www.palmbeachpost.com/

Density Bonuses Don't Always Deliver What Officials Envision

Aiming to foster sustainability and reduce car trips through New Urbanism, Alachua County offers developers density bonuses for mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly projects, but the results occasionally differ from what officials had in mind, reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, with developers saying they often need a big-box or similar business anchor and large parking lots to make construction financially feasible, and local residents worrying about more traffic, project design and the fit in their neighborhood -- all this a volatile mix of expectations sometimes leading to legal challenges.

The writer mentions three lawsuits.

After the county rerouted part of a street in southwest Gainesville through the future town center of Brytan, which will include about 600 dwelling units and 300,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by Walgreens, nearby residents went to court, claiming officials failed to follow proper procedure.

When the county denied a developer's request to expand his Springhills project in northwest Gainesville by 2,400 residences and 1.56 million square feet of other space, including big-box stores away from the internal town center, he sued the county, while a local resident followed with a suit about prospective traffic.

Other residents, the writer notes, criticize a proposed Newberry Village project, with 900 housing units and 240,000 square feet of commercial space in an already congested area, and Tower 24 now under construction, which will feature 60 units and 40,000 square feet of commercial space, anchored by a two-story bank with an ''intimidating'' wall.

Calling the bank a ''Southern mansion,'' nearby resident Sharon Hawkey says of the site, ''This was supposed to be one of our first new urbanism, walkable, pedestrian-friendly communities and I don't see that.'' County officials share some of such concerns.

''We need to look at how our words on paper are being interpreted when it comes to construction,'' observes County Manager Randall Reid. ''We need to look at what was intended and what is being produced.''

Assistant Manager Rick Drummond promises a stronger focus on commercial area integration in future projects.

''We are working a lot from the theoretical (side) and with some knowledge of what has worked in other places as a framework,'' he explains. ''Then we realize there are realities out there -- what is doable and how that comports with our ideals. There is always going to be some give and take in there.''

Gainesville's Florida Community Design Center Executive Director Martin Gold, a University of Florida associate professor of architecture, agrees, considering many of the projects ''in a good way, experimental.'' Some may be more successful than others, he says, stressing, ''How one incorporates the residential is one of the touchiest, most critical aspects. You have to get residential units in there to make it work.''

He also cites the Haile Plantation Village Center in southwest Gainesville as the best example of New Urbanism in Alachua County. Its developer Bob Rowe, now partner in the Tower 24 project, foresees growing acceptance of denser mixed-use development.

Noting that the Haile Village was initially opposed, too, he understands such early reactions, but believes in New Urbanism.

''I think the projects are valid, I think the concept is valid, and I think it is a more efficient use of land,'' he points out. ''As these projects get completed and mature, people will find them much more acceptable.'' -- Gainesville Sun   2/10/2008

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Lee County Builders Seek Relief from Impact Fees

With Charlotte County recently rolling back its development impact fees to 1988 levels, Sarasota County enacting a freeze, and DeSoto and Hendry counties waiving them for six months, all worried by the housing market slump, the Lee County construction and real estate industry pressed the County Commission to follow suit, reports Naples Daily News writer Charlie Whitehead, a pressure commissioners resisted, agreeing only to exclude from the revenue increase options the so-called linkage fees, or impact fees for affordable housing, calculated by a consultant last year at $1,110 per a new 2,000-square-foot low-cost home.

Real Estate Investment Society President Steve Hartsell, a local land use attorney, told commissioners during a workshop that the possibility of linkage fees ''continues to stand out there as a disincentive'' for area builders.

He noted that the economy ''seems to have taken care'' of the high home-price problem, most important last year, but on the other hand, ''the same folks we were trying to provide housing for may not have the means to afford it now.''

Commission Chairman Ray Judah repeated a call for a statewide real estate transfer fee on every land sale as a dedicated-fund replacement for any impact-fee rollback, saying the new growth cost is ''not going to be placed on the backs of the taxpayers of this county.''

Commissioner Tammy Hall pointed out that the best way to keep prices down and provide work force housing is to allow higher densities near transit and commercial centers.

''It goes to smart growth, to put people where people should be,'' she told her colleagues.

''I want all five of us to realize what a bonus density is and not to make it so political.'' -- Naples Daily News   2/8/2008

Resource(s): http://naplesnews.com/

Edgewater Condo Lawsuit Dismissed; Judge Rules County Land Use Regs Don't Apply After City Annexes Property

In a case spotlighting various annexation implications, the Edgewater Citizens' Alliance for Responsible Development, worried about the traffic, quality of life and environmental impact of two 16-story condo towers planned by AH Edgewater LLC near U.S. 1 and Jones Fish Camp Road intersection less than a half-mile from the Canaveral National Shore, lost a 2006 suit against a city ordinance allowing the project despite Volusia County standards for the Indian River Lagoon, with Circuit Court Judge Robert Rouse, Jr. finding that state law entitles the City Council to set its own density and height terms for the site annexed in 2005.

''When the county annexed the property and amended its comprehensive plan to incorporate the property,'' the judge wrote, ''the county's zoning classifications and comprehensive plan no longer applied.''

The City Council, reports Daytona Beach News-Journal writer Kelly Cuculianski, had originally turned down the project, but AH Edgewater argued in court that its project complied with city rules and the council eventually agreed to a high-density designation of 8 to 10 units per acre for the site.

Had the council voted against the subsequent ordinance allowing the project, it would have violated its own rules, Judge Rouse decided in the citizens' challenge, also noting that apparently ''the city has elected to adopt its own environmental standards.''

Alliance President Dot Carlson told the writer that the project will certainly affect nearby residents and that she sees it as ''just plain greed and arrogance.''

In contrast, developer registered agent, attorney and former Ormond Beach mayor David Hood, hailed the decision as a correct one and promised ''a first-class quality project that will satisfy all the requisites of smart growth.'' -- News-Journal   2/7/2008

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/index.htm

Citizen's Planning Bill of Rights Author Hopes to Restore Public Confidence in Florida's Comprehensive Plans

Calling their attention to ''growing citizen dissatisfaction with the way we're dealing with growth-and-development issues,'' Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Secretary Tom Pelham urged state legislators to pass his Citizens' Planning Bill of Rights, which could restore public confidence in the effectiveness of comprehensive plans and defuse the increasingly assertive Hometown Democracy movement's push for a referendum on a ''draconian'' constitutional amendment that would make any major plan changes dependent on a community vote.

Even if the movement misses the February 1 deadline for placing the amendment on the 2008 ballot, residents are likely to continue such efforts ''at the local level all over our state,'' Secretary Pelham cautioned the Senate Community Affairs Committee, stressing, ''They think the plans are changed willy-nilly. They think the commissions are in the pockets of developers.''

The commissions, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Aaron Deslatte, amend local plans 12,000 times each year, with a record of 208,000 single-family home permits issued in 2005 declining to 146,000 last year and probably further now.

Under the secretary's proposed bill, he writes, the state would review large residential projects that include affordable housing within 40-50 days rather than in several months, steer more growth to urban areas by easing or removing requirements for greater developer-ensured road capacity, require local governments to give residents more notice before proposed comprehensive plan changes, and ''let cities and counties change their comprehensive plan less often -- and require a supermajority vote to approve the changes.''

Hometown Democracy co-founder Ross Burnaman, a Tallahassee lawyer who helped Secretary Pelham implement the state's 1985 growth-management law during his earlier DCA tenure in the late 1980s, doubts lawmakers' receptiveness.

''I don't trust the Legislature,'' he said. ''Since 1985, the Legislature's done nothing but butcher a good piece of legislation.''

Others question whether the proposed reform could appease the public.

''There's a general frustration by people who come down to the county commission meeting to speak about something they think is important, then get three minutes at midnight,'' observed longtime developer lobbyist Wade Hopping. ''They end up feeling like it's not a fair deal. That's going to be a hard thing to fix.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   12/13/2007

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Expressway Authority Says New Tolls Needed to Fund Future I-75 Widening in Lee, Collier Counties

Created by state lawmakers in 2005 to advance the widening of I-75 in Lee and Collier counties from four to 10 lanes, the Southwest Florida Expressway Authority (SWFEA) originally planned to help fund the almost $1 billion project by tolling future lanes 7 through 10, but consultants have recently concluded that the tolls should be collected on lanes 5 and 6, currently under construction, to make the additional widening feasible, with Lee County commissioners rather receptive to the idea, in contrast to their Collier colleagues.

''Tolling 5 and 6 is required to have a project,'' said SWFEA Chairman Bill Barton at a Lee County workshop, telling commissioners he thinks Collier officials feel they have more time because their I-75 stretch is less congested than the one in Lee.

He also said, reports Naples News writer Charlie Whitehead, that an investment-grade traffic and revenue study would provide commissioners with technical and fiscal details on the tolling and related project potential, with preliminary estimates putting toll fees at 8 to 29 cents per mile, depending on the time of day.

''The Expressway Authority is to be commended for approaching this subject incrementally,'' commented Commission Chairman Bob Janes. ''They're not asking us to approve without the facts.''

Still, Commissioner Brian Bigelow saw the 5 and 6 lanes' tolling prospect as a sign of the county's failure to manage development, calling the proposal an example of ''dumb growth'' and ''smoke and mirrors.''

County smart growth director Wayne Daltry disagreed.

''Given population buildout, without changes in Lee and Collier counties, given the constraints and financial reality,'' he said, ''I believe we have to toll as soon as possible.''

See project details at www.swfea.net. -- Naples News   12/3/2007

Resource(s): www.naplesnews.com/

Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan Changes Now Need Supermajority Vote

With Sarasota County quality of life under strong development pressures, and the County Commission often approving comprehensive plan changes for massive projects by a 3-2 majority, 61 percent of voters passed a charter amendment that makes any such changes contingent on a 4-1 supermajority -- a requirement business leaders see as likely to affect all rezoning and bad for the economy, while Commissioner Joe Barbetta considers it a natural result of a two-decade-long public quest for more influence on the decision-making process.

''I don't look at it as an anti-growth message,'' he said. ''I look at it as more of an anti-dumb-growth message.''

The question is, report Sarasota Herald Tribune writers Doug Sword, Stephen Frater and John Hielscher, whether and to what extent the county's supermajority rule will affect not only huge developments such as the proposed 7,000-home Thomas Ranch or the 5,400-home Villages at Lakewood Ranch, but also numerous smaller projects requiring simple rezoning, more than 90 percent of which the commission has already been approving or rejecting in 4-1 or 5-0 votes.

Thomas Ranch, the writers note, got a preliminary 3-2 endorsement last month, but must win four votes for its final approval next year.

Villages at Lakewood builders are seeking approval for project changes that may be seen as increases in density or intensity, which would also trigger the supermajority requirement.

As to rezoning requests that don't need comprehensive plan changes, County Planning Commission member Jody Hudgins called the procedure ''not a big hurdle,'' but noted that aware of the anti-growth mood among the public, commissioners may curb their approvals too.

And that could significantly slow down new development.

''Most politicians are notorious for having their fingers to the wind, and the wind blew pretty hard yesterday,'' agreed area Control Growth Now President Dan Lobeck, pointing out that that the three commissioners up for re-election next year may be especially susceptible to these considerations.

''The vote has smart-growth forces on the march,'' the writers observe, with Dan Lobeck expecting a push for higher impact fees, a drive to put more slow-growth measures on the ballot, and an attempt to revise the Sarasota 2050 plan, which allows construction of huge ''villages'' east of I-75. -- Herald Tribune   11/8/2007

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Sarasota County Residents Stunned by Vote Granting Density Variance

Sarasota County commissioners, who called North Port officials irresponsible for annexing Thomas Ranch to let developers ''dodge'' the stricter county provisions against rural density, won 71-percent voter approval eight months ago for a measure that gave the county ''underlying land-use control over property annexed by cities,'' only to stun residents near the ranch with a comprehensive plan amendment that ''will allow 7,000 homes on land previously destined for 1,000,'' writes Herald Tribune columnist Eric Ernst, troubled that a pivotal vote in the 3-2 decision was cast by Commissioner Joe Barbetta, elected last year as a supporter of smart growth.

''It's hard to see anything smart about a plan that would increase density sevenfold along an already overworked, two-lane River Road,'' which forms a triangle with SR 776 and U.S. 41, the columnist observes, whose population of some 90,000 at buildout would almost double that of the city of Sarasota.

''And it does not account for whatever crazy schemes someone will propose in the future to jam in even more people,'' he writes, noting that county planners expected the area to have enough housing for years from projects approved before the plan amendment.

What's more, the additional 7,000 homes would threat the headwaters of Ainger, Gottfried and Forked creeks, major feeders of fresh water to Lemon Bay, which even now suffers from nutrient overload.

After the vote, the columnist adds, some disappointed residents thought Commissioner Barbetta intended to demonstrate the need for approval of ''the super-majority charter amendment'' on the November 6 ballot, which would require a 4-1 county commission vote to increase density set in the comprehensive plan, but he denied that intention. -- Herald Tribune   10/28/2007

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Cape Coral Resident Worries That City Council Will Represent Developers, Not Residents, in Sans Souci Megaproject Decisions

''The movers and shakers are at it again, and as usual, they don't care who gets moved and shaken,'' writes Cape Coral resident, retired university professor Gordon R. Ultsch, in Fort Myers News-Press guest opinion on the proposed Sans Souci (French: worry-free) ''megaproject'' that would put 220-foot high-rises in his single-family-home area with a 38-foot height cap, pointing out that it ''may be worry-free for developers who don't live near,'' but not to northwest Cape residents and calling its 7.5-mile distance from the nearest shopping center ''entirely inconsistent with 'Smart Growth' and an egregious example of urban sprawl.''

Beside the height excess and the shopping trip distance arguments, he writes, a Northwest Neighborhood Association (NWNA) petition against the ''largely gated'' project -- already signed by more than 1,000 residents -- lists three other reasons for the area rezoning denial.

It notes that the city already has a 2,500-acre commercial/industrial land deficiency, which would be worsened by towers for the projected 1,600-1,800 occupants; that the effect of the project's location at the Charlotte Harbor Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve could not be good; and that its traffic would ultimately empty onto Burnt Store Road, an even now dangerous route also designated for hurricane evacuation.

Hoping that project supporter, Councilman Tom Hair, a real estate agent whose Miloff Aubuchon Realty Group ''has been hired to help sell the concept and the homes, will recuse himself from any related council vote, professor Ultsch asks ''the big question: Who does the City Council represents -- developers or residents?'' -- News-Press   10/22/2007

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Petitioners Want Voter Approval for Local Land Use Plan Changes

''Growth decisions are supposed to reflect the public interest, but unfortunately in Florida the public interest has been hijacked by the development industry,'' said Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) Chairwoman Lesley Blackner, commenting on Republican Governor Charlie Crist's private meeting with several of the state's most powerful business executives at Darden Restaurants headquarters in Orlando -- reporters let in just for the last few minutes -- during which the governor assured them he feels their pain over the nonpartisan grassroots group's efforts to place a constitutional anti-sprawl amendment on a 2008 ballot.

The amendment, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Jason Garcia, would require referendums on adoption and change of local government comprehensive land use plans, a requirement business leaders fear could result in halting growth and further undercutting the state's sluggish economy.

''Anything that threatens the economic climate of the state is a problem,'' said Darden Chairman and CEO Clarence Otis about the proposed amendment, while the governor added after the meeting, ''You don't want to overburden entrepreneurship and the opportunity for people to have gainful employment.''

His interlocutors, both in Orlando and at a similar meeting a few hours earlier at the Jacksonville offices of the St. Joe Co., seemed satisfied.

''I think the governor was very opposed,'' concluded Walt Disney Parks and Resorts official Al Weiss.

With the deep-pocketed companies promising a multi-million dollar drive against the amendment and already financing a campaign to reach voters and make ballot petition signers change their minds, the writer reports, FHD leader Blackner described the governor as repaying for business contributions to his $20-million electoral chest in 2006 and ''drinking the over-developers' Kool-Aid.''

She noted that her group has gathered some 500,000 voter signatures for the amendment petition so far, with 331,000 already confirmed by the state and 611,000 needed by February.

See the ballot and signature form at www.floridahometowndemocracy.com. -- Orlando Sentinel   9/25/2007

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Writer's Backroad Drive Becomes Catalogue of Florida's Sprawl

Having returned after a long stay in Alabama to Florida last year, St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell is stunned by how the state has changed, especially resentful of what he saw along once pleasant country roads as he drove back from his recent 300-mile trip to Amelia Island northeast of Jacksonville, calling the 70-mile Highway 17 stretch from Yulee south to Palatka ''a virtual gateway to the sprawl'' everywhere from the Atlantic Ocean to west of Jacksonville International Airport and the highway itself ''nothing more than a frontage road for developers.''

Thankful that the Ocala National Forest ''is off limits to greedy developers'' and ''remains one of the gems of old Florida,'' the columnist found the rest of Lake County along Highway 19 ''no longer blanketed with rolling citrus groves'' and green fields.

''The groves,'' he writes, ''have been replaced with subdivisions with look-alike houses, strip malls and Wal-Marts that have killed family stores and that stick-whittling ambience that made these places special.''

The same, ''a vast track of modernity,'' is about to overtake the countryside farther down, on both sides of Highway 50, in five or perhaps eight years.

Coming again on I-75 for the last 60 miles to St. Petersburg, the columnist regretted that he had taken back roads.

''I hated what I saw,'' he writes, urging others to take a good look around. ''Gangs of fools -- with public approval -- are backfilling our swamps, bulldozing our trees, butchering our mangroves, gouging our shorelines and paving over our grasslands all in the name of development and profit.''

Among some 20 e-mail comment senders in the next two days, a few disliked the columnist's attitude, pointed to population growth, or asked where the new housing should be built, but most shared his sentiments, expressing sadness or disappointment or indignation.

A sample follows.

Richard: ''As a seasonal resident of St. Petersburg, I resent being blamed for the destruction of Florida's 'country charm.' Are the developers, who plow under citrus groves and back-fill the wetlands, native Floridians? Probably, so be angry with them.''

Roberto: ''Mr Maxwell, would you rather the new arrivals and the offspring of older arrivals simply disappear? Maybe you & the SPT can send them to Siberia.''

Cindy: ''Florida's major industry is tourism. All the baby boomers want to retire here. Our government leaders need to keep these facts in mind. After all, they are the ones who issue the building permits and control the planning commissions.''

Jason: ''Florida has become one big row of strip malls and fast food chains. Greed has taken over the landscape.''

Shana: ''Sprawl is not the necessary byproduct of a growing population. Better use of cities and previously built up locations can limit that. McMansions are not the inevitable result of development to house more population.''

Chris: ''Couldn't agree more. The developers are doing what developers do. It's the politicians that are not stopping them that is the problem. Vote to restrict growth.''

Jane: ''The Jeb-Bushification of Florida. The government of this state has given developers free rein and boy are they taking advantage. But the worse fools are BUYING these things. Who wants 'Luxury' housing in a cow field anyway?'' -- St. Petersburg Times   9/23/2007

Resource(s): www.sptimes.com/

Editorial Urges Volusia County to Set High Standards for Natural Resources Management Area Development

Having designated some 400,000 acres in its ''lush interior'' as the Natural Resources Management Area (NRMA) more than 20 years ago to protect it from sprawl, says the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Volusia County shouldn't waste time on ''reinventing the wheel'' by going along with the recently drawn Volusia Council of Governments' preservation Map A, but should use its power to adopt ''minimum environmental standards'' for NRMA development and simply require developers to cluster housing rather than trade off density bonuses for land conservation.

Neither Map A nor its ''so-called smart-growth tools'' are clearly defined, and the county and municipal support resolutions may not necessarily aim for the same goals, the daily observes, raising a crucial question.

''Since the county is in charge of its interior, what possible standing do the cities have in defining what the County Council can or cannot do?'' it asks, cautioning that Map A ''appears to be an effort by cities -- and through them, developers -- to control the destiny of rural lands in the county's jurisdiction.''

What's more, the daily points out, despite their resolutions, ''the cities are clearly not in agreement on what 'smart growth' is or what they want to do with it,'' with the whole new effort only delaying conservation.

''It's way past time for the County Council to cork attempts to develop and annex away its rural interior,'' the daily concludes. ''It needs to set high standards and enforce them.'' -- News-Journal   8/22/2007

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/index.htm

Lee County's Updated Growth Management Plan Wins State Approval

For the first time since Lee County's first growth-management Evaluation and Appraisal Report in 1989, a major update required every seven years and this year including county Smart Growth Committee recommendations, the update was found satisfactory under state law by the Florida Department of Community Affairs, with county planning director Paul O'Connor saying there ''is still a 21-day window where an affected third party could challenge, but I don't know anyone'' set for such a move.

In 1989, recalls Naples News writer Charlie Whitehead, a challenge by the state, the Responsible Growth Management Coalition and others made the county create the 100,000-acre Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource area, to cap its future population, protect habitat, and secure groundwater recharge.

A challenge to the next update ended after a complete administrative hearing, with the county adopting state-ordered remedies.

Subsequently, the state amended its growth-management law and because of that process, the county needed only an abridged evaluation and appraisal report in 1999.

Crediting director O'Connor and his staff with the state's approval of the newest report, Commissioner Ray Judah said, ''I guess the state understands the depth to which the county has pursued appropriate and responsible growth management.''

