By Barbara Behrendt, Times Staff Writer Published Monday, November 10, 2008 7:12 PM
BROOKSVILLE — One of the largest planned developments ever proposed in Hernando County cleared an important hurdle Monday and now heads to the County Commission.
Set to be built southeast of the intersection of State Road 50 and Interstate 75, Sunrise is proposed to include as many as 4,200 single-family homes, 600 multifamily units, 75 motel units and 365,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.
The project is also expected to include office space and possibly a golf course and clubhouse.
On Monday, the county's Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously agreed to recommend rezoning for the massive project to the County Commission, a change in formal land use designations needed to allow development of the 1,385-acre parcel.
Some planning and zoning commissioners questioned the timing on the rezoning, given the current economic downturn nationally and the near stagnation of housing starts in Hernando County.
"I still think this is premature, but I'm going to vote for it against my own better judgment,'' said Anthony Palmieri.
He said he thought it was a good project and noted that the commission's job was to make sure the proposed rezoning was appropriate for this location based on land use issues before advising the County Commission.
Already approved by the County Commission as a "development of regional impact,'' Sunrise will already have to protect ground water, will provide a site for an eastside government center, will minimize its effect on wildlife and will provide economic benefits to the community, Palmieri said.
"What more can we ask for?'' he said.
Planning and Zoning Commission chairwoman Anna Liisa Covell said the project had "come a long way'' from early discussions several years ago. "I agree with Mr. Palmieri,'' she said. "I think it's a little bit premature.''
But she added that the detailed plan attached to the project would mean that growth in the community would be planned and not "hodgepodge.''
"It's the chicken-and-egg theory,'' said Joel Tew, the attorney representing the development. The plan is not to build out Sunrise in the next few years but rather over a 15- to 35-year timeline. Because the project has been planned well in advance and ready to develop, when the housing market does turn around, Sunrise will be ready and attractive to builders, he said.
While some might think planning so far in advance is foolish, Tew said, "the foolish thing, in my opinion, is not to have that vision.''
In other business, the commission:
• Voted to recommend denial of a rezoning of three residential lots along Spring Hill Drive owned by Mohan Kutty just east of Glenridge Drive to allow professional offices.
Don Lacey, representing the applicant, said the rezoning would provide an appropriate transition from the commercial uses on one side and the residential on the other. He said that large buffers would separate the property from residents and that a realigned roadway and cutting down the number of driveways out to busy Spring Hill Drive would make the site safer. But commissioners determined that the proposal allowed business uses to encroach into a residential neighborhood.
• Unanimously agreed to approve a conditional plat for a 5-acre site known as Pine Island Estates north of Cortez Boulevard on Pine Island Drive.
The proposed project would include four lots and the subdivision drew concerns from a neighbor worried about the environmental impact and from James Howton, who said he was among the beneficiaries of the trust which owns the land.
Howton said the family hadn't meant for the land to be subdivided but the applicant's representative Richard Matassa said the applicant had a contract to purchase the property and standing to seek the county approval.
Neighbor Tom Allyn said the land was bald eagle habitat and that developing it would require "tons and tons of fill'' because it was so flood-prone.
Matassa said an environmental impact study would be done and that no eagle nesting has been seen on the site. Arthur Gore of applicant G & G Property Resources LLC said he was familiar with how much water got onto the land and wasn't even sure it would ever be subdivided.
• With members Covell and Palmieri leaving the Planning and Zoning Commission after December, the entire commission made recommendations on who should replace them.
From eight applicants, the group chose current alternate member Lisa Hammond and Denis Riley for the permanent positions and Thomas Deutschle and Harry Holzhauer for the alternate positions. The recommendations now go to the County Commission for consideration.
Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434
City leaders agreed Monday to help the Myakka Mobile Home Park strike a deal with county regulators, who say the park's antiquated sewage treatment system is a health hazard that should be abandoned by February, possibly leaving scores of fixed-income retirees without a place to live.
The park at U.S. 41 and River Road in unincorporated Sarasota County is miles away from county utility service, but within feet of city lines that serve the West Villages Improvement District, a massive development in the city's western section.
Developers spent $12 million putting in the lines to guarantee that North Port would have water and sewer capacity for the thousands of houses planned in coming years.
But right now, with only a few hundred houses built and a stalling economy, county residents who cannot get service think North Port should step in.
"We would request that you balance that future need against the here and now, which is our client's, a good part of his life savings, the residents in the community and affordable housing stock," said Dick Webb, attorney for Elio Covelli, who owns the mobile home park.
The City Commission held out the possibility that the park could plug in, but only after working out compromises with Sarasota County and the West Villages developers.
"We do want it to remain in business, and we don't want to hurt anyone," said Commissioner Vanessa Carusone.
North Port plans to organize the meetings and bring some kind of solution back early next year, before the February deadline.
Residents say the yards near the effluent ponds are constantly soft and muddy and the water quality as a whole in the park is below average.
North Port could also offer the residents water, along with sewer service, if a deal is struck.
But whether that will happen remains to be seen. The park, catering to low-income seniors who pay $360 a month to rent the lots their mobile homes sit on, occupies prime land at one of the county's busiest intersections.
The park and the Myakka River Trading Co. gas station that also uses the sewage treatment facility are holdouts from a time long before the building boom of recent years that drove up prices and land values.
"We all know they don't want us there," said Kamlesh Kadiwar, who has owned the gas station for the past decade.
"They don't want the old businesses there."
Webb said the city's intervention could help his client avoid closing the park down, a move that Covelli has said would bankrupt him.
City leaders also do not want to see the businesses shuttered.
"I just can't even imagine Myakka Trading Post not being there," Carusone said.
"It was the only place you could get bait in 1985," she said.
By JOEY HOLLEMAN jholleman@thestate.com
A splinter group from the original Charles Towne settlement started the second town in South Carolina on a bluff on the Edisto River in 1682.
Overlooked in many history books, it was first called New London, and later, Willtown. In the community plan, settlers laid out 250 lots for homes and businesses. A boat dock, small shops and two churches were built.
Malaria outbreaks and later plundering by British troops during the Revolutionary War led to the settlement’s collapse and made it a footnote in the Lowcountry’s rich history.
But the view from that bluff inspired a movement three centuries later that will be talked about far into the future — often while visitors admire one of the most expansive natural areas on the East Coast. The ACE Basin Task Force was born on Willtown’s bluff in 1988 and has gone much further than imagined.
Twenty years later, nearly half of the 350,000-acre basins of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers — an area six times the size of Congaree National Park — has been protected from development. In a coastal region increasingly coveted by residential developers, private landowners instead put conservation easements on their property, banning development forever.
The novel method — mixing voluntary easements with land donations to public entities — protected land worth $500 million at an actual cost to the public of about $30 million, said Dana Beach, director of the Coastal Conservation League.
“The model that was established has been an important one and has inspired other efforts like it throughout the country,” Beach said.
Mark Robertson, the executive director of The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina who moved to the state nine years ago, used the ACE Basin initiative as a guide for similar large projects when he was working in Virginia and Florida.
“It set a standard of how to get conservation done on a large scale using collaboration between private landowners, conservation groups and government agencies,” Robertson said.
Beach takes the importance of the ACE project a step further, noting that the public felt helpless to stop coastal development in the 1980s.
“It’s real importance is that it has given many people for the first time hope that a place of great importance is not inevitably going to be developed,” Beach said.
The ACE Basin story really started with the failure of the Willtown settlement in the 1700s. Plantations growing rice, cotton and indigo took over the coastal Edisto River bluffs and flood plains. Ownership of the land remained in large tracts until the double whammy of the Civil War and hurricanes ended the plantation era late in the 1800s.
Northern industrialists bought many of those failed plantations in the early 1900s to use as hunting preserves and/or pine tree farms. As population shifts made the South Carolina coast more desirable as a place to live, those rich owners had the opportunity to sell the land to developers.
Hilton Head Island is a classic example. Late in the 1950s, developers bought much of the island and started building golf courses and homes. It was the start of a major land-use change that accelerated in the 1980s, but the trend hit a roadblock in conservation-minded landowners in the ACE Basin.
Charleston banker Hugh Lane Sr. bought a piece of Willtown Plantation in 1942 and kept buying bigger chunks throughout his life. He finally purchased the house and grounds of the old plantation in the 1970s. His son, Charles Lane, who grew up in Charleston, spent idyllic weekends at his family’s home at Willtown Plantation.
“Friday afternoon, we jumped in the station wagon and went to the country,” Charles Lane said.
After college, Lane found work outside the Lowcountry for several years. Not long after he moved back to Charleston in 1987, he noticed a newspaper article about a Chinese businessman getting a permit for a marina on the Edisto River near Willtown, with plans for a 1,000-plus house development.
“Basically, Hilton Head was moving to Edisto Island,” Lane said, sweeping his arm to encompass the horizon-to-horizon view of unspoiled land from Willtown’s bluff. “This wouldn’t survive if that happened.”
So Lane got together with Beach to appeal the marina permit, and they won that battle.
Buoyed by the victory, the conservationists decided to come up with a plan to protect the region between Charleston and Beaufort.
“There was this thing called a conservation easement that we didn’t know anything about, but we thought it could be used to protect land from development,” Lane said. “We thought if we were really good, we could protect maybe 90,000 acres.”
The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings bought into the plan, but the key was getting landowners, both large and small, to appreciate the idea. That proved relatively easy, Lane said.
Many of the large landowners were outdoors enthusiasts more interested in maintaining that lifestyle than making money on their land. They jumped at the chance to put limitations on the future development of their own land (and get tax deductions for their potential future loss of income).
Then, Lane’s family helped kick off the conservation easement trend by putting one on its property. Media mogul Ted Turner did the same with his Hope Plantation on the southern side of the Edisto. Publishing giant Gaylord Donnelley, who already had donated nearly 8,000 acres to wildlife groups in the 1980s, put an additional 10,000 acres under easements.
Before long, easements were a major topic at cocktail parties of the Lowcountry elite, and people who refused to place an easement on their large land holdings were shunned. Fast-forward to today, and 182,000 acres in the basin are protected from development. About 50,000 is open to the public, while the rest is in private conservation easements.
On the Edisto, nearly the entire river frontage from Edisto Beach to U.S. 17-A is protected.
Bald eagles and alligators can live in their natural habitat instead of fighting for space with golfers. Creatures as diverse as the spindly-legged wood stork and the lumbering loggerhead turtle can build nests without dealing with people building homes next door. And the basin is an important wintering area for waterfowl.
The public properties draw boaters, hikers, bikers and bird-watchers. Hunters take advantage of limited seasons, and anglers cruise the rivers and creeks looking for honey holes.
“You know that old song (lyric) ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?’” Lane said. “Well the people in the ACE Basin figured out what they had before it was gone. Unlike just about any place except maybe the coast of Maine, we woke up before it was gone.”
Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366.
September 24, 2007
Want to see firsthand how Florida keeps ruining the very things that make it special? Read on and weep. June 1985: It took a while, but the Legislature finally agrees that the St. Johns River is a treasure. It declares that 20 miles near the Wekiva River will be protected as an "aquatic preserve." As well it should be. Manatees, otters and gators share the near-pristine stretch with white ibises, great blue herons and the endangered wood stork. Bald eagles soar above the swamps as Spanish moss drips from the oak trees. Eelgrasses -- food for the endangered manatees -- sway in the slow-moving waters. Ah, it's untouched Florida. And it's right here in Metro Orlando. How lucky we are. In fact, it's one of only four inland areas in all of Florida granted this special treatment so that it doesn't become the state's next casualty. Surely, you think, politicians wouldn't dare harm this. Well, then you haven't lived in Florida long. Just about everything -- even this -- is up for grabs: April 4, 2007: The DeBary City Council considers Country Estates at River Bend, a megadevelopment on the river that would sit on a 330-acre site, the same land size as Millenia Mall. It will have 250 homes. Most important -- for the developer anyway -- it boasts a marina about the size of Winter Park Village. Its 10 acres would be big enough for 400 boats in dry storage and 50 in the water. How in the world could this happen, even in Florida's world? Marinas can't be built in these preserves if treasures such as eelgrasses, snails, clams and the endangered manatees live there. And no wonder. Not only could all the boats destroy these fragile critters and plants, their propellers are sure to kill more manatees, which number only 3,200 as it is. Who would want to harm this paradise? DeBary City Manager Maryann Courson, for one. She loves the project. Everything is fine, just fine, she says, because the developer -- the developer -- has concluded that the waters don't have all the sensitive habitat. Can't argue with a developer, now, can we? Surely this won't get any further, though, even with Maryann Courson as the head cheerleader for developer St. Johns Partners. Wrong again. The DeBary City Council unanimously OKs the project. Maryann Courson wins. Well, it's a good thing, then, that Volusia County, where this is located, has the extra protection of a gatekeeper called the Volusia Growth Management Commission. Projects such as this must have been just what voters had in mind when they approved the panel 20 years ago. The only county in Florida to take such action, Volusia empowered the commission with the authority to halt developments that hurt another part of the county, such as this river. Only a court order can overturn it Whew! Let's congratulate Volusia voters on their vision. Wait a minute. Who are all those lobbyists the developer hired? Is it really the powerful firm of former state House Speaker John Thrasher and Oscar Anderson, the former chief of staff of the state planning agency? Surely the developer is wasting its money, right? After all, DeBary's appointment to the growth-management commission, Jay Erndl, is someone who will see this scheme for what it is and lead the vote against it. And if the growth commission denies the project, it pretty much ends it. 11:30 p.m. April 4, 2007: After unanimously approving the megadevelopment, the City Council suddenly gets nervous that it might run into trouble with the growth-management commission. What DeBary does next is brazen, even for DeBary. It removes Jay Erndl as its appointment to that commission. In his place: Danny Allen, who stood up earlier to support the marina project. Huh? Is this legal? No, it's not -- even in Florida. Try as it might, DeBary can't just remove someone from a quasijudicial commission just because it's afraid he might vote against its pet project. Whew again. The wildlife and the river once again are safe. Voters know they can trust the growth commission to protect the river, right? Not quite. Remember, this is Florida. Nothing is ever safe from the bulldozers. 1:30 a.m. June 12: The staff of the growth commission recognizes too that the marina doesn't belong in this preserve. Deny it, it says. Then the commission starts to vote. Oh, no. Turns out the DeBary City Council needn't have gone to the trouble of kicking Jay Erndl off after all. Even though he votes against the project, the growth panel that residents thought would protect them approves the scheme 9-5. How could this happen? Nothing to worry about, the panel says. It has pared the number of boat slips to 200 in dry storage and 50 in the water. Pardon us if we're not boarding the party boat for the celebration. (But we'll bet John Thrasher and Oscar Anderson were.) It's still a marina in a protected preserve. And isn't that still banned? Well, Jay Erndl brings up that very point at the meeting, only to have it dismissed as something too detailed to consider. Later that day: State planners are on the trail. Within hours, they oppose the project, saying this preserve deserves the protections granted by the Legislature. That's not good enough for DeBary. It barrels ahead and appeals. To its credit, the state stands firm, and now there's talk of the developer ditching the marina if it's allowed dozens and dozens of docks that can be used by residents in the 250 homes. But, really, how is that so much better than the boats in a marina? If a settlement isn't approved today, the next step is a three-day administrative hearing beginning Tuesday. It's anyone's guess how that would turn out. Sadly, this nonsense all could have been stopped -- if the growth commission had only lived up to the trust voters placed in it.
