This is a response to an earlier article printed in the June 6 St.Petersburg Times about Citizens for Sanity . That article follows after this response. tlh
Greetings SPTimes,
Just wanted to bring to your attention our feelings and actions in regards to your failure to even respond or allow for Citizens to respond to this editorial and your continued slanted coverage of our group, it's positions and actions over the last 10 years.
Truly back when the newspapers were the main source of people's news of the day you were able to influence the public's perception of the events of the day. Fortunately we live in a changing world where the tools of influence have changed and your biased, slanted reporting is NOT the only game in town.
More importantly is the fact that we, the public have fostered other more widely and reliable sources of accurate reporting of the news: the internet, blogs, alternative publications and radio. Even more the use of word of mouth, through networking and the "tree effect", those who receive this email forward it on to others throughout the state, so that it grows exponentially.
Like here, this is being shared with a HUGE elist (Bcc) where those participating know to post this information to web sites, blogs and alternative publication in an effort to get the truth out. That is not to mention how many people belonging to groups and organizations throughout the bay area will forward this out to their membership lists.
This becomes an important means of getting the truth out, setting the record straight and exposing how our supposedly "liberal" newspaper isn't at all. Not only are they NOT liberal or progressive but unfair with biased and slanted reporting that ignores the truth while seeking to disparage and demonize those seeing to create positive change in their communities by fighting for what is right and in the public's best interest.
Not to worry, when you failed to even have the common courtesy of a response, we began circulating this response. Then found it posted on blogs and web sites thruoghout the Bay area in places where people who want real and accurate news go to find it.
Lastly, we do find it most amazing that this paper has in the past allowed for those whose group/organization or individual were disparaged by your "news"paper were given equal time to respond but not ours or me. We have been fodder for your "creative writing", misrepresentations, slants and outright lies for all too long. So in the future when you want comment from our organization here it is: "NO COMMENT!"
Thanks for your time and consideration.
With highest regards,
Clay G. Colson
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Time to refocus on environment promise
Published Saturday, June 6, 2009
The end of an environmental challenge to the potential site for a large-scale, high-wage employer in central Pasco shouldn't end county government's attention to the environmental advocacy from Citizens for Sanity. While commissioners, state lawmakers and county administrators breathed a collective sigh of relief after clearing a roadblock to luring T. Rowe Price to a site along State Road 54, they also should take stock in the level of frustration that motivated the challenge.
Citizens' Clay Colson focused much of the fight on the size of a wetland on the targeted site, but a list of unfulfilled settlement demands from the group presented to the county previously is more relevant because it included items that have been in limbo for a decade. Most notably, the group made the reasonable request of Pasco County to abide its wildlife corridor designations and to establish wildlife-protection ordinances.
It's the same issue