Commissioner Frank Mann is equally glad, especially since he opposed any plan updates that would encourage denser development.

''I'm a little touchy when it comes to upping the density,'' he agreed. ''Some other things I might be a little more flexible on.''

However, some amendments already considered by director O'Connor and others for the next round of plan updates may test Commissioner Mann's stance, the writer observes, mentioning densities for the proposed Fountains and North River Village projects, and coordination of planning for schools as part of county infrastructure. -- Naples News   7/23/2007

Resource(s): www.naplesnews.com/

Pasco County Commission Votes to Shift $42M in Infrastructure Costs from Developer to Taxpayers

''New residential growth does not pay for itself,'' overfilling crowded schools, demanding miles of suburban roads, and burdening taxpayers with additional service costs, writes Pasco County resident and land use attorney Doug Bevins in the St. Petersburg Times, dismayed by the County Commission's 3-2 vote for the 5,100-acre Wiregrass Ranch, the county's largest development ever, which will put 12,500 housing units and 4 million square feet of offices and stores, including a $105 million mall, on pastures just north of Hillsborough County and the Tampa city limits.

Worrying Hillsborough and Tampa leaders, the narrow decision breaches the county's long-standing policy of making developers pay for internal project roads in full and shifts half of these Wiregrass costs, or $42 million, the attorney points out, ''onto current taxpayers through the impact fee credits.''

Pasco County, he stresses, ''has committed itself to taxing its current residents to build infrastructure for a developer who will entice new residents into the county, in part, by the promise that old residents will pay to build their roads for them.''

The total price of area road improvements necessitated by the huge project, reported St. Petersburg Times writer Chuin-Wei Yap earlier, reaches $1.7 billion.

The county will spend more than $1.1 billion, with the developer's $579-million ''proportionate share'' now including internal Wiregrass roads.

Wiregrass attorney Joel Tew called it ''a good compromise,'' but County Administrator John Gallagher and his planning staff remain unconvinced.

''Pushed by commissioners to meet Wiregrass halfway,'' the writer observed, county staff members came up with the rationale that ''the development's scale and level of concessions are 'unique.'''

Still, Administrator Gallagher told commissioners, ''Just to caution you, other developers are going to bypass staff and claim their project is unique'' too, as they ask for the same benefits.

He added that the developer never included internal Wiregrass roads in his original ''proportionate share tables,'' obviously ready to pay their full cost.

Commissioners Ann Hildebrand and Michael Cox, who voted against the project because of the deal, are apprehensive.

''I believe it is a wonderful development, but it's like a fishbone caught in the throat,'' said Commissioner Hildebrand. ''I worry about the precedent its sets.''

Commissioner Cox agreed.

''I really think we are setting a bad precedent,'' he told his three colleagues. ''I think you are putting the county in jeopardy for future projects. I think you are committing taxpayer money to where it shouldn't be.'' -- St. Petersburg Times   7/20/2007

Resource(s): http://tampabay.com/

Fast-Growth Florida May Be Hard-Pressed to Meet Emission Reduction Goals Outlined at Summit on Global Climate Change

''There is no Democratic planet Earth. There is no Republican planet Earth. There's just a planet Earth and we all have a responsibility to take care of it,'' said California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his keynote speech to 600 politicians, academics, scientists, conservationists and business leaders at the two-day ''Serve to Preserve'' Florida Summit on Global Climate Change held by Republican Governor Charlie Crist in Miami. ''I am very proud to see another governor wanting to join California and the growing number of states that are not waiting for Washington to lead on this issue.''

Concluding the summit, Governor Crist signed not only three executive orders to cut Florida's greenhouse gas emissions and advance renewable energy, but also partnership agreements with Germany and the United Kingdom to work for ''a post-Kyoto Protocol that protects the planet's climate systems by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases beyond 2012.''

Impressed with this ''tectonic shift'' in Florida's approach to global warming, St. Petersburg Times Business Editor Robert Trigaux isn't sure ''what was more of a tipping point'' those days. Was it ''the remarkable scene'' of two Republican governors teaming up ''to force changes not happening on the federal level?'' he asks; or was it ''the politically correct scrambling by Florida's big power companies to appear proactive to a flurry of new state executive orders?''

Amazed by the two Republicans' choice ''to ignore the policy preferences of President Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush,'' the editor predicts that the state's admirable goal of generating at least 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020 will surely ''be resisted by utilities challenged to supply electricity to a high-growth and power-hungry population.''

Other climate protection goals set by Governor Crist, reports Environment News Service (ENS), include the introduction of a Governmental Carbon Scorecard for state buildings and vehicle fleets, and a 10-percent emission cut by 2012, a 25-percent cut by 2017, and a 40-percent cut by 2020, while utilities will have to reduce their emissions to 2000 levels by 2017, to 1990 levels by 2025, and 80 percent more by 2050.

Florida will also adopt the new California vehicle emission requirements for a 22-percent reduction by 2012 and a 30-percent reduction by 2016, once the U.S. EPA grants California a waiver for these cuts, a waiver requested two years ago.

Last month, ENS notes, Governor Schwarzenegger notified the EPA that further inaction on the waiver request will result in legal challenge, with Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington reporting from the Miami summit that Governor Crist is ready to join such a lawsuit. -- St. Petersburg Times, Environmental News Service, Washington Post   7/13/2007

Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop ; www.sptimes.com/

Builders Protest Proposed Impact Fee Increases for Park Funding in Lee County

Since Lee County's population increased from 440,000 to 585,000 in the past six years and its comprehensive plan includes growth-related park acreage requirements, Duncan Associates consultants recommended a 45-percent increase in the county's park impact fees to $2,150 for a single-family home, with proportional increases for multi-family housing, mobile homes and hotel rooms, a recommendation Lee Building Industry Association Director Michael Reitmann called hurtful to the industry in its current downturn.

''We're all in favor of parks,'' he announced. ''I think the bottom-line reality is it doesn't matter if the calculations are accurate. They (county commissioners) have to look at the economic climate of Lee County and the economic welfare of Lee County.''

County Community Development Director Mary Gibbs, reports Naples News writer Charlie Whitehead, expects county committees to review the consultants' draft report and recommendations next month, with a series of public hearings likely in September and October.

An Estero resident, former county Smart Growth Committee member Arnold Rosenthal, who has pushed for impact fees as necessary to help pay for the rapid development, thinks the builders should realize the county has no other option.

''It would be good if they didn't have to pay any impact fees,'' he said. ''But what's the alternative? Higher taxes. More user fees. No schools. No roads. No parks.'' -- Naples News   7/9/2007

Resource(s): www.naplesnews.com

Gov. Crist Calls for State Summit on Global Climate Change

Persuaded that ''global climate change is one of the most important issues that we will face this century,'' and that Florida, with almost 1,200 miles of coastline is especially ''vulnerable to rising ocean levels and violent weather patterns,'' Republican Governor Charlie Crist has invited all who care about the state's ''environmental and economic future'' to his ''Serve to Preserve'' Summit on Global Climate Change, July 12-13 in Miami, with its speaker list featuring Dr. Nick Bollman from Florida Atlantic University's Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions, who will address the energy-efficiency aspect of smart growth.

Multi-disciplinary and non-partisan, the summit is bringing together some 450 policy makers, academics, scientists, activists, and industry and business leaders, and about 100 local, national and foreign journalists.

Its keynote speakers include conservation-minded Republicans like California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lehman Brothers Managing Director Theodore Roosevelt IV, along with frequent GOP environmental policy critic, Waterkeepers Alliance President Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The summit, says Governor Crist on its web site, allows ''the brightest minds to begin working on a plan for Florida to explore groundbreaking technologies and strategies that will place our state at the forefront of growing world-wide movement to reduce greenhouse gases.''

Its session topics, he said at a recent Capitol press conference, include clean and renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, efficient transportation and land use, agriculture and forestry preservation, and successes in reducing carbon emissions.

Earlier, reports Melbourne Florida Today writer Jim Ash, Governor Crist ''shocked lawmakers'' by vetoing a $60 million energy bill that would have funded mostly biofuels and renewable energy research.

Leaving the money in the budget, he rejected the bill as not going ''far and fast enough with policy,'' the writer adds, noting that conservationists expect him to announce his own climate-change battle plan at the Serve to Preserve summit. -- Florida Today   7/3/2007

Resource(s): www.MyFloridaClimate.com ; www.floridatoday.com/

Veto Urged on Florida Road-Sprawl Bill

Alarmed by the prospect of more sprawl and environmental damage, five conservation and smart-growth advocacy groups -- the Nature Conservancy, 1000 Friends of Florida, Audubon of Florida, Florida Wildlife Federation, and Defenders of Wildlife -- urged Republican Governor Charlie Crist to veto a wide-ranging bill that lets the state contract with domestic and foreign companies to build and operate some toll roads, lease portions of its highways, and double Florida Turnpike bonds to $10 billion, while allowing a developer or property owners to lay roads even if they are not in growth plans.

''The Legislature is trying to build roads where people aren't living today,'' said Audubon Florida advocacy director Charles Lee. ''It is the result of lobbying by major land-owning and development interests.''

Expecting the governor to maintain his stance that easing current traffic woes is more important than financing sprawl, report Orlando Sentinel writers Jay Hamburg and Vicki Mcclure, the groups stressed in a letter to the governor that letting private investors build toll roads adds capacity but serves no public need and opens rural areas to dovelopers.

They also pointed out that doubling turnpike bonds -- well above a Department of Transportation request for road improvement funds -- lacks sufficient justification.

For commuters, the writers note, the first shock could come from the prices on privately operated toll roads.

The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, they report, is now negotiating with a foreign company, most active in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, to build a three-mile toll road in Tampa, a trip on which would eventually cost $2.75. -- Orlando Sentinel   6/10/2007

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Controversy Brewing Over Proposed 600-Acre Alachua County Mixed-Use Project

The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) promoted its almost 600-acre mixed-use SpringHills project some 10 miles northwest of central Gainesville as smart growth and an economic stimulant for Alachua County, and county commissioners gave it initial approval in 2005, pending a road-cost-sharing agreement and more reviews, but now PREIT wants to increase the number of housing units to more than 2,200 and the retail space to 1.56 million square feet, and local opposition, reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, has gotten even stronger.

With planned SpringHills roads found insufficient by the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, and their projected construction costs having risen from about $40 million in 2005 to $120 million now, a figure disputed by PREIT which would have to pay $58 million, the county Department of Growth Management is against a comprehensive plan amendment PREIT needs to build more housing and stores, mostly big-boxes.

''The proportionate share proposal does not account for all of the impacts on the transportation system,'' said County Principal Planner Steve Lachnicht of the PREIT stance earlier this month. ''There is a disproportionate concentration of regional commercial development in one location, which was not justified by the market study.''

Formed to fight the project, the Coalition for Responsible Growth commended the department.

''I think,'' said Coalition Vice President Kim Davidson, ''the staff came out with a very thorough review about the proposal and was very clear in the commentary as to why they are recommending (plan amendment) denial.''

At the coalition's subsequent public meeting, attended by several hundred residents, 1000 Friends of Florida Director Charles Pattison urged all to participate in a series of related county hearings, starting May 1.

''You need to be there. One of the saddest things we see around Florida is a lack of public involvement,'' he stressed. ''People get what they ask for. If you don't ask for it, you won't get it.''

With others pointing out that SpringHills will need a million gallons of water a day, will pollute groundwater by runoff from its more than 250 paved acres, and will require a school, a fire station and other costly services, Director Pattison added, ''You've got transportation issues, design issues, water issues, fiscal issues. Why wouldn't you pay attention to this?'' -- Gainesville Sun   5/18/2007

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com/ ; www.savemillhopperroad.org/mission2.html

Columnist Praises Lee County Commissioner for Making Tough Choices on Growth

A former state Republican lawmaker, a genial and ''plain-talking veteran of political wars,'' Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann is on target in sounding the alarm that the county ''is about to crash'' from the constant developer pressure ''to pump up the number of homes and condos' allowed so far, writes Fort Myers News-Press retired editor Joe Workman in his column, commending the commissioner for ''the gumption to tell developers they're staying too long at the table and hogging the groceries.''

With residents ''sucking up $3-a-gallon gas fumes searching for parking places that haven't been there since golf course holes started outnumbering gopher holes'' and usually unable to ''get there from here, or from anywhere else,'' the columnist observes, the politicians ''just promise the harried masses controlled growth and tighter developer restrictions.'' But when developers ''pop in with their batteries of lawyers, consultants and engineers, our trusted representatives simply revise the growth plans and loosen the restrictions,'' he continues. ''That's the stuff that is choking Southwest Florida.''

Accordingly, Commissioner Mann warned that the Lee County Comprehensive Plan, whose current provisions would eventually double the county's population to 1.4 million, may be changed to accommodate yet another 390,000 newcomers.

Lee County Building Industry Association Executive Director Michael Reitmann ''squealed as if Mann had personally picked his pocket,'' but to block the proposals the commissioner needs at least two more votes -- most likely from new Commissioner Brian Bigelow and possibly from Commission Chairman Bob Janes, who said the warning ''makes sense.''

On the other hand, the columnist writes, Commissioner Tammy Hall signaled he faces an uphill struggle.

''The comprehensive plan wasn't the Red Sea Scrolls,'' she declared. ''These are fluid processes. That's why we review it every seven years. I'm not comfortable drawing a line in the sand and saying never. Never's a long time.''

She sounds ''like a commissioner who never saw a development she didn't love,'' the columnist concludes, hoping the public gets more involved in the decision-making process.

''Any of you long-suffering taxpayers who have had your fill of runaway development ought to send a message to your commissioners,'' he advises his readers. ''And especially let Mann know his is not a lone voice in the wilderness.'' -- News-Press   5/16/2007

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/

Lee County Commissioners Trade Barbs at Smart Growth Workshop

Elected to the all-Republican five-member Lee County Commission on a strong anti-sprawl plank last November, Commissioner Brian Bigelow called himself ''an outsider'' and a ''self-proclaimed agent for change'' at a recent county Smart Growth workshop, feeling affinity with veteran Commissioner Frank Mann, but blaming the other three for lack of will ''to make changes'' and adding, ''I think the status quo is entrenched in this government and I think we're going to have to wait and see what the electorate has to say'' next year.

In a coincidental eight-point self-evaluation statement, sought by Fort Myers News-Press Editorial Board, Commissioner Bigelow used similar bold terms.

Citing his vain efforts to convince the board's majority ''to hold the line on sprawl until a comprehensive approach is written into the plan, he wrote, ''The hold over commissioners (Janes, Judah and Hall) form the majority and have not been receptive to this change of direction or method ... Commissioner Mann and I have been increasingly expressing similar growth management concerns indicating that we are beginning to form a coalition that can provide the foundation for future changes.''

The three commissioners, report News-Press community conversation editor David Plazas and Naples News writer Charlie Whitehead, felt offended by the ''holdover'' label.

Specifically, Commissioner Tammy Hall complained at the Smart Growth workshop that it's ''very difficult -- I'm only human -- to come here with these nasty personal attacks and have an open mind,'' and Commissioner Ray Judah questioned his critic's license for ''taking the high ground'' and mentioning some of his votes, added, ''What I have seen is absolutely irresponsible action on your part.''

Still, Commission Chairman Bob Janes and Commissioner Bigelow were close in negative assessment of the Babcock Ranch and Ave Maria projects, hailed by some as smart growth.

''Babcock is classic urban sprawl. And I think that's the type of thing we have to discourage,'' said Chairman Jones.

''Ave Maria is a beautiful development,'' noted Commissioner Bigelow. ''But it's way out there. To me that's urban sprawl, big time.''

Lee County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry, who expected some commission instructions, agreed. ''Ave Maria is starting off with an economic core, the university,'' he observed. ''Plus, it's got deep pockets ... The rest of the story is selling swampland to Yankees.''

Unfortunately, the commissioners gave him no word on how to proceed, which is ''counterproductive,'' writes News-Press editor Plazas, noting that the daily's 10-member editorial board will continue its ''civic-minded'' project to assess the commission's effectiveness and each commissioner's role in managing growth at a May 22 meeting with former board members.

''The public component is critical to this project,'' the editor tells the readers. ''We want you to rate your county commissioners, too. -- News-Press, Naples News   5/10/2007

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage ; www.naplesnews.com

Mayor Diaz Emphasizes Sustainability Issues for Miami in State of the City Speech

Reaffirming his commitment to the two key initiatives he had launched earlier, the $200 million streetcar project and the Miami 21 citywide rezoning effort for smart growth, Mayor Manny Diaz warned in his sixth State of the City speech, entitled ''Building a Sustainable City,'' that global warming could trigger dangerous hurricanes, cause food and water shortages, and especially threaten local water supplies.

Like previous generations in two World Wars, the Cold War, and the long struggle to preserve democracy, ''(o)ur generation also faces a great challenge, but it is a challenge of a different sort,'' Mayor Diaz said. ''Ours is a battle to sustain life itself.''

In this context, reports Miami Herald writer Michael Vasquez, the mayor hailed the city's progress in its recent ''green'' efforts, such as phasing in hybrid fleet vehicles and creating a department dedicated to environmental issues.

With the streetcar prospect uncertain after the last year's election of City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who called it an expensive ''glorified bus,'' the writer observes, Mayor Diaz said in an interview a streetcar would benefit Miami regardless of when it is approved.

''This is not about today,'' he pointed out. ''We can abdicate our obligation to the future, we can turn around and say 'ah, let somebody else worry about that,' but you know we're going to need it.''

As to Miami 21, slated for the first city commission vote in May, the mayor stressed in his sustainability speech that this rezoning effort ''promotes common sense mobility and the ultimate solution -- bringing people back to the urban center, to neighborhoods that are walkable and offer transportation choices.'' -- Miami Herald   4/26/2007

Resource(s): www.miamiherald.com/

Melbourne Approves Community Development District; Impact Fees Will Be Used to Fund Infrastructure

Hopeful about the area's sustainability, the Melbourne Florida Today commends the City Council for approval of its first community development district (CDD), the 257-acre Mayfair complex of perhaps more than 1,300 homes, stating, ''Most important for the long-term smart growth of Melbourne, the project fights costly urban sprawl by filling in space south of the city's center.''

Proposed by Miami-based Southern Homes, Mayfair will boost city and Broward County revenue with impact fees of about $14,000 per home and future property taxes, while charging lot-owners assessments for roads, water and sewer service, and other infrastructure, expected to cost $25 million.

Recognizing the ''reasonable concerns'' of some residents about heavier traffic and school crowding, the daily notes that such big projects ''are always subject to change or delay'' and that multi-phase Mayfair construction will take at least four or five years.

''The city also has the right to stop development should Mayfair expansion exceed road, sewage, or other public service capacities,'' the daily points out. ''For the sake of all citizens, it must be vigilant in doing so.'' -- Florida Today   4/12/2007

Resource(s): www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Lee County Board Endorses Mixed-Use in Updated Growth Plan

Always central in cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia and many others, but undercut by decades of sprawl, ''(m)ixed use is an idea whose time has come'' to Lee County, said Commissioner Bob Jones as the county's five-member board unanimously endorsed an updated growth plan, which envisions mixed-use development at some two dozen sites in fast-growing areas of Cape Coral, North Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres and elsewhere to ease road congestion.

With the board's final vote delayed by a developer dispute, reports Fort Myers News-Press writer Ryan Hiraki, County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry and others stressed that as road construction and gas costs escalate, halting sprawl and spurring urban redevelopment is becoming increasingly necessary.

As an example, the writer mentions the mixed-use First Street Village project under construction in Fort Myers near the Caloosahatchee River. Devised by Ohio-based Cameratta Properties, the village will offer 356 upscale housing units atop 38,000 square feet of offices and 105,000 square feet of retail, with a 39,000-square-foot Publix supermarket just next door.

''One of the things that entices people is it's mixed-use,'' said the project's real estate agent Mark Jones. ''You can go to Starbucks, the dry cleaners, Publix, without having to get in your car.'' -- News-Press   4/12/2007

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/

Miami Mayor Wants City's New Large Buildings to Meet Green Certification Standards

Under the Miami 21 growth blueprint, its first phase slated for a city commission review in May, Mayor Manny Diaz wants all new buildings of at least 50,000 square feet to have a Leadership in Energy Efficient Design (LEED®) silver certification, a construction standard that may require developers to spend about four percent more, but entitle them to density bonuses that would offset the higher costs.

''There may be some initial 'Oh my God, what is this?''' the mayor said, ''But I think we'll get over it quickly.''

Calling the builders' response ''so-far so-good,'' he expressed confidence that ''they're realizing that this is the wave of the future.''

According to Holly Realty sales broker Bert Checa, reports Miami Today writer Risa Polansky, the additional construction cost for its 120,000-square-foot LEED®-certified Miami Green office condo ''is actually negligible.''

At the same time, the mayor stressed, LEED-certified buildings cost less to operate and maintain.

With roughly $1 billion in green projects ''on the table, on the way to build-out,'' he said, he will introduce several related resolutions at the Miami commission's April 12 meeting. -- Miami Today   3/22/2007

Resource(s): http://miamitodaynews.com/

New University of Florida Partnership to Promote Smart Growth Throughout Sunshine State

Following their cooperation on Gainesville's Green Building Program, the Florida Sea Grant College Program and the Yards and Neighborhoods project, the University of Florida's Extension Service Dean Larry Arrington and Levin College of Law Dean Robert Jerry announced a partnership to promote smart growth and sustainability statewide.