September 26, 2007
It was a great idea until the Florida Legislature ruined it. Read on. Spring 2001: What vision! For once Florida got ahead of its next land grab. Now that developers had pretty much paved the coasts from south to north, legislators realized that the state's new victim was interior Florida with its millions of acres of rich farmland. It was headed toward being gobbled up by subdivisions as farm families morphed into their third and fourth generations. Who wants to herd cattle when you can make easy money off development? But then, what would happen to agriculture, a critical leg of the state's economy? And how could the state handle all those new homes sprawling from Fort Myers to Jacksonville when it can't even provide the roads, schools and police for the ones we already have? So the Legislature created something called the Rural Land Stewardship Program. Hurrah! Farmers would be able to resist the temptation to sell all their land to developers just to please their kids -- or to pay inheritance taxes. The families instead could come up with a plan for farming part of the land, setting aside some for conservation and allowing development on another chunk. A fair trade-off for everyone. This couldn't work for every farm, of course, or we'd have the Florida Land Rush all over again. The law said that farmers could use this program only if they could get together with other farmers and patch a mosaic of at least 50,000 acres. Anything smaller and the state would lose all the benefits to the wildlife and plants that the huge tracts provide. Knowing that this was risky, the Legislature did something else. It said that five pilot programs would be named. Let's take this slow, it said, and get it right. By now you've probably realized what developers had already figured out immediately: This won't work for them. 50,000 acres? Are you kidding? That's way too much land to buy. And pilot projects? Enough of that. Spring 2004: The Legislature changes the law. A good idea goes bad. Not only does it reduce the 50,000 acres to a developer-friendly 10,000 acres, it jettisons the idea for pilot projects. And then it does something even more sinister: It says that developments won't have to run the gamut of regional or state approvals -- though that extra scrutiny has been the only barrier to developers cutting bad deals with their pals on the county commission. Yes, the wonderful days of yesteryear are here again. You can guess what happened next: September 2006: The St. Lucie County Commission considers making Adams Ranch the state's first rural-land stewardship. And who wouldn't want to protect this gem? A 20,000-acre cattle operation 14 miles west of Fort Pierce, it teems with rare birds and plants. The family has kept the ranch in such good condition, it's a jewel. But wait a minute. What's going on here? Instead of allowing development on some of its land, zoned for one home to every 5 acres, developers have cooked up a scheme to move those rights to Cloud Grove, a 6,000-acre canker-infested orange grove six miles away. That also is in the county's countryside and isn't supposed to have any more than one home for every 5 acres. But that doesn't matter now that this new law is in play. Cloud Grove will be converted into a "new town" with 13,428 apartments and homes -- 27,000 new residents. Even those of us terrible in math can figure this out. The developer is getting more than three times what the ranch would have gotten and 10 times what its own land was zoned for. Cha-ching! Ain't Florida great? Can St. Lucie County really handle this? Did the romance of Adams Ranch mask the fact that St. Lucie commissioners were approving a mini-city in an area that has a two-lane road, no urban services such as sewers and schools? Is this really good for Florida -- protecting farmland by adding more unplanned growth? And, remember, there's little that state or regional planners can do about this. The law leaves enough leeway for local governments to cut their own deals on the part where the real money is made: the number of homes. Just like the old days. Get pals with the commissioners and suddenly you're rich. Fast forward to a year later. St. Lucie commissioners are now having second thoughts. Frannie Hutchinson, the commissioner who led the charge to get all this approved, was defeated for re-election within a month after the vote. Her replacement -- Charles Grande -- has asked the county attorneys to see whether there is a way out of this mess. That will be difficult maneuvering. If only they had put more thought into this a year ago. Other developers have smelled the money wafting from St. Lucie County. Now that this deal was approved, "new towns" are being peddled all over the state under the guise of this law. It's just a new take on the old Florida game of get it where you can. In Central Florida, this has translated into something called Destiny in Osceola County's remote Yeehaw Junction, a good 30 miles from even the nearest hospital. The case represents yet another avenue for abuse. The Latt Maxcy Corp. sold 27,000 acres to developer Anthony Pugliese from Palm Beach County, who has joined with another landowner to develop a "new town" of -- ready for this? -- 100,000 people. But Latt Maxcy also wants its own "new town" on 50,000 acres. So now Osceola would have two new towns based on a law that was intended to pull huge tracts of land together to be planned as one so that the wildlife corridors, farming and other ecosystems could connect. Instead we're getting "new towns" connected by a six-lane road. Fortunately, state planners have caught on to the con. They are insisting that Destiny and Latt Maxcy come in as one proposal, not two, or even three, because other landowners are also eyeing this new take on horse-trading. By now it should be clear to everyone what needs to happen. The Legislature needs to return this law to its original intent to save farmland and conserve important environmental land, not to dot the rural part of the state with "new towns" that will turn into the next unplanned monster. The changes aren't difficult. The Legislature can take the minimum acreage back up to 50,000. And it can restore the full force of state and regional planners. But that's only if it cares about Florida.
September 27, 2007
Isn't it great to live in an area where you can trust your elected officials to learn from their mistakes? Don't know. We can't remember when it's happened here. And, sadly, the magnificent Wekiva River basin may be the next victim of our elected officials' short-term memories. Read on: June 29, 2004: Handshakes and high-fives all around. Gov. Jeb Bush has just signed a bill that gives the go-ahead to the Wekiva Parkway. For once Central Florida will build a road that doesn't degrade the area around it with traffic jams, strip malls and runoff that will pollute the waterways. This road has the guarantees in place to protect the Wekiva River basin, an oasis just outside Orlando that's teeming with pristine springs, rare wildlife and dark swamps. What vision! A place for Central Floridians to enjoy for generations to come. The Wekiva Parkway would actually be a vehicle for, well, vehicles, rather than a vehicle for the next fast-buck scheme to set up shop. This was no small victory. State road builders had been steamrolling ahead with plans to widen State Road 46, a two-lane country road that winds through the basin. Even four lanes weren't enough. In places, the road would go to six lanes. It didn't take long for the For Sale signs to line the road. The speculators have arrived, ladies and gentlemen! And we all know what that means. Think S.R. 436 -- Semoran Boulevard -- which runs through Seminole and Orange counties. Hard to believe, but it once was considered the area's outer beltway. Now it's an ad for Growth Gone Wild. But none of that for the 26-mile Wekiva Parkway. No, sir. This time we'll do it right. Not only would the road be elevated over the basin's most fragile parts, 10,000 acres next to it would be preserved. Interchanges -- magnets for new subdivisions -- would be sparse. No more would local governments be rezoning land willy-nilly for pals who just happen to own land nearby. Or so we thought. Turns out, no one knows where $1 billion of the $1.8 billion project is going to come from. Oh, well. And this is a road that's supposed to be ready for construction in a few years. So we could end up with a six-laned S.R. 46 after all. Is this just another game of "Trust us" from our elected officials? Looks that way. The law never specified where the money would come from. Environmentalists involved believed a toll increase by the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority would pay for a lot of it. Not so, say expressway folks. They say the Florida Department of Transportation is supposed to come up with the money. But it's not in its five-year plan. State Sen. Lee Constantine, who spearheaded the project in the Legislature, says not to worry. He and other Central Florida politicians will somehow squeeze the money out of the Legislature. Wish we could be so confident. This comes at a time when the Legislature is more than a billion dollars in the hole as it is, a problem that is sure to be around for the next few years. Surely, the expressway authority will now give the Wekiva Parkway its full attention, right? Well, not quite. The expressway authority has moved on -- to other roads. Not just one other possible expressway extension, but five -- five -- of them. After all, it's a whole lot easier to plot out highways across undeveloped land than trying to work out all those pesky protections that the state law demands of the Wekiva Parkway. So it's spending $2.8 million to "study" these new highways that go north, south, east and west, stretching all the way from Poinciana to Melbourne in the south, where it will cut through wildlife corridors and other sensitive land. This is Florida, after all. Instead of steering growth to the areas that already have houses and businesses so that all those new roads, schools and sewer lines don't bankrupt the rest of us, the new roads speed through the rural areas. This wouldn't be so bad if these roads had the protections of the Wekiva Parkway, which would be a spur for motorists rather than spurs for development. One Wekiva Parkway stretch goes 7 miles without an interchange. Even where there are interchanges on that parkway, local governments can't just do whatever their campaign contributors want. But no one has made any promise to give these roads that sort of protection. Incredibly, there could be an interchange every 3 miles. Heaven help undeveloped Central Florida. Unless you're a landowner who wants to develop, that is. Roads to developers are like campaign contributions to politicians. They can't live without each other. Take Deseret Ranch. The authority is studying at least one expressway through its 300,000 acres. It has hired Wayne Rich, not only a former expressway-authority chairman but a member of Broad and Cassel, the law firm that handled land acquisitions for the authority until July. So is the authority giving Deseret favorable treatment because of Wayne Rich? After all, Deseret can just forget about development if it can't get a road. Not at all, says Lennon Moore, the expressway honcho hired to head these studies. She's talking with lots of developers, including Avatar, which wants to develop thousands of acres in Osceola and Polk counties near Poinciana. Well, that makes us feel much better: developers standing in line to make their pitch to Lennon Moore for an expressway through their rural land. Has nothing changed? So now what? Well, fortunately, it's not too late for the Wekiva Parkway: Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and his expressway authority can take the leadership. The authority can find the dollars for this road rather than spending its time plotting more roads for any and every developer who shows up at its doorstep. After all, the parkway would complete the loop for the Orlando beltway. They also can push Florida's Turnpike Authority to take over this road. A new law just gave the authority an extra $5 billion in bonding capacity. There's no better candidate for that money than the Wekiva Parkway. It's simply a matter of trust.
Published St. Pete Times Tuesday, November 4, 2008 5:26 PM
The state Department of Community Affairs recognizes the merit of Pasco County's comprehensive land-use plan and the value of providing environmental protections amid fast-growing suburbs. If only county commissioners did.
Last week, the state rebuked Pasco County for deviating from its stated intentions to set aside 2,200-foot-wide paths as wildlife corridors between larger tracts of preserved land. The corridors are part of the land plan approved previously by Pasco and the Department of Community Affairs, but the commission has yet to enact a local ordinance to specify how to enforce the wildlife protections. In other words, the comprehensive plan, on this issue, has no teeth.
The tardiness — the ordinance had been scheduled to be adopted by the end of last year — allowed a property owner in Shady Hills to argue for a less restrictive corridor. In September, without hearing from their own consultant, commissioners swallowed the argument and litigation bluster from Bell Fruit Co. and its attorney that the wider wildlife path amounted to an illegal taking of land. Commissioners acquiesced to a 1,600-foot-wide corridor, all but 100 feet of which was wetlands.
The unanimous vote came even though County Administrator John Gallagher suggested a delay and County Attorney Jeffrey Steinsnyder said it set a precedent for future landowners to also seek to water down the county's environmental rules.
Commissioners ignored their professional staff and, later, their consultant, who appeared at an October workshop to substantiate the specified corridor width. It is a distressing pattern of paying short-shrift to the environment.
The vote came six years after commission members, three of whom remain in office, accepted the consultant's findings of 2,200 feet as the corridor standard. More to the point, Commissioners Ann Hildebrand and Pat Mulieri remain on the board nine years after a lawsuit over the rezoning of what is now the Oakstead subdivision in Land O'Lakes — the settlement for which called for establishing better wildlife protections. Commissioners were remiss then and remain so today.
The DCA acted appropriately after the Gulf Coast Conservancy objected to the Bell Fruit Co. vote. The county has two options. It can adopt the 2,200-foot-wide corridor, or commission yet another study to justify the narrower path since DCA correctly noted the September vote came without adequate scientific evidence to validate the decision.
Don't bother spending more money to rationalize a hasty and erroneous decision. Commissioners need to affirm their stated commitment to Pasco County's environment and would be wise to expedite consideration of the ordinances intended to complement the expensive rewrite of the land plan.
September 23, 2007
Wonder why so few people trust government? Here's why: Who could blame folks in Indian River County eight years ago for wanting to preserve forever more than 1,200 acres just west of Interstate 95? After all, the imperiled scrub jays and snail kites call it their home. Even better, the land is a key part of a 10-mile ridge along the interstate, not only for the wildlife that can get from one side to the other through underpasses but to cleanse the Indian River Lagoon's increasingly fouled water. Wow. Florida is finally serious about preserving land -- even land that can be turned into the next megasubdivision. No wonder the St. Johns River Water Management District said it wanted in as well. It told Indian River commissioners not to worry. Trust us. It would buy the land with state preservation dollars that give ironclad guarantees that this land would never be developed -- not a small promise because it could easily be annexed into the development-hungry city of Fellsmere next door. Or at least Indian River commissioners thought it was a promise. Sept. 11, 2007: In a 7-2 vote, the St. Johns bosses decide they, well, don't want to keep the land after all. Instead they want to swap it with a nearby landowner's 460 acres -- and throw in $657,000 to boot -- in exchange for the owner's not suing. They say they may have wrongly flooded his land. Huh? What about the promise they made to Indian River just eight years ago? And doesn't "preserve" actually mean preserve when it comes to state dollars? Apparently not for district honchos Kirby Green and Robert Christianson, who led this assault. As for Indian River commissioners, they ask why their county and its 130,000 residents should bear the brunt of the district possibly messing up. Why can't the St. Johns just fight the suit and, it if loses, spread the cost across all 18 counties in the district, as other governments do? Why, why, why? And what about the stipulation voters put into the state constitution in 1998? It says that preservation land bought with state dollars -- as this was -- will remain preserved unless there are extraordinary circumstances. Caving into a lawsuit threat is now considered extraordinary? Heaven help Florida and all its other "preserved" land. Fortunately for Indian River County, this may not be the end of the story. It will appeal this decision to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet. Will they have the gumption to restore the trust that the district squandered? We'll see. Voters in Volusia County must have felt good in 1986 when they voted to give themselves extra protections from the traffic jams, polluted waterways and other effects of mismanaged growth. They created something called the Volusia Growth Management Commission. Sounded good. The panel could actually stop a development approved by one jurisdiction that harms another. No other county in Florida has such extraordinary protection from the awful decisions of its elected officials. In fact, if this commission denies a development, it doesn't even help to hire lobbyists to pressure state officials. That's because the developer can't appeal the denial to the state, where campaign dollars can rule. The courts -- rather than the Florida Cabinet -- become the only recourse. How comforting to have that level of protection in Volusia County. Or so they thought. Turns out, the commission hasn't stopped much of anything. Oh, in 2005, it did. It stood up to Deltona and rejected plans to develop the historic Thornby property on the St. Johns River. Well, we can't have that now, can we? There must be a way to stop this commission from having the power it was granted by voters. So in the very next election, the county's charter-review board asked voters to make the commission "advisory" only. Oh, well. The voters caught on to the con, though. They said no. So armed with renewed backing from the voters, the panel would now take tough stands, right? Wrong. Read on. June 12, 2007: The growth commission is confronted with a no-brainer: denying a megadevelopment and marina in an area where the state bans marinas. But turns out the "growth management" commission actually likes the idea. Approved, approved, approved on a 9-5 vote. So instead of stopping this threat to the manatees and the St. Johns River in its tracks, it keeps it alive. What a creative idea the Legislature had in 2001 to try to preserve huge swaths of farmland, quickly being gobbled up by one subdivision after another. It approved something called the Rural Land Stewardship Program. Farmers would keep farming but be allowed to sell part of their land for development. Meanwhile, thousands of acres would be conserved, never to be developed or farmed. Sounds great, doesn't it? That is, until the developers suddenly realized this is a great new vehicle to turn cheap land into Florida dollars. But there was just one problem. The law says this couldn't be done on less than 50,000 acres -- too much for a lot of developers. You can guess what happened next. The Legislature three years later reduces the acreage to 10,000, opening vast swaths of land in the middle of nowhere to the next round of traffic jams. Developers now would have many more chances to talk farmers into splitting off some of their land for a subdivision. But it didn't stop there. It then jettisoned the tougher regional and state planners off to the sidelines so developers can play Let's Make a Deal with their pals -- the local commissioners. Ah, the Florida of yesteryear, where making a quick buck off cheap land always landed first on the agenda while the rest of us played the role of the hapless sucker. Welcome to the New Florida. The buddy-buddy is back, only this time with a new name. Are these examples all aberrations? Unfortunately, no. They are happening all over the state as land becomes scarce. It's something we'll tell you about during the next four days: the cons and the people benefiting from them. In fact, remember that commission that for sure would protect the Wekiva River basin? It too may have been a con. MONDAY: Paradise for sale: the DeBary debacle
A deadly bacteria that is killing imported, high-maintenance palms decorating Florida landscapes now threatens the ubiquitous sabal palm, emblazoned on the state seal.
The infection is spread by an unknown insect, leaving few weapons to fight the problem besides cutting down infected trees.
Sabal palms, also called cabbage palm and palmetto, are an integral part of Florida's natural environment, so adapted to this region's climate that they rarely need fertilizer or water. Ecologists promote their use as a more environmentally friendly landscaping alternative to palms introduced to Florida from other areas.
But the fatal disease, called Texas Phoenix Palm Decline, threatens to tarnish the sabal palm's worry-free reputation.
So far, the disease has devastated sabal palms only in Manatee County. State horticulturists, though, say it is just a matter of time before the disease hits sabal palms elsewhere.
To help people recognize infected trees and reduce the disease's spread, experts are holding several workshops in central and Southwest Florida, including sessions next week in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Texas Phoenix Palm Decline is a plant bacteria -- or phytoplasma -- similar to the lethal yellowing disease that decimated South Florida's coconut palms in the 1970s and 1980s. It spreads among palms by an unidentified sap-sucking insect, much like malaria spreads in humans.
"We're really looking for a needle in a haystack, because we have to collect a lot of insects and we're looking for the insect that has the phytoplasma within its little body," said Monica Elliott, professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida's research and education center in Fort Lauderdale.
Date palms, scientifically called Phoenix dactylifera, first came down with palm decline in Texas several years ago, inspiring the disease's name.
In early 2006, scientists identified the disease in a date palm in rural Ruskin. Since then it has spread to other date palms from Hillsborough to Sarasota counties.
This spring, the disease for the first time cropped up in sabal palms, once thought to be resistant. The disease has devastated thousands of sabal palms in Manatee, especially in Palmetto and Parrish.
The die-off alarms plant experts.
