"The pro-growth majority on the county commission is in a feeding frenzy"
From Maggy Hurchalla's Speech at the recent Citizens' Growth Management Forum:
You can't tell where you are going if you don't know where you are.
We all mostly agree that we are a green, low density, beautiful place with great rivers and beaches and good safe schools. We don't have regular drive by shootings and home invasion robberies. Our only significant violence is arguing about growth management.
The Business Development Board would like you to think that, though we have a great place to live, it's a terrible place to work and we have a terrible economy.
You have to stop letting them say that because it's not true.
We have one of the highest per capita tax bases in the state. We have the second highest per capita income in the state. Of ten counties in the 100,000 to 200,000 range, we are in the top three in wages per job. We have low millage. We have a higher percentage of manufacturing jobs than St. Lucie County. We have low unemployment. Our foreclosure rate is a fraction of the counties to the north and south of us.
Rather than bury you in statistics, I'll refer you to the more detailed hand out on Where We Are. The picture is rosy. You would think the business boosters would celebrate.
They keep saying its awful because that gives them a wedge issue to weaken the Comp Plan. The theory goes that if we don't loosen the rules and subsidize growth all but a privileged few will end up working as waiters.
When they tell you that, ask them what Florida county they would like to be like? Is there any other place that has a real track record of producing better quality of life statistics and economic statistics? Where?
We're going into a housing recession that is going to hurt and going to go on for awhile. All the boosterism and subsidies in the world aren't going to change that. If we hold onto our Comp Plan and our determination to be different, we will do better than most. If we give it up, we will be like all the others.
And where are we headed at this crossroads?
I would prefer to be able to speak in wise and moderate tones, but the fact is we are going to hell in a handbasket. The pro-growth majority on the county commission is in a feeding frenzy. The Comp Plan is at risk. There are so many awful things happening at once, they I will touch on them very briefly.
In the realm of things that have been adopted and are being challenged:
I. GAS STATION BIOTECH
That's the nickname for the idea that the only way to save the economy is to allow biotech on substandard sewage package plants at the I95 and Turnpike interchanges.
Grown up scientific companies don't use privies. Grownup communities don't allow substandard treatment for biologically hazardous waste.
It promises high paying jobs for Martin County residents and then locates it far away from Martin County residents. The idea seems to be to provide jobs for Port St. Lucie that can be easily accessed from the Turnpike and I95.
They failed to notice that Martin County has over 4000 acres designated for industrial land use and so far only 1000 acres have been developed.
They failed to notice that there are 6 Developments of Regional Impact in the newly annexed area west of PSL just north of the Martin County line. This does not include four more DRIs at the NW corner of PSL. Those nearest the county line plan for:
Residential units for over 85,000 people
Over 16 million square feet of non residential development (commercial, office, industrial) – the equivalent of 16 regional malls in square footage
800 motel rooms
They justified all this by comparing it to what might happen under the present rules. Martin County's expressway commercial land use currently limits development to what is needed by the traveling public on the expressways. You have to demonstrate a real need.
So county staff assumed that there will be a real need for 3900 motel rooms at Interstate 95 and 714. Using that assumption, they concluded that several million square feet of industrial would not cause any worse problems. Now I've been looking around at interchanges all the way to Miami and I can't find a single one that built 3900 motel rooms.
EORB – Expressway Oriented Research Biotech is another urban service boundary buster. The next thing will be whole new cities to go with promised industry.
II. UTILITIES EXTENSION
Commissioners have decided that wells and septic systems on two acre lots are dangerous. They have opined that they are dangerous anywhere and that the county has a public health, safety and welfare responsibility to amend the Plan so regional utilities can be extended into the Secondary Urban Service District.
Is there an inconsistency here? Package plants are fine for biotech facilities but two acre lots need regional utilities?
This amendment spells the end of the Secondary Urban Service District as a suburban rural buffer around the Primary Urban Boundary. Though the amendment limits expansion to the Secondary, the reasons given by the Commissioners justify providing regional water and sewer all the way out to Lake Okeechobee.
Meanwhile, a little more inconsistency. The Commission is making no effort at all to connect septic tanks inside the urban boundary. It's all about growth and finding ways to bust the urban boundary.
Why should you care? Because you will pay and pay and pay. The cost of stretching lines everywhere and pumping everywhere will be born by current residents. An expert on rural planning told the County during the Glatting Jackson Study that "When you allow utilities to expand beyond the urban service district, you have no urban service district.
III. VALLIERE
About the best that can be said is that at least we don't have to talk about Glatting Jackson anymore. $400,000 down the drain and they don't even have the decency to be embarrassed.
Instead we have the biggest urban boundary buster of them all – the Valliere Amendment.
Because Doug Smith broke his promise and voted to defend the amendment in the face of DCA's non compliance finding, the fight over the amendment will continue. The Alliance has challenged it. It is inconsistent with Martin County's Comprehensive Plan.
But apart from the specific planning issues, what's so infuriating is how really, really bad the amendment is. They were in such a rush to get it through that they kept stepping on their tails.
It pretends to limit density by declaring that residential capacity will be maintained. But … catch 22… residential capacity doesn't include units outside the urban boundary where the Valliere amendment applies.
