Letter: Don't let commission bust urban service line

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Here they go again! Seven weeks after the County Commission primary election, Liberty Park’s proposed 991-home development is back on Tuesday’s agenda.

Pulled just before the primary, the developer is taking advantage of a huge Comprehensive Plan loophole to build a 586-acre Planned Development Traditional Neighborhood Design outside the urban service line.

This type of development can be considered “inside the urban service area” if any tiny portion of land straddles the line. The rest can cascade deep into our finest agriculture lands, eventually leading to sprawl.

Hopefully, our commissioners, all who ran on keeping development inside the urban line, will not approve this project — 88 percent of whose acreage sits outside the urban boundary — as our county is required to provide services (e.g., water and sewer) for the whole 576 acres.

Moreover, this project also wants to transfer density rights from 70 acres (unbuildable wetlands, actually) located inside the line out to their 516-acre low-density land outside the line. This is completely the reverse of good planning.

These developers want to move density from inside the USL, where roads, businesses, fire and police, and water and sewer are readily available, into the county’s productive agricultural area, where they are not.

Besides bad planning, this makes no sense, especially now when we have so many existing vacant homes and lots available.

This development will require new sources of drinking water since current capacity has been based on houses that are already in the pipeline. County roads in and around the U.S. 1, County Road 510 and 66th Avenue area already require upgrading without the addition of 991 homes — taxpayers paying, of course.

Once developments are approved, they often come back to get approval of even less desirable adjustments (e.g., Pointe West development, though originally a part of the “New Neighborhood Traditional Urbanism,” has now been approved for standard gated communities). This sets a bad example for future new villages.

Instead, commissioners should:

1.¥Reject Liberty Park. It sets a dangerous precedent for unwanted and unneeded development outside our boundary area, burdening taxpayers and our natural resources.

2.¥Direct planning staff to a) Establish guidelines for transferring development rights to and from the urban service area, b) Revisit all zoning regulations for loopholes such as this one.

Please call or e-mail commissioners, and attend Tuesday’s 9 a.m. meeting. Ask them to put the county first. �

Richard Baker

Sebastian

Baker is president of Pelican Island Audubon.