''With Florida's population expected to double in 50 years, growth management will continue to be one of the most urgent, difficult and potentially contentious issues facing the state,'' said Dean Arrington, noting that agricultural producers and county officials alike ''have emphasized the need for science-based solutions'' and ''more support on growth issues.''

Long key subjects of his college's land use and environmental law program, said Dean Jerry, smart growth and sustainability require an interdisciplinary approach, and the new partnership will ''greatly amplify available intellectual and physical resources'' for both institutions, while giving students ''hands-on, real world experience.''

Part of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the Extension Service is increasingly involved in resource-efficient growth planning, said its Program for Resource Efficient Communities Director Pierce Jones.

The service knows first-hand the need for interdisciplinary cooperation ''with building professionals, local governments, water management districts and other agencies'' on best residential design, construction standards and management practices, all of which require legal assistance.

So far, Levin College of Law's Conservation Clinic, under Director Tom Ankerson, has advised a number of local governments on ordinances, comprehensive plans, state statues and conservation easements.

For example, the clinic helped Gainesville draft its previously mentioned incentive-based Green Building Program, which influenced Sarasota and other communities; assisted the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods project, which encourages incorporation of environmentally friendly landscaping in new projects; and provided homeowner associations with model language for various covenants, conditions and restrictions, which ensure water conservation on the neighborhood level. -- University of Florida News   2/19/2007

Resource(s): http://news.ufl.edu/

Florida's Urban Area Could Grow to 34 Percent by 2060 Unless Sprawling Development Patterns Change

If Florida doesn't change its sprawl habits, then its population surge from nearly 18 million residents in 2005 to almost 36 million in 2060 -- largely due to domestic and foreign immigration -- will require urban expansion from about 6 million to some 13 million acres, predict University of Florida's GeoPlan Center Professors Paul D. Zwick and Margaret H. Carr in a unique residential distribution study, commissioned by 1000 Friends of Florida and underwritten jointly by the Nature Conservancy, St Joe Co. and A. Duda and Sons developers, and several urban design firms.

1000 Friends of Florida Executive Director Charles Pattison said the involved groups expect a broad public debate about these challenges and hope to steer state and local policies toward smart use of land.

Otherwise, the study finds, the urbanized areas will spread from 16 to 34 percent of the state, with development of another seven million acres depriving it of 2.7 million acres of habitat, 2.7 million acres of farmland and about 1.5 million acres of other undeveloped or sparsely used countryside.

This also means that development will take over some 2 million acres within a mile of conservation areas and that the state's Florida Forever land preservation program and the water management districts won't be able to acquire the 630,000 acres they currently target for conservation.

In the northeast, the study reads, ''Jacksonville will spillover into Nassau, Clay, St. Johns and Baker counties, forever changing their rural character.''

Central Florida, ''from Marion County southward through Osceola County will be almost entirely urbanized.''

South Florida ''will also become mostly urbanized with the exception of some of the agricultural lands north and south of Lake Okeechobee.''

Among the state's 67 counties, eight will see the relatively greatest urban area increases -- from 3.7 to 14.9 times.

They are: Santa Rosa County (3.7 times increase) in the northwest; Baker and Flagler counties in the northeast (3.9 each); Osceola (3.9) and Hardee (14.3) counties in the center; and Desoto (8.9), Glades (14.9) and Hendry (5.1) counties in the south.

Only peninsular Pinellas County, between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, won't change much, because it already has developed 70 percent of its land, the highest percentage statewide.

''Can we craft an acceptable land use decision making process that will ensure Florida's future generations lead healthy, happy and productive lives?'' the study author ask, posing this and related questions as a challenge to residents and government officials.

''It is clear,'' they stress, ''that now is the time when we must combine our considerable intellect and sense of fairness and equity to shape our collective future.'' -- 1000 Friends of Florida, News Journal   1/29/2007

Resource(s): www.1000friendsofflorida.org/ ; www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/

Polk County Leaders Hash Out Development Issues at Growth Roundtable

After a yearlong review of Polk County's change over five decades from a citrus heaven of 124,000 inhabitants into a 542,000-people checkerboard of large lots around growing towns -- its roads increasingly clogged, water sources strained and wildlife threatened -- the Lakeland Ledger held a roundtable with six local development insiders, finding them generally supportive of the basic premises of smart growth.

All six, county growth management director Merle Bishop, builders association executive director Scott Coulombe, consultant and planning commission member Augie Fragala, farm bureau executive director Heather Nedley, Sierra Club activist and planning commission member John Ryan, and Florida Bipartisan Civic Affairs Group local chapter co-founder Al Whittle, agreed that the county must seek public consensus on growth and density, establish precise calculation of the true economic impact of development decisions, and refine policy on construction in rural areas.

While endorsing the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce's myregion.org initiative to promote higher densities and mixed uses in many Polk and other Central Florida areas as a means to save open space, make residents less car dependent and ease traffic congestion, reports Lakeland Ledger writer Tom Palmer, they focused on several specific points.

Director Bishop emphasized that higher density can help reduce affordable housing shortages, with the county's median home price of some $180,000 too high for the $47,000 median income group, but that some people often fight such proposals.

Builders association director Coulombe wished they would keep ''the big picture'' in mind, noting ''a lot of misinformation and extreme prejudice'' about and against townhouses.

At the same time farmers fear that conservation measures will bar them from selling their land for development, observed farm bureau director Nedley. ''We don't agree with people who say groves and pastures have to stay that way forever,'' she stated. ''If it was your business, you wouldn't go for it.''

Activist Whittle argued that the county would assuage many concerns if it scrupulously observed its growth plan. ''If we reduce the number of amendments,'' he said, ''we may change the public perception that there is no plan other than what the next developer wants.''

Planning commission members Fragala and Ryan pointed out that the county shouldn't depend on just on developer declarations that their project will create jobs and expand the tax base, but should meticulously calculate the impact fees versus the public investment needed not only for related infrastructure construction, but also for long-term maintenance and operation of new roads, parks, schools, fire stations and other facilities.

''We need to develop an analysis that matches land use and transportation decision,'' said the former, with the latter expecting much more.

''The County Commission has to consider how much it's willing to spend on development and where it's willing to spend it,'' he stressed. ''There needs to be a public cost analysis.'' -- Ledger   1/16/2007

Resource(s): www.theledger.com/

Years of Planning Exemptions Fed Florida Sprawl, Author Tells Lee County Audience

Planning was supposed to protect Florida resources, landscape and quality of life from sprawl since at least 1985, but local governments had granted the construction industry more than 100,000 exemptions from their plans by 2000 and state agencies challenged only four, said author and documentary filmmaker Bill Belleville, telling a community forum in Fort Myers, ''The growth plans are diluted. They have no teeth to them.''

Invited by Lee County's Responsible Growth Management Coalition (RGMC) to talk about his book ''Losing it All to Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape,'' reports Fort Myers News-Press writer Jamie Page, the author cited data that Florida still looses 20 open acres an hour.

The bad news about this rampant development, he noted, recalling what he once heard from an agricultural expert, is that eventually ''you'll be drinking reclaimed sewage, the good news is you'll have plenty of it.''

To avert the prospect, the guest told listeners, ''Don't roll over, and let politicians think it's OK. You have to be constantly vigilant.''

Commissioner Ray Judah called his presentation ''inspirational,'' and RGMC President Dave Urich, whose group helped create the county's Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource area, hoped more longtime residents like him would get involved to rein in sprawl and preserve Florida's natural and historic assets.

''It's always a worry that these things are happening faster than we think,'' he said. ''Too many of the old-timers just took pictures of the old buildings but didn't do anything to save them.'' -- News-Press   1/16/2007

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Central Florida Forum Helps Local Officials See Possibilities in Transit-Oriented Development

As the Florida Department of Transportation works with Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties on funding for the planned 61-mile commuter rail line from DeLand in the north to Poinciana Industrial Park in the south -- and with counties needing similar agreements with their cities along the line -- University of Central Florida Center for Regional Studies Director Linda Chapin brought in several experts to a forum in Orlando, to help local officials better realize the advantages of pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented development.

''Transit is not just to move people from Point A to Point B,'' said Orlando-based Glatting Jackson planner Try Russ, involved in transit-station planning in Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon. ''It's to implement a community vision.''

With the first segment of the commuter line, from DeBary to the Orlando Amtrak station, expected to open in 2009, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Daphne Sashin, the experts explained that mixed-use, transit-oriented development can save land, secure city character, boost property values and ''help working families stretch their incomes.''

The right projects near around or near rail stations can more than double the local tax base, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Director Debra Campbell, citing data from one of her city transit corridors, where the base jumped from $232 million in 2000 to $513 million in 2005.

Oakland, California-based Reconnecting America President and CEO Shelley Poticha pointed out that transit-oriented development also ensures the line's effectiveness, with nearby residents five times more likely to use it than others, and spending just 9 percent of their incomes on transportation, in contrast to car-dependent suburban residents, who spend 25 percent.

The experts predict that the demand for neighborhoods with easy access to transit will surge, the writer adds, ''as baby boomers get older, families get smaller and regions run out of land.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   1/14/2007

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Plan to Dig Four Miles of Canals in Florida's Lee County Raises Concerns Over Development, Estero Bay Area Degradation

Worried about environmental and development risks in the fragile area south of Fort Myers, Lee County and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida filed separate petitions for an evidentiary hearing on the South Florida Water Management District's permit for Agripartners-Edison Farms, owned by part-time Naples resident Dan Aronoff, to dig four miles of canals through their 4,000 acres east of I-75, where he reportedly wants to build some 8,000 homes.

The companies deny any development plans, explaining that the canals would simply restore natural water flow south into the Estero River and Halfway Creek and promising to put aside 100 acres for preservation to help offset the work's impact, report Naples News writer Charlie Whitehead and Fort Myers News-Press writer Ryan Hiraki.

The petitioners dismiss this explanation and remedy.

''This would be very damaging to the environment,'' said Conservancy President Andrew McElwaine. ''You're talking about de-watering over 1,000 acres of wetlands and degrading the Estero Bay area.''

In addition, pointed out Lee County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry, water in the canals would flow faster, with less time for seepage, aquifer replenishment, and self-cleansing on its way to Estero Bay, which would expose the county to fines when the state Department of Environmental Protection adopts tougher water quality standards later this year.

The degradation would reach from Edison Farms to adjacent public land, including the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, with its 60,000-acre wildlife habitat.

What's more, a proposed exchange at I-75 and Coconut Road exacerbates the problem as it would not only ease local traffic, but also provide access to the Edison Farms area, increasing potential profits from its development.

Director Daltry believes the right solution will come after collection and careful evaluation of all environmental, water resource and even mining data.

''I think we're in position,'' he said, ''for an area-wide environmental management plan.'' -- Naples News; News-Press   1/4/2007

Resource(s): www.naplesnews.com/ ; www.news-press.com/

Miami-Dade County Watershed Study Advises No Change in Urban Development Boundary Until at Least 2025

As its population doubles to 1.5 million and demands some 204,000 housing units by 2050, Miami-Dade County needs smart growth to save most of its last rural frontier -- the farms, nurseries and wetlands in the roughly 10-mile-wide coastal stretch from Kendall to Florida City, about 15 miles southwest, explain Fort Lauderdale-based Keith & Schnars consultants in a thorough watershed study of the area, with the firm's Vice President Michael Davis cautioning, ''If you keep doing what you're doing, which will result in unchecked sprawl, it's a bit of a train wreck scenario.''

Five years in the making and several thousand pages long, reports Miami Herald writer Curtis Morgan, the study advises the county to keep its Urban Development Boundary (UDB) until at least 2025, later allow only 40 percent of new housing outside, preserve about 90 percent of today's farms and nurseries, protect some 18,000 acres alongside Biscayne National Park, and accommodate much of the anticipated population growth in a mile-wide, 15-mile-long corridor of U.S. 1.

Without high density development in that crucial corridor, the writer notes, ''mass transit options like extending the MetroRail to Homestead could prove a huge financial drain on the county.''

Each of these proposals and more than 60 others must win at least 80 percent of the votes of a broad-based, 21-member watershed advisory committee to make it into the final action blueprint, expected by county commissioners in the next few months. Once approved and perhaps revised by the commissioners, the blueprint will shape the county's comprehensive growth plan, including land-use decisions.

So far, the advisory committee voting, the writer observes, revealed ''a familiar dividing line in South Miami-Dade -- environmentalists and rural residents on one side, agricultural and building interests on the other.''

Audubon of Florida representative Jamie Furgang worries that the sudden opposition might undercut the consultants' smart growth advice and complicate the county's choices.

''There are people in the community,'' she said, ''who would like to see this killed because it comes out with a recommendation not to move the UDB.'' -- Miami Herald   12/23/2006

Resource(s): www.miami.com/

Sarasota County Readies Distribution of $20 Million in Grants for Community Housing

Under the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan Housing Chapter, county commissioners endorsed a draft ordinance for distribution of $20 million in grants from their $28 million Community Housing Fund Program, but applicants ''will have to meet some basic criteria,'' said Manager of Community Housing Wendy Thomas, stressing that they ''will have to promote smart growth.''

Eligible activities and projects, reports Charlotte Sun-Herald writer Steven J. Smith, will include site and building acquisition; architectural, legal, planning and engineering services; local housing-assistance programs; unit repairs; manufactured home purchases; and affordable housing construction.

The smart growth criteria, he continues, may involve projects that preserve and enhance communities; support age, income and family-size diversity; reduce car-dependency; increase water and energy conservation; and encourage ''green'' buildings and development.

Another criterion will be leveraging. ''When you go through a grant process, you don't use whatever that funding source is as the sole funding source. You have to bring in other resources,'' manager Thomas explained.

''Sweat equity, donations of materials, donation of land,'' she added. ''All of that is leveraging.'' -- Sun-Herald   12/13/2006

Resource(s): www.sun-herald.com/

Misuse of Smart Growth Label Often Results in More Sprawl, Says Sarasota County Commissioner

Disdained by most developers and local officials 20 years ago as ''heretical,'' traditional development forms and ideas, now increasingly popular nationwide as New Urbanism or Smart Growth, are the rule in Sarasota County's 2050 Plan, writes County Commissioner Jon Thaxton in a Sarasota Herald-Tribune guest column, concerned, however, that the ''Smart Growth label is often misused, resulting in more sprawl.''

The incentive for Smart Growth, he points out, is often a substantial density bonus. Sarasota County usually lets developers increase density from one house per five or 10 acres to three, four or five houses, and from three housing units per acre up to 25 units.

Still, Smart Growth ''cannot be smart if it's built at the wrong location'' -- one too environmentally fragile or without sufficient infrastructure. If a project with a three to 10 times higher density is permitted in an area without constant water supply or adequate roads, the commissioner stresses, ''it doesn't matter that Smart Growth efficiencies have reduced individual water consumption by 25 percent'' or ''cut individual automobile trips by 20 percent'' -- the project isn't smart.

''In some cases, we may be better off without the additional infrastructure pressures created by the bonus density of Smart Growth,'' he writes. ''Misused, Smart growth could compound existing infrastructure budget deficits and create more urban sprawl, simply disguised with a different name,'' he observes, concluding, ''Smart Growth in the wrong location, or done without a financially feasible infrastructure plan, is nothing more than dumb growth with a smart name.'' -- Sarasota Herald-Tribune   12/6/2006

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Charlotte County Says Florida's ''Proportionate Share'' Road Concurrency Provision Hurts Local Efforts to Manage Development

Ordered by the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to comply with the state's 2005 Growth Management Act ''road concurrency'' provision by adopting the so-called ''proportionate-share ordinance,'' which identifies services and utilities that must be funded both by the government and the construction industry, Charlotte County commissioners passed it 4-1 under December 1 ''deadline duress,'' but stressed that the law forces counties to increase spending and limits their power to make development dependent on area infrastructure, with Commissioner Adam Cummings saying the legislature took away local ability ''to do smart growth management.''

The county, explains Charlotte Sun writer John Haughey, was requiring developers to finance adequate roads and sewers prior to construction or before its completion. The new ordinance allows developers paying project impact fees and other charges to launch construction even in the absence of adequate public services. It also exposes the county to DCA and developer lawsuits should projects stall due to its lack of infrastructure funds.

''How can we pass this when we are already $100 million in debt for roads we haven't built yet?'' agonized Commissioner Tom More before the vote. ''If you don't pass this, you go to jail. If you do, you are irresponsible.''

According to County Administrator Bruce Loucks, the county has already cut some services on many roads within urban areas to save money it now must commit for further development. But a time will come when the county won't be able to cut service any more and ''we are going to be in gridlock,'' he noted, predicting the need to raise property taxes to augment spending for roads, now funded by gas and sales taxes.

''In the next 10 years, statewide, I think we are going to see a big crisis when it comes to growth-management issues,'' he cautioned. ''This is just the tip of the iceberg.'' Commissioner Tom D'Aprile said ''no'' to the ordinance. ''I'm not in favor of this at all,'' he concluded. ''It's a real bummer.'' -- Charlotte Sun   12/1/2006

Resource(s): www.sun-herald.com/

North Miami Beach, Citizens' Coalition Reach Compromise Over Building Height and Density Caps

Two years after North Miami Beach Mayor Raymond Marin introduced a comprehensive Smart Growth plan that sought high-rise development in some neighborhoods despite their 15-story height caps, the city has finally achieved a compromise with the opposing Citizens' Coalition, which agreed to drop its suits against planned high-rises and abstain from seeking referendums to restrict building heights and residential density.

Over the summer, the coalition circulated a petition to place such restrictions on the November ballot, but the Miami-Dade County Elections Department found thousands of signatures invalid and the effort failed, reports Miami Herald writer Aldo Nahed, finding city and coalition leaders now pleased with the compromise.

''We reached an amicable solution,'' said Mayor Marin, noting that even if both sides might have wished for more, ''the city is happy to move forward with a comprehensive plan.''

Under the settlement, the writer observes, the city will provide at least nine months' advance public notice on project plans submitted to its technical review board, and the city manager will hold quarterly meetings with residents to brief them on future development.

''We got height reductions in numerous areas, but more importantly,'' said coalition president Bill Borkan, ''we got a more transparent process.'' -- Miami Herald   11/26/2006

Resource(s): www.miami.com/

Volusia County Voters Cool to Growth Management Amendments in 2006

Since more than 70 percent of Volusia County voters backed development limits for unincorporated areas in 2004, county leaders and civic groups expected similar results this month for several county charter amendments to improve growth management, but due to a strong counter-campaign by 11 county cities and real estate interests only one of the proposals won, with some 59 percent of voters passing an amendment that will make residential projects more dependent on local school capacity.

At the same time, 51.7 percent of voters reelected County Councilman Jack Hyman, sharply criticized by the environmental community, but also elected its candidates Pat Northey and Andy Kelly, who won with 56 and 51.4 percent of votes, respectively. Although county officials are especially disappointed by defeat of their proposal to make cities heed the county's plan for unincorporated areas even after annexation, reports Daytona Beach News-Journal writer James Miller, city leaders are confident voters simply wanted cities to keep local control rather than cede it to the county.

''My read on it would be,'' said Deltona City Manager Steve Thompson, ''the people who voted against the charter amendments very clearly understood they were not about smart growth and growth management.''

Holly Hill Mayor Roland Via stressed the need for reciprocity between the county and the cities, noting that if the county seeks to influence development in annexed areas, the cities should have the same influence over development near their borders, and adding, ''It's very apparent in the future that the county needs to work with us.''

County Chairman Frank Bruno believes in cooperation, too. ''Hard feelings are not going to help anybody on either side,'' he observed. ''I really believe that the people still want to have good growth management principles put in place by the cities and the county.'' -- Daytona Beach News-Journal   11/9/2006

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/index.htm ; www.volusia.org/

Volusia County Candidate Claims Smart Growth Mantle, But Newspaper Columnist Says Voting Record Paints a Much Different Picture

In his four-page campaign mailer, Volusia County Republican Councilman Jack Hayman portrays himself as a ''freakishly muscled and clench-fisted'' Superman in a red body suit and green boots, ''holding back a bulldozer, holding up a beachfront home and holding developers accountable,'' but Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Lafferty laughs at all this as deceptive, exaggerated, equivocal ''and possibly delusional.''

In the last four years, the columnist notes, Councilman Hayman opposed ''impact fees for classrooms, urban-growth boundaries and tying growth to school capacity,'' while supporting new roads for development, including a proposed highway between his home city of Edgewater and Deltona, about 20 miles southwest.

The columnist can understand many Florida residents who ''believe that only breakneck development can sustain the economy,'' because it generates jobs and taxes, but he can't have respect for ''an elected official who, facing a much greener candidate (Democrat Barbara Herrin), runs from his record and tries desperately to deceive his constituents in a desperate bid for re-election.''

Not surprised by his obfuscation, the columnist points out that the smart-growth initiative Councilman Hayman spearheaded ''after voting to dump growth boundaries for cities was an elaborate stalling tactic and a study in doublespeak.'' He and his followers ''spent two years yapping about the wonders of smart growth without passing a single ordinance or rule that put smart growth into practice.''