"We're seeing the destruction of a native species that is so important for our native ecosystem and we're just anxiously waiting to see where it will spread," said Peggy Dessaint, extension agent for commercial horticulture with the University of Florida and Manatee County.
The only way to kill the disease is to cut down the tree. An infected tree can be kept alive, but only through regular antibiotic treatments, which cost about $15, every four months.
Wayne Grubbs, arborist with Golden Palm Landscaping and Tree Nutrition Inc., said that leaving an infected tree alone incubates the disease, contributing to its spread.
He said he is concerned people will let disease kill their sabal palms because they are inexpensive to replace.
"From Hillsborough south in the whole state, everybody should be aware of it and learn how to identify it when they see it," Grubbs said. "The more that are treated, the more it will reduce the spread."
That is the point of the workshops, Dessaint said. She said extension agents want people to identify suspect trees and have them tested.
Elliott said the disease could affect sabal palms in Sarasota County because of the presence of infected Phoenix date palms.
Even if it does spread to more sabal palms, the state tree will remain a part of the landscape, Elliott said.
"It threatens, but it's not going to wipe out the sabal palms," Elliot said. Genetic diversity among sabal palms will result in enough resistant trees to prevent the decimation of the species, she said.
Advocates for native landscaping worry the disease will make drought-tolerant sabal palms less attractive to plant, said Don Rainey, Sarasota County's commercial horticulture extension agent with the University of Florida.
"We always relied on our natives to be the most resilient selection when you're looking at your Florida landscaping," Rainey said.
By Katharine Mieszkowski
Nov. 08, 2008 |
Somewhere up north, a polar bear, on a melting ice floe, is wiping its sweaty brow, thinking, "Fewer than 80 days before these oil freaks are out of office." It hardly bears repeating that George W. Bush's record on the environment makes his own father look like Teddy Roosevelt by comparison. By taking environmental policymaking away from scientists, and turning it over to industry cronies, Bush has made a mockery of the nation's environmental laws and values.
Bush's myriad environmental sins could have him serving penance for years. But we decided to highlight seven of his most deadly. We also invited leading environmentalists to outline Barack Obama's mission for cleaning up the nation's land, water and air.
Bush Sin 1: Blew hot air on global warming By refusing to agree to mandatory greenhouse gas emission reductions, the Bush administration gave major developing nations, such as China and India, carte blanche to do the same. After all, why should these growing economies do anything about global warming when the one of the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluters and richest nations couldn't be bothered?
"The most shameful thing we've done of all is to walk away from the international debate on climate, which has crippled the debate and caused everyone else in the world to think that we're hypocritical and deluded," says Bill McKibben, author and climate activist. "The Chinese have all the coal they need to destroy the atmosphere by themselves to get rich, and we have no moral objection as to why they shouldn't just go ahead and burn it, because that's precisely what we did."
They don't call it global warming for nothing. The result: eight precious years wasted in the fight against global warming as we watched carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere shoot up, while scientists' predictions about the speed and severity of global warming became increasingly dire.
Obama mission Signal that the United States will change its shameful record on global warming -- even before taking office. Attend the international climate talks in Poznan, Poland, this December, and electrify the rest of the world with a promise that the U.S. is serious about reducing greenhouse gases. That could set the stage for the major climate negotiations to come in Copenhagen, Demark, in December 2009, when a climate treaty to succeed Kyoto needs to be hammered out.
Bush Sin 2: Failed to regulate greenhouse gases at home Bush's vows to veto legislation that would limit greenhouse gases have consistently undermined Congress' feeble attempts to do anything serious about global warming, such as capping emissions.
Bush's Environmental Protection Agency refused to regulate the greenhouse gas CO2 as a pollutant, even after the Supreme Court ruled that CO2 is a pollutant and the EPA can regulate it. So while California has passed a law regulating tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, the state still needs a waiver under the EPA to put those regulations in place. It hasn't gotten it.
Obama mission Uphold his campaign promise to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. How? One key component: a cap-and-trade policy that auctions pollution credits to polluters, with the proceeds going to fund clean-energy programs and habitat protections.
"People are going to try to use the financial situation to argue against these policies," says Chris Mooney, author of the "The Republican War on Science." "I'm really afraid that the financial crisis is going to be used as a club to intimidate people who want to pass a cap-and-trade bill, because they're going to argue that it's going to hurt the economy."
Obama must make clear to Congress that cap and trade is important to him. To underscore his commitment, he should make high-profile scientific appointments to his administration, and unleash the government scientists who have been muzzled under the Bush administration.
Daniel Kammen, professor and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, asserts that Obama should develop a national task force for the implementation of a cap-and-trade framework. With three regional greenhouse gas markets already emerging -- New England/Atlantic, the Upper Midwest and the West -- the task force could help determine if we need a single national market or the expansion of those three markets.
Obama should order the EPA to issue a waiver to California to allow its regulation of C02 at the tailpipe to go into effect. Many other states are then likely to adopt the California regulation.
Bush Sin 3: Failed to develop clean energy sources Remember when Bush promoted the idea that we'd all be driving around in hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered cars by 2020? Fat chance.
Bush has paid lip service to futuristic fuels like hydrogen and cellulosic ethanol, and to renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and geothermal, but his administration has failed to push those products to market. Meanwhile, he's lent regulatory support to old-school polluting industries, such as coal and oil and gas. With no federal mandate to reduce greenhouse gases, the country has largely been content to burn up the atmosphere with those dirtier, cheaper sources of energy.
Obama mission Get 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015 and ensure that 25 percent of our energy comes from renewable sources by 2025. Weatherize 1 million low-income homes annually for the next decade. Create 5 million new clean-energy jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next five years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean-energy future. Just as he promised during the campaign.
Federal energy-efficiency programs would create green jobs and save American businesses and taxpayers money in the long run. Van Jones, author of "The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems," says Obama should create a loan fund to help cities and states finance the weatherizing and solarizing of millions of buildings across the country. Customers could pay the money back through the energy they saved on their bills.
Such a program could reduce our greenhouse gas pollution, while putting the country's idle construction workers to work and stimulating the economy. "These aren't Space Age George Jetson jobs. These are hard-hat, lunch pail and work boot jobs," says Jones. It's an immediate green solution for a down economy. "Any green solution that has a tendency to raise prices right now will be very tough politically. You want one that actually lowers prices."
The program could also inspire the public. Offers Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com and author of "Strategies for a Green Economy": "There's a desire by Americans to come together for some greater cause that's not simply protecting us from the terrorists, and something that's much more empowering and proactive and exciting."
Bush Sin 4: Abandoned endangered species Not once during the Bush administration has the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service voluntarily sought to list a species as endangered or threatened, offering it more protections. All the high-profile listings, such as polar bears, have come about after the government has been sued or petitioned by environmental groups and citizens.
"They've destroyed the capacity of government biologists to do their jobs," says Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "There has been a huge assault. They've monkeyed with the science, forced many scientists out, starved budgets, prevented research findings from being shared, and prevented scientists from commenting to the media."
The administration also tried to force through regulations that would allow government agencies to build roads or start new mining projects without consulting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about whether it would harm endangered species, a process known as "self-consultation."
Obama mission Recognize that "self-consultation" is a conflict-of-interest oxymoron. And do as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists say. Currently, the service has 252 species, from the Pacific sheath-tailed bat to the Arizona tree frog, that are candidates for listing as threatened or endangered. "It's not like you have to go in and do a bunch of research. You could come in very quickly on Day One and say: 'We'll make a commitment to list every single one of those species in 24 months," says Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.
Bush Sin 5: Carved up the American West for oil and gas excavation It's been "Drill, baby, drill," all right. A whopping 35,000 drilling permits have been issued for onshore federal lands during the past seven years. More than 80 percent of those were for natural gas production.
Since Bush took office, an area slightly larger than the state of Kentucky has been leased for oil and gas drilling on public lands in the United States; almost 27 million acres have been designated to be plundered for their hydrocarbons. Yet many of those acres, and ones still under lease from the Clinton administration, aren't being developed.
"Why are we leasing additional acreage in the West, when there are tens of millions of acres under lease which aren't being developed?" says David Alberswerth, a former Clinton administration official who worked on oil and gas leases for the Department of the Interior, and is now with the Wilderness Society.
Obama mission Curtail the number of leases sold. Protect wildlife, air and water around existing projects. Restrict drilling on crucial wintering range for elk. Close a bizarre loophole that allows oil companies to be exempt from some clean-water regulations.
Make good on the "use it or lose it" approach to oil and gas leases. Require oil companies to develop the 68 million acres of land -- over 40 million of which are offshore -- that they have already leased and are not drilling on. Don't open up more federal land to drilling when the companies aren't making full use of the lands already available to them.
Bush Sin 6: Not seeing the forest or the trees The Bush administration never met a tree that wouldn't look better as a 2x4 in Home Depot, or a wilderness area that wouldn't look better with a road running through it. In the name of fire protection, the Bush administration implemented Orwellian "Healthy Forests" policies, dedicated to "thinning," also known as logging, national forests. "That was their effort to blame environmental laws and regulations for the big fires that happened back in the early part of the decade," explains Mike Anderson, senior resource analyst for the Wilderness Society.
One of the administration's first policy actions was to try to rescind the Clinton administration's eleventh-hour "roadless rule," which protects 58.5 million acres, about a third of the national forests. The Bushies have been fighting it ever since, both in the courts, and with their own regulations.
However, the legal and regulatory morass has kept the administration busy, and prevented many acres from being marred with roads or logged. As of January 2008, nationwide, there have been only seven miles of new roads, and about 500 acres of logging, that would violate the roadless rule since January 2001, according to Anderson.
Obama mission Stand by the Clinton roadless rule and "keep over 58 million acres of national forests pristine," as Obama promised. Drop the opposition in court cases to the rule. While working to ensure protection of those lands permanently, prevent logging in them now by drafting a conservationist policy statement to federal land managers, instructing the Forest Service to not allow logging in, say, the hotly contested Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
Bush Sin 7: Choked our clean-air standards In the name of industry, the Bush administration has spent the past eight years trying to weaken clean-air standards, including attempting to water down "new source review" regulations on coal-fired power plants. "They've tried to do this in a dozen different ways, and the courts have fought them down, time and time again," says Pope of the Sierra Club.
And they're still at it. Even now, the administration has proposed two rules that would weaken clean-air standards by allowing power plants to increase emissions without adding pollution controls, and by permitting more pollution near national parks, which it's racing to finalize before Jan. 20, 2009.
Obama mission Uphold the Clean Air Act and reverse the Bush administration's ongoing attempts to chip away at clean-air standards. And regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, as the Supreme Court has allowed.
-- By Katharine Mieszkowski
The administration is widely expected to try to get some of the rules into final form by the week before Thanksgiving because, in some cases, there's a 60-day delay before new regulations take effect. And once the rules are in place, undoing them generally would be a more time-consuming job for the next Congress and administration.
The regulations already have had periods of public comment, and no further comments are being taken. Final approval is considered likely.
It's common for administrations to issue a spate of regulations just before leaving office. The administration's changes are in keeping with Bush's overall support of deregulation.
Here are some changes likely to go into effect before the inauguration:
• Higher prices for uranium, driven by expanded interest in nuclear power, have resulted in thousands of mining claims being filed on land within three miles of the Grand Canyon.
The House of Representatives and Senate natural resources committees have the authority to order emergency withdrawals of federal land from future mining claims for three years. The House committee issued such a withdrawal order in June for about one million acres near the Grand Canyon. Now the Department of Interior has proposed scrapping department rules that puts such orders from the congressional committees into practice.
Environmental groups say the government must consider the possible danger of uranium leaching into the Colorado River, a source of drinking water for Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano urged Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to halt new claims and order a study of uranium mining near the canyon.
• Another proposed rule change from the Department of Interior would change rules on dumping the earth removed for mining into nearby streams.
The current rule, dating from the Reagan administration, says that no surface mining may occur within 100 feet of a stream unless there'd be no harm to water quality or quantity. The rule change essentially would allow the government to grant waivers so that mining companies can dump the rubble from mountaintops into valleys, burying streams.
The new rule would let companies explain why they can't avoid dumping into streams and how they intend to minimize harm. A September report on the proposal by the department's Office of Surface Mining said that environmental concerns would be taken into account ``to the extent possible, using the best technology currently available.''
• Two rule changes would apply to electric power plants and other stationary sources of air pollution.
The first mainly concerns older power plants. Under the Clean Air Act, plants that are updated must install pollution-control technology if they'll produce more emissions. The rule change would allow plants to measure emissions on an hourly basis, rather than their total yearly output. This way, plants could run for more hours and increase overall emissions without exceeding the threshold that would require additional pollution controls.
The other change would make it easier for companies to build polluting facilities near national parks and wilderness areas. It also would change the way that companies must measure the impact of their pollution.
• The Endangered Species Act prohibits any federal actions that would jeopardize the existence of a listed species or ''adversely modify'' critical habitats. The 1973 law has helped save species such as the bald eagle from extinction.
Bush administration officials have argued that the act can't be used to protect animals and habitats from climate change by regulating specific sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
A proposed rule change would allow federal agencies to decide whether projects harm wildlife protected under the act.
By Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer Published Friday, November 7, 2008 4:33 PM
It would ease traffic congestion on one of Pinellas County's busiest corridors and shorten the commute from Dunedin to St. Petersburg.
Political heavyweights across the state support it, from the governor to the mayor of St. Petersburg to the head of the state Department of Transportation.
Yet a proposed highway extension connecting Interstate 275 and U.S. 19 has been stalled for eight years.
The holdup? The price tag.
The 2-mile highway extension would cost $187-million. That's on top of the $499-million state officials have set aside for ongoing U.S. 19 improvements.
But local leaders are pushing harder than ever to get the project funded as the DOT holds meetings this month to decide how to dole out local transportation dollars.
"There is a real sense of urgency," said County Commissioner Karen Seel. "We want to make sure ... that we get this project under way so that it all comes together.''
Pinellas County is ready to chip in $70-million in local money, and about $21-million in state and federal dollars have been earmarked for the project. But without $96-million in state money, the road could remain just a dream.
The 118th Avenue connector would create an uninterrupted flow of traffic from the Sunshine Skyway to State Road 580 in the Dunedin-Safety Harbor area. The east-west connector parallel to Ulmerton would link U.S. 19 to 43rd Street N and connect to a limited-access highway already planned along 118th Avenue to I-275.
"This is the most significant project our county has done in 50 years," said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker. "It will help bring the whole county together, not just physically, but it will bring the county together as a community. It will change the way people look at things."
At least half of the projected $187-million cost would go toward purchasing land along 118th Avenue. Officials estimate they might be able to knock $10-million off the final price depending on the design they settle on.
Without a highway linking north and south Pinellas County, the area has long been geographically divided. That division has strained the few corridors that do link the county, officials say.
"There has always been the understanding that Ulmerton Road and Park Boulevard can't provide all the capacity needed," said Sarah Ward, a transportation planning administrator with the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Baker first pitched the highway extension as chairman of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce in 2000. He found an ally in Seel, a longtime transportation advocate.
Other local leaders eventually jumped on board. The MPO promoted the project from its 22nd priority to its second in 2005.
Gov. Charlie Crist, a St. Petersburg native, signed off on the project last year after meeting with Baker.
"When the governor is supporting this, it should help," Baker said.
But DOT officials say they don't know whether they will be able to fund the project this year. The DOT will host two revenue conferences this month and two public hearings on future projects in December.
"We have to look at what funding we have and decide how much we can fund that project," said Marian Scorza, a DOT spokeswoman in Tampa.
If the U.S. 19 connector gets the green light, the road could open as early as 2014. If the project is stalled another year, officials worry that rising costs will make funding it more difficult.
"This is the missing link that local officials have been hoping for and waiting for for a long time," said R.B. Johnson, chairman of the Pinellas County Transit Authority board and mayor of Indian Rocks Beach. "The longer you wait, the more expensive things are. The price tag always goes up. It never goes down in these projects."
Cristina Silva can be reached at (727) 893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com.
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST - Delma Brooks stands behind the counter of Brooks Buck and Doe's grocery from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
"It's a handful," said Brooks, who addresses his customers by their first names or with a crisp "sir" or "ma'am."
"You ought to buy a convenience store," he said. "You get to work all the time."
Brooks doesn't like to work but, if truth be known, there probably is nothing he would rather be doing than running this business with his family.
Brooks leased the store at the intersection of County Road 42 and Southeast 182nd Avenue Road in the Ocala National Forest in August 1976 from James Farley Hunt, known as Buck Hunt, and bought it in 1997.
"It really hasn't changed," Brooks said, except for one thing. "The prices went up. Everything has went up."
Buck and Doe's is a cross between an old general store and a modern convenience store.
Shelves are filled with everything from PVC pipe to light bulbs, and coolers with everything from frozen dinners to the latest popular drinks.