It pretends to limit future density changes, but it only refers to density changes made by land use amendments. Massive density changes made by text amendments would be quite legal.
It pretends to preserve land, but it allows an owner, under an agricultural easement, to use half his land for rock mining and put two acre lots on the rest – that's not preservation.
It pretends to be about getting free land for river restoration, but it is so cleverly written that it does not deliver on that promise. The fine print says only land within the PUD will be donated – that's land inside the two acre lot development that will be totally useless for restoration projects.
The larger thesis is: "TRUST US" . We are assured that, though the Valliere Amendment allows many bad things, they would never happen because you can trust your commissioners to always protect you.
If you believe that, let me introduce you to the people who live around Pitchford's Landing.
In the realm of things that are happening:
A. DENSITY TRANSITION
With Pitchford's and a half dozen other developments they have approved, the Commissioners decided that the density transition policy in the comp plan really didn't mean what it says.
DiT has suggested giving up on the comp plan policy through out of court settlements. Others insist that density transition really doesn't call for density transition, it's just about apartment buildings.
It shows another pattern that is becoming clear. First you ignore the comp plan, then you weaken the policy because you say you have to because you ignored it for so long.
B. BUSINESS SUBSIDIES
Some years back Martin County residents were asked to vote on business subsidies. They said "No."
The Business Development Board says that is an anti-business attitude. They couldn't be further from the truth.
Good businessmen run sustainable businesses that make money because they are run well. Good developers buy land that has the land use designation they want and they build according to the rules.
The annoying part of the pitch is that they frequently say how much they love the small businessman and how much we need low cost rental housing. But the folks who will pay the most for new business subsidies are the small businesses and the rental properties that do not have a 3% assessment cap. The folks who are working hard in a recession are going to be asked to pay to bring new business here.
The County needs to cut $26 million from its budget. They are closing parks and libraries. They are cutting back on bus service for the aging. They are cutting the Sheriff's budget.
The state has to cut a billion and a half. They are cutting education.
This is not the time to come up with programs that defer impact fees and "give back" half the taxes to anyone who moves to town.
First, you don't do things like that when you have a real fiscal crisis on your hands.
Second, you don't do things like that unless you've got hard evidence that it is good for the community and it is an investment that will pay off.
Let's go back to the beginning.
Where are we?
We are in very good shape vis a vis other Florida counties.
The County Administrator says we are way behind St. Lucie County. They give subsidies. We don't. In reality, their economy is worse on every measurable score. What we've been doing works.
The same can be said for Martin County's planning policies. Look north. Look south. What we have done has worked.
It is not passé. It is not outmoded. It has not been superceded by ways of doing things that have proved to be better.
But we are at a crossroads. Only you can keep us going in the right direction.
C. EAR
Now here we are with some idea of where we are and great pressures to move somewhere else.
In a better world we would have the solution at hand – the County's Evaluation and Appraisal Report is due. The state requires them to see how the Plan is working.
The County has hired a consultant who has filled over 400 pages with words.
The trouble is that the first hearing is on Tuesday.
Ready. Get Set. Go. You have three minutes to discuss the future of the County.
What to do with the EAR? It is a challenge.
McFuture has a solution for you. Concentrate on the vision. Dispense with the outmoded Plan. Build regional roads in the boondocks so everyone will go out there and drive and not crowd your roads. Put more growth in the rural areas so it won't locate next to you. Incentivize! Give things to developers so they will do good things.
As I've said before: "Feeding the ogre outside the urban boundary doesn't make the ogre inside the boundary any less hungry."
That is a topic we've covered before. It is Glatting Jackson by way of Mary Dawson and Tom McNicholas. They never want any restrictions in town but they promise your problems will go away if you just let developers have more options out of town.
And I have no such simplistic solution for you.
It would be nice to demand that they get this compatibility thing right and stop locating inappropriately intense uses next to existing neighborhoods...
It would be nice to demand that they get the traffic right. The consultant concludes that they always meet the Level of Service requirements. If you are astute, you will notice that this is because the requirements are infinitely flexible. If you can't meet the LOS you declare an interim LOS.
It would be nice if they discussed the reality (and unreality) of making growth pay for itself. The consultant concludes that all the policies are in place to make growth pay for itself. They do not explain or even explore the fact that the County is broke and growth is not paying for itself.
On EAR I would suggest:
- That you take your favorite issue and discuss it.
- That you submit written comments on how it should be handled.
- That you insist that NO recommendations should be made unless there is current accurate data and analysis to back it up.
- That you point out that the scope of the recommendations is a fiscal nightmare. Nowhere does it say how the County will pay for all the things it says the County should do. The EAR should not be adopted until there is a financial component that assures that the Comp Plans policies for fiscal conservatism are followed.
- That you ask that no recommendations to change the Plan be included without a clear evaluation showing that they are internally consistent with the Comp Plan.
Finally you might say that they should take the time to do this right instead of submitting a pile of papers and calling it done.
What are the chances of overcoming the avalanche of bad things that are happening?
I'd say they were pretty slim if I hadn't lived in Martin County for 39 years.
You can do it. Only you can do it. |