His mailer's claims that he ''went eyeball to eyeball with developers telling them to stop draining our wetlands'' and that he was the ''leading architect of the County's new reduced roll-back tax rate'' take aback even developers who put at least $25,000 into his campaign fund this year, the columnist observes, quoting New Smyrna Beach Board of Realtors President Sandy Miller, who said, ''They're not happy because they know it's not the truth.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   10/26/2006

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Hernando County to Consider Supermajority Vote Requirement for Changes to Comprehensive Growth Management Plan

As smart growth marches nationwide, its name, signifying resource-conscious community-oriented development, is also claimed for the antithetical ''bulldoze-and-build'' mindset, observes a St. Petersburg Times editorial, saying a proposal by Hernando County Commissioners Jeff Stabins, Chris Kingsley and Diane Rowen to require a 4-1 supermajority for any Comprehensive Growth Management Plan changes gives sincere smart growth advocates a chance to raise ''the bar for significant land use debates.''

Carefully crafted, approved by the state almost 17 years ago and rarely changed, the county plan should have ''another layer of protection from those who might try to compromise its purpose'' as the population surges and plan amendment requests increase.

The most notable recent request, for a gated 1,700-home Hickory Hill subdivision in the Spring Lake area, will still depend on a simple 3-2 majority, but future projects would need a 4-1 vote to proceed. Opponents claim it would let a minority overrule the majority and weaken democracy, the editorial notes, calling it unfortunate that ''they have resorted to that sort of demagogic debate instead of examining the proposal on its merits and its potential to strengthen the county's land use planning.''

Supermajority Law Successfully Used in Neighboring Counties

Hillsborough and Collier counties enacted such a supermajority law some 15 years back, and it hasn't harmed their growth management plans, created an amendment proposal logjam, spawned a wave of partisan quarrels, or made them more vulnerable to developer lawsuits. What's more, all Hernando County plan amendments since 2000 have also passed by at least four votes, the editorial points out, concluding, ''There is no indication that suddenly would change to a spate of 3-2 votes if the supermajority requirement becomes law.'' -- St. Petersburg Times   10/12/2006

Resource(s): www.sptimes.com/

Writer Questions City Officials' Belief That Wider Jacksonville Streets Will Bring Pedestrian-Friendly Development

Troubled by some Jacksonville officials' belief that turning Riverside Avenue near the Brooklyn neighborhood ''into a six-lane speedway'' may bring in mixed-use pedestrian-friendly development, Florida Coastal School of Law Assistant Professor Michael Lewyn cautions in his Florida Times-Union guest column that wide streets are much less safe and may be less appealing to would-be residents.

Such streets entice fast driving, are difficult to cross, and increase pedestrians' exposure to traffic. The higher the vehicle speed and the less time for drivers to react, the more lethal the accidents. The probability of a pedestrian being killed by a car jumps from 3.5 percent at 15 miles per hour (mph) to 37 percent at 31 mph and 83 percent at 44 mph.

''Jacksonville's supply of six-lane and eight-lane speedways is virtually unlimited, so we don't need any more of them,'' while the demand for walkable neighborhoods,'' the professor stresses, clearly ''outstrips the supply.''

Pointing out that the city's two most walkable neighborhoods, Avondale and San Marco, are also among its most expensive, which proves that people ''are willing to pay more for the privilege of being able to walk across narrow streets rather than sprinting across six-lane boulevards,'' he thinks Riverside Avenue widening may even deter residential construction alongside and in adjacent neighborhoods. The areas near downtown show that ''vehicle first street design and prosperity do not always go together.''

In contrast, he observes, the ''relatively narrow streets near City Hall and the new library have begun to attract residential development and are also thriving during work hours, while the wider, more auto-oriented streets further west are wastelands 24 hours a day.'' Then he concludes. ''So the next time the city wants to promote a downtown neighborhood, maybe it should make the streets narrower instead of wider, perhaps by widening sidewalks and medians, and by planting more trees to create additional shade for pedestrians.'' -- Florida Times-Union   9/6/2006

Resource(s): www.jacksonville.com/

Alachua County Public School Superintendent Makes Deposit on 66-Acre Sports Park With Eye Toward Future High School

In a preemptive move questioned by some Alachua County commissioners, Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan and many area residents, Alachua County Public School Superintendent Dan Boyd made a $24,000 refundable deposit on a $2.5 million purchase the of recently-closed 66-acre Diamond Sports Park eight miles southwest of central Gainesville for a future high school, while most of those concerned doubt it’s needed, especially in that area, and prefer the county to acquire the coveted tract for continued public recreation.

The park, reports Gainesville Sun writer Tiffany Pakkala, includes 10 ballfields, sand volleyball courts, a soccer field and a natural area. The school district’s facilities director Ed Gable explained that buying land for use in the distant future is “a standard practice throughout the state” to avoid sky-high prices later. He has recently written to school officials that a new high school will need 60 to 65 acres to satisfy requirements for buildings, physical education facilities, fire department access, emergency shelters, and security and environmental standards.

In March, School Board Chairman Wes Eubank agreed with member Eileen Roy that the district doesn’t need a new high school immediately, but commenting later on a predicted drop in the county’s high-school enrolment from 8,860 students in 2004-05 to 7,269 through 2011-12, with a slight increase to 7,581 in 2015-16, he said the district will need the school afterwards to absorb the increasing number of students now in primary schools. He promised to leave most of the park’s facilities intact for school and public use if the deal goes through, and possibly add others, perhaps even an Olympic-size swimming pool.

The chairman admitted that the park site is farther from the city than the district would have preferred, but noted that anything closer, namely within the county’s Urban Service Area, would be too costly. Attributing the seeming face-off with the county to miscommunication, he proposed a direct discussion between school and county leaders to solve the problem.

Still, the district education association’s former president, Albert Losch, observed that school officials are neither in the land speculation business nor in the recreation business, and should focus instead on existing schools and their expansion.

Mayor Hanrahan posted a similar view on the Sustainable Alachua County discussion board. “I am FOR the county or the school board buying Diamond Sports Park and maintaining it in perpetuity as recreational facility. And I am certain the school system has critical capital needs that must be met,” she wrote. “But I have hard time understanding the idea of building a new high school on the edge of urban development when most our existing public schools are in crisis.” -- Gainesville Sun   8/27/2006

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com/

Rapid Development Changing Face of Florida's Scenic Gulf Coast; Residents Worry That Infrastructure Will Fall Behind

Not long ago, the scenery along five-mile two-lane Placida Road between south Englewood and Placida on the Gulf coast ''epitomized natural Florida,'' but former Charlotte County Commissioner Mac Horton had dubbed it a future ''concrete canyon,'' and indeed, writes Charlotte Sun Herald Assistant Englewood Editor Gavin Off, the green is going fast as ''luxury condominiums in gated communities are replacing the tree canopy'' and ''manmade lakes with lighted water fountains are replacing the swamps.''

The number of West County residential units before the county's Development Review Committee (DRC) jumped from 127 in 2002 to 1,033 in 2005 and more than 850 this year so far, with a current total of 2,233 condo and resort units in various stages of planning or construction. They may be in the county's comprehensive plan, but taking pristine coastal land for this so-called ''progress,'' the editor observes, ''puts builders with their property rights against residents clinging to the status quo,'' because they worry about traffic, services and wildlife habitat.

County officials estimate that each of these 2,233 new units will generate roughly six car trips a day, increasing the daily vehicle count on Placida Road from an already nerve-racking 20,000 to 34,000 in some places, while the county has neither plans nor money for widening it to four lanes.

Similarly, the wastewater plants may fail to treat the increased burden. ''Developments are being approved without anyone, as far as we know, making an analysis of whether sewer service is available,'' says resident Percy Medintz, one of 10 who are suing the county over preliminary DRC approval of the 108-unit Aquia Cape Haze condominium. ''You can expand the plant and still not have enough if you don't do the calculations.''

Another big concern is the environment. The county and state, the editor notes, have preserved more than 1,100 acres near the road so far, but Lemon Bay Conservancy President Valerie Guenther wants commissioners to approve a proposed environmental land acquisition program, with her group and Palm Island residents expecting to raise $150,000 for the first parcels.

As to the controversial proposal to build 92 condos and 239 townhouses on the vacant 80-acre Wildflower golf course, she credits Miami developer Rani Ben-David for his intention to set aside 48 acres for preservation, saying, ''At least he's being proactive.''

Still, with development ever faster and seemingly endless, smart-growth advocates urge caution. ''I think,'' says Friends of the Cape Haze Peninsula member Dick Flint, ''we're over-building what the infrastructure can handle.'' -- Sun Herald   8/14/2006

Resource(s): www.sun-herald.com/

Sunshine State Consumers Seeking New Blend of Communities: Revitalized Urban Cores and Suburban Village Centers

Soon to become the third most populous state, Florida has seen mostly sprawl from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, but now ''a more informed and sophisticated consumer is asking for something different,'' writes Volusia Civic Pride executive director Thomas Blawn in a Daytona Beach News-Journal guest opinion, pointing out that the development industry is responding to the new market.

''We want places to live where we can walk to the park, ride a bike to the corner market and spend minimal time commuting between home and work,'' he states. ''We want eco-friendly places that make efficient use of precious natural resources like water and energy.''

For some, ''this means reshaping the suburbs into a series of village centers,'' while others prefer to live in ''historic city cores and transform them into a 21st century vision of urban living,'' he observes, glad to see ''planned unit developments with more and better green spaces and public areas, revitalized downtowns and beachfronts with high-rise options that rival the finest single-family homes and a new breed of live-and-work mixed-use communities where one can go about the day without even getting into a car.''

Still in an early stage of that evolution, Daytona Beach needs to reverse deterioration in some neighborhoods to uphold its ''outstanding worldwide name recognition,'' he notes, confident of success. The current beachside redevelopment will give the city a stronger tax base, world-class accommodations, better restaurants and shops, higher-wage jobs and a better quality of life.

''This is all part of the new Florida,'' he writes, ''and it comes not courtesy of legislation, but from our united desire for something better and our willingness to redevelop/redesign the existing portions of our communities that have outlived their highest and best use.'' -- News-Journal   7/31/2006

Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/

Sierra Club Says Revised Plans for Babcock Ranch Could Help Project Become Model for Smart Growth in Florida

As many have hoped and some predicted, the dispute over the final shape of the huge mixed-use Babcock Ranch project in Charlotte and Lee counties was solved amicably just days before an administrative judge was to heard it on July 24, with developer Syd Kitson making several environmental concessions and the Sierra Club dropping its challenge to the planned density of 19,500 residential units on 17,000 acres he will keep after selling almost 74,000 acres for $310 million to the state for preservation, a settlement called by the club's Manatee-Sarasota chapter chairwoman Ginger Perlman ''a win-win situation for all parties involved'' and also for smart growth.

The developer agreed to shift a 1,600-unit ''old Florida village'' from the most sensitive, 294-acre tract in the ranch's northern part to its south side, reports Associated Press writer Bill Kaczor in the Miami Herald, quoting Sierra Club regional director Frank Jackalone, who expects the other new anti-sprawl provisions to ensure a model city and reduce the future residential influx to the adjacent areas by 50,000 to 100,000 newcomers.

Director Jackalone also points to the Charlotte County Commission's unanimous proclamation calling the project so ''unique'' that the county's related comprehensive plan changes and an ordinance waiver can't be cited as a precedent by other developers. Leaving the farm's crucial 294-acre tract untouched, elaborates his Sierra colleague Ginger Perlman in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, Kitson & Partners promised to build at least four wildlife underpasses in other sections; set lower speed limits after dusk when most animals move; implement ''green'' standards in all residential, commercial and public buildings; keep 250-foot wilderness buffers on both sides of two key local roads; and reduce the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers to protect the Caloosahatchee watershed.

In this context, she rejects a recent claim by state Republican senator Mike Bennett that ''(t)he sole mission of the Sierra Club is to block development of any kind -- no matter what cost.'' To the contrary, she writes, ''one of our club mottos says it all -- we are 'Not in blind opposition to progress, but in opposition to blind progress,''' and that's why the challenge to Charlotte County's plan allowances for the project was justified. ''If other groups or individuals questioned the validity of Sierra Club's reasons for taking legal action against the proposed development of Babcock Ranch, I hope that they will now thank us for standing firm in our resolve,'' because, she concludes, the ranch ''now has the opportunity to become a model for smart, sustainable growth for the rest of the state to follow.'' -- Herald Tribune   7/21/2006

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/ ; www.sun-herald.com/

Central Florida Commuter Rail Line Approval Likely, But More Municipal Cooperation Needed to Help Change Corridor's Growth Pattern

Its final approval likely this summer, the three-phase, $500 million, 61-mile Central Florida commuter rail line from DeLand in Volusia County south through Seminole and Orange counties to downtown Orlando and farther down to Kissimmee in Osceola County, could change the corridor growth pattern and curb sprawl faster if more area municipalities would forgo their ''wait-and-see'' stance or market expectations and take the lead on smart growth and transit-oriented development as others elsewhere have done, note Orlando Sentinel writers Jay Hamburg and Etan Horowitz, mentioning Los Angeles; Salt Lake City; Portland, Oregon; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

''In reality, we haven't embraced the next generation of development,'' comments West Volusia Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Linda White, critical of this passivity. ''We are still very dependent on vehicles.''

Orlando-based Glatting Jackson firm expert Troy Russ, who worked six years on Charlotte's transit plans, agrees. ''Here (Central Florida) they are designing it to build the best transit system,'' he observes. ''In Charlotte, they are designing it to build the best community.''

While the Orange County Commission turned down federal aid for Orlando area transit in 1999, the writer note, Charlotte made the best of the opportunity, with its light-rail line scheduled to open in fall 2007 and the commuter rail expected to run in 2010. Focused both on planning the stations and adjacent development, Charlotte area governments have acquired land around future stations, sold it to developers ready to build pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, created new zoning for denser development, and offered incentives for transit-oriented projects.

Consequently, developers are building and planning nearly 10,000 housing units at eight of the 12 commuter-rail stops and, the writers point out, ''just as in the pre-automobile days, the downtown cores of towns and cities are becoming a hotbed of activity,'' which frees local officials from spending money on infrastructure and service expansion and will certainly increase rail ridership.

A few communities along the planned Central Florida commuter-rail line, whose central DeBary-Orlando segment is to be completed in 2009, changed zoning to allow denser mixed-use development around stations and some developers expressed interest in such projects, but the writers expect local officials to do much more. Envisioning small communities with shops, drugstores, restaurants and parks, such as those ''that grew up around town squares in the era before interstate highways,'' they quote Rollins College environmental studies professor Bruce Stephenson, who says, ''It's the quality of city life without the responsibility of suburban life.'' -- Sentinel   7/17/2006

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Babcock Ranch Development Plans Split Environmental Groups

Splitting environmentalists, a multi-party deal to have the state pay $310 million for nearly 74,000 acres of the 92,000-acre Babcock Ranch in Charlotte and Lee counties for preservation and to let developer Syd Kitson and his partners build 19,000 housing units, offices and a golf course on the rest goes before Administrative Law Judge Donald Alexander on July 24, with the Sierra Club calling it ''taxpayer financed sprawl,'' reports Tallahassee Democrat writer Aaron Deslatte, but 1000 Friends of Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the state Audubon Society considering the ranch's development unavoidable, preferring dense cluster-type construction in one corner instead of 9,000 potential ranchettes on 10-acre lots, and hoping the club drops its challenge.

''Ranchette development is the ultimate sprawl, and that is what we would see across 90,000 acres of land if the Sierra Club is successful,'' said Audubon policy director Eric Draper. ''We'd see expensive houses spread out across the beautiful countryside.''

Unaware of any previous role of the club's national office in Florida land preservation, he added, ''I don't think newcomers should tell people who have been involved in saving millions of acres of land what the best ways to do it are.''

The Sierra Club's Florida director Frank Jackalone pointed out that environmental opposition to some big initial development plans often resulted in better projects later. ''This is to some extent a conflict in our vision for what is the future of land preservation,'' he said, noting that the local Responsible Growth Management Coalition and the Charlotte County chapter of the Audubon Society endorsed the challenge to rezoning part of the farm for high-density development, with the state's Growth Management Act allowing such challenges to stop large-scale projects.

He also thought worries and warnings that the preservation deal could collapse should Syd Kitson's purchase agreement with the Babcock family expire by the end of this month were unwarranted, since there was no proof the family had another developer ready for the purchase.

''Syd Kitson could buy the ranch today,'' director Jackalone said. ''This (deadline) is something he has imposed. He has placed a set of demands that there must be this much density, that the plan must look a certain way for him to buy that land. That's an unusual real estate deal.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   7/7/2006

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Neighborhood Schools Are Smart Choice for Indian River County School District, Says Board Member

To relieve overcrowding in its two high schools and three middle schools, and to have room for future students, the Indian River County School District should build a high school across the street from South County Park in Vero Beach and convert the midtown Freshman Learning Center into a middle school, writes School Board member Lenora Quimby in a Fort Pierce Tribune guest column, stressing that this smart-growth and least-costly option -- adding two schools for a little more than the cost of one -- is the most advantageous to the youngsters in both areas, with 90 percent of 1,100 high-school students and about 80 percent of 900 middle-school students living within a two-mile radius of the respective sites.

''Because students can walk to these neighborhood schools, the district can save thousands of dollars in transportation costs and students can easily participate in after-school activities,'' she points out, opposed to building a school at this time on a newly acquired tract several miles away from the two densely populated areas.

''Busing an entire student population to create a school is not a solution,'' she observes. ''Let's utilize our resources wisely and build schools where students live.'' -- Fort Pierce Tribune   6/26/2006

Resource(s): www.tcpalm.com/

Babcock Ranch Sale Moves Forward; Florida to Buy 74,000 Acres, Allow Development of City for 50,000 Residents on Portion of Land

''Florida has made a commitment to protecting its future by preserving its past,'' said Republican Governor Jeb Bush at the 92,000-acre Babcock Ranch which spans Lee and Charlotte counties, signing a $310 million bill to buy nearly 74,000 acres of its fields, pastures, forests and swamps, with developers Kitson & Partners and Morgan Stanley allowed to build a city for some 50,000 in its 19,000-acre corner -- a deal closed after five years of strenuous negotiations, backed by the counties and almost all environmental groups, but clouded three days earlier by an administrative challenge from the Sierra Cub and Charlotte County residents Clarke Keller and Gail Giles.

Lee County Smart Growth Director Wayne Daltry, familiar with such moves as a previous head of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, explained they often reflect the pressure of a 21-day deadline to preserve the right to question official decisions, saying, ''We called it the 'friendly challenge,' quickly to be followed by the 'friendly settlement'.''

According to Kitson CEO Syd Kitson, reports Charlotte Harbor Sun Herald writer Greg Martin, he was to buy the entire ranch from the Babcock family on July 25, which could be delayed until after a hearing, possibly in September, but should his plan be held up by the end of the year, the family may sell to other developers and the state purchase may be scuttled.

The plaintiffs object to using 14,000 acres of conservation land for the development, arguing that the Charlotte County comprehensive plan changes ''epitomize urban sprawl.''

Citing the governor's remark that the state has $310 million in cash to buy the 74,000 acres, which doesn't shortchange other Florida Forever land conservation projects that will cost $475 million this year, the writer adds that the developers, both counties and the state Department of Community Affairs have signed an agreement to defend the project together against legal challenges. -- Sun Herald   6/20/2006

Resource(s): www.sun-herald.com/

Could Tallahassee Find Solutions to Traffic and Transport Woes North of the Border?

Transportation problems and traffic, ''the bane of anyone who lives, works or goes to school in Leon County,'' have become the top quality of life concerns for the Tallahassee Voices online resident panel of some 3,000 and growing, but the members are unsure officials share their sense of urgent need for better transit, road rule enforcement and other improvements, writes Leon County Schools assistant superintendent and 21st Century Council president Jim Croteau in the Tallahassee Democrat, pointing out that despite officials ''intent on building our way out of the problem . . . the answer to traffic isn't more roads.''

Regretfully, he writes, ''ballooning costs and inevitable delays make new roads difficult to build and often result in more, not fewer, car trips.''

The council's 2006 Quality of Life Report indicates that given a chance, many Tallahassee Metropolitan Area residents would switch to transit, since the use of city buses, trolleys, and campus buses has increased between 2002 and 2005 by an average of 3.1 percent each year, to more than 4.6 million passenger trips last year, though about 93 percent of area workers still commute by cars. To help them switch and ease the overall traffic problems, the author advises local officials to look at solutions successful elsewhere, mentioning Victoria, British Columbia.

Victoria's transportation master plan, he writes, sought to support employers who use flex time to shift employee travel away from peak hours; encourage employers to allow telecommuting at least one day a week or put some staff on a four-day 10-hour work schedule; improve transit and rideshare programs in congested corridors; set parking price strategies that discourage single-occupant cars and peak-time parking; calm traffic with roundabouts and lower-speed enforcement, but not with speed bumps; establish car-free or restricted zones, especially during peak hours; improve key intersections and synchronize signals; use video and traffic monitoring devices for incident detection and response management; expand real-time motorist information systems; and require developers ''to use smart-growth strategies'' for greater density and street connectivity, more options for pedestrians and bikers, shorter access to services and better traffic flow.