It is a true country store that lacks the shine of its in-town cousins. A sign on the old gas pump outside the front door offers a wry warning to customers: "If you pump over, please come in and pay. Or go to jail."
Many of Brooks' patrons are local folk who come in daily for a little of this and that.
"On the weekends you have people from everywhere that comes up and uses campgrounds in the Ocala National Forest, hunting and fishing and all kinds of stuff," Brooks said. "I have never had un-nice customers."
Census records show that as early as 1915 — just seven years after President Theodore Roosevelt signed the proclamation creating the Ocala National Forest — there were people living here. Today, there are 11,851 residential buildings east of the Ocklawaha River, 6,600 of them mobile homes, according to the Marion County Property Appraiser's office.
Add to that the roughly 2 million visitors who come to the Forest each year to enjoy its beauty and recreational opportunities, and you start to understand why people like Brooks stay open.
No one knows for sure how many businesses are in the Forest area, but the Forest Advisory Council's 20-page business directory lists about 280 establishments.
The businesses are important to a community whose residents live as far as 25 miles from a town. Each is a small oasis that offers life's necessities and a place to connect with neighbors.
"We have a lot of cottage industries that are not even listed," said Diana Harris, co-chairman of the Forest Advisory Council. "I imagine that there are 30 or 40 I know of that are businesses out of people's homes."
One home business rents ponies for parties, another repairs computers. Harris, herself, paints signs. Most of these businesses are advertised by word-of-mouth.
"We want to keep everything out here as much as we can," Harris said. "We can pretty well survive on everything out here."
Sun Realty and Associates off State Road 40 and County Road 314A at Forest Corners is one of the longtime established businesses.
Now enjoying his 35th year in business, owner Keith Craig prides himself on doing business "the way it should be done."
"That's why people come back. That's why we are successful. In a little community like this, you would not make it if it was any other way."
Craig likes the quiet, the wildlife, the light traffic and the community camaraderie.
And he is eager to defend his rustic community from stereotypes and misconceptions.
He noted, for instance, that the Forest is economically and culturally diverse. There are million-dollar lake homes and modest mobile homes and everything in between.
"The facts about rednecks — this is no different from anywhere else," Craig said. "These people out here are as sane or civil as anyone."
Craig's office is across the street from the shopping center with its landmark Winn-Dixie, one of the few corporate-owned businesses anywhere in the Forest.
Across State Road 40 from the Winn-Dixie is another Forest institution, Big Pines Hardware and Supply. Nan and Ron Morrison bought the 40-year-old business about 10˝ years ago.
"She made me," Ron said about his wife. "We were looking to get out of South Florida and wanted to get into a smaller rural community."
Like others, the Morrisons' business has been affected by the slowed economy and the county's 8.5 percent unemployment rate.
"We see more people raising their own animals for food," Nan said. "We have had a number of people that have not had livestock before. They are getting chickens, growing their own vegetables."
Big Pines sells everything from propane and mobile home-related products to lawn and garden products and plumbing and electrical parts. They also offer hurricane supplies.
Nan said they save hurricane supplies for their local customers. "We are neighbors and we have to take care of each other," she said.
The Morrisons also offer some reassurances as storms approach.
"We hold their hands and tell them everything is going to be OK," Ron said. "The hardware store is really an integral part of the community out here."
The contract post office located inside Big Pines Hardware acts as a gathering spot for many local residents.
The Morrisons say they try to stay as competitive as they can and sometimes are cheaper than the big box stores.
"The community is poor," Ron said. "You have to help the community."
Like many Forest businesses, the Morrisons try to help support local charities with fundraisers.
"Everybody has to work together," Ron said.
Charlie Melton, who owns Wigglers Bait and Tackle in Lynne, knows about giving back to the community. He has raffles to benefit the Help Agency of the Forest, which provides food for the needy.
"If anybody needs anything, they come to me first because I know who they can go to get whatever they need," Melton said.
He first came to Marion County from Clearwater as one of the Rainbow People, an unorganized group of wandering hippies. He lived in a tent in the Forest for two years before becoming an entrepreneur.
Ten years ago, Melton opened a produce stand at Forest Corners off State Road 40, a business he ran for four years. He then opened a small bait shop and, two years ago, moved into his current shop in Lynne.
He and his wife, Ann Reynolds, run customer appreciation fish fries on Labor Day and July Fourth. And they have been involved in Forest cleanups.
"On Thanksgiving, we have big dinners here for less fortunate people," Melton said.
Like most businesses in the Forest, they struggle to get by during the summer, he said.
They sell fishing gear and a lot of crickets and minnows. They also weigh in and tag fish for the state of Florida.
"We have one customer who has an armadillo, and we sell her night crawlers to feed her," Reynolds said.
Melton and Reynolds enjoy their business.
"It's a friendly atmosphere," Reynolds said. "It's like going in an ice cream shop. Everybody's happy there. Everybody's happy here because they are going fishing."
She said they try to make people feel at home.
"It's a lot of work and a lot of long hours, but it's worth it," Reynolds said.
Another business in Lynne that makes people happy is Lena's Restaurant, a seafood restaurant that is hard to miss because of the large whale outside the small shop.
"My niece drew that whale when she was a young kid," said Karen Young, who runs the restaurant with her two sisters, Kathy Bagley and Charlotte Moffett.
Lena's was started by their late grandmother, who they affectionately refer to as "Grammie Lena."
Their brother works at the original Lena's that opened 50 years ago in Salisbury Beach, Mass.
The Lynne shop, which was built by their father, opened in 1986. The nautical decor and greying barn board create a faux seaside ambiance in the Forest.
Family friend Julie Hickman works with Kathy in the kitchen frying up whole-belly clams and fries, other fish specialties and hamburgers.
"You would be amazed how many people actually live out here," Karen said. "In the winter time it's packed."
Mary-Lou and Craig Cotton are repeat customers who travel from Ocala Palms west of Ocala off U.S. 27.
"It's worth the trip," Mary-Lou said looking down at her overflowing plate. "It's the only place we can get real New England seafood."
Karen, who works as a waitress, said customers travel from as far away as Fort Myers, The Villages and Salt Springs.
"They love the quality of the food," she said. "They are always saying the restaurant is nice and clean and friendly. I guess they like the way we talk."
Kathy said business has been steadily increasing but, like other Forest businesses, they are feeling the economy's pinch.
So is Phil Anderson, who owns Cactus Jack's, a Salt Springs bar that has become another Forest fixture. But Anderson is feeling a much greater loss. His father, Albert Jackson Anderson — Cactus Jack to his customers — died in February.
"He was one of a kind," Anderson said. "He was such an icon."
Many likened Cactus Jack to John Wayne, whom the elder Anderson admired.
The pictures of John Wayne hanging behind the bar, hundreds of signed dollar bills tacked on the walls and ceiling, a lighted cactus on the bar and the requisite two pool tables all describe a place that is comfortable and familiar to its patrons.
The stuffed heads of a gator, a boar and a deer and a very plump fish mark this as a country bar, as do the NASCAR auto racing memorabilia, Budweiser beer signs and a saddle perched near the stage where bands rock the patrons.
Like many Forest businesses, Cactus Jack's is open seven days a week. Most of the action is on the weekends, when tourists stop in for the music and libations.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Anderson serves up his famous chicken and rice, a well-used recipe cooked up in an old caldron. No one is turned away.
"It's not a wealthy community," Anderson said. "Anybody that's down on their luck, we help them the best we can. We are an old-time type family. My dad did it, and I continue to do it."
Sit in Cactus Jack's for a half-hour and one begins to feel a warm sense of belonging. Maybe it's the decor, the dark wood, the sparkling glasses behind the bar, the subdued lighting. Or maybe it's Anderson and his warm staff, Suzanne Robbins deftly serving up the drinks and Diane Jornov, who has been managing the bar since long before Cactus Jack bought it. Or maybe it's the echo of Forest legends that have become as smooth and polished from use as the bar itself, the stories of the Forest's rough and tumble past, no doubt embellished over the years.
"It's a lot of history right here," Anderson said.
Contact Susan Latham Carr at 867-4156 or susan.carr@starbanner.com.
Board members greeted the news, based on a state survey of district classroom space, with chagrin. Several of the schools on the list, including a long-planned West Broward high school, have been on parents' wish lists for years.
''Our community really wants them. Some people have been waiting long,'' board member Phyllis Hope said. Her district includes Cypress Bay High, which is 500 students over capacity. One of the proposed schools now in jeopardy had been planned to alleviate crowding there.
The state requires a survey of classroom space every five years to see whether school districts can justify new construction or if existing space is sufficient and students at crowded schools could be shifted to others that have room to spare.
''It seems incredibly unfair to have another agency tell us how to spend our money,'' board member Stephanie Kraft said.
The most hoped-for project has been planned High School MMM, intended to relieve Cypress Bay in Weston. When the district had trouble finding land at a reasonable price, Superintendent Jim Notter put the project on hold, aware that without a contract the state would not approve it.
Weston Mayor Eric Hersh said he wasn't surprised by the state's finding, but he hopes the district will find alternate ways to ease crowding in the middle and high schools in his city.
''We'll continue to work with them in any way we can. Perhaps they can be creative and bring back the idea of a ninth-grade annex,'' Hersh said.
Cypress Bay used to have an annex that was on the site of a planned middle school -- also now in jeopardy.
The projects that could end up on permanent hold or delayed for years are spread across the county and include elementary, middle and high schools and expansions.
The only way the district can still build some of its wish-list projects is if the state takes a closer look at specific parts of the county and agrees that a school or extra classrooms are really necessary. For example, if the district can show that busing students to other schools would cost significantly more than expanding an existing school, the state might give it a reprieve on a particular project.
Board chairwoman Robin Bartleman pointed out that if the district isn't granted some exceptions, it could end up spending money from funds devoted to day-to-day operations -- money that can be spent on books, materials and teacher salaries.
Money designated for construction can't be spent on anything else.
But Tom Getz, the district's director of capital planning, said it will still be very difficult for Broward to prove it needs more space. According to state calculations, the district will have 218,906 students five years from now -- but space for nearly 257,000 students.
Although the Broward school district expects it will have far more kids than the state estimate -- close to 250,000 -- it would still be under capacity.
''We don't have the numbers,'' Getz said.
Complicating matters, under state law, the district must continue to reduce student-to-teacher ratios -- which typically requires more classrooms -- and it has agreements with every city to not allow schools to become crowded.
There is a possible silver lining.
If the district is not allowed to build anything new, it could devote its construction budget to new roofs and other renovations as well as new computers and other technology.
''This might give us that breathing room to get caught up with the roofs and get caught up with some of the other stuff,'' School Board member Bob Parks said. But in the meantime, ``we have to make some real tough decisions.''
A financial counselor just told me his advice to clients focuses on such mundane things as reducing expenses, mostly the old-fashioned way.
Things like doing without some stuff and breaking the habit of acting like a credit card is money.
The counselor seemed like a nice guy, and said he tends to the Republican side. But beware: He could be a dangerous radical.
Or so I gather from some of the economic news stories that often make both of us scratch our heads.
One such story warned that retailers expect a grim Christmas because shoppers are afraid to shop. Another agreed and explained that many people are in deep credit card debt and owe on student loans and such. That story quoted an analyst.
"We may be entering a period of manic-depression for consumers," she said, "with mood swings dictated by the latest good or bad news" on the economic front.
But I have to ask: Isn't it possible that many "consumers" -- sometimes known as "people" -- now realize, quite sanely, that it is unsafe and stupid to keep spending far more money than they have for stuff they don't need?
That's what most Christmas shopping is about. Lots of other buying is, too. But retailers have long relied on that, and our economy became so addicted to it that any slackening of that insane spending has long been seen as a symptom of financial illness.
But is it crazy to suggest this bad news might reflect a healthy reaction as our nation grapples with very real economic problems associated with too much debt? Would it really be more comforting to read that consumers were still spending like mad, racking up more debt on top of that still not paid off from so many shopping sprees past?
I don't want retailers to go broke, or stop advertising in newspapers, either. But to get to good economic news, don't we need to curb the addiction to overspending so our future won't be built on debts we can't pay?
The retail industry is huge because we stuffed it with money that was never ours. Doesn't it need to downsize so more people can do something more productive than sell stuff to people who never could afford it?
As I said, this idea is probably dangerous. What we now need, many experts tell us, is more credit, which allows more buying, which creates jobs and profit, which encourages banks to lend more, which leads to more lending and spending, and so on and on and on.
But the experts have been wrong about a few things of late, so I wonder.
Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.
DETROIT - At Ford Motor Co. they called it "Blue," a team set up around the year 2000 to design an array of small, fuel-efficient cars to compete with the Japanese.
It didn't get far because no one could figure out how to make money on low-priced compacts with Ford's high labor costs. Besides, the automaker was racking up billions in profits by selling pickups and sport utility vehicles. Times were good and gas was cheap.
"Blue" is only a small blip in automotive history, but it tells a big part of the story about why Detroit automakers are in a mess so critical they could be only months away from bankruptcy.
Democratic leaders in Congress asked the Bush administration on Saturday to provide more aid to the struggling auto industry, which is bleeding cash and jobs as sales have dropped to their lowest level in a quarter-century.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the administration should consider expanding the $700 billion bailout to include car companies.
Critics say leaders over the years at Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and what is now Chrysler LLC were slow to take on unions, failed to invest enough in new products, ceded the car market to the Japanese and were ill-prepared for the inevitable rise in gas prices that would make their trucks and SUVs obsolete.
"There's been 30 years of denial," said Noel Tichy, a University of Michigan business professor and author who ran General Electric Co.'s leadership program from 1985-87 and once worked as a consultant for Ford. "They did not make themselves competitive. They didn't deal with the union issues, the cost structures long ago, everything that makes a successful company."
Industry representatives, however, say their critics are simplistic, giving them no credit for huge progress this decade in cutting costs, raising productivity, and building competitive cars while handling multiple government regulations and a powerful labor union.
"In the last five years, there's been more restructuring done in the automotive business than any other business in the history of the United States," said Tony Cervone, a GM vice president of communications.
Whatever the reasons, the Detroit Three are closer to collapse than ever, and likely won't make it without billions in government loans.
On Friday, GM posted a $2.5 billion third-quarter loss and ominously said it could run out of money before the end of the year. The company spent $6.9 billion more than it took in for the quarter and reported that it had $16.2 billion in cash available at the end of September.
Ford reported a $129 million loss but said it burned up $7.7 billion in cash for the period. It had $18.9 billion on hand as of Sept. 30. Its chief financial officer says he's confident Ford will make it through 2009, but that's because the company took out a huge loan last year.
Industry analysts believe Chrysler, now a private company that does not have to open its books, is as bad off as GM as U.S. sales continue to plummet because of tight credit and lack of consumer confidence due to the economy.
To survive, automakers are pressing Washington for $50 billion in low-interest loans on top of $25 billion already approved to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. The $25 billion, though, is gummed up in Energy Department regulations and may not be available until next year.
The industry's path to cliff's edge is a complex one that even critics say is intertwined with government fuel economy and safety regulations and the United Auto Workers union.
The demise started in the '80s when Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. mastered building reliable and efficient cars while the Detroit Three lagged behind.
As GM, Ford and Chrysler saw their market share start to slip, the '90s arrived and high profits returned as Americans snapped up pickup trucks and SUVs.
As Honda and Toyota took over the small and mid-size car markets, Ford, GM and Chrysler put most of their resources into trucks and SUVs, which brought in billions in profits that covered growing health care, pension and labor costs.
"In a market-based economy when you have to try to be profitable, you go where the money is," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
When times were good, the automakers did not take on the UAW, which the companies say drove up their labor costs to $30 per hour more than Japanese companies paid their workers. The figure includes pension and health care costs for hundreds of thousands of retirees.
When GM pushed for changes in 1998, the union went on strike at two key Flint, Mich., parts plants, shutting down the company and costing it about $2 billion in profits.
"They were making money and the union had a monopoly," Cole said. "They'd shut them down. That's why they had some very lengthy strikes that were very painful."
But when the SUV and truck market started to fade in the mid-2000s, executives realized their business model would no longer work and began globalizing their vehicles, streamlining manufacturing processes and developing new and better cars.
The UAW, realizing that the companies were in trouble, agreed to a landmark new contract last year that nearly eliminated the labor cost difference between the Detroit Three and the Japanese, shifting retiree health care costs to a union-administered trust fund.
But just as the cost cuts started to take hold and new products were rolling out, gas prices rose rapidly to around $4 per gallon and Wall Street collapsed, virtually eliminating credit which 60 percent of car buyers need.
"A lot of things sort of coalesced simultaneously," said Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for J.D. Power and Associates.
Automakers have all said bankruptcy is not an option because people would not buy cars from a company that might not exist in a few years. But if the car companies run out of money and can't pay the bills, bankruptcy could be forced on them, according to industry analysts.
GM's statements that it may run out of cash this year or next likely will have an effect on sales, Libby said.
"It doesn't help, and they know that," he said.