''Unless our decision-makers change from capacity expansion to a demand management approach,'' he concludes, ''we will never reach a cost-effective solution to Tallahassee's traffic congestion in the foreseeable future.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   6/13/2006

Resource(s): www.21stcenturycouncil.net/ ; http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Treasure Coast Needs to Change Development Patterns Now, Says SGLI Director at Delray Beach Conference

If they want to save the 70-mile Treasure Coast of Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin and northern Palm Beach counties from sprawl, its officials and residents must realize that development can't be stopped, decide how it should look and where it should go, and make the changes now, said Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute Executive Director Harriet Tregoning at an Urban Land Institute Southeast Florida conference in Delray Beach, wishing the coast had a commuter rail line or a larger bus network to accommodate work force housing alongside.

Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council urban design coordinator Marcela Camblor, reports Scripps writer Jim Turner, also told the audience of some 100 officials, planners and developers that without land-use changes the coast will get more strip malls and isolated subdivisions.

''What we have been seeing is a lack of true comprehensive planning. Instead, it's been piecemeal planning,'' she stressed. ''And with the increase in the cost of energy, with the increase in the cost of infrastructure, a lot of these things are going to force us to rethink our living arrangements.''

A model of change, Delray Beach began with public-private redevelopment partnerships in the mid-1980s and has transformed itself from a crime-ridden and mostly vacant area into ''a vibrant downtown filled with restaurants and upscale shops,'' the writer notes, quoting Mayor Jeff Perlman, who said a consensus was difficult because those seeking smart growth are often labeled as being in developers' pockets.

''It's easier to find people to fight projects than people to stand up to support a vision,'' the mayor observed. ''It's increasingly difficult to have an intelligent discussion regarding growth and development.''

St. Lucie County Commission Chairman Doug Coward called himself fortunate that his constituents ''are very receptive'' to good ideas, adding, ''You try to talk about changing a (land-use) code in Martin County, and it's so polarizing that it's not possible to have any constructive debate on those issues.''   6/9/2006

Resource(s): www.tcpalm.com/

Infrastructure Provisions of Florida's New Growth-Management Law Creating Hurdles for Planners and Developers

Florida's new 2005 growth-management law, Senate Bill 360, requires roads, schools and waters supplies to be in place or planned before local officials can approve new development, but in many areas congestion and classroom scarcity are now big problems and ''(i)t's going to take some time to really figure out how to pay for it,'' said Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department official Fred Goodrow at the Leon County Smart Growth Summit, telling the audience of some 190 planners, developers, land-use attorneys and others, ''It's not going to be pretty.''

Expected to shoulder a fair share of the infrastructure and service costs induced by their projects, reports Tallahassee Democrat writer Bruce Ritchie, developers will pass these charges to consumers, with area home builder Mike Askari saying county officials should deliver the bad news to new buyers so he and others like him don't have to.

On the other hand, Leon County Administrator Parwez Alam and other officials highlighted their efforts to help developers during a ''confusing'' permitting process, and Orlando-based Xentury City Development president Randy Lyon told the audience in his keynote speech to think regionally while planning future growth and protecting the environment.

Polls show that the environment is as important to Floridians as education and safe neighborhoods, he said, stressing, ''We see the environment as a place where we're supported, our family is supported -- where we can gather, recreate and enjoy.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   6/8/2006

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Builders’ Study Claims New Residential Growth Will Bring Double the Cost of Service Expenses to Volusia County

Exactly like 350 such local reports the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has drawn up since 1997, the one just released for Volusia County argues that residential development brings the county about twice what it costs, since the 6,983 single-family homes, condos, duplexes and apartments built last year will pump more than $1 billion into its economy over the next 15 years, while requiring total county and municipal spending of $488.7 million for roads, utilities, schools, police, fire protection and other services.

''Instinctively, we knew that growth pays for itself,'' said Volusia Home Builders Association executive officer Susan Darden of the $500 report, ''but everybody is screaming that it doesn't, so we wanted a study done just to make sure.''

According to NAHB senior economist Elliot Eisenberg, who stood by the findings as based on federal data, home construction has a multiplier effect, because it makes money circulate throughout the economy and generates varied sources of revenue.

But he couldn't explain why local governments scramble for new revenue at a time of fast development, observes Orlando Sentinel writer Ken Ma, noting that Volusia County raised a house impact fee from $1,139 to $5,284 last year.

Since the report coincides with local efforts to contain sprawl and put two slow-growth measures on the November ballot, the HAHB findings face additional skepticism. University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus pointed out that home builders ''sense animosity towards growth in Florida'' and like any sector under attack are ''trying to defend themselves and show they pay their way.''

Others share the view. ''What they (builders) are saying is that their industry is going to carry the need,'' said the county's smart-growth advisory committee member and land-use attorney Clay Henderson. ''But what the rest of us are saying is that their numbers don't quite add up.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   6/5/2006

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Osceola County's New Smart Growth Coordinator Sees Opportunity for Good Long-Range Planning

Four months after the Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI) experts advised Osceola County it will become the region's next suburban frontier and should move toward compact development to avoid road gridlock, school overcrowding and other quality of life setbacks, the county hired the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council's longtime planning director Jeff Jones as its ''smart-growth'' coordinator, to work with developers and landowners on numerous large projects as the county population almost doubles to 550,000 by 2025.

''What makes Osceola County very, very interesting is that so much of the land is very large parcels,'' said the new smart-growth coordinator. ''There's an opportunity to do some very good long-range planning.''

The ULI experts, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Daphne Sashin, also advised the county to set builder guidelines on project location and timing for schools, utility plants, parks, open tracts and related amenities.

Currently, she finds, builders have at least 13 large ''developments of regional impact'' (DRIs) on the drawing boards for the county, including 11 mostly residential projects. The largest, the 27,000-acre Destiny development near Yeehaw Junction in the county's southeast corner, may have more than 25,000 homes over the next 20 years, while the other 10 are expected to reach a total of 50,000 homes in 10 years. -- Orlando Sentinel   5/21/2006

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Affordable Housing Crisis Spreads to Lee County's Middle Class Families

Lee County learned that an affordable housing shortage has cost it $250 million a year in lost jobs, taxes and economic opportunities as early as 2002, but did little to handle the problem, while home prices kept escalating over the past two years and the affordability crisis spread from low-income families to the middle class, with people earning between $43,000 and $81,000 a year also unable to buy a median-priced house anywhere near work, says the Charlotte Sun-Herald, emphasizing that they make up almost 40 percent of the county work force, but don't qualify for down payment assistance.

''Before we were focusing on the low and very low (income),'' says top Lee County planner Gloria Sajgo, ''and now we see a lot of moderate income people who can't find housing.'' And this may finally alter the political dynamic and spur action, the daily notes, quoting University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Director Gerrit Knapp.

''When it's only the very poor, everybody pretends to be concerned but isn't really concerned,'' he observes. ''When it's the middle class, there's more genuine concern.''

To illustrate the crisis' scope, the daily gives two examples. On the lower end, the new owner of a run-down 70-unit trailer park in east Bonita will soon evict the residents, who may have $400 a week from landscaping, construction or farm work, to build townhouses well beyond their reach, leaving them few options other than to crowd in with families or friends, abandon the town and their hard-to-fill jobs, or become homeless.

In the middle range, the 500-home Hawthorne project by Centex Homes in Bonita Springs, likely to triple in size over the years and marketed last year as ''affordable housing for families or preretirees,'' with prices staring between $200,000 and $300,000, now offers a cheapest carriage home at $372,000, much higher than an $83,000-income household can afford.

''What if the governor required a certain percentage of large new developments like Hawthorne to include units affordable for low and moderate incomes?'' the daily asks, although it knows builders resent the idea and are already suing Tallahassee over its inclusionary zoning ordinance.

Lee Building Industry Association Executive Director Michael Reitmann explains, ''If you can't make a profit, you're not going to build,'' calling for multi-level action. ''It cannot just be builders and developers, it cannot just be government, it cannot just be employers,'' he argues and the daily agrees, asking another question. ''If governments take steps to make affordable housing more profitable -- say, by drastically increasing allowable density or permitting affordable housing in areas now off limits to development -- will environmentalists and slow-growthers fight these solutions?''

With no one seemingly ''willing to find the answer,'' the daily points out that the cost of housing continues to drive Collier and south Lee workers farther north, but that they won't be able to run away much longer, because even Lehigh Acres, ''the last bastion of sub-$200,000 single-family houses and home of the two-hour commute, is getting pricey.'' -- Sun-Herald   5/11/2006

Homes built in formerly rural and now suburban areas of the Orlando area are experiencing greatly slowed fire and emergency response time. Newer homes in unincorporated parts of Orange County are more than twice the time away from a fire station as older residential areas, according to Orlando Sentinel writer Mark Schlueb.

Fire officials acknowledge that the spread out pattern of development and the low densities are stressing the department's ability to respond in a timely fashion. ''As the city grows and annexes more land, it has impacted our level of service,'' Orlando Fire Chief Robert Bowman said.

Increased insurance premiums and traffic jams are only some of the consequences of low density development. Sprawl is also forcing the creation of pricey new fire stations.

Politics between incorporated and unincorporated parts of the county, and finances between developers and cities are complicating the building of the stations. -- Orlando Sentinel   7/16/2004

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Gainesville Plans to Turn Brownfield into Multi-Purpose Park

The site of Depot Avenue Park, a stormwater facility and community park planned near downtown Gainesville, housed a manufactured gas plant from about 1880 to 1950. ''The factory would convert coal to gas, then that gas would be distributed for citizens to use,'' said Matt Dube, brownfields coordinator for the city of Gainesville. Coal tar, a byproduct of the conversion process, was stored on the site and consequently contaminated the soil, making the former plant a brownfield site.

For the past several years, Gainesville City Commissioners have been planning to clean up the site and build a pair of stormwater retention ponds to capture and treat rainwater contaminants. An approximately 25-acre multi-purpose park, with walking and bike trails and a skateboard park, will then be built around the ponds.

The area is currently being used as a staging site for construction of a municipal garage. This will not delay the completion of the stormwater park, however, which is currently projected for 2007. Other portions of the future park, such as the former home of a ready-mix cement firm, are currently being cleared and decontaminated. Final assessments of groundwater need to be completed before construction of the basins can begin in early 2006.

A CSX freight depot will be moved 30 feet south to allow bike lanes to be added to Depot Avenue. The building will serve as a visitors center, arts facility, or concession area for park visitors. -- Gainesville Sun, Alligator   7/15/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesville.com ; www.alligator.org

Alachua County Postpones Impact Fee Vote Until September

Debated in Alachua County since 1988, when 92 percent of voters said in a referendum that new development should pay for itself, the most-recently proposed impact fees for parks, fire protection, emergency services, public buildings and transportation in unincorporated areas were once more vigorously backed and fought at the County Commission's public hearing, which closed after midnight with a 4-1 decision to delay its final vote till September.

With many attendees wearing ''What's the rush?'' stickers, reports Gainesville Sun writer Rachel Kipp, the sole dissenter, Commission Chairman Mike Byerly asked, ''What's the stall?'' He offered this response: ''It's the chance or the hopes that after the election with a roll of the dice that a new group of politicians will replace us up here and any impact fees will be dropped.''

But Commissioner Rodney Long succeeded with his delay motion to work out a ''reasonable and equitable'' fee structure, for which all involved will use the state average as a basis for negotiations. As currently proposed, the fees would raise $41 million within five years, ranging from $4,083 for a 1,800-square-foot single family house to much more for commercial projects.

According to the Builders Association of North Central Florida, the fee for a 5,000-square-foot bank with a drive-through would reach $175,000; according to updated county figures, $46,620. Considering such fees ''outrageous,'' Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut cautioned that ultimately they would be passed on to home buyers, so ''we need to think about affordable housing and if we are going to price people out of the market.''

But in Marion County, just to the south, the writer reports, moderate impact fees implemented in 1990 for transportation and in 2002 for fire protection -- with a $2,017 charge per each new 1,800-square-foot home, -- caused no problems. Its number of building permits has steadily grown from 2,451 in 1990 to 5,322 in 2003, with county fee coordinator Kim Hatcher saying the fee implementation ''has not slowed down growth.'' -- Gainesville Sun   7/14/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Wal-Mart Eyes Gainesville Mobile-Home Park as Possible Supercenter Location

Its proposed 250,000-square-foot Supercenter at Gainesville's northwestern edge rejected 5-2 by the City Commission last month, Wal-Mart in now seeking talks with Alachua County commissioners about such a store seven miles southwest, in a mobile-home park just outside the city limits, but Commissioner Penny Wheat considers such private contact highly improper, since they ''could give the public the impression that this is a done deal for Wal-Mart.''

Wal-Mart representatives didn't make it clear whether the company would build a southwest Supercenter instead of or in addition to one still possible somewhere in northern Gainesville, reports Gainesville Sun writer Jeff Adelson, quoting company spokesman Glen Wilkens, who hopes to ''address any of the concerns the commissioners have and sit down with them in any venue that they're comfortable with.''

With county commissioners focused on the budget and proposed developer impact fees in unincorporated areas, county principal planner Steve Lachnicht doesn't expect any large-scale application process until at least January.

The impact fees, slated for a July 13 public hearing, reports Sun writer Rachel Kipp, are seen by builders and business leaders as excessive. With the total fee for an 1,800-square-foot single-family home set at $4,083, Builders Association of North Central Florida president David M. Miller said owners of average new homes paid property taxes two times higher than others last year. His association calculated that the fee for a 5,000-square-foot medical office would reach $62,700 and for a bank with a drive-through, $175,000.

In response, County Commission Chairman Mike Byerly said, ''Part of the reason we're facing a backlog in needed infrastructure is we haven't asked new developments to pay their fair share. Impact fees represent a modest step in that direction.'' -- Gainesville Sun   7/9/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Gainesville City Commission Rejects Wal-Mart Supercenter Proposal

Having held two special hearings in three days on the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in northwest Gainesville -- one focused on the environment, and the other on economic, fiscal and social issues -- the City Commission has overcome its three-three split, with one member undecided, and voted 5-2 against the 250,000-square-foot store, while leaving the company an option to explore other locations in the city and many residents suggesting the east side.

Before the last hearing, reports Gainesville Sun writer Jeff Adelson, Commissioners Ed Braddy, Rick Bryant and Tony Domenech favored the proposal, Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan and Commissioners Craig Lowe and Warren Nielsen opposed, and Commissioner Chuck Chestnut sought more arguments from both sides, but in the end only Commissioners Braddy and Bryant voted for the project.

The previously undecided Commissioner Chestnut and the previously supportive Commissioner Domenech voted ''no'' -- the former after questioning Wal-Mart representatives about the company's pollution record, community impact and diversity issues, including the new class-action suit for discrimination by some current and former female employees; the latter, a former small-business owner, after considering the Supercenter's potential impact on local merchants.

Commissioner Chestnut pointed to ''a perception that Wal-Mart has fallen short of being a good corporate citizen,'' and Commissioner Domenech stressed, ''The truth is that the big corporations are going to jump through whatever hoops you put up for them as long as there are customers they want.'' -- Gainesville Sun   6/24/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Alachua County Planners Consider Incentives for Connected Streets, Bike and Walking Paths Between Subdivisions

With more people ready for layouts other than the common cul-de-sacs, Alachua County planners advised the County Commission to consider builder incentives for connected streets and biking-walking paths in and between adjacent subdivisions once it adapts land-use regulations to the new comprehensive growth plan later this year. Aware that many residents will always prefer secluded dead-end streets, and far from any notion of a ''one-size-fits-all'' connectivity mandate, county officials would simply ensure both types of development, reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, quoting Commission Chairman Mike Byerly, who says, ''There has to be some sort of rational middle ground.''

He points out that although cul-de-sac neighborhoods, with one or two entrances, may offer greater privacy, lesser and slower traffic, and more security for playing children, they also cause choking points on local roads, which keeps drivers behind the wheel longer, increases air pollution, and hinders public emergency response.

''As connectivity goes down, larger-scale traffic congestion gets significantly worse,'' Chairman Byerly says, adding, ''The tax burden -- the amount we have to pay for public services -- is related to how accessible an area is.''

Accordingly, the writer reports, county planners want to limit cul-de-sac street lengths and require multiple connections in new subdivisions. They also want to establish a ''connectivity index'' for all new developments, which would measure their accessibility by dividing the number of street links, including intersections, by the number of street ends. The higher the number, the higher the connectivity, the writer observes, noting that possible builder incentives for connectivity still have to be proposed. -- Gainesville Sun   6/19/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Gainesville Leadership Team Heads to Norfolk and New Haven for Downtown Redevelopment Ideas

In a search for the best ways to jump-start downtown renewal, neighborhood redevelopment and business expansion, about 40 Gainesville officials, planners, architects, developers and educators spent a few days in Norfolk, Virginia, and New Haven, Connecticut, coming back ''fired up to lay out a plan of action to redevelop the city's core while attracting new businesses.'' In both cities they got similar advice, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes.

In Norfolk, whose downtown blight until last decade reflected long neglect, flight to the suburbs, and a shipping industry shift, but which thrives now as a business, tourist, education and entertainment center, officials told them to be persistent, involve all sectors and institutions in the revitalization process, and adopt and stick to a strategic plan, rejecting incompatible projects but approving the right ones really fast.

That sometimes means 48 hours in Norfolk, as opposed to months in Gainesville, the writer notes, also quoting former longtime Norfolk Redevelopment Agency director David Rice, who said, ''If you can get new housing going -- no matter how old a neighborhood is -- it can get (other) things going,'' too. Equally important, he added, is city help for all willing to renovate or buy homes in depressed neighborhoods rather than seeking new homes in the suburbs.

The Gainesville group found another model for spurring urban revival found in New Haven, where Yale University President Richard Levin initiated acquisition of vacant properties around the campus, renovating buildings, filling them ''with dozens of mom-and-pop businesses,'' and telling the shops to stay open until at least 9 p.m. and the restaurants to 11 p.m.

''It makes it safer and builds more foot traffic,'' said Yale's associate vice president of city and state affairs Michael Morand.

The campus proximity is also crucial for Yale's spinoff biotechnology companies and related businesses that have located at larger reclaimed industrial sites, making some $2 billion in investments so far. ''It's all happening because it's a five-minute walk to our facilities,'' said Yale's cooperative research director Jon Soderstrom.

The trip organizer, Commissioner Warren Nielsen, wants the University of Florida to follow Yale's example and to make central Gainesville available to spinoff companies that now locate usually 20 miles north in the city of Alachua, the writer reports, noting that the Santa Fe Community College will increase its downtown presence with construction of eight Blount Center classrooms this summer. -- Gainesville Sun   6/7/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Gainesville's Wal-Mart Supercenter Set for June 21 Vote

Just weeks before its crucial June 21 vote on a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter to anchor several other businesses and some housing units at a 90-acre mostly-wetland site in northern Gainesville, the City Commission is evenly split, with Commissioners Ed Brady, Rick Bryant and Tony Domenech disposed for the plan, Commissioners Craig Lowe, Warren Nielsen and new Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan disposed against it, and Commissioner Chuck Chestnut eager to further question agency staff and Wal-Mart representatives during the commission's public hearing.

Wal-Mart reacted to criticism last year by reducing the site's planned commercial space, increasing its parkland and improving other features, reports Gainesville Sun writer Jeff Adelson, but city, county and state agencies still recommended denying its present plan, because their subsequent comments and requests for more details, needed to change the city's comprehensive plan and zoning, went unanswered.

As elsewhere in the country, the writer notes, Wal-Mart expansion is a hot topic for residents and community groups. Its backers argue the area needs the jobs and tax revenue the retailer would create, while opponents point out that the project also would damage wetlands and the watershed, increase traffic congestion and undercut local businesses.

In the past 12 months, residents sent commissioners some 2,000 e-mails, the influx growing in recent weeks, with messages ranging from ''We love Wal-Mart Supercenters'' to ''We're tired of Wal-Mart trying to ramrod its way into Gainesville.'' -- Gainesville Sun   5/30/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

New Design for Proposed Wal-Mart Fails to Address Gainesville City Commission's Concerns

The year-long controversy over a Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for Gainesville's northeastern edge is nearing another climax, with the city Community Development Department finding the company unresponsive to major concerns over the project's impact on traffic, wetlands and the watershed.

Last spring, the City Commission voted 4-3 against the Supercenter, which would require changes to the city's land-use and zoning plans, letting Wal-Mart resubmit the same plan by an identical 4-3 vote one week later, reports Gainesville Sun writer Jeff Adelson, but Wal-Mart chose to rework the design.

And although the company cut the project's commercial space by 30,000 square feet and increased open space and parkland, it left the subsequent agency comments and questions unanswered. Mayor-elect Pegeen Hanrahan said Wal-Mart officials probably thought the project could loose anyway, so they decided against further studies. ''You don't want to sink a huge investment into a particular site,'' she observed, ''if there's a chance that site will be turned down.'' -- Gainesville Sun   5/12/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Former Milwaukee Mayor Norquist Addresses -- and Advises --Pensacola on New Urbanism

Planners and builders should increasingly turn from routine sprawl to mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly development in city centers and older neighborhoods, reasoned Congress for New Urbanism President and CEO John Norquist in a public lecture on ''Unlocking the Value of the Urban Form'' in the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition at the University of West Florida, Pensacola, noting ''People would rather live in an interesting place. Everyone owns a car. But do you want to use it for every movement?''

Former four-term Milwaukee (Wisconsin) mayor and author of the book ''The Wealth of Cities,'' Norquist practiced what he advocates. During his 15 years in office, Milwaukee rebounded from poverty, spurred downtown housing, created the 3.1-mile Riverwalk, and tore down a 0.8-mile stretch of elevated freeway to attract some $250 million investment in neighborhood redevelopment.

Norquist told listeners that Pensacola could also gain, reports Pensacola News-Journal writer Sean Smith, if it would narrow a four-lane bayfront road to two lanes and use the freed space for parking, retail shops, residences and walkways.

Officials and business leaders were receptive to the idea, with businessman Collier Merrill saying, ''We need to slow the traffic down and bring it into town so people can see Pensacola.'' -- Pensacola News-Journal   5/7/2004

Resource(s): www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/

Wal-Mart Launches Public Relations Campaign to Support Revised Plans for Gainesville Supercenter

Its previous plan for a Supercenter, single-family homes and some commercial buildings on 92 acres at the fragile Hogtown Creek source in northwest Gainesville rejected by the City Commission in March 2003, Wal-Mart has already launched a public relations campaign in support of a revised proposal, slated for the City Plan Board's review on May 20, by mailing full-color brochures to more than 30,000 households and telling residents that the Supercenter would create 150 jobs and generate $3.5 million a year in sales tax revenue.

The revised plan still includes a Supercenter of more than 200,000 square feet, but reduces the site's total commercial space by 30,000 square feet, and expands its park and conservation areas, reports Gainesville Sun writer Jeff Adelson.

Still, local environmental and transportation officials, along with a state Department of Transportation representative, are concerned that Wal-Mart hardly addressed key issues of the project's impact on the creek area -- where extensive paving could harm watershed ability to absorb and filter storm runoff -- and on local traffic.

The City Commission may consider the Wal-Mart plan in June, the writer notes, finding it split on the issue, with the result likely to depend on Commissioner Chuck Chestnut, who supported the first Wal-Mart proposal. Commissioners Tony Domenech, Rick Bryant and Ed Braddy are for the plan, the latter saying, ''They have expressed an intent to build somewhere in the county. I would rather they build in the city limits so that the money goes to the School Board and the city.''

Commissioners Craig Lowe, Warren Nielsen and Mayor-elect Pegeen Hanrahan are currently against, the latter stressing, ''My opinion has been changed in the past by great groundswells of support for something that's happening. But my sympathy is really for the people and not the organization that is trying to get approval.'' -- Gainesville Sun   4/18/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Consolidation Pros, Cons Discussed at Gainesville-Alachua County Town Meeting

Having countered school disaccreditation, governmental abuse, and the flight of city residents to the suburbs with their 1968 merger, Jacksonville and Duval County gained greater fiscal and growth-management efficiency, improved accountability and reduced taxes, said former Jacksonville mayor and current University of North Florida President John Delaney at a Gainesville-Alachua County town meeting on unification, making ''no presumptions'' about what they should do, but telling the audience, ''I don't know of any city/county government that has consolidated and now regrets it.''

Nationwide, there are 34 consolidated governments in 16 states, reports Gainesville Sun writer Lise Fisher, noting that the daily and the League of Women Voters co-sponsored the town meeting, and that its editorial department has endorsed unification.

In contrast to Jacksonville's University of North Florida president, Gainesville's University of Florida law professor Joseph Little argued that Gainesville and Alachua are free from the problems plaguing the other area in the 1960s, and that separate governments are more accessible and ''the most accountable because they are the closest to the people.''

Long-time Alachua County Commissioner Leveda Brown backed the idea of consolidation, saying, ''I am not one of those that believe that unification of governments will automatically save a whole bundle of money. I think over time there will be savings.'' -- Gainesville Sun   4/18/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Gainesville Commissioners Change Comprehensive Plan, Relax ''No Net Loss'' City Wetlands Regulations

Despite public objections, the Gainesville City Commission voted 4-2 to relax the ''no net loss'' city wetlands regulations of the previous comprehensive plan and allow mitigation elsewhere, or compensating for wetlands destruction in the city area by creating or protecting similar sites even miles away.

Arguing for the change, reports Gainesville Sun writer Jeff Adelson, Commissioner Warren Nielsen said, ''No one individual or group has a handle on the absolute truth, whatever that may be,'' after which he cast a ''yes'' vote as his ''best shot.''

Adamant against the change, Mayor Tom Bussing called it a sell-out to developers, stressing, ''You are taking a wetland and saying, 'Fill it in and sell it.' Mitigation in the city is out the window.''

Florida League of Conservation Voters spokeswoman Francine Robinson commented, ''Judging from the rapid and widespread development in Gainesville, there seems to be no urgent need to sacrifice wetlands by weakening the rules. Yet the political pressure is there to do so,'' even though ''a wetland destroyed is destroyed forever.'' -- Gainesville Sun   4/13/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Editorial Advises Caution as Florida Lawmakers Tinker With Developments of Regional Impact Reviews

Since poorly regulated development ''threatens the environment and strains schools and roads,'' while ''excessive regulation stifles the economy, reducing the opportunity to enhance public services that benefit all,'' managing growth is ''a question of balance, says a Tallahassee Democrat editorial, advising legislative caution on two proposed bills to ease restrictions on Developments of Regional Impact (DRI), which is ''one of the state's primary tools for promoting smart growth that affects an entire region.''

The bills, SB 1174 and HB 1205, would reduce the frequency of state review for such developments and exempt most marinas from the process, the editorial explains, agreeing that reform is needed where the state duplicates local efforts, but pointing out that where it ''promotes a big-picture approach to planning,'' reducing DRI reviews ''would be foolhardy.''

The editorial is similarly concerned that even though marinas funnel millions of dollars into Florida's economy, they ''can also be big polluters,'' while affecting regional traffic and groundwater quality. This especially applies to the Panhandle along the Gulf of Mexico, including Leon and Wakulla counties, the editorial notes, quoting 1000 Friends of Florida legal director Janet Bowman, who says, ''Wakulla could be the poster child for areas where regional review could be helpful.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   3/31/2004

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/

Lee County Buys Abandoned Kmarts, Considers New Sales Tax in Struggle to Cope With Rising School Expenses

In anticipation of increased growth along Florida's middle-western coast, the Lee County Smart Growth Committee and the County School District are working on a sales tax increase for schools proposal, which commissioners could put on the November ballot, with Superintendent Jim Browder also expressing hope that the current snag over the district's share in state funds and developer impact fees will be resolved soon, because the district is ''at the limit'' of borrowing for school construction, but must ''stay on course just with the land purchasing.''

The district, reports Naples Daily News writer Chad Gillis, has already saved some $15 million for the next ten years by buying abandoned Kmarts for interim classrooms and acquiring the architectural design rights for future schools. But more school money must be found, stresses Smart Growth Committee member Bill Hammond, convinced that people will support a sales tax increase if its need is convincingly presented at a grassroots level. -- Naples Daily News   3/18/2004

Resource(s): www.naplesnews.com/npdn/bonitanews/

St. Lucie County Feels Growth Pressure As Developers Map 8,800 Acres for New Projects

In a sudden rush on St. Lucie County's rural north, developers have snatched more than 8,800 acres since January 2003, making this area just south of Indian River County ''the next frontier of Treasure Coast growth,'' reports Vero Beach Press-Journal writer Eve Modzelewski, quoting St. Lucie County community development director Dennis Murphy, who says, ''The barbarians are at the gate.''

The question about how to handle the prospect of thousands of new homes preoccupies the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and both county commissions, all three consulting and seeking public input. The Regional Planning Council would like St. Lucie County to keep its current Urban Services Boundary, which allows one home per acre, and extend utilities only to quality projects such as cluster, mixed-use, village-style developments.

Should St. Lucie County permit routine sprawl development, says Indian River County community development director Bob Keating, ''we'll probably be impacted negatively,'' but if ''it's compact, mixed use, New Urbanism type development, the impacts probably won't be bad.'' His county is about to form its own growth-control task force, with 133 residents, builders, Realtors, land use attorneys and others applying for the seats by the mid-March deadline.

Meantime, South Florida's G. L. Homes company, which has recently bought 2,500 acres in an area slated by Port St. Lucie for its future westward expansion, asked the city to annex the land, in an exchange offering to pay for new infrastructure. -- Press-Journal   3/18/2004

Resource(s): www.tcpalm.com/

New Urbanist Developers See Big Opportunities in Gaineville's Former Big Box Mecca

Having helped revive downtown Gainesville with such new-urbanist projects as the Sun Center and Arlington Square Apartments, developers Ken and Linda McGurn are finding the demand in their newest Union Street Station square of housing, shops and offices so high that they wish there were 100 more condos for sale.

Like other urban developers, the McGurns know well that building mixed-use projects in the suburbs is easier and helps defuse traffic, but still contributes to sprawl, while redeveloping areas like the 13th Street and 23rd Avenue corridors advances ''the real thing,'' reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, quoting Ken McGurn, who says, ''When you do two- or three-story densities there, you're helping the environment by keeping people in the city.''

The two corridors' area was the city's first ''big box mecca,'' the writer observes, but some stores have already closed and Wal-Mart plans to move elsewhere, which offers opportunities for mixed-use redevelopment, its potential increased by proximity of the University of Florida.

One of its advocates, City Commissioner Warren Nielsen, spent some time in New Haven, Connecticut, studying the successful joint city-Yale University urban renewal work -- which drew $1.5 billion in private investment around campus -- and is now giving group presentations on their initiative, hoping to spur similar efforts locally. ''I've attempted to encourage a conversation between builders, developers, financial folks, city planners and the like,'' he says. ''I really believe that good urbanism is ripe for Gainesville.'' -- Gainesville Sun   3/14/2004

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Lawmaker Seeks Executive Order to Establish Treasure Coast Sustainable Communities Commission

Determined to establish his proposed Treasure Coast Sustainable Communities Commission within weeks if not days, state Republican Senator Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie asked Governor Jeb Bush to create it by an executive order, which would augment the ''credibility'' of its search for regional growth solutions, but stressed, ''This commission will be formed with or without the governor's blessing.''

The 25-member commission, reports regional News writer Sarah Myrick, will bring together one elected official from each Treasure Coast jurisdiction, with the governor likely to appoint other members should he issue the executive order. Selected to assist the future commission, Florida Atlantic University growth management expert Jim Murley hopes the governor will act before its first meeting, planned for April 8 at Florida Atlantic University-Indian River Community College campus.

Looking forward to his work on the commission, Port St. Lucie Mayor Bob Minsky expects it to focus on regional needs and to increase mutual understanding of local growth policies. -- The News   3/14/2004

Resource(s): www.tcpalm.com/

Miami Ordinance Helps Homeowners Who Increase Property Value to House Parents, Grandparents

Under the so-called ''granny-flats'' Florida constitutional amendment to help families accommodate their elderly at home instead of in often-subsidized care institutions -- an amendment passed by 67 percent of voters statewide, with 75 percent in Miami-Dade County, in November 2002 -- the county board unanimously adopted an ordinance that reduces tax assessments for homeowners who increase their property value by renovating or adding quarters to house their parents or grandparents.

The reduction, meaning exemption, equals the assessed property value increase resulting from improvement and new construction or 20 percent of the new total value, whichever is less.

Commissioners expect the ordinance to cost the county about $2.6 million in lost tax revenue and another $110,000 in implementation and enforcement. Nevertheless, ordinance top sponsor, Commissioner Bruno A. Barreiro said, ''This is a win for the entire community. Now people can age at home with their families, with savings across the board.''   2/25/2004

Resource(s): www.miamidade.gov

Fort Myers' Downtown Revival Plan Spurs Investment in Former ''Greyfields''

Real estate professionals in fast-growing Lee County have overlooked ''the necessity for redevelopment of aging areas,'' but things began to change last year thanks to county Smart Growth program director Wayne Daltry's focus on abandoned properties, or ''greyfields,'' writes local real estate broker Frank D'Alessandro in his business column in the Fort Myers News-Press, quoting the director, who says, ''Smart Growth recognizes that when a core use leaves an area, the surrounding community may suffer and the aging process accelerates if maintenance on the vacated sites is not continued.''

Such greyfields, he notes, breed blight, diminish city revenue and often harbor crime. The broker-columnist, member of the D'Alessandro & Woodyard Commercial Team at RE/MAX Realty Group, points out that under its own Smart Growth plan, Fort Myers has greatly helped downtown revival in the last few years by spurring private investment in historic renovation and other projects. Now, he writes, ''more and more people are moving downtown, creating a 24-hour economy where people live, work, and play.'' -- News-Press   2/15/2004

Resource(s): www.news-press.com/

Editorial: Voters Urged to Elect Officials Dedicated to Managed Growth

''Unbridled development is not inevitable. What is needed is a majority of the elected officials sharing the same philosophical approach to smart growth,'' writes former Wellington (Palm Beach County) vice mayor and recent Indian River County resident Linda Bolton in a Vero Beach Press Journal guest column, congratulating the City Council for its public session on future growth as a harbinger of ''solid planning decisions'' that should ensure local quality of life for the next 100 years.

After 12 years in Wellington, which grew from 19,000 to 44,000 people during that time, the former vice mayor, currently Bolton Associates Inc. president, alerts readers that city councils and county commissions ''must have a plurality of votes dedicated to managing growth,'' because one or two voices alone won't carry the day. Thus she advises local voters to ''(e)lect only officials dedicated to smart growth,'' meaning ''those who have the integrity to demand lower densities and require a generous gift of land to the community for the privilege of building in Indian River County.''

Urging them to set ''tough standards for future growth,'' she mentions ''legally defensible but demanding school and traffic concurrency policies,'' a maximum residential density of two units per acre, a limit on ''zero-lot-line'' homes within the city, and generous minimum lot sizes. She stresses the need for clustering ''without sacrificing lot size;'' for ''strategically located employment centers'' to boost the economy, expand the tax base and reduce commuting; and for requiring developers ''to set aside land for future schools, child-care sites, roadways, libraries, fire/rescue sites, parks, environmental preserves, landfills, public works, cemeteries and organic-waste disposal sites.'' Bolton also advises the county to promote ''large land tract usage,'' including ''educational campuses that attract small incubator type businesses;'' mandate underground utilities for development sites and affected roads; avoid candidates with potential conflicts of interest between official and private roles; pursue strong cooperation with adjacent jurisdictions to prevent cross-purpose policies, as when ''Marin County's admirable restrictions are being diluted by St. Lucie County's high-density growth;'' and encourage homeowners associations, ''which function as mini code-enforcement operations.'' Then she concludes, ''Officials should be selective about projects, and not afraid to invoke moratoriums to manage or slow development. With rising land values, impact fees can never be high enough. Lower densities, more open land, more dollars for schools, road improvements and underground utilities will be a gift for the future.'' -- Press Journal   1/19/2004

Resource(s): www.pressjournal.com/

Mixed-Use Projects Eyed for Underused Park-and-Ride Lots on South Florida's I-95

In new efforts to reduce South Florida car dependency and spur transit use, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is encouraging development of underused park-and-ride lots near five Tri-Rail stations along I-95, with Fort Lauderdale officials already working with a developer on a mixed-use project proposed for the Cypress Creek Road station, and Hollywood officials fleshing out conditions for a similar mixed-use proposal, but including a K-8 charter school, for their Sheridan Street station.

Finalizing his plan for 800,000 square feet of offices, a 400-room hotel, retail and restaurants at the Cypress Creek parking lot, reports Miami Herald writer Jerry Berrios, developer Michael Swierdlow is required to compensate for the lost spaces with a garage big enough for the new development; link the Tri-Rail station, the garage and the office building with a pedestrian bridge; build an air-conditioned bus station near offices; and spend some $75,000 a year for bus and rail passes to promote transit use.

Proponents of the Sheridan park-and-ride lot transformation, Codina Development Corp. and Pinnacle Housing Group, want their future Sheridan Stationside Village to include about 500 apartments, some of them affordable, plus offices and shops, a basketball court, a pool and a playground, with the Miami-based Academica educational services organization ready to build and run the K-8 charter school. Noting that the location would let parents drop kids off at school before taking transit for work or errands, Academica president Fernando Zulueta says, ''Anything that can be done to provide more options for parents is going to result in a better community for everyone.'' -- Miami Herald   12/15/2003

Resource(s): www.miami.com/

Editorial Sees Shift to Smart Growth as Best Solution for Indian River County Gridlock

Although ''the Treasure Coast's lifeline'' -- coastal U.S. 1 -- is less clogged in Indian River County than in St. Lucie and Martin counties, its daily vehicle counts are expected to double or even triple locally by 2025, which would render any multimillion-dollar widening and other improvement projects useless without a turn from ''the old, inefficient model of more strip centers and piecemeal development'' to long-term land use planning, warns The Vero Beach Press Journal in an editorial entitled ''Fixing gridlock.'' With thousands of homes planned or proposed along Indian River County's U.S. 1 corridor, and with numerous studies showing that ''more lanes merely facilitate traffic volumes, and, thus, congestion,'' the editorial stresses, builders ''must make meaningful contributions to improved thoroughfares throughout the county'' now, while planners must focus on better solutions for the future. ''Synchronizing signals and enforcing density limits are a start,'' the editorial says. ''Ultimately, though, this area's robust expansion will necessitate a shift toward more organized, self-sufficient communities that efficiently blend residential and commercial components. That so-called ''smart growth'' may be the only way to go.'' -- The Vero Beach Press Journal   12/14/2003

Resource(s): www.tcpalm.com/tcp/press_journal

Cluster Housing, Mixed-Use Villages Advised for South Florida's Treasure Coast Region

The eastern South Florida region of Treasure Coast must end suburban sprawl -- this much was clear to all officials, conservationists, builders and national experts at the Rural Land Symposium in Port St. Lucie, but how to make it happen remained an open question, with St. Lucie County development director Dennis Murphy stressing, ''We can't just put a sign at the county line that says, 'No vacancy'.'' In response, reports Vero Beach Press Journal writer Katie Campbell, urban experts advised a smart-growth shift in the region's rural development pattern of large homes on five-acre lots toward higher-density cluster housing and mixed-use villages.

In contrast to the predominant ''ranchettes'' -- which increase infrastructure costs, waste natural resources, generate ''a lot of asphalt and more traffic'' and ''will eventually be subdivided into disconnected suburbs'' -- said Maryland University's National Center for Smart Growth professor Reid Ewing, a mix of uses reduces traffic, allows varied housing, ''breaks up development'' and preserves agriculture.

University of Pennsylvania city and regional planning professor Thomas Daniels suggested farmland belts around new towns to keep housing inside, arguing, ''Sometimes you literally have to draw a line in the sand to say 'This is where growth ends','' but cautioning against imposing ''farmland preservation on farmers'' and instead advising incentives to make them sell development rights and preserve their land forever.

Sunland Homes senior vice president Ron Hyman had these words for dense housing opponents: ''If you don't like clustered density, then you have to like sprawl, because your kids have to live somewhere. Developers don't feel different about sprawl. It's not attractive, but it is the market's response to regulations. If our government officials continue this way, we'll get more of the same.'' -- Vero Beach Press Journal   12/6/2003

Resource(s): www.sun-sentinel.com/

Manatee County Looks at Residential Impact Fee Increases to Cover Service, Infrastructure Costs of Expected Growth

With 89 percent of Manatee County's growth through 2010 expected in unincorporated areas, the County Commission moved to prepare for related service and infrastructure challenges by including municipalities in its plan to roughly double residential impact fees by 2006 -- from $2,065 to $4,180 for a typical three-bedroom house -- but municipal officials at a county workshop complained about fairness and applauded Bradenton City Councilman Bemis Smith for saying, ''The city should have control of determining whether our folks pay.'' Island city officials added that with neither county roads nor much vacant land, they would hardly benefit from the fee increase, since they would have to send the additional collections to the county. County Commission Chairman Jonathan Bruce responded he doesn't mean to tell them ''how to do your job in the municipalities,'' later telling Sarasota Herald-Tribune writer Mitra Malek the dispute is ''not worth it,'' as ''(w)e have too many issues in the future that we need to work on with the cities.''