The current crisis, Cervone says, is not unique to the domestics. Honda and Toyota, he says, also have seen huge sales drops in the U.S. in recent months.
Cole says there's no way at this point the Detroit automakers can survive without federal aid.
But if they get it, the ones that do survive should become profitable again next year if the credit markets thaw out.
"They'll get out of it," says Libby. "They've got to do what they've got to do. They're backed up against the wall."
Eustis seeks grant to clean up polluted sites
TAYLOR VERNARSKY
Staff Writer
EUSTIS -- The city of Eustis is in the process of completing a Brownfields Community Assessment Grant to be applied for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is due November 14, 2008.
But before they send out the application, Eustis officials and workers are interested in educating residential and commercial property owners on details of the grant.
A public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday at the Lake Eustis Area Chamber of Commerce. Participation from all sectors of the community is encouraged, said deputy city manager for economic development John Schneiger.
If obtained, the grant will make funds available to City property owners interested in conducting Phase 1 and 2 Assessments on their property. The grant will pay for 100% of this cost.
Schneiger said the Brownfields Program is a redevelopment tool and an important part of the Developer's Toolkit currently being developed by the city.
"It's can support the downtown area and the city's community redevelopment area," he said.
Acquiring the grant will also improve chances of securing cleanup funds for Eustis projects and enhance opportunities for the city to leverage additional federal redevelopment funds.
In order to be competitive for the grant, Eustis officials and employees had to document sites within city limits that are potentially contaminated by petroleum-based products or hazardous waste.
The city is requesting $400,000 -- to be based on more than a dozen city sites that qualify.
"Eventually, we need to clean up these sites," Schneiger said.
According to the EPA, brownfields are areas which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous waste. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties takes development pressures off of undeveloped land while improving and protecting the environment.
Brownfields grants are awarded annually to communities throughout the United States. The highest-ranking proposals sent in by the communities are awarded grants.
Monday's meeting follows a community outreach meeting last month concerning the grant application.
Those attending the meeting will be invited to ask questions and comment concerning the grant. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the community about it and obtain participation and feedback from concerned parties.
"Getting the community involved is important in getting these grants," Schneiger said.
For more information, call 483-5430.
It didn’t start that way: His land was once a low hill in a rugged hardwood forest — cherry, oak, hickory — skipping from ridge to ridge across one of the poorest, most rural areas of the Lower 48.
Gibson’s family has owned this wooded hilltop for 230 years: 50 acres at the end of a rough road, populated with maples, walnuts and a few small houses with tar-paper roofs and kid’s swings out in front.
It’s a peaceful place, where autumn colors a drizzly autumn morning with red and gold and green. “My mother gave me birth,” Gibson often says. “The mountains give me life.”
His grandfather discovered in the late 1940s that 426 acres — acreage now being mined — had been stolen away in 1906, after someone filed what Gibson called a fraudulent title showing three “X”s as the signatures of his illiterate forebears.
In 1986 the Princess Beverly Coal Co. dynamited the top off the first ridge of what Gibson said was once his family’s forest.
Seven years later Massey Coal offered $140,000 for his hill. He turned them down.
“There should be some things in life money can’t buy,” he said.
Gibson’s water table dropped steadily until 2001, when it disappeared altogether. Today Kayford Mountain has become the iconic face of mountaintop removal mining; Gibson regularly brings groups up to see firsthand what’s at stake.
“It amazes me how they can talk about clean coal technology and have an extraction process like this,” said Chuck Nelson, a friend and miner who spent 30 years running coal carts underground before he spoke up against mountaintop removal’s destruction and lost his job.
He’s distressed by the vast scars mountaintop mining leaves in the rugged hills. “What they’re destroying can never be fixed. What they’re creating is worthless.”
What they’re creating lies up a rutted road, just beyond a rusty, padlocked pipe blocking the path.
Gibson calls it “Hell’s Gate.”
“Over here you have life,” he said before lifting a leg to trespass. “Over there you have death.”
He walks another 100 yards and stops. The point where Gibson stands tops out at 2,400 feet above sea level. The gash below stretches horizon to horizon: Bare rock and earth, where 150-ton dump trucks look like Matchbox toys and big dozers churn the landscape.
That chasm, he says, was once the area’s high point, 3,100 feet high. Now it’s some 800 feet below him.
“The costs to reclaim this is going out to the people of America,” Gibson said.
An hour’s drive to the east, Andrew Jordon stands on the porch of a hunting shack he had built for his employees and that looks out over a scene of similar desolation.
Except instead of Hell he sees heaven.
Jordon runs a small mining company that is chewing away at 400 acres of same coal-rich terrain Gibson is trying to keep.
Jordon is the ninth generation of his family to live in that valley. The land he’s leasing is owned by the family of a friend and former high school football teammate. His general manager, Rocky Hackworth, is another high school classmate.
“I hunt in these hollows,” he said. “To me, it’s very important to do it right. Where we’re standing today is an area we took down, took the coal out, and put it back to about where it was.”
Jordon has been mining for 20 years, has 6,000 acres under lease and has mined and reclaimed 2,200. For every ton of coal he ships out of his mine, he has to move 28 tons of overburden, or rock. He figures he’s pulled 1.5 million tons of coal out so far and has another 6 million tons to go.
Every operation he’s started has run into some sort of inherited environmental contamination: a river running at a fatally acidic Ph 2 that Jordon restored to a more natural Ph 6. Or a previously botched restoration that his crew reshaped and reforested with black cherry, sugar maple, oak and white ash.
Such work tends to get dropped from press coverage of mountaintop removal, advocates note.
Confronting the same group of journalists that had crossed Hell’s Gate with Gibson, West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney had to vent a bit of steam: “You say that mining’s not protecting the resources,” he said. “It drives me nuts when y’all use that same paragraph. It’s absolutely meaningless in terms of what we do out here.”
Men like Jordon and Hackworth move the earth, mine the coal, reshape the hills and reforest them. Or they leave a patch of level ground for a school, a ballpark, a Wal-Mart — no small asset for a state with preciously few flat spots.
The next ridge over from Jordon’s operation is Kanawha State Forest.
“I’ve got a church full of people who use that forest,” Jordon said. “When we got control, I promised those people I’d clean this place up.
He’s making good on that promise, too: From the front porch of that hunting shack, looking out over the mining and the earth-movers, an approaching autumn rain engulfs two forested knobs — artificial to be sure, and reclaimed from the mine, but growing anew nonetheless.
Jordon’s story illustrates another fact of life in coal country every bit as stark as the denuded landscape around Gibson’s glade: Poverty.
Median income in the United States was almost $42,000 in 2000, the most recent data the U.S. Census has for nationwide earnings. In the 100 poorest counties - of which 38 lie in Appalachian coal country - the median was half that.
A typical household in Owsley County, in Kentucky’s eastern hills, brought home $16,271 in 2000; in McDowell County in West Virginia’s southern end, median earnings sat at $16,931.
The median income for a miner in 2000? $44,400, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“In areas of the country where there are limited education and opportunities, men can live like kings and women can live like queens compared to their neighbors if they mine coal,” said LaJuana Wilcher, an attorney with English Lucas Priest & Owsley in Kentucky who was the state’s secretary of Environmental and Public Protection.
Coal paid Kentucky $183 million in severance taxes in 2005 and $583 million in other state taxes, almost 10 percent of the state’s general fund for that year. That’s a lot of highways, hospitals, police officers and school rooms for poor states, Wilcher notes.
Big Coal also greases the political rails, contributing $2.6 million through mid-October to both sides in the presidential election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Pro-mining West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III , a Democrat, crushed his opponents in a landslide Tuesday.
“This is not a partisan issue,” Wilcher said. “You see Sen. (Robert) Byrd (D, W. Va.) and top Republicans all going together on this.”
That power gets used, cautioned Nelson, the veteran miner. He lost his job when Massey Coal, his employer, blew the top off his local ridge and left half an inch of dust coating the interior of his house. He spoke up and has been blacklisted ever since.
“You don’t work for Massey and say anything against the industry,” Nelson said. He can’t stay silent, but he understands those who do.
“People get in debt, they got mouths to feed. They’re afraid to take that step. They’re afraid to be left out in the cold, ”cause there’s nothing here.”
Coal provides direct jobs for 22,000 miners in West Virginia and another 50,000 contractors, according to the Coal Association. It allows men like Jordon and Hackworth to stay in the hills where they grew up. And it feeds the nation’s appetite for cheap power.
Miners pulled 377 million tons of coal out of Appalachia in 2007, about a third of the nation’s total production. Carbon content varies in coal, but the nation’s appetite for the cinder adds 1.8 trillion tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide to the atmosphere annually, according to a 2000 U.S. Energy Information Agency report.
And it’s increasing: Industry estimates that 1 billion more tons of coal will be burned worldwide come 2013.
Efforts to reverse that trend quickly run into an immutable wall: Price.
The majority of the country, after all, was against drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge last year, Wilcher noted. “And guess what: Gas gets to $4 a gallon, and people wanted to drill offshore for oil and to drill in ANWR.”
Raney summed the attitude of many in coal country: “The Lord put the coal in the ground, and everyone up in Boston and elsewhere enjoys using it.”
“Stewardship is key,” he said. But “should we limit it? Absolutely not.”
The growth of mountaintop removal mining can be traced back — as many an environmental conflict can — to efforts to solve another environmental conundrum.
In this case, the need to stem acid rain drove industry out of high-sulfur deposits in northern Appalachia and Midwest and to the low-sulfur coal of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of those Appalachian seams are too shallow to mine conventionally.
The result is that while coal tonnage has decreased in Virginia since 1990, it has stayed steady in central and southern Appalachia as industry compensates with mountaintop removal, said Carl Zipper, director of the Powell River Project, a research program of Virginia Tech aimed at enhancing communities and restoration efforts in the state’s coalfields.
There’s an incalculable benefit to this shift, noted Wilcher, the lawyer and former regulator: Mountaintop removal mining is safer and requires fewer hands. Coalfield mining deaths have dropped precipitously as a result.
Throughout the ”70s an average of 35 miners died annually. By the 1980s the annual death rate had dropped to the mid-20s. Today it’s in the single digits; not a single miner died in 2006, a first.
Reclamation practices are changing, too.
In the past, standard practice was to blow the top off the mountain, shovel the overburden into the valley, mine the coal, spray the area with foreign grass seed and hope for the best.
That left the acidic topsoil crucial for forest growth buried under compacted alkaline overburden. Streams became channels. Trees, if they were planted, were black locust, ash, sycamore, white pine — far less valuable than the hardwoods they replaced, said Virginia Tech forestry professor Jim Berger.
The Appalachian forest, cleared and logged three times over since Daniel Boone crossed the mountains, would need at least 300 years to grow back at mine sites with such reclamation efforts, Berger figures. In 2002 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers changed their restoration guidelines, requiring operators to restore streams in a more natural manner and regulating the type of ripples and pools, sinuosity, slope and conductivity.
The Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining now encourages operators to restore the hardwood forest when they’re done, said Patrick Angel, an agency forester and soil scientist based in London, Ky. In every new surface mining permit issued recently in Virginia and 80 percent of those in West Virginia, the mining company has committed to reclaim the land by planting a diverse hardwood forest, according to agency figures.
Not all rules move reclamation efforts forward, however.
In mid-October the Office of Surface Mining proposed repealing a 25-year-old prohibition on the dumping overburden in valley streams — a repeal the industry describes as crucial for the expansion of mountaintop removal mining.
Environmentalists are aghast. The rule will leave some 350 miles of Appalachian creeks permanently buried, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, and scientists question whether current technology can rebuild healthy streams in the mountains.
It’s unclear what the future holds for Appalachia’s hardwood forest or the coal underneath. True, the debate on coal has shifted: Mining advocates acknowledge the industry needs more environmentally friendly technologies to mine and burn it, said Wesleyan College history professor Robert Rupp. “Ten years ago you wouldn’t have heard that.”
By Gerald Karnas and Kathleen Shanahan, Special to the Times Published Friday, November 7, 2008 4:21 PM
usiness and environmental interests recently converged on Tallahassee to present a commonsense plan to protect Florida's future by addressing climate change and spurring a more sustainable form of economic development. Two years ago, Gov. Charlie Crist called on experts across our state to come up with their best ideas for action on global warming. For the past 14 months, the Governor's Action Team on Energy and Climate Change has developed a plan that all participants agree will cut pollution, stimulate our economy and secure our energy supply through a diverse range of sources including wind, solar and nuclear.
From power utilities and foresters to agriculture interests and environmentalists, we brought our own unique perspectives to the issue and settled on a set of concrete steps that will achieve those goals at a time when they are desperately needed. Our report puts it as succinctly as it could be: "Now is the time for strategic investment in Florida's low-carbon energy infrastructure if we are to be successful in diversifying the state's economy, creating new job opportunities and positioning Florida's 'green tech' sector as an economic engine for growth."
When you look at what our action plan would do for Florida, it's no surprise that it won broad agreement from a diverse group of interests. If implemented in full, the recommendations would result in an estimated total net cost savings of more than $28-billion from 2009 to 2025, and save more than 50-billion gallons of petroleum over the same time — all while significantly reducing the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.
Importantly, we agreed that Florida can't go it alone. That's why the recommendations call for a strong national program to fight climate change — in particular, one that relies on an emissions "cap and trade" system to substantially reduce global warming pollution at the lowest cost to business and consumers while stimulating investment in new energy technologies.
While the U.S. Congress works on that system — and we hope it will pass in 2009 — we need to get going in Florida by linking up with other states that are already implementing regional plans to reduce pollution and drive investment in new energy sources. If Florida joins a regional program now — for example the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative under way in 10 Eastern states — we can influence the design and development of regional rules that will shape the national cap and trade program under debate in Congress. Joining a regional program now would also give Florida companies a strong advantage in the race to develop new energy technologies and seize the economic opportunities of a clean energy economy.
The Action Team's final report is more than just a plan to reduce pollution. It is a blueprint for economic growth, energy security and a cleaner, safer future. The current financial crisis only sharpens the need to find new ways to power our economy and create jobs. It's our belief — and one shared unanimously by the 28 members of the Action Team — that now is the time to move forward with strong federal and state policies that achieve those goals.
Gerald Karnas is Florida climate project director for Environmental Defense, and Kathleen Shanahan is former chief of staff to Gov. Jeb Bush. Both are members of Florida's Energy Action Team appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist.
''The refuge is the greatest gift any president could have given his country,'' said Tom Wilmers, biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. ``It's a wonderful, fragile, wild place.''
The refuge, located off the coast of Key West, is full of life -- and surprises. Green sea turtles nest on its sandy beaches. Rare Miami blue butterflies flutter along its dunes. Hawks use the mangroves for resting areas to and from the Caribbean.
Hurricane Wilma's storm surge devastated many of the refuge's 26 islands -- but also created a new one. Wilma Key became a haven for endangered roseate terns, piping plovers and red knots.
To celebrate the centennial, the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Key West is hosting a daylong event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 15 that includes an environmental fair. Wilmers and a Teddy Roosevelt look-alike will be among several speakers.
The real Roosevelt never saw the Key West refuge, a 15-mile-wide swath of islands and water that runs west 22 miles to the Marquesas Keys. The Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean converge in the midst of its 208,000 acres.
Roosevelt, president from 1901 to 1909, designated 42 million acres of national forests, 53 national wildlife bird refuges and 18 areas of special interest, including the Grand Canyon.
He began establishing bird refuges in response to the lucrative plume trade. Hunters massacred whole colonies of wading birds for feathers to adorn ladies' hats, refuge manager Anne Morkill said.
Development is an ongoing battle for environmentalists in the Keys. But the establishment of the refuge thwarted the potential for building on the islands within its borders -- with the exception of privately owned Ballast Key. A four-bedroom mansion and three-bedroom guesthouse sit on the 26-acre island, which was for sale earlier this year for $13.8 million.
The rest of the refuge remains undeveloped and serves as a habitat for 250 bird species, including endangered white-crowned pigeons. The pigeons, which nest in the refuge's mangrove forests, fly daily to Key West's dwindling hardwood hammocks to find fruit to eat and carry back to their young, said Ken Meyer, founder of the Gainesville-based, nonprofit Avian Research and Conservation Institute.
''You can have all the mangrove forests in the Western Hemisphere to nest in, but without the kitchen, the white-crowned pigeons won't be successful,'' Meyer said.
Wilmers also is working to help the white-crowned pigeons, among many projects he has embarked on since arriving in the Keys in 1984.
''I planned to stay only two years but became enraptured,'' Wilmers said. ``Inch for inch, the refuge is the greatest place I've ever been in my life, and I've worked in Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Massachusetts.''
Wilmers estimates that he's made nearly 2,000 trips to the refuge during his 24 years in the Keys.
''I see something new and different every time,'' he said Wednesday. ``Just got back now and I'm blown away. I saw a bird I had never seen there before, a marble godwit.''