The writer notes that Bradenton is charging fire, police and park fees since last year, with road fees coming next year. Palmetto is charging water and sewer fees and also considering others. Island cities don't plan any fees. He adds that last spring county voters passed a half-cent sales tax increase for schools and will decide next March on another such increase for land preservation and public work projects. -- Sarasota Herald-Tribune   12/4/2003

Resource(s): www.heraldtribune.com/

Smart Growth Symposium Stresses Importance of Community Involvement, Increased Densities for Successful Planning Decisions

''We are going to have growth,'' said Utah Quality Growth Commission Chairman and Utah Homebuilders Association president Dan Lofgren at the fourth annual Smart Growth Symposium for South Florida in Fort Myers, outlining his state's anti-sprawl goals and advising area planners, developers and scholars to ''stop and think'' about the best way to ensure public planning involvement, increase densities and accommodate further population surges over the next decades. The public-private Envision Utah group, which shaped quality growth and won a 2002 American Planning Association (APA) award for citizen cooperation, is hoping its push for higher densities will save the state some $4.5 billion in transportation and infrastructure costs over 20 years, while reducing tailpipe emissions and both land and water consumption. The symposium participants, brought together by the APA and Florida Gulf Coast University's Center for Public and Social Policy, reports Port Charlotte Sun Herald writer Allyson Gonzales, liked these smart growth ideas. Former Department of Community Affairs Secretary Steven Seibert stressed the need for a Utah-type process of community interaction and extensive public polling as opposed to a suggested constitutional amendment, called Florida Hometown Democracy, which would make any local land use changes subject to referendum. Denouncing it as ''an assault on representative democracy,'' the former secretary said, ''It is a reckless toss of the dice with our communities' future.'' Former Lee County commissioner Charles Bigelow also called the proposal shortsighted, but said it reflected the feeling of growth-decision-making helplessness among voters who want a better way to express their views than the three minutes allowed at public hearings. -- Sun Herald   11/8/2003

Resource(s): www.sun-herald.com/

Gainseville Planner Describes 'Road to Ruin' in New Book

''If you build a road for high speeds, what you will ultimately get are high speeds'' and ''When you make cars happier, you inevitably make everything else less possible,'' said top Gainesville long-range planner and New Urbanism advocate Dom Nozzi, his new book entitled ''Road to Ruin: An Introduction to Sprawl and How to Cure It'' scrutinizing the nation's obsession with improvements for cars rather than people, which forces too much public money into road systems and increases pollution, traffic accidents, commute distances and total travel in ''a vicious circle'' that demands more and more roads. As a realist, the planner doesn't expect suburbanites to repopulate inner cities, but believes in offering residents various lifestyle options, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes, so they ''can, if they choose, leave their cars in the driveway and walk, take a bus or bike to work.'' Government, the planner points out, contributes to the cycle of sprawl and car dependency wherever it prohibits mixed uses or mandates parking space minima for shopping centers and office buildings, also responsible for growing car use. ''As long as there is abundant free parking, people will continue to use cars,'' he says, noting that although they may like to drive around, each year millions are vacationing in such walkable cities as Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia or dozens in Europe and elsewhere. -- Gainesville Sun   10/22/2003

Resource(s): www.gainesvillesun.com/

Green Space Preservation Ordinance Seen as Boost to Brevard County's Quality of Life

As Brevard County's natural beauty is ''rapidly disappearing under concrete and asphalt,'' a Melbourne Florida Today editorial urges the County Commission and all 15 county cities to approve the Significant Environmental Areas (SEAS) ordinance as ''an ideal addition to local efforts to replace rampant development with smart growth that saves crucial wildlife and plant habitats countywide.'' Serving builder and conservation interests alike, the editorial stresses, the SEAS ordinance would encourage building layouts to save wide stretches of ''crucial habitat'' that account for a total of about 15,000 acres in unincorporated areas and almost the same within urban limits. In exchange for preservation of green space, the ordinance ''streamlines and consolidates'' environmental laws, and offers developers such cost-saving bonuses as faster permitting and higher density. Generous green space and nature preserves also give projects ''a competitive edge'' among buyers seeking ''more than a concrete jungle'' and bolster builders' reputation on a market ''increasingly sensitive to the environment.'' The approval of SEAS by the county and its cities, the editorial says, ''would make Brevard a model of environmental vision for the state, preserve green space in neighborhoods that otherwise will be lost to bulldozers, and boost quality of life, every day.'' -- Florida Today   9/26/2003

Resource(s): www.floridatoday.com/

Fate of Sarasota County's Growth-Management Plan Hinges on Decision by Administrative Law Judge

The implementation of Sarasota County's 2050 growth-management plan, adopted last year but challenged by the ManaSota 88 environmental group and one resident, depends on visiting Tallahassee Administrative Law Judge Donald R. Alexander, who just heard from the Orlando-based consultant Tim Jackson that his new-urbanist plan conforms to state laws, means to build ''communities of place'' and goes back ''to our roots before our dependence upon the automobile,'' all seen by opposing attorney Dan Lobeck as ''a lot of generalities and feel-good testimony,'' and a ''radical new approach'' that would set a state standard of 50-year planning horizons. The plaintiffs fear, reports The Venice Gondolier, that despite its promises to cluster growth in mixed-use, high-density, pedestrian-friendly villages, the plan may facilitate sprawl in the county's eastern part. The consultant reaffirmed in his testimony that the villages, each with a sufficient service center, would be surrounded by neighborhoods with their own centers within a quarter-mile walking distance, all linked by a network of roads, trails and bike paths. Attorneys for the defendants -- the county and the Florida Department of Community Affairs -- confirmed the plan's compliance with state growth-management laws. -- The Venice Gondolier   9/24/2003

Resource(s): www.venicegondolier.com/

Tampa Transit Officials See Double-Deck Highway as Most Affordable Option for Expansion

To relieve traffic backups and drivers' frustration along the 14-mile Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway, the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority is double-decking its most-congested six mile stretch for strictly financial reasons, says authority spokeswoman Dawn Perry Brown, calling the $350 million price a relative bargain and explaining, ''Right of way is most of the cost of any construction project, and because this is pretty much an urban toll road right in the middle of downtown, we needed to find a way to save money.'' The three-lane upper deck -- held up by a series of single columns, or piers, in the expressway's median -- will allow one-way traffic in opposite directions during morning and evening rush hours, reports Arizona Republic writer Bob Golfen to Phoenix area residents who will face a similar choice for one of their clogged freeways. Besides using its current right of way in the median, the Tampa-Hillsborough authority has also saved on construction costs by having the deck segments cast off site, trucked in and only cabled together along the route. The spokeswoman said some neighborhoods initially resisted the double-deck concept, but gradually recognized its design as an enhancement of the cityscape, because this is ''a very majestic-looking bridge.'' -- Arizona Republic   9/16/2003

Resource(s): www.azcentral.com/

Tallahassee's Infill Plans Keeping Sprawl in Check

Encouraging development in their ''urban service area,'' and especially ''infill'' as a remedy for sprawl, Tallahassee and Leon County growth policies are showing results -- the number of residents outside the service area has increased by only 1.6 percent in the past decade and builders have responded to the market change by putting homes on small lots in any empty pocket of urban or suburban land they can find, a trend still difficult to quantify, says City Growth Management Department director Bob Herman, but indicative of ''a maturing of the community.'' New homes, reports Tallahassee Democrat writer Bruce Ritchie, ''are being slipped onto lots between existing homes'' and new small-lot subdivisions ''are being slipped into the nooks and crannies of undeveloped land within two or three miles of downtown.'' Confirming the increased demand for homes near the downtown area, developer Pete Rosen of Benchmark Construction of Tallahassee Inc., sees simple reasons, ''You drive a half-hour, 47 minutes or an hour every day each way to work. You get home -- you are exhausted at night. You pull into your garage without meeting any of your neighbors or knowing who the kids are playing with.'' But closer in, ''(y)ou sit on your porch, wave at your neighbors and interact with other people. Its more fulfilling than being in the 'burbs on your hunk of land.'' With some homeowners and neighborhood groups considering higher density a threat to their open space and property values, County Commissioner Bob Rackleffs points to the quality of four side-by-side ''infill'' homes build by Benchmark Construction on Ninth Avenue and says, ''When people see that and understand that is the possibility with high-density housing, they will be less likely object to density.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   8/10/2003

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/

Developer Leading Campaign to Preserve Kissimmee Area's Open Space

Combining family business interests and local activism, Kissimmee developer Kevin Schoolfield of Schoolfield Properties Inc., is leading a year-old SAVE Osceola conservation group in a countywide campaign for a 50-cent per $1,000 of property value tax increase, to raise about $60 million for open space preservation, because it would enhance the area's quality of life and hence property values, and because ''we value our community, and want to make sure it grows smart.'' He told Kissimmee Reporter editor Michale W. Freeman that the group is not seeking ''to slow down the growth,'' but to locate parcels ''that can be preserved as a natural environment'' and ''pay market value to a willing seller,'' so the rural land to the city's east and south can be ''within a bike ride from our homes'' in the future. The idea won support from the Osceola County Association of Realtors Inc., the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce, the Kissimmee Utility Authority, the Kissimmee Valley Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy and other groups and agencies. They all know that fast growth in the so-called Four Corners region of Osceola, Orange, Polk and Lake counties will continue and that the time to save the best open space is getting short. ''It's most compelling to do it while the land is available, and do it while the land is affordable,'' said Nature Conservancy state chapter community relations manager Rob Dent, noting that land prices are rising by 5 to 7 percent a year and that Floridians ''are very strong advocates and stewards of our landscape.'' He added, ''Although there are competing needs out there -- such as social services and schools -- these competing needs will always be there as long as the population grows. Those needs will never go away.'' -- The Reporter   7/24/2003

Resource(s): www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=REPORTER

Settlement Weakens Alachua County's Growth Management Plan

Blocked in court by the Builders Association of North Central Florida and several rural landowners since April 2002, the new Alachua County comprehensive growth management plan is no longer among the strongest in the state, as county commissioners voted 3-2 for a settlement -- reached through a state-requested mediation -- which brings an additional 2,500 acres within Gainesville's urban service boundary for future development, removes a clustering requirement for rural subdivisions of fewer than 25 lots and drops the ban on gated communities and cul-de-sacs. It also reduces wetland setbacks in crucial habitat zones from 300 to 100 feet; exempts small poor-quality wetlands from strict regulations; and eliminates several conservation area maps that identified almost 90 percent of the county's land as ecologically significant. Nevertheless, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes, county growth-management director Rick Drummond believes the settlement still secures ''a much stronger plan than the one that is currently in effect,'' and Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut, who voted for the compromise together with Commissioners Rodney Long and Lee Pinkoson, calls it ''fair and just.'' Landowners' lawyer Ron Carpenter agrees, saying his clients preferred the old plan, ''but that's not what compromise is about.'' But nothing is really settled yet, since several residents already filed a suit to nullify the settlement and some conservation groups -- Sustainable Alachua County, Women for Wise Growth and the Suwannee-St. Johns Sierra Club -- feel they were excluded from negotiations and also promise legal action. Voting against the settlement together with Commissioner Penny Wheat, Commissioner Mike Byerly blasts the negotiations for an ''arrogant disregard'' of the public policy-making process, while environmental consultant Dave Bruderly says, ''We don't need to continue chewing up our open space. There's lots of land in the city of Gainesville that can be redeveloped.'' -- Gainesville Sun   7/16/2003

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Volusia County Plans 2nd Smart Growth Summit

The popular notion that ''everyone wants a big house in the suburbs with a big lawn'' is belied by some cities' ability to spur redevelopment and preserve their green outskirts, and one of them is Austin, Texas, pointed out Urban Land Institute (ULI) educational and environmental policy director Michael Pawlukiewicz at a Volusia County smart-growth summit in Deland, telling the 220 officials, conservationists and business leaders that in contrast to low-density, separate-use, car-dependent ''mindless'' growth, smart growth brings back compact development, mixed uses and transportation choices. Austin was able to save its ''green'' corridor over the aquifer, vital for the area's water supply, and Volusia cities should do the same, said the ULI expert. The advice, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Ludmilla Lelis, struck a chord with the attendees, who see the county's future in neo- traditional communities and downtown areas, ''where people live, work, shop, go to the doctor's or go to a movie.'' To flesh out this vision, the Volusia County Association for Responsible Development will hold another smart-growth summit August 22 at Daytona Beach Community College, the writer adds, quoting one of the county's biggest landowners, Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. vice president Joe Benedict, who says, ''Political guts -- that's what it boils down to.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   6/14/2003

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

Tallahassee Commissioners Approve Mixed-Use Condo for Final Slot in Downtown Plaza Revitalization Program

In its push to revitalize the Tallahassee core, the City Commission chose a 108-unit condo building, with offices, stores and a restaurant on the ground floor, over a 130-apartment complex for Kleman Plaza's last vacant lot, with Mayor John Marks saying, ''Downtown should be an 18-hour area, and condominiums are better suited for permanent housing and our goals.'' Noting that the commission recently approved a 20-story apartment building for the plaza's southwestern side, Tallahassee Democrat writer Todd Wright quotes the condo-specialized GameDay Centers company's representative Rick Bateman Jr., who says commissioners ''don't want 600 rental units in one area,'' because people ''want to own.'' He expects the lot sale contract to be finalized quickly, construction to start within a year and the prices for one-to-three bedroom condos to range from $180,000 to $500,000. The condo project is the last for Kleman Plaza as the anchor for downtown transformation into a cultural center, including the Mary Brogan Museum of Arts and Science, the Challenger Learning Center and IMAX Theater, the writer observes, once again quoting Mayor Mark. Confident that residents want a vibrant downtown area, he says, ''They want museums, hotels and shopping ... our job is to make it better.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat   5/29/2003

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/

Alachua County Hopes Building Incentives Will Spread Affordable Housing Throughout County

Although a new Alachua County study classified about 67 percent of its housing as affordable, it also found this less expensive housing -- still costing many residents more than 30 percent of their income -- concentrated on the city of Gainesville's east side and in rural areas, a situation the County Commission would like to change, perhaps by builder incentives for more low-income units in new subdivisions throughout the county, with Commissioner Mike Byerly stressing the need to avert the ''damaging trend'' of socio-economic segregation. The commission, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes, directed staff to work with local builders on a series of affordable-housing incentives, which could include an expedited permitting process and exceptions from limits on projects near extremely congested roads. The commission also would like to start channeling state housing grants for down payment assistance, second mortgages and home renovation into areas needing more low-income housing, to which builder Barry Rutenberg responded, ''If the money is available, I think the market will find a way to use it.'' The writer adds that Commissioners Byerly and Penny Wheat would prefer a mandatory affordable-housing share in new projects, but Commissioners Rodney Long and Cynthia Chestnut sided with Commissioner Lee Pinkoson, concerned that ''(i)n upper-end subdivisions, owners in higher-priced homes could end up subsidizing the lower-priced homes.'' -- Gainesville Sun   5/22/2003

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Michigan Land Use Leadership Council Looks at State Models for Effective Smart Growth Strategies

As it seeks input for a future Michigan growth-management plan, Governor Jennifer Granholm's bipartisan Land Use Leadership Council can learn much about what works or doesn't in smart growth from other states, writes Michigan Land Use Institute policy advisor Arlin Wasserman, citing the institute's in-depth research in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Florida -- which found that big money talks, the right message must reach the right people, and political shifts require new messages and allies -- and the parallel Sierra Club/Mackinac Chapter interviews with environmental and land use advocates in 13 states, which confirmed the general conclusion that ''political leadership from top state official is crucial to advancing Smart Growth.'' In Colorado, the writer explains, a 1998 anti-sprawl measure, initially backed by 80 percent of residents and by $1 million in campaign donations, lost in a landslide because developers spent $6 million on a counter-campaign and Governor Bill Owens urged voters to let him control sprawl by other means. Consequently, ''Colorado's environmentalists find themselves on the outside as the governor works his way through a list of less ambitious reforms.'' In Pennsylvania, the 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania environmental group spent years garnering broad support for its reform proposals, forming alliances with smart growth, quality of life and economic efficiency advocates, and setting up an extensive education network. The Friends were happy to let then-Governor Tom Ridge ''take the credit for their proposals'' and to help inform his advisory board as it sought input on his 2000 program, eventually enacted into law. In Florida, gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush declared support for the state's growth-management policies during his 1988 campaign, but once elected ''pandered to the property rights movement and tried to gut the state laws.'' But environmentalists and ''savvy developers'' in the 1,000 Friends of Florida group ''did some research, and unflinchingly cited the undue industry influence and bias'' in the governor's new position, beating back his efforts. With the multi- state research by the Sierra Club/Mackinac Chapter showing the importance of holding elected officials true to their electoral land use promises and forming broad coalitions with groups focused on quality of life and social equity, the writer adds: ''It doesn't matter which political party controls a state's government. That's because Smart Growth is pro-business, pro-equity, pro-environment, and pro-quality of life. These are, in sum, bipartisan issues.'' -- Michigan Land Use Institute   4/13/2003

Resource(s): www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16478

''Conservation Subdivisions'' Gaining Popularity in North Florida, But Some Wary of Sprawl Potential

One of the top issues at the current series of Leon County and Tallahassee hearings and workshops on updating their joint 2000 comprehensive plan are zoning requests for ''conservation subdivisions,'' where developers can cluster more homes than currently allowed in exchange for saving most land as open space -- a concept gaining traction in the region, with Conservation Fund chairman Patrick Noonan calling it ''the wave of the future,'' but others still cautious, worried it may sometimes serve as a cover for sprawl. That's why, reports Tallahassee Democrat writer Bruce Ritchie, planners oppose requests to change the zoning of two large tracts in the city's northern suburb of Bradfordville from rural to ''urban fringe,'' to allow conservation subdivisions. The change would let local landowner Miley Miers build about 120 instead of 30 homes and preserve 190 acres of his 301-acre tract; it would also let Centerville Properties Ltd. put 296 instead of 59 homes on a 592-acre tract although the company's plan for this and an adjacent 283-acre site calls for a total of only 233 homes and protection of more than 500 acres as open space. The landowner denies his project would add sprawl, arguing that Tallahassee growth is coming up his way anyway since the city hasn't much land left for more homes, an assertion questioned by planners. The company's attorney, Charles Gardner, says rezoning would permit homes on lots smaller than currently allowed, stressing the company has ''bought into'' consultant-planner Randall Arendt's land conservation approach. During his presentation at a Leon County growth-management meeting last November, the writer notes, Arendt pursued the themes of his Rural by Design book, urging the area to secure recreational trails, open space and rural character, all making neighborhoods more attractive to prospective buyers. -- Tallahassee Democrat   4/6/2003

Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/

Greenway Corridor Is Springboard for Marion County's Smart Growth Coalition

Having helped ''to make growth a compelling issue in Marion County'' and ''formed strong coalitions with kindred groups throughout North Central Florida,'' the county's two-year-old Smart Growth Coalition describes itself as a ''community catalyst'' and plans a ''busy spring'' for ''identifying and publicizing growth/sprawl-related issues'' and spotlighting solutions. Its big immediate focus, the coalition announces in The South Marion Citizen, is the 90- mile Greenway corridor running from Palatka in Putnam County southwest through Marion and Citrus counties to the Gulf of Mexico. Once slated for the subsequently discarded Cross Florida Barge Canal Project and now state-managed for recreation and conservation, the corridor is the coalition's ''springboard'' for bringing together diverse environmental, outdoor activity, business and civic groups to make the public and county commissioners aware of strong support for green spaces as worth preserving not only for their beauty, but also for their economic value. Hoping to bolster state and local land acquisition efforts to ''fill in the gaps'' in the Greenway and link it with a similar one under way in Alachua and Levy counties, the coalition plans to follow its spring educational workshops with a major green space forum in September. -- The South Marion Citizen   4/4/2003

Resource(s): http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/794/public/news444938.html

Study Finds Most of South Florida's Office Parks Accessible Only by Car

In contrast to such central business district (CBD) markets as Chicago and New York, where 57 and 54 percent of offices were located downtown in 1999 -- and a median of almost 30 percent for all 13 large markets in the Brookings Institute's study ''Beyond Edge City: Office Sprawl in South Florida'' -- downtown Miami had mere 13 percent of the region's office space, while the record 66 percent was scattered throughout suburban ''edgeless cities,'' with the 1987-2002 study's author, Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech professor Robert E. Lang, noting that most South Florida office parks are accessible only by car. One example, reports Miami Today news service writer Frank Norton, is the 250-acre Waterford at Blue Lagoon office park near Miami International Airport, its 14 office buildings unreachable through Miami-Dade County's Metrorail line. ''The reason you have terrible traffic is because everybody is going in every direction every morning,'' stresses Professor Lang. ''On your 40-mile commute every morning somebody who lives where you work will drive right past you because you're going to their edgeless city while they're going to yours.'' Miami-Dade County planning director Carey ''Lee'' Rawlinson says smart growth should include high-density mixed-use development around present and planned transit hubs, to take advantage of local infrastructure. Noting that the Dadeland area's first mixed-use projects are under way, he mentions ''a long-range, public-private effort to build Downtown Kendall'' near the Metrorail commuter line. See Professor Lang's study at www.brookings.edu/urban   4/3/2003

Resource(s): www.miamitodaynews.com/index.shtml

Miami Hopes to Partner With Property Owners for Development Around New Transit Routes

Six months after Miami-Dade County voters passed a half-cent sales tax increase that will bring in about $150 million a year for massive transit expansion by 2031, officials planning 89 miles of new Metrorail routes hope to prevent the lengthy and costly process of land condemnation for 89 stations and parking lots by forming partnerships with property owners who will build transit-oriented residential and commercial projects, including affordable housing. For Metrorail construction in the 1980s, says Office of Public Transportation Management officer Alberto Parjus, the county often had to condemn whole parcels, though only narrow strips were needed, then pay for the upkeep and safety of the surplus land until it was leased to developers. Now, the county will avoid such additional costs and development delays by partnering with prospective developers early in the Metrorail expansion process, which is expected to start in 2005. Right now, reports Miami Today news service writer Paola Iuspa, completed or continued development around 16 of the 21 present Metrorail stations includes different type of mixed-use projects, most with low-cost or market-rate housing. The county is also discussing a proposal by the nonprofit Miami Metro Action Plan Trust to build a 220-unit affordable rental building at the Northside station and another proposal by the faith-based Jubilee community development corporation to build affordable housing at the Okeechobee station.   4/3/2003