Morkill, the refuge manager, said there is a balance between protecting the habitat and allowing the public to enjoy the refuge that taxes help support.
About 400,000 people visit the refuge annually, most while fishing, boating, snorkeling or kayaking, Morkill said.
Mangroves, which are not hospitable to human exploration, make up most of the islands. But a few, including Boca Grande and Woman Key, have sandy beaches that attract recreational users by boat.
In 1992, Wilmers helped put together a state and national management plan known as the Back Country Agreement that allowed public access to about half the beaches and closure of the rest to maintain unspoiled habitat for wildlife.
''It's still a problem,'' refuge ranger James Bell said. ``On holiday weekends, 30 to 40 boats can be lined up end to end along the beach, with large music parties, barbecuing on the beach and fistfights.''
Cuban migrants landing on the islands also have caused problems. They leave behind debris and oil and fuel that leaks from their boats. Some also camp, trampling precious habitat and destroying vegetation for campfires.
Then there's damage caused by treasure diggers, including a father and son duo from Tavernier.
''One had a vision of a religious icon buried on Boca Grande,'' Morkill said. ``They dug a huge hole. . . . That was not good.''
Fermin Fortun and his son, Fermin Fortun Jr., pleaded guilty in 2007 to a felony charge of destruction of federal property and served six months in jail.
Wilmers said he never grows tired of visiting the refuge. ``It's hard to beat sea turtle nesting season. But it's also just magical at the end of September to the second week in October to watch all the migratory birds come through. It's something I look forward to every year.''
Costly rail service for Jacksonville would lose money
By LARRY HANNAN, The Times-Union
A proposed commuter rail system in the Jacksonville area will cost $543 million to build and $40 million a year to run, and won't make money, according to a yet-to-be completed study by a Jacksonville Transportation Authority consultant.
It is not clear yet where, when or if the money will be found to build the system.
The JTA asked the consultant, Gannett Fleming Inc. of Pennsylvania a year ago to look into using the existing rail lines owned by CSX and Florida East Coast Railway to create a three-pronged commuter rail system that would help get cars off the road. It would be part of the transportation authority's long-range effort for commuter rail flow into the downtown area, where buses or the Skyway would take people to their final destination.
A northbound line on CSX tracks would go to Yulee; a southwest line on CSX tracks to Green Cove Springs; and a southeast line on Florida East Coast tracks to St. Augustine.
The construction cost does not include a new transportation center at the Prime Osborn Convention Center, the starting point for all three commuter rail lines.
The study calculated how much it would cost to run the system, but not how much people would pay to ride it. That will be up to JTA to decide, said Thomas Hickey, national transit planning manager of Gannett Fleming. The company released the numbers midway through its $400,000 study due next year.
Hickey estimated that by 2015 there would be 2,974 trips a day for the southwest route, and it would cost $13.44 per passenger for the railway to break even in yearly operating costs. The southeast route would have 4,814 trips a day with a cost of $9.58 per passenger, and the north route would have 2,045 trips a day at $21.50 per trip.
But the JTA wouldn't charge that much.
James Boyle, the authority's regional transportation planner, said it wouldn't ask passengers to pay a fare that would allow the system to make money. As a result, he said, JTA would not expect to make a profit - or even break even. Most public transportation systems in the United State lose money, he said, and are operated because they benefit the public.
However, he said JTA didn't want the system to be sunk by cost, either.
The construction money would have to come from federal, state and local government sources, Boyle said, and that's feasible because the state and federal governments want more commuter rail systems built.
Congress also needs to pass a new transportation funding bill in 2009 because the current bill is expiring. Advocates are pushing for more rail funding in that bill.
JTA also might seek support from the private sector via sponsorships or public-private partnerships, Boyle said.
Denise Bunnewith of the First Coast Transportation Planning Organization said it is unlikely that the entire commuter rail line will be built at once because the cost is prohibitive. But, she said, it's important that the area move forward and build at least part of the system soon, because rail is an essential part of the region's long-term transportation plan.
Hickey said the study assumes a train can hit the southeast and southwest stations every 30 minutes during peak times and once an hour during off-peak times. The north route will have a train arrive every 15 minutes during peak times and every half hour during off-peak times. The north route would receive more runs because it is a more populated area, and there would be more train stops on this route.
For the north route, the study identified potential stations in locations, such as Shands Jacksonville, Main Street in the Springfield warehouse district, U.S. 1 near Kings Road, Moncrief Road, and 64th Street near Main Street. With other potential stops, JTA has identified the basic areas but doesn't yet know the exact locations.
The completed study will be presented to the JTA board. If the board wants to move forward, Boyle said a more detailed analysis would be needed, at a cost of about $3 million. That study would take at least 18 months and involve community meetings and discussions with the rail companies, he said.
In the meantime, gas prices likely will rise again. So will traffic congestion. And that, Boyle said, will make the area more open to commuter rail.
larry.hannan@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4470
By SHANNON BEHNKEN
sbehnken@tampatrib.com
Published: November 8, 2008
Updated: 12:13 am
ORLANDO - Up to 60 percent of homes selling in Florida's hardest-hit markets are distressed properties, and consumers who bought at the height of the market will have to wait up to seven years before values rise to their original prices, a top industry economist said Friday.
The National Association of Realtors, meeting for its annual conference in Orlando, also released its pending sales report for the nation showing continuing sluggishness from August to September.
Meanwhile, Realtors at the conference also are pushing for a government buy-down of mortgage rates to coax buyers off the fence.
"When this market stabilizes, economic recovery will follow," Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the association, said Friday. "We need to get buyers in the market to absorb this inventory."
Nearly 23,000 real estate agents converged on Orlando for this week's convention of the industry's largest trade organization. They came looking for insight into the economy and advice on how to weather the continued downturn.
Many of the agents complain that would-be buyers are now having trouble getting qualified for loans or are kept out of the market by higher interest rates.
Yun said he hopes the new U.S. administration will make housing a major part of the next economic stimulus package. His group also wants the government to offer a mortgage-interest buydown program that would lower interest rates by 1 percent.
He said he would like to see mortgage rates as low as 4.5 percent, but a 1 percent drop would be a good start. Mortgage rates currently hover around 6.5 percent.
Of course, he said, some buyers are holding back on making home purchases because they don't want to miss out on incentives the government may offer later. This proposal may cause some buyers to wait even longer, he said, and that's why the government needs to act fast, he said.
The buyback program Yun proposes would be offered for one year, and all buyers of primary homes would be eligible. Once approved, the mortgage discount would last for the life of the loan.
Yun said the pending sales index, released Friday, was more evidence that the government needs to intervene.
"There are times when government needs to step in, in order to preserve the free-market system," he said.
The pending home sales index monitors contracts to purchase homes nationwide and shows a 4.6 percent decline from a month ago. However, the yearly change was a 1.6 percent gain, the second month in a row the index has showed yearly gains.
"The month-to-month weakening in pending home sales is understandable," Yun said. "But because the index remains above year-ago levels, it means we're still in a broad period of stabilization."
Selling conditions are mixed across the country, he said, but some states, including Florida, are seeing more buyers get off the fence and purchase. He named Tampa and Orlando as markets that are seeing sales improvement.
This is despite a rise in unemployment in the state. Yun pointed to the large number of foreclosed and distressed properties in the state. Those properties are selling cheaper than others and are tempting buyers back into the market.
In fact, Yun said, nearly 60 percent of the sales in Florida are distressed homes. That's even higher in some markets and in some neighborhoods with clusters of distressed homes, he said.
The bad news is that prices are still falling. Prices in 2008 are falling by the largest amounts since the Great Depression, he said.
Although the lower prices will help the real estate market improve by lowering unsold inventory, distressed homes will also continue to push down prices. Especially, he said, in neighborhoods hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.
Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.
WASHINGTON — The nation’s jobless ranks zoomed past 10 million last month, the most in a quarter-century, as piles of pink slips shut factory gates and office doors to 240,000 more Americans with the holidays nearing. Politicians and economists agreed on a painful bottom line: It’s only going to get worse.
The unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, the government said Friday, up from 6.1 percent just a month earlier. And there was more grim news from U.S. automakers: Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., American giants struggling to survive, each reported big losses and figured to be announcing even more job cuts before long.
Barack Obama, in his first news conference as president-elect, said the nation was facing the economic challenge of a lifetime but expressed confidence he could deal with it. “Immediately after I become president, I’m going to confront this economic crisis head on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity,” he said after meeting with economic advisers in Chicago. “I’m confident a new president can have an enormous impact.”
Wall Street revived somewhat after two days of big losses. The Dow Jones industrials rose 248 points.
Still, the Labor Department’s unemployment report provided stark evidence that the economy’s health was deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace. The jobless rate was 4.8 percent just one year ago. About 10.1 million people were unemployed in October, the most since the fall of 1983. More people have jobs now, since the population has grown, but it’s still a staggering jobless figure. With employers slashing jobs every month so far this year, some 1.2 million positions have disappeared, over half in the past three months alone.
Like Obama, President Bush expressed confidence that things would get better.
But economists were much less upbeat than politicians. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel, and the outlook is pitch black,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. And Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, said the report “depicts an economy still in free fall and without a safety net anywhere in sight.”
All the economy’s woes — a housing collapse, mounting foreclosures, hard-to-get credit and financial market upheaval — will confront Obama when he assumes office in January. Unemployment is expected to keep rising during his first year in office, while record budget deficits will crimp his domestic agenda.
October’s jobless rate was the highest since March 1994 and now has surpassed the 6.3 percent 2003 high after the most recent recession. The government also said job losses were worse than first reported for the preceding two months, 284,000 rather than 159,000 in September and 127,000 rather than 73,000 in August.
Many economists believe the unemployment rate will climb to 8 percent or 8.5 percent by the end of next year before slowly drifting downward. Some think unemployment could even hit 10 or 11 percent — if an auto company should fail.
In any case, the rate is likely to move higher even if the economy is on somewhat stronger footing by the middle of next year as some hope. That’s because companies won’t be inclined to ramp up hiring until they feel certain that a recovery has staying power.
Joshua Shapiro, chief economist at consulting firm MFR Inc., said another reason the unemployment rate can keep climbing — even after a recession is over — is because people tend to flock back to the labor market when they sense their job prospects might be better. “It takes (people) awhile to figure out, ‘Hey, there’s jobs out there,’ ” Shapiro said.
In the 1980-1982 recession — considered the worst since the Great Depression in terms of unemployment — the jobless rate rose as high as 10.8 percent in late 1982 just as the recession ended, before inching down.
Friday’s report was worse than analysts had expected. They had been forecasting a jobless rate of 6.3 percent with payrolls falling about 200,000.
Factories, including auto makers, construction companies, especially home builders, retailers, mortgage bankers, securities firms, hotels and motels and educational services, all cut jobs. As did temporary help firms — a barometer of future hiring. All those losses more than swamped the few gains elsewhere, including in the government, health care and in accounting and bookkeeping.
Private companies cut 263,000 jobs, the most since the country was beginning to emerge from the 2001 recession. It marked the 11th straight month of such reductions.
The grim numbers spurred calls from Democrats on Capitol Hill to provide fresh relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats, in a lame-duck session, will push to enact another economic stimulus package of around $100 billion, possibly including provisions to create jobs through big public works projects.
Workers with jobs saw only modest wage gains in October. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.21, a 0.2 percent increase from the previous month. Over the past year, wages have grown 3.5 percent, but paychecks aren’t stretching far because high food, energy and other prices have propelled overall inflation at a faster pace.
The economy has lost its footing in just a few months. It contracted at a 0.3 percent pace in the July-September quarter, signaling the onset of a likely recession. It was the worst showing since the 2001 recession, and reflected a big pullback by consumers.
As consumers watch jobs disappear, they’ll probably retrench even further, spelling more trouble. Analysts say the economy is still shrinking in the current October-December quarter and will contract further in the first quarter of next year. “The U.S. recession is deepening,” said economist Michael Gregory.
WINTER HAVEN | After the Winter Haven City Commission voted unanimously Oct. 29 to approve a development order for the planned CSX freight rail terminal, the question on some people's minds was "what next?"
Unless something unusual happens, CSX will begin construction next year on its 318-acre freight rail terminal in south Winter Haven.
But it could be mid-December before the approval is truly final.
That's because the decision still must go through review by the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state planning agency.
If the DCA decides to appeal Winter Haven's development order, the project could be delayed indefinitely.
The DCA has 45 days after it receives the city's development order to decide whether to appeal it, said DCA spokesman James Miller.
DCA officials received a copy of the development order Monday.
Appeals of development of regional impact plans are rare, Miller said, though he didn't have any specifics on the number of times appeals had occurred.
"DRIs are not commonly appealed because of the close coordination with the agencies during the review,'' he said.
He said the issue that's most likely to trigger an appeal is the failure of conditions in the development order to mitigate transportation issues.
Transportation was a major issue in the CSX project in Winter Haven because of the increase in truck traffic.
The development order contained several provisions requiring traffic monitoring and road improvements based on the result of that monitoring.
Lakeland City Attorney Tim McCausland said he has not received any direction from the City Commission to pursue the case with DCA, though he said both DCA and Winter Haven are aware of Lakeland's position.
"We're in a wait-and-see mode,'' he said.
McCausland said one basis for an appeal could be the issues raised in the final DRI hearing by David Theriaque, the Tallahassee land-use lawyer the Lakeland City Commission hired in July to fight the project.
Theriaque argued that Winter Haven's action on the DRI was premature because commissioners had not considered the adjacent 930-acre tract.
He also argued that Winter Haven's development order violated the city's own growth plan provisions regarding road access to industrially zoned property and protection of some of the site's environmental features.
Winter Haven officials disputed Theriaque's analysis.
They said they could not review the 930-acre site because CSX didn't own the property, no specific development has been proposed for the site and it wasn't part of the DRI application.
Winter Haven officials said the conditions in the development order did comply with the city's growth plan.
[ Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or at 863-802-7535. ]
After soaring stock price gains earlier this year, the Mosaic Company is taking a financial hit that has crimped its plans to increase phosphate production in Southwest Florida.
Booming demand for corn, partly driven by interest in corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel, pushed Mosaic stock to a mid-June peak of $162.35. Investors anticipated increased demand for phosphate-based fertilizer to grow more crops.
But the company’s stock started dropping in July. At the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, Mosaic shares were at $36.49.
The decline is part of an overall retrenchment in commodities. Oil, corn and metals have also seen dramatic declines in response to the weak global economy, tight credit markets and overall reduced spending.
“Fertilizer got crushed during the market debacle,” said David Townsend, spokesman for Mosaic.
With thousands of acres of phosphate strip mines and several processing plants in the Gulf Coast region, Mosaic Company is the world’s largest producer of phosphate, a key component of fertilizer.
In response to a lower stock value and a dip in phosphate’s price, Mosaic plans to cut production by as much as 20 percent.
The company planned to produce up to 10 million tons of refined phosphate this fiscal year.
Now it plans to produce 8 million to 9 million tons, Townsend said.
“For a while there, the demand was so flat-out and extraordinary that we were running accordingly,” Townsend said.
The cutback will slow mining and put off plans to reactivate two production lines that would have increased the company’s ability to refine more phosphate, Townsend said.
He said it will not trigger layoffs or affect the company’s momentum in pursuing permits to mine more land in Manatee and Hardee counties.
Mosaic’s push for more mining over the past several years has sparked a legal fight with environmentalists and local governments, who contend that strip mining threatens the drinking water supply and natural resources, including the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor.
“The permits we’re seeking are for longer-term source of supply,” Townsend said.
Fertilizer buying over the summer eventually led to a global oversupply, which weakened prices.
Now buyers are reluctant, as prices continue to fall, Townsend said.
An analysis by the investment firm Goldman Sachs in October suggests prices could drop further, in response to tightening credit and a global decline in the use of fertilizer.
Farmers responded to high fertilizer prices by cutting back on usage, much like U.S. drivers cut back on fuel consumption when prices ballooned.
Tighter credit is forcing farmers to spend less, the Goldman Sachs analysis stated.
The price of phosphate, however, is still much higher than it was a year ago.
Between August and October, the average selling price for a metric ton of processed phosphate — called diammonium phosphate — was $1,013. During the same period last year it was $407.
The current price ranges from $825 to $850 a ton, according to ICIS Pricing, a chemical industry trade publication.
Net sales of phosphate were also 119 percent higher during the first three months of Mosaic’s fiscal year, compared to last year.
Townsend said he expects the declining demand to be temporary.
“The growth in food demand and higher quality foods all are still in place and will continue to produce high demand in the future,” Townsend said.
Two Levy County Commissioners Suspended by Governor
By Lou Elliott Jones
Levy County Commission Chairman Sammy Yearty and Commissioner Tony Parker, who both won re-election to their posts this year, are suspended from office by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The suspension came after a federal grand jury indictment charging them with bribery in the course of their officials duties was unsealed on Wednesday.
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Yearty appeared in court on Wednesday and Parker on Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Allan Kornblum released both with restrictions on their activities.
Yearty and Parker are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to receive a bribe and one count of bribery. Yearty also faces an additional charge of making a false or fraudlent statement.
If convicted, Yearty and Parker face up to five years in prison for the conspiracy charge, and up to 10 years for soliciting bribes. The false statement charge carries a penalty of up to five years.
The conpiracy charge covers the period of Oct. 23, 2007 through Dec. 18, 2007.
The indictment says the two men offered their approval for developments in Levy County and would influence, or attempt to influence the other commissioners in return for money and concealed the receipt of the money. The prosecutor's office also filed notice to have Yearty and Parker forfeit any property connected with the case.
County Attorney Anne Bast Brown's office was notified Wednesday afternoon that the two were suspended from office.
Brown said with three commissioners still on the board they will have a quorum to meet and conduct county business.
County Coordinator Freddie Moody said he was contacted by Brown about the suspensions Wednesday evening.
"I knew nothing at all about it (the indictment)," he said. "I did not have an inkling."
He said he had talked to Yearty this morning and the commissioner said nothing to him about being under investigation.
"I am as shocked as I can be," Moody said.
Parker, just won re-election in a tight race on Tuesday against Republican challenger Abraham Blitch. Yearty won re-election handily in the August 26 primary.
Commissioner Danny Stevens asked that Levy County citizens remember that a person is considered innocent until proven guilty and to consider the hardship this is for the commissioners' families.
He said many of the callers he has heard from are saying "I heard this and this can't be true."
He also offered assurances that the county business will be conducted smoothly by the remaining three commissioners.
"We are going to conduct business as usual," Stevens said. "Nothing will be held back. We will be conducting the busines of the county.
"Also it would be inappropriate to demand the board to make public comments about that (case)."
He asked that this not be used as a vendetta.
Commissioner Lillie Rooks said, "I heard it on the street and didn't think too much of it. ... Then I heard it on the news."
Rooks said, "We have constituents that we are responsible for and we will continue to do business."
While Crist's office has not made an announcement about making interim commission appointments while Yearty and Parker are suspended, anyone interested in such an appointment can go to www.flgov.com and click on "The Crist Team" then "Gubernatorial Appointments" and the "Board and Commission Vacancies" and fill out the paperwork. Or interested persons can contact the Governor's Appointments Office at 850-488-2183.
The application includes two waiver forms for complete criminal background checks on each applicant. The checks will be done by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Rooks said the governor is not expected to make any appointment for at least three weeks and not before the commission's Nov. 18 meeting.
It's been a rough three weeks in Levy County.
First School Board member Billy Morrison was charged with a misdemeanor.
This week we learned Chiefland community leader Mary Marshall was under investigation for embezzlement.
Then comes the news late Wednesday that Commissioners Sammy Yearty and Tony Parker were suspended from office by Gov. Charlie Crist, following federal indictments.
It's enough to make you scratch your head and wonder, "What in the world is going on?"
We're blessed to live in a country where people are innocent until proven guilty.
We all know it's easy to pass judgment based on what we hear, but with these controversial matters now facing the heart of our county, we ask but one thing�be slow to judge.
The scenarios these four are involved in are being played out publicly.
While it is surely difficult for Morrison, Marshall, Yearty and Parker, it is probably equally bad for their family and friends who do not lead public lives and should not be cast in the spotlight.
Imagine if you were the spouse, sister or child of one of these people. How would you feel? React?
Respect the families of these people as the cases unfold.
And try to withhold judgment on their lives.
There are always two sides to every story.
Wait until it's all in the open.
To the editor:
'A picture's worth a thousand words.' AMEN! Last week's Chiefland Citizen's cartoon said it all! Floridians are EXTREMELY tired of being a battle ground state amid all the political rhetoric, liberal news bias, vitriolic phone auto-dialing, hate speech and mailings.
Elected service is a singularly patriotic act-- especially with current vitriolic public discourse and 'government in the sunshine.' We sincerely thank all those who chose to seek public office. All candidates deserve our deep respect and admiration for giving of their time, talents and resources attempting to represent us all!
What's missing in that cartoon? NO where mentioned were Levy County or Florida's natural resources! Candidates MUST be prepared to discuss and support the environment-- meaningfully. Water quality and quantity--and other natural resources--are threatened as never before and are deteriorating rapidly. NOW, elected leaders must actively support natural resource conservation and protection!
For example: Sacramento, Calif. (CA) drastically plans reducing 2009 water deliveries--raising the specter of rationing and less farmer plantings. CA projects only 15 percent delivery of 2009's requested water! Reservoirs are at their lowest levels since 1977 after two years of drought with restricted pumping of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In 2008, 35 percent of requested water was approved for delivery.
What does that mean? CA farmers will be forced to fallow fields while cities may require water rationing. Mike Young, a fourth-generation farmer called such plans disastrous. He said, "For the acres we've got, we're not going to have enough water to farm," expecting to be forced to fallow 1/5 of his 5,000 acres! Water will go to permanent crops but most tomatoes and alfalfa won't get planted. Moral of the story: California drought might easily happen in Florida--and could impact food prices and/or shortages nationwide.
We all thank the Levy County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) and state officials for: (1) protecting all resources, (2) by ordinance, opposing limerock and other mines, (3) listening when we demanded "NO water piped outside local counties" especially not to South Florida who hasn't implemented mandatory conservation efforts, (4) limiting housing developments outside cities and (5) continued authorizing of legal enforcement of ordinances--including those opposing White Limerock Mines, et al. MOST candidates shockingly NEVER referred to natural resources! Mr. Parker was ALONE addressing it! Perhaps that's an oversight, we hope?
Levy BOCC and citizens stood strong on environmental issues, learning what we need 'do' to mitigate growth impacts. Please remember ALL were placed 'here' together for a higher purpose, including protecting the environment! Thanks to all BOCC members--especially Ms. Lillie Rooks and Mr. Tony Parker--for leadership in difficult yet thoughtful decisions for Levy County's long-term best interests.
It's sad voters didn't have the Citizen's voter guide earlier allowing public Letters discourse BEFORE the election. Also, perhaps next time the Citizen will question candidates on environmental and growth opinions/positions. THANK YOU, Chiefland Citizen, for the candidate's own words and your efforts producing the current voter's guide!
Vera Ellen Rich
Chiefland
The City of Chiefland recently opted for a "go our own way" water policy that I believe not to be in the best interest of our community. While I hold the commissioners in high personal regard, their recent refusal to participate in a regional water management partnership with neighboring counties and communities is ill-advised. I disagree with their course of action and assure the citizens of Chiefland that, over time, diminished services and higher costs to the city's taxpayers are likely consequences to this refusal.
The proposed partnership includes Levy, Dixie, and Gilchrist counties, along with the communities of Cross City, Fanning Springs, Trenton and Bell. With this commitment comes recognition that we are as connected environmentally as we are economically. As a life-long resident of this region, our family has long enjoyed and appreciated the lakes and rivers of our area. Over the course of time, we've seen water levels rise and fall with a general observation that our area is not as "wet" as it used to be. Yet, as a recent appointee to the Suwannee River Water Management District, I've learned that our long-held assumption we have more water here than we could ever use is no longer valid. Scientific data associated with the District's minimum flows and levels program shows that we do not, in fact, have an over abundance of water.
Like other parts of the State, this region must make every effort possible to conserve and manage water resources wisely. A regional approach to ensuring a cost-effective, long-term, reliable drinking water supply is critical to effective water management. Nationally, regional partnerships are among the top 10 Water Congress recommendations for assuring the quality and sustainability of water.
The City of Chiefland's refusal to participate in this regions partnership brings into question issues of local stewardship, cooperation for mutual sustainability of shared infrastructure and resources.
Currently, the City of Chiefland has a dollar-a-year lease with the Water District for a 33-acre well field site. Recently, Chiefland requested to purchase that well field. That will cost taxpayers $132,000. I urge that this money would more wisely be spent to help stimulate the local economy and create jobs within the city.
By not participating in the regional partnership, the City of Chiefland simply won't realize the same benefits as the other participating communities. Among these are assured mutual protection of ground and surface water resources, a greater opportunity to receive District, State, and Federal grants; the reduction of financial liability and the long-term benefits of cost sharing in the development and maintenance of infrastructure needs.
Why be in competition with our unified neighbors for water resources and grants, particularly as the Florida Legislature encourages regional cooperation? System redundancy is expensive and unnecessary. In meeting statutory mandates associated with the utility provisions of comprehensive plans, it only makes sense to work cooperatively. We're all connected by our water to the public health, safety, and welfare of our communities. It makes more sense to operate that way.
The City of Chiefland should reconsider the decision to not participate in this regional partnership. Our Citizens will be better served through cooperative and long-term, mutual commitments to conserve, process and manage our most valuable natural resource.
Don Quincey
By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 7, 2008
SUN CITY - It's environment for the sake of development.
Entrepreneur Bill Casey is creating a 161-acre wetland mitigation bank in which developers can buy credits in repentance for destroying swampland elsewhere.
After eight years of wrangling and permitting, the first phase of the project is expected to be for sale within weeks.
The Tampa Bay Mitigation Bank is the only mitigation bank in the county and one of only two in the Southwest Florida Water Management District's 16-county area. It is permitted by the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The saltwater and fresh-water wetlands were created on old agricultural land off Cockroach Bay Road.
Casey and his crew are finishing up the saltwater portion of the project. Once the mitigation bank is bonded for perpetual maintenance, he will sell credits for $100,000 apiece.
Brimming with mangroves, wading birds and fish nursery grounds, the new wetlands provide wildlife habitat and cleanse stormwater runoff from roads and development before it reaches Tampa Bay.
Wetlands are protected by county, state and federal government. The Bush administration announced requirements in April to encourage developers to compensate for destruction of wetlands or streams by paying for restoration or creation of wetlands elsewhere in mitigation banks.
Here's how it works here:
If a developer destroys a 1-acre wetland, he is required to replace it or purchase one credit from the mitigation bank, said Environmental Protection Commission Wetlands Director Bob Stetler.
Casey said he plans to sell 110 credits in phases.
Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566. Keyword: Mitigation Bank, see the first phase of Bill Casey's project.
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TAMPA - The region's water wizards are conjuring events to lure people to the Hillsborough River and teach them the watershed's importance.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District is joining forces with the Hillsborough River Watershed Alliance, declaring Nov. 15-22 as "Watershed Awareness Week."
The district's Hillsborough River Basin Board is co-sponsoring the week's events, which include planting a Florida-friendly yard, canoe tours, urban planning and more.
The alliance is a nonprofit organization formed in 1992 as a partnership among various governments and agencies, environmental and civic organizations, and residents dedicated to protecting the natural resources of the Hillsborough River Watershed.
By KEVIN WIATROWSKI
kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com
WESLEY CHAPEL - After taking over the development of Epperson Ranch from Lennar Corp., Tampa-based Metro Development Corp. won county approval this week for a revised vision for the property off Curley Road. County commissioners on Wednesday approved a new development agreement with Metro for the 1,700-acre ranch just north of Well Road.
The approval came about a year after Metro took over the project from Miami-based Lennar, which was hit hard by the collapsing housing market. Lennar sold its rights to develop Epperson Ranch as part of a restructuring that dumped nearly 20,000 home lots across the country at steep discounts.
Metro expects to spend as long as two years preparing the property for development, company spokesman JohnHeagney said Thursday. Normally, that process would take about half that time, he said.
"That's if the economy is cranking on all eight cylinders," Heagney said. "It's not."
In its deal with Lennar, Metro inherited the job of building half of a county-mandated town center straddling Curley Road, extending Overpass Road to Curley and realigning the southern portion of Curley to meet Meadow Pointe Boulevard at State Road 54.
The new plan for Epperson echoes Lennar's original design for 50,000 square feet of office space, 209,000 square feet of commercial space and 3,905 homes.
Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.
Four years ago, the County Commission and SBC Development negotiated an agreement for a 258-condo high-rise on Sarasota Bay -- the first phase of a potential 1,658-home community called Long Bar Pointe.
As part of that agreement, the county expected to get a three-mile extension of El Conquistador Parkway from its western end to the roundabout at 75th Street West and 53rd Avenue.
SBC built the agreed-upon roundabout at its expense.
But because of the decline in the real estate market, not a single condo has been built or sold. The parkway extension that the commissioners thought SBC would have completed by the end of this year also has not been built because the money for it was to come from the condo sales.
On Nov. 18, the commission intends to amend the agreement to push back SBC's deadline for the two-lane parkway to July 2019.
Twice this week, commissioners and SBC developer Larry Lieberman met to hammer out the details of the extension.
Extending the deadline means that SBC's approvals do not expire. When the market improves, SBC will not have to start from scratch by filing applications again and negotiating a new agreement with the commission.
On Thursday, Ed Vogler, attorney for SBC, said the developer has already spent $8 million on the project -- including construction of the roundabout.
The agreement calls for Sarasota-based SBC to get no credit toward road-impact fees in exchange for building the parkway or roundabout.
The amended agreement, however, will give the county the option of building the parkway extension. If it does so, SBC will be obligated to reimburse the county with $2.35 million in road-impact fees as it eventually sells the condos.
The county may combine the parkway extension with an improvement project on 75th Street West for a total bill of $3.7 million.
Commissioners want the parkway extension, saying it will relieve traffic on 53rd Avenue West, one of the county's few through east-west routes. The extension could be eventually widened to four lanes.
"For traffic flow, this is so necessary," Commissioner Donna Hayes said of the parkway extension. "Extending this to 2019 is not an issue with me at all."
"He's put a lot of money out at our request," Commissioner Ron Getman said of Lieberman. "It's an issue of fairness."
About 150,000 tons of contaminated soil at Depot Park on S. Main Street will be disposed of at a landfill rather than decontaminated because of lower cost and quicker removal under action taken by the Gainesville City Commission Thursday.
Landfill disposal will cost about $13 million with an excavation and treatment time of 14 months compared to $22 million and 23 months for processing through thermal treatment to decontaminate the soil.
Patricia Hart of Gainesville Regional Utilities said landfill disposal was the recommended choice because the level of contaminants would be costlier than anticipated to treat.
"Unfortunately, the results of test firing (for thermal treatment) were not what we anticipated," she said. "The costs would be about double what we expected."
Depot Park, located south of downtown and GRU, has been targeted for redevelopment for years.
GRU took responsibility for cleaning the site when it acquired the land in 1990. Petroleum and coal tar were found to have polluted the property, requiring a massive cleanup effort before the land could be redeveloped.
Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday night for the landfill disposal.
Remediation of the western side of the park was completed more than a year ago and the area is now open to the public with paths around a pond. The eastern side of the park remains contaminated.
The historic train depot that was located on top of the contamination was recently moved so the work can be done. Eventually, the park will have bike trails, a museum and other features.
Customers should, says Florida Power & Light.
Not so, says the Office of Public Counsel, which represents the state's utility customers. FPL should pay because it was responsible for allowing a troubled worker inside a highly sensitive area, the Public Counsel says.
The Counsel points to a newly obtained FBI report that reveals the prime suspect in the case was a contract employee who drilled the hole because he was angry with the utility. The FBI says he failed an FPL psychological test, had a criminal background and was heard complaining loudly that FPL was mistreating him.
Those revelations sparked an intense debate Wednesday and Thursday before the Public Service Commission in Tallahassee about who should bear the costs of the hole and about the fundamental safety of nuclear facilities.
Many of the costs associated with the incident are unknown, such as the expense of the 1,100-plus interviews conducted by the FBI and a parallel investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. What is known is that while the power plant was shut down for the investigation and repairs, FPL had to spend $6.2 million to buy power elsewhere.
The $6.2 million has already been paid by FPL customers. Stephen Burgess, representing the Public Counsel, is trying to get that money back for customers, with interest, arguing that the new documents show proper procedures should have kept the suspect out of the plant.
FPL attorney John Butler insisted the utility properly followed all guidelines set by nuclear regulators. ''Somebody slipped through the cracks,'' he said. ``We wish it weren't the case.''
The unhappy worker has never been publicly identified. He first denied drilling the hole, but after a lie-detector exam, he ''admitted to being in the immediate area of where the hole was found,'' the FBI report said.
The suspect ''further admits that he could have in fact drilled into the insulation covering the pipe, directly above the hole,'' according to the FBI report. 'When asked whether he could have drilled the hole by accident, the examinee said that `nothing is out of the realm of possibility,' but the chance of him doing it [accidentally] was less than 5 percent.''
Last year, federal authorities decided not to prosecute because they could not prove criminal intent.
The man, a sheet metal worker described by the FBI as a Bud Light drinker from Indiana with a late-model pickup truck, was visiting Florida when he heard Turkey Point was hiring.
He had been arrested for criminal recklessness and criminal mischief in 1990, the FBI reported, but the charges were dismissed in 1994. He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in 1990. In 1991, charges of discharging a firearm in public were dismissed. In 1989, charges of public intoxication and reckless driving were also dismissed.