Resource(s): www.miamitodaynews.com/index.shtml

Activist Receives Award for Spearheading Alachua Wildlife Corridor Project

Having settled in Alachua County just three years ago, business and utility consultant Dan Smith founded the grassroots nonprofit Santa Fe Land Trust and brought together several public agencies and more than 100 local landowners in an effort to secure a 10-mile wildlife corridor between San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park and the Santa Fe River, in recognition of which Gainesville attorney Stephen K. Johnson nominated him for The Gainesville Sun's 40th Annual Community Service Award for a person with the best record of voluntary community service. Unlike many others, the attorney wrote in the nomination letter, ''Dan has worked to bring diverse interests together and has avoided the pitfall of polarization that is so often the result of the 'do-gooder' mentality'' and in contrast to ''taking rights away,'' persuaded many owners to allow permanent conservation easements on their land. This, the daily notes, applies to his own 40 acres in the corridor, which includes thousands of acres of wetlands, river floodplains and pristine hardwood forests. The nominee, the daily adds, ''has volunteered countless hours to coordinate the massive effort, placed his development business on the back burner and donated his own money to keep the project moving forward.'' After an independent panel of judges selects this year's winner, the daily will hold its award ceremony on April 21. -- The Gainesville Sun   3/11/2003

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/apps/

Town Meetings Seek Input on Developer Impact Fees, Consolidated Services in Florida's Alachua County

In an effort to advance intergovernmental cooperation across Alachua County, its commission launched a series of town meetings to get input on local issues and such countywide needs as better fire protection and developer impact fees for roads and recreation -- the first meeting in the city of Alachua increasing commission chairman Rodney Long's hope ''to have impact fees adopted sometime this year,'' perhaps before June. The county's 1992 transportation impact fee, imposed for three years, raised about $1.4 million, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes, noting that new road and recreation fees, their amounts yet to be determined, would be paid by developers when building permits are issued. In response to Alachua city residents' concerns over local effects should the county and Gainesville merge their fire protection services, county commissioners assured them they would have protection matching their financial commitment, which means funding a new fire station. They also confirmed that the county is exploring how to free downtown Alachua from heavy traffic, by diverting hundreds of trucks around the city, with a Public Work report due in about six weeks. The next town meeting is scheduled for March 4 in Archer. -- Gainesville Sun   2/19/2003

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Fort Pierce Development Director Sees Bright Future for Revitalized City

Just 15 years ago, the small coastal city of Stuart in Martin County had 65 percent of its downtown businesses boarded up, most buildings blighted and streets deserted, but today residents and visitors crowd the vibrant core, restaurants are full and there is dancing in the streets, writes a Fort Pierce Tribune editor, congratulating Stuart on its renaissance -- spurred by business owners, volunteers and architect Peter Jefferson with his wife Joan, all guided by renowned New Urbanist Andres Duany -- while Tribune writer Liz Flaisig reviews parallel downtown revitalization efforts in Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, with the city's development director, Ramon Trias, upbeat about the prospects. A 1989 University of Miami graduate and Duany's follower, Trias remembers the new urbanist theory ''was so radical and controversial then because there was a lot of money at stake for the private side'' and developers ''sold out to a bill of goods that was just wrong.'' In South Florida, where he started, the damage from abandoning traditional planning was most evident and too deep to remedy in Palm Beach or Broward Counties, he says, but coming to Fort Pierce in 1995, he found ''a tight local community,'' rooted in good planning, aware that the time for revival had come and ready to handle the task. Seeing the public planning process as ''half of the partnership that must exist for new urbanism to succeed,'' the writer reports, Trias proposed a series of meetings and charrettes, which resulted in several key projects, including a waterfront library, a visitor center, a manatee observation and education center, street upgrades and new Marina Square, featuring a fountain and roundabout. But once the city averted a crisis, the public became somewhat ''complacent,'' Trias observes, noting the need to eliminate an old power plant near the waterfront, renovate Melody Lane buildings and establish more historic districts. Hoping that officials will realize they ''need to do most things themselves,'' Trias says Fort Pierce, with its great location along the Indian River, with Atlantic beaches, a beautiful environment, pedestrian-friendly downtown and cultural facilities, ''will never go out of business again.'' -- Fort Pierce Tribune   2/3/2003

Resource(s): www.tcpalm.com/tcp/trib_local_news/

Plant City Officials Briefed on Smart Growth as Hearings Begin for Mixed-Use Community

As the Plant City Planning Board readies its first hearing on a Sunrise Homes plan to turn the industrial Gregg Business Centre into a mixed-use community of 2,800 varied-style homes, with narrow streets, parks and trails, City Planning and Zoning director Rob Anders brought in Hillsborough's City-County Planning Commission assistant executive director Ray Chiaramonte to brief city officials on the advantages of Neo Urbanism, Traditional Neighborhood Development and Smart Growth. ''We're taking some ideas from the past and reintroducing them,'' the guest told Tampa Tribune writer Yvette C. Hamett on the way through the city's historic residential district to the workshop, where he encouraged commissioners and planners to pursue the Smart Growth ideas already embraced in the region, mentioning West Park in Tampa and Long Leaf in Pasco County. It's not telling people how to live, it's offering them more choices, he said, pointing out that neo-traditional neighborhoods include single-family homes, duplexes and apartments in a broad price range, while their pedestrian amenities facilitate social interaction and reduce auto dependency. -- Tampa Tribune   1/18/2003

Resource(s): www.tampatrib.com/

Gainesville, Fla. Approves Mixed-Use ''Midtown'' Towers Plan

Despite misgivings voiced by Gainesville Mayor Tom Bussing and echoed a day later by many residents, the citizens' Development Review Board ended its night-long hearing with a 2-1 early-morning vote to redevelop a rundown 4.3 acre site between downtown and the University of Florida (UF) campus as mixed-use Midtown, with one 26-story and two 21-story towers housing student apartments, a 300- room luxury hotel, retail space and parking garages, but dwarfing the currently highest, 11-story Seagle Building and marring the cherished small-town skyline. Opponents also argued, reports Gainesville Sun writer Ashley Rowland, that the project -- planned by Boca Raton developer Ben Schachter at a cost of $300 million to $500 million -- could raise the tax base to such and extent that nearby fixed-income residents wouldn't be able to pay their property taxes. But supporters stressed that the project would boost the depressed neighborhood and help downtown businesses. UF administrative vice president Ed Poppell also noted the benefit of linking the campus with downtown, saying, ''We think that it will improve the density in a small area that will continue to enhance our mass transit.'' Subject to a final city approval after the developer makes a few minor changes, the writer adds, the project may get under way in February 2004 and be completed within three to five years. -- Gainesville Sun   1/11/2003

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Editorial Questions Florida's Growth-Management Efforts

With Governor Jeb Bush appointing Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood to lead his Department of State and Cabinet aide Colleen Castille to lead the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), The St. Petersburg Times notes his earlier-stated intention of merging both departments and asks ''Is Colleen Castille supposed to take charge of growth management or preside over its demise?'' The governor, says the daily in a dry editorial, ''has spent four years delivering little more than speeches as it relates to controlling Florida's real estate growth,'' admitting his inability to ''overcome special interests in the Legislature'' and espousing ''less oversight for local governments, not more.'' In his first three years, the editorial observes, the DCA ''approved local development plan changes at seven times the rate of the previous decade'' and the only bill the governor ''touts'' is one that asks school boards and county commissions to cooperate on new schools ''in high-growing areas.'' Saying the governor ''has fought every attempt'' to help cities and counties with more money for the roads and services required by new growth and his only growth-management idea ''revolves around a cost-accounting formula no one seems to fully comprehend,'' the editorial concludes: ''If he needs a reminder of what is at stake, he need only look to the south and west of the capital, across the Panhandle, where St. Joe Land Co. owns some 940,000 acres of land and 39 miles of Gulf of Mexico coastline that it is actively marketing for development. This is the Florida that can't afford another four years of inaction.'' -- The St. Petersburg Times   1/7/2003

Resource(s): www.sptimes.com/

Orlando Wal-Mart Affecting Quality of Life

Like others everywhere, many Orlando area residents love Wal-Mart's discount prices, but hate its mega-stores for bringing in more traffic, noise and crime, reports Orlando Sentinel writer Richard Burnett, noting that although 25 percent of Americans consider Wal-Mart their favorite store and 58 percent of youngsters think it best for buying clothes, the giant chain, a defendant in more than 9,400 lawsuits, is ''the most-sued entity in America after the U.S. government.'' Statewide, the writer finds, Wal-Mart generated almost $500 million in sales taxes last year and employed more than 71,000 people, including 12,600 in 34 stores of Central Florida, where it also donated almost $2 million for various community causes. But after the mid-2001 opening of a 230,000- square-foot Wal-mart Supercenter in Orlando's MetroWest, traffic accidents within its 5-square mile area increased 31 percent in the first year, car thefts 56 percent, property crimes 110 percent, robberies 231 percent and shoplifting almost 1,900 percent, to 477 cases. These statistics fuel opposition to Wal-Mart, especially in such relatively affluent neighborhoods as MetroWest, the writer observes, quoting the president of the Orlando-based Portnoy Group consulting firm, Eli Portnoy, who says, ''A lot of people see Wal- Mart as a downscale, monolithic retailer that can cause home values to go down substantially because it caters to such a broad range of people in the lower socioeconomic areas.'' He points out that the company appeals to many and does ''an enormous business,'' but it also is ''the most polarizing retailer to ever come along ... constantly in battle with communities who don't want it.'' Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams says, ''We don't want to go where we're not wanted.'' For some local groups, he argues, opposition ''becomes an anti-Wal-Mart hobby,'' but with ''a quiet, strong majority'' for Wal- Mart in most places, it often wanes once a store is approved. Noting recent rejections of Wal-Mart stores in Lake, Seminole and Volusia counties, the writer adds that experts see circumstances working against the ''sprawling Supercenters,'' especially when proposed for historic districts, ecologically fragile sites and ''potentially congested commercial and residential corridors.'' -- Orlando Sentinel   12/31/2002

Resource(s): www.orlandosentinel.com/

University of Florida at Forefront of Sustainability Research, Education

Having last year become the first in the nation to publish a full list of its environmental, social and economic impact indicators under a voluntary reporting system established by the United Nations Environment Program, the University of Florida, Gainesville, moved further ahead last month, with the Sustainability Task Force's policy recommendations for research and education, community outreach and campus operations -- the direction in this last field already set with the almost completed, ''green'' state-of-the-art M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Building Construction. The high-performance structure, reports Gainesville Sun writer Greg Bruno, will need a fraction of the energy and water used by standard buildings. Its 47,000-square- foot hallway is lit by sun rays from skylights over the main stairwell, roof storage tanks collect rainwater for its non-potable needs and specially equipped rest rooms will save 40,000 gallons of water a year. The director of the university's Office of Sustainability and of its task force, former Alachua County Commissioner Dave Newport, sees the new school and his job ''as illustrative of UF's commitment to social, fiscal and environmental sustainability.'' Composed of faculty, students and a county official, his task force, the writer notes, concluded that the university should manage its land to ensure ''no net loss of biodiversity;'' limit the use of inorganic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; complement land-use strategies with coordinated bus and bicycle services; apply green building standards for all future construction; and devise strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. -- Gainesville Sun   12/29/2002

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Slow-Growth Newcomers Victorious in Alachua County's Local Commission Elections

In an emerging nationwide trend, voters in Alachua County's cities of High Springs, Newberry and Archer passed over longtime or lifetime residents seeking local commission seats and elected relative newcomers Kirk Eppstein, Joe Hoffman and Lenny Torres, all having lived there less than five years, but all involved from the beginning in community service and all dedicated to better growth. All three, reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, promised to attract more business, while stressing the need for the compatibility of development with their small towns' atmosphere and the environment. An expert from the Washington-based Smart Growth Alliance, David Goldberg, says, ''What's going on (in Alachua County) is absolutely classic,'' with old-timers focused on economic development and newcomers on local character. University of Florida political science professor Bert Swanson attributes the power shift to demographic changes in small towns, where many recent residents still commute to job centers like Gainesville, but want to protect the town's ambience and quality of life. The newcomers, the professor says, ''are frustrated because the good ol' boys are so pro-growth they would sell their grandmother,'' and this frustration translates into votes for new faces and growth curbs. The Newberry election winner, Joe Hoffman, puts it this way, ''(The) majority knew that since I'm from a bigger city, I've seen how industry and growth can take over a place and that I know how to prevent some of those pitfalls. I think the younger people here were the majority of my support.'' -- Gainesville Sun   11/18/2002

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

New Alachua Commission Could Revisit Comprehensive Plan

Although the Alachua County Commission remains fully Democratic after November 5, its two newly elected members, Cynthia Chestnut and Lee Pinkoson, who ''ran on promises to encourage job growth and reverse the county's anti-business image,'' will pull the commission ''back to the political middle,'' predicts a Gainesville Sun editorial, giving it ''the opportunity to prove that environmental protection and economic development are not mutually exclusive goals.'' Both newcomers, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes, expect to form a majority with prospective commission chairman Rodney Long, who envisages a commission more sensitive to the needs of people lacking ''better economic opportunities.'' The test of wills, the writer observes, may first revolve around the county's newly revised comprehensive plan, with the two newcomers arguing during their race parts of it should be revisited, in the interest of farmers and others affected by some growth restrictions. They include proposals to surround the Gainesville city limits with an ''urban service line, impose wider setbacks around wetlands and require rural owners to leave up to 80 percent of their land undeveloped. A group of rural landowners and local builders has been asking the county for a month in an ongoing state-mandated mediation process to revise these proposals, in vain so far. But for the new commission's first meeting on November 26, Commissioner Chestnut is counting on Commissioners Long and Pinkoson to tell the county's attorneys to move the negotiations forward, since ''a protracted litigation'' would delay action on other priority issues. Several area groups instrumental in crafting the comprehensive plan, including Sustainable Alachua County, Women for Wise Growth and the Suwannee-St. Johns Sierra Club -- are seeking seats at the negotiation table, to prevent any diluting of the plan. The writer quotes University of Florida physics professor Dwight Adams, an activist and Sierra Club member, who fears ''a full-court press to get the county on the road to growth,'' saying these groups must try to keep the plan ''from going down the tubes.'' -- Gainesville Sun   11/10/2002

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Miami-Dade Voters Approve Tax to Fund County-Wide Transit Expansion

Having rejected several tax-for-transit proposals in the past 25 years, the increasingly congestion-wary Miami-Dade County voters reversed the trend through a 69-percent approval of a half-cent sales tax increase for a massive expansion of Metrobus and Metrorail systems as detailed in the long-range People's Transportation Plan (PTP), with officials immediately allowing free use of the downtown area's 4.4-mile automated Metromover line, eliminating bus and train fares for riders 65 years old and older, and adding and improving bus service in several neighborhoods. Strongly backed by civic and business leaders, the tax increase should generate $150 million a year, leveraging the substantial state and federal funds necessary for the advancement of the $17 billion plan, its outlays almost equally split between bus and rail transit. Officials, reports Miami Herald writer Andres Viglucci, envision the county fully covered with a tightly integrated transit network, which they expect to be ''reliable, convenient and attractive'' enough to lure many commuters out of their cars. Specifically, the plan will let the county almost double its bus fleet from 675 to 1,335 vehicles, including many minibuses on new routes and neighborhood circulator lines; provide around-the-clock bus service on major routes and increase frequency to 15-minute intervals during peak times; build 89 miles of rail lines; introduce 24-hour rail service next June; and allocate a total of 20 percent of the new tax revenue to 31 municipalities for their transit-related projects. The tax-for-transit plan was engineered by County Mayor Alex Penelas and Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, the writer adds, quoting the mayor who says, ''Twenty years from now, this community will look a lot different. You will have Metrorail and Metrobus to every corner of Miami-Dade County, and even into Broward County.''   11/7/2002

Resource(s): www.trafficrelief.com/rapid_transit_projects.htm ; www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/

Gainesville's East Side to See Long-Awaited Revitalization

Having spent hundreds of hours at planning workshops, residents of Gainesville's neglected 21,000-acre east side are expecting it to be revitalized this decade as a mixed-use corridor of houses, condos, offices and stores, with a high-tech ''Bus Rapid Transit'' system and much of the land near Newnan Lake slated for preservation. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization (MTPO) and drafted by the Renaissance Planning Group of Orlando, the Plan East Gainesville would cost about $80 million, mostly in federal funds and private investments, reports Gainesville Sun writer Ashley Rowland. Unveiled at a community meeting, the plan was well received, but residents pointed out that a new east-west road, meant to relieve congestion at a crucial Five Points intersection, would create ''incredible, nonstop traffic'' in the Lincoln Estate neighborhood and damage local wetlands. They advised extensions for two nearby avenues as a much better solution. The writer notes that the MPTO, the Gainesville City Commission and the Alachua County Commission will likely review and approve the plan in January. -- Gainesville Sun   10/30/2002

Resource(s): http://www.sunone.com/

Smart Growth Critic Addresses North Central Florida Building Forum

Since all outside experts invited by the Alachua County to comment on its comprehensive plan revisions in the past two years hailed Portland, Oregon, and advised ''smart growth,'' the Builders Association of North Central Florida brought to its Gainesville forum a former Portland resident, outspoken smart growth critic Randal O'Toole, who fulfilled association president Howard Wallace's wish ''to get some balance in the discussion,'' by blasting Portland for traffic jams, high housing prices and squeezing many residents into ''Soviet style'' apartment buildings. Author of a book entitled ''The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths,'' O'Toole told the forum's almost 300 participants that residents of his former Portland neighborhood won a fight against rezoning it for higher density, but other neighborhoods are facing similar pressures under a banner of more walkable and livable city. He also argued, reports Gainesville Sun writer Janine Young Sikes, that ''incremental changes over the years have created a heavy-handed regulatory system that disregards individual property rights.'' Short on solutions, the writer observes, O'Toole advocated building more roads and taking a regulatory page from Houston, Texas, by replacing all government zoning with neighborhood power to decide on development projects. Noting that many area builders would like to persuade the County Commission, which will have two new members after the November election, to make changes in the comprehensive plan, the writer found the group of county planners and administrators in the audience skeptical about the speaker's arguments. ''There needs to be an overall vision despite what he said,'' stressed county senior planner Jerry Brewington. ''It's a very complicated issue that he distilled down to simple solutions when I don't think there is one.'' -- Gainesville Sun   10/30/2002

Resource(s): http://www.sunone.com/

Alachua's Strategic Plan Seeks to Retain Small-Town Atmosphere

After a year-long series of community vision workshops, the Alachua City Commission unanimously passed a strategic 2010 plan, which will balance economic development and job creation with open space protection and bike-pedestrian trail expansion, to save the city's small-town atmosphere and keep it from becoming ''a big box marketplace.'' Mayor Bonnie Burgess is determined to implement the plan, stressing, ''The citizens came together and poured their heart out into this.'' Happy with the plan process, its steering committee member, Duane Helle, credits the outcome to the absence of ''the extremists who just want to grandstand'' and to the cooperation of ''both ends of the spectrum.'' Planning and Zoning Boar chairman Gary Hardacre also praises the collegiate spirit of the broad-based steering committee, but notes that now officials ''have to figure out how to pay'' for what the community wants. The top goal, reports Gainesville Sun writer Cindy Swirko, is to form public-private partnerships for bringing in new firms, especially small businesses and clean industries. To help it happen and at the same time address local quality of life concerns, the plan tells the city to improve biking and walking trails, protect the environment, build a community swimming pool, reopen a senior citizen center, designate future commercial areas, enact a mega-store ordinance, establish equitable code enforcement and promote urban infill. -- Gainesville Sun   10/8/2002

Resource(s): www.sunone.com/

Creative Workers Key for Cities to Attract High-Tech, High-Wage Jobs

Convinced that America's economy will increasingly depend on the ''creative class'' of workers sought by high-tech and high-wage companies -- research, health, law, management or marketing professionals, scientists and artists, whose numbers grew from 10 to 30 percent of the work force over the past century -- Pennsylvania Carnegie-Mellon University professor, urban planner Richard Florida said, ''Places where the weird and the uncommon are accepted are places with a social ecosystem that attracts creative people,'' ranking Gainesville as the nation's second-most-creative and tolerant city with a population under 250,000. Gainesville Sun writer Tim Lockette reports that professor Florida, author of a new book entitled ''Rise of the Creative Class,'' in which he uses his Bohemian Index, Gay Index and other data to rank 268 American cities on their attractiveness to creative workers, is touring the country, advising university cities to integrate campuses with the urban fabric and telling all they will need gay bars and punk bands rather than smokestacks and tax breaks to cash in economic growth in this century. The theory is based on his research following the move of the Internet company Lycos from Pittsburgh to Boston, when he found, the writer continues, that the company couldn't recruit enough young professionals, because they were repelled by Pittsburgh's ''Rust Belt reputation'' and ''a stodgy, 1950s-style corporate culture,'' preferring cities like Boston, San Francisco and Austin, ''where they could wear their nose rings to work and retire to coffeehouses in their off-work hours.'' Gainesville officials' reaction varies. New Urbanism proponent, Commissioner Warren Nielsen, who has long argued that the city's economic growth will depend on a robust downtown culture instead of highways and big-box stores, agrees with the advice. Commissioner Tony Domenech praises creativity, but thinks people getting excited about thes