The FBI found the man was upset the long background check cost him time he wasn't paid for. That included four computer tests, instruction on the site and radiation hazards and a 600-question psychological test.
The FBI report stated the worker had to go to a psychiatrist for further evaluation before an independent contractor hired him.
FPL Vice President Terry O. Jones told the PSC that the written test was simply the first part of a psychological evaluation. The worker's responses raised questions that required the psychiatric evaluation. The psychiatrist approved the worker, as did a backup behavioral specialist.
Commissioners talked about FPL being more careful about workers ''going postal.'' In this case, suggested Commission Chairman Matthew Carter II, it might be more accurate to say ``going nuclear.''
The damaged pipe, part of the reactor's emergency cooling system, ''is vital for plant safety,'' according to the FBI report. It's in a highly secure area where workers are required to wear suits for protection against radioactivity.
Days after the one-eighth-inch hole was drilled, the FBI report stated, a co-worker told investigators the suspect frequently complained ''the drills were not powerful enough and the drill bits were not sharp.'' The suspect ``complained several times that he was not making enough money.''
According to the co-worker, the suspect ''stated that he finally got a drill bit that worked and drilled a hole in the pipe.'' He 'stated that he `finally showed the m----- f------.' ''
Both workers were employed by a contractor not identified in the documents. They worked in the plant for a few weeks while it was shut down for repairs. If the second worker had talked immediately, the hole could have been fixed then. But he didn't come forward until the plant was coming back on line -- causing the $6.2 million expense
Commissioner Nathan A. Skop, a trained nuclear engineer, said Thursday he was particularly concerned that not just one, but two workers knew about a high-level security problem and said nothing, raising the question whether the contractor should be financially responsible.
Skop was more concerned about federal regulators. If FPL did follow proper procedures and two workers didn't reveal a serious security breach, he said, then there's a big problem with NRC procedures.
''A second person knew about a hole in a nuclear pipe and he didn't tell anyone? And the NRC is not concerned about that? Then frankly, they're not doing their job,'' Skop said.
``This is a critical safety concern . . . I don't sleep well at night knowing that.''
City moves ahead with parkway Council OKs $1.4M land purchase BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE FLORIDA TODAY
PALM BAY -- The Palm Bay City Council voted unanimously Thursday evening to spend $1.4 million on 160 acres to help create the long-planned and long-awaited Palm Bay Parkway.
"This is a great beginning, these two purchases," said council member Milo Zonka.
He is set to travel to Washington, D.C., in the spring to lobby Congress for more funds for the project.
The $1.4 million is coming from transportation impact fees, which are already in the bank.
The purchase of the land from Lennar Home Builders and Bombardier Recreational Products is contingent on an appraisal. City officials say they are getting a bargain-basement price, at an average $10,000 an acre.
The purchased land will help create part of the right of way for the parkway.
The parkway is planned as a four-lane road that designers hope will alleviate traffic on Interstate 95 and Babcock Street.
There is currently no funding to begin construction, but once the roadway is completed, it will connect South Brevard near Micco Road to Eau Gallie Boulevard in Melbourne. The road, referred to outside of the city as the St. John's Heritage Parkway, will run south of the current boundaries of Palm Bay and west of Interstate 95.
Despite the slump in the current housing market, Palm Bay officials are expecting another building boom when the market picks up again. Areas in southern and western Palm Bay have planned developments in the works. Developers and officials say the parkway is necessary.
The estimated cost for the 19 miles of the project in the Palm Bay area currently comes in at $110 million to $130 million.
An additional $35 million to $40 million will be required to build an interstate interchange near Micco Road, including design, right-of-way acquisition and construction.
More funding will be required for the portion north of U.S. 192 and a second interchange at Ellis Road.
"The parkway has not been designed yet, so these costs may change significantly as design details get more defined," said Palm Bay Deputy City Manager Sue Hann.
Contact Moore at 409-1423 or kmoore@floridatoday.com.
Volusia council considers green guidelines
DELAND -- Guidelines for development in an almost 300,000-acre area that's been called the county's environmental backbone could include incentives that would allow developers to build more homes in exchange for conserving green space.
Any development within the county's designated "environmental corridor overlay" would have to include a minimum of 60 percent open space, under proposed guidelines reviewed by the County Council on Thursday.
But a developer could be allowed to build more homes at greater density if even more land was conserved.
In most cases, the density increase -- a maximum of 25 percent over existing zoning -- would mean only a small number of additional homes, but would encourage conservation, proponents say.
The council will decide Dec. 4 whether to embrace the guidelines for what officials call "conservation development."
"You just can't underestimate how monumental this is," said Clay Henderson, an attorney involved with the "smart growth" project that led to the proposal. "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."
Two weeks later, on Dec. 18, the council will be asked to remove exemptions for large-lot rural subdivisions from county land development rules.
The move would freeze completely ungoverned subdivisions into lots 2.5 acres or larger while the council puts new rules into effect.
The "conservation development" guidelines to be heard Dec. 4 would accompany the unincorporated portion of a proposed countywide "Environmental Corridor Overlay" map -- ECO, for short.
County officials plan to limit the number of homes allowed in the area to the number -- an estimated 18,000 -- allowed under existing zoning, regardless of density increases given to individual developers for conserving green space.
"What you're seeing today with ECO does not affect any property owner's established rights," Deputy County Attorney Jamie Seaman said.
The maximum proposed density increase would be 25 percent for conservation of all wetlands and 50 percent of uplands on a property or conservation of 75 percent of the overall acreage. There also would have to be school capacity.
Both the guidelines and map drew some criticism Thursday.
Representatives of the owner and contract buyer of almost 5,000 acres near Deltona known as the Leffler property asked the council to remove part of that land from the map. Its configuration of such things as habitat, flood plain and wetlands don't warrant it, they argued.
Councilman Andy Kelly had wholly different concerns.
He said density bonuses could provide unnecessary incentives to developers, whom he argued benefit financially from clustering development -- along with conserving open space requirement -- anyway.
"I just want to make sure we're not allowing opportunities for development in our rural area that may distract from protecting our environment," Kelly said.
In other business, the council:
· Agreed to spend $1.5 million of Volusia Forever conservation land money to help buy the 38-acre Thornby property in Deltona. The money would pay half the cost of the land. Deltona would pay the other half.
· Decided to ask DeBary to delay a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the proposed DeBary Town Center and Equestrian Park quarter-horse track. County officials said they want to review its potential impact on the bordering Gemini Springs Park.
· Adopted revised rules for dogs at Smyrna Dunes Park south of the Ponce Inlet. Dogs will be allowed on the boardwalk from the park's opening until 10 a.m. and again for one hour before sundown daily. They will be allowed on the natural path and on the inlet beach during all hours of park operation.
james.miller@news-jrnl.com
Volusia home builders sue over school impact fees
The Volusia Home Builders Association -- whose customers have been socked by more than $66 million in school impact fees over the past six years -- filed suit this week seeking to have the practice declared unconstitutional.
Impact fees are charged for every new home that's built. In theory, new construction adds to the burden of educating additional students in Volusia County public schools.
But in reality, the school district has lost enrollment each of the last two years. About 2,400 fewer students attend this year than in 2006.
"There is no need for the impact fee if new homes are not creating new students," said Stan Janzen, president of the association and Woodmark Construction Inc., Ormond Beach.
The builders contend in their suit that Volusia County schools have "sufficient capacity" for about 10,000 more students than will actually attend school this year. And the builders argue the $6,066 fee that's currently charged per unit goes beyond the scope of the Volusia County Council's power.
Earlier this year, the County Council handed over the responsibility of imposing and administering the fees to the Volusia County School Board. For that reason, school Superintendent Margaret Smith said the district is attempting to join the suit as a third party.
The homebuilders sued the county in 2005 after the fees were raised, but the county won the case on appeal.
"We're having a hard time understanding their legal position, why they filed the lawsuit at this time," Smith said. "They filed this suit without engaging us in any real way to resolve the issues. That certainly is a concern."
It was unclear whether the homebuilders are asking for fees already collected to be returned, or simply to have collections stopped. Allen Watts, an attorney for the homebuilders, did not return a call to his office Wednesday afternoon.
mark.harper@news-jrnl.com
Rene Stutzman
Sentinel Staff Writer
November 7, 2008
Dead Winter Park developer Steve Walsh owes banks and investors $255 million, his creditors claim, but the lawyer for Walsh's estate says they likely will never see a penny of it. Creditors as diverse as Wachovia and the city of Oviedo have filed claims in recent weeks, seeking to be repaid. Charles Stark, Walsh's attorney, said the estate is worth less than $6 million, however, and that the Internal Revenue Service will take most of it. The claims that have piled up in probate court, Stark said, "may just be a waste of paper." Already, one major creditor is focusing on other assets -- family property -- including more than $40 million in life-insurance benefits and nearly $5 million in real estate. Walsh, 61, shot himself in the chest behind his home June 25. As owner and managing partner of Broad Street Partners, he was one of the most prominent real-estate developers in Central Florida. He didn't start out that way. He had come to Central Florida in the 1990s, a twice-bankrupt developer, looking for a new start. He worked himself into the city's civic and business elite, building apartment complexes, pledging money to nonprofits and befriending high-powered bankers, lawyers and businesspeople. In 2007, before the construction market crumbled, his company had projects in the works valued at nearly $1 billion. One of them, the high-rise Tradition Towers, would have built two 39-story condominium buildings on the site of the University Club in Orlando. He was working on The Residences at Ravina, a $125 million condo development in downtown Maitland, and his company was one of the partners in The Carlisle, the four-story luxury condo proposed for downtown Winter Park that the city ultimately rejected. Walsh's good-guy profile, though, changed dramatically shortly after his death. One of his biggest investors, J. Steven Schrimsher, quickly filed a series of lawsuits, accusing Walsh of embezzling more than $20 million. In a claim filed last week, Schrimsher increased the total, accusing Walsh of embezzling $32 million. When all costs are added, the company says the estate owes it $42 million. According to the company's pleading, Walsh would shift money without authorization from a partnership account set up for a specific development -- an apartment complex near Mall at Millenia, for example -- and move it to his own business account, where he spent it. "We have financial evidence that the money was, indeed, converted. That we can confirm," said Schrimsher attorney Carla DeLoach Bryant. "Now, where it all went is part of an ongoing investigation." If there are virtually no assets in Walsh's estate, what happened to the money? "Obviously, we are investigating," DeLoach Bryant said.
Alachua passes new land use and zoning rules for future commercial, industrial use
ALACHUA – Following the approval of several land use and zoning changes Monday, the city of Alachua is on its way to having more places for commercial businesses and industry to be located.
The Commission unanimously approved changing the rules on five separate parcels of land by either changing their future land use or zoning, both of which regulate what can be built on the land in the future.
The future land use is a general category of regulation and the zoning is a more specific regulation.
The five parcels of land, all of which will need a second vote for the action to become official, are as follows:
* Changing the future land use on approximately .45 acres of land from moderate density residential to community commercial. The land is located at 15303 State Road 235 (N.W. 140 Street) near the intersection of U.S. 441 and S.R. 235.
* Changing the future land use on approximately 9.65 acres of land from agricultural to commercial. The land is located at 14169 N.W. U.S. 441 and 12727 N.W. 150 Avenue, near Hunter Marine.
* Changing the zoning on approximately 9.65 acres of land from agricultural to commercial intensive. The land is located at 14169 N.W. U.S. 441 and 12727 N.W. 150 Avenue, near Hunter Marine.
* Changing the zoning on approximately 53.79 acres of land from agricultural to commercial intensive. The land is located south of Peggy Road, north of C.R. 235 and just west of Interstate 75, near the Sysco Distribution Center.
* Changing the zoning on approximately 33.7 acres of land from agricultural to industrial general. The land is located in the 10700 block of N.W. C.R. 235, east of the Wal-Mart Distribution Center.
Some of the commissioners and some residents questioned issues from traffic concerns to tree preservation wishes, but the city attorney explained that those issues are addressed at future meetings when a more specific use of the land is being permitted.
Gene Godbold, a longtime friend of Walsh's, is managing his estate. According to him, the money is gone. "There are no assets," he said. "Basically it was spent on projects." So Schrimsher is suing to obtain assets not included in the estate, including life-insurance benefits. Walsh's widow, Paula, 68, already has received $1.45 million worth, according to court pleadings. She's also beneficiary of at least two other policies that will pay more than $10 million. In addition, at least $30 million worth of life insurance names Walsh's business as beneficiary. Schrimsher also is fighting to get control of Walsh's three homes: a $1.4 million house in Winter Park; a $2.6 million, 16-acre estate in Highlands, N.C.; and an $800,000 home in Charleston, S.C., owned by a company that Walsh served as registered agent. Paula Walsh would not comment for this story. "I don't talk to reporters," she said. But in court filings she says she did not know about or take part in any embezzlement scheme. Some creditors may be able to recover some of their money, DeLoach Bryant said, if their loans were secured by real estate and they sue to foreclose. Schrimsher has no secured loans, she said. Most of the claims filed against Walsh's estate are from banks. Carolina First Bank, of Greenville, S.C., tops the list, claiming it is owed $86 million, money lent to Walsh for several developments, as well as financing for his daughter's photography business. The bank's lawyer, Halcyon Skinner, did not return phone calls. Oviedo is demanding $5.6 million in connection with the Oviedo on the Park project, an unbuilt mixed-use development that was to include 430 apartments plus retail space, an amphitheater and a park. Shutts & Bowen, a law firm that works with developers, also has filed a claim, saying it is owed $488,000. Others seeking repayment include Ken Kupp, one of Walsh's Broad Street partners; Winter Park investor John T. Cash Jr.; and Orlando investor John J. Sharp. There also are dozens of individuals and family trusts that pooled their money with Schrimsher, who in turn invested in Broad Street projects. Not all claims involve land deals. Wordwise Inc., the Winter Park public-relations firm that Walsh used, claims it is owed $218,000, including $18,000 for work related to Walsh's funeral. Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394.
By Deborah Buckhalter Published: November 6, 2008
A nugget of good news has come out of bad for farmers with 10 acres or less of “base” acreage. Base acreage is used to determine certain subsidy payments and is based on planting history. In the new farm bill, passed in June of this year, farmers with 10 acres or less of base acreage were not eligible for the subsidy. However, an amendment passed in mid-October makes make them eligible in 2008, and also extends the time they have to sign up for the subsidy. “We’re very happy about it, although we wish it were for a longer period – there were efforts to make it apply to 2009 as well – so we’re trying to encourage everyone to come in in and get signed up,” said Sally Phillips, county executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency. “That Nov. 26 deadline is absolute, drop-dead, and there’s nothing we can do if they don’t come in on time. We’ve tried to let everyone know, but I’m sure there are still some people out there that we haven’t been able to reach yet, so we’re trying to put out the word in every way we can.” Phillips said the subsidy could be significant for some producers. Depending on how many 10-acre base farms they have, the subsidy could put another $1,000 in the pockets of some producers. “This is something that can help keep American farmers in the business, help them compete in the world market,” Phillips said. “Without them, where’s our food supply going to come from?” According to her figures, there are about 1,000 10-acre base farms in Jackson County which will now be eligible. Of those, about 100 were already eligible for the subsidy before the amendment was passed. Phillips said the farm bill includes an exemption to the 10-acre rule for socially disadvantaged and limited resource producers. The following is a press release from the USDA about the farm bill and the amendment discussed above:
New Policy for Farms with 10 or Less Base Acres The new farm bill, Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Act) was enacted on June 18, 2008. This Act provides that a producer on a farm will not receive direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, or average crop revenue election payments if the sum of the base acres of covered commodities and peanuts on the farm is 10 acres or less. This has commonly been referred to as the “10-acre provision.” However, H.R. 6849 was enacted on October 13, 2008, and provides for both of the following: ·Suspending the 10 acre provision for the 2008 crop year ·Extending the 2008 DCP signup for farms with 10 acres or less of covered commodities and peanut bases until November 26, 2008. H.R. 6849 was passed for 2008 only and does not extend to 2009. Farms with 10 acres or less of covered commodities and peanut bases may receive payments, provided all eligibility criteria have been met. Producers have until November 26, 2008, to initiate and complete enrollment of farms 10 acres or less. 2008 DCP. H.R. 6849 does not extend the DCP signup deadline for farms with greater than 10 base acres. Please visit the Jackson County FSA Office to sign up for your farm. Office hours are Monday thru Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. If you have any questions, you can call the office at (850) 526-2610, ext 2. 4 Florida officials charged with bribery, suspended
The Associated Press Published: November 6, 2008
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Four local government officials in Florida have been indicted on bribery charges and suspended from their posts in two Gulf coast counties.
Two Levy County commissioners and two men from Dixie County — a councilman and a city superintendent — were charged with bribery and making a false or fraudulent statement.
Gov. Charlie Crist issued executive orders suspending the men Wednesday.
Three of the men were arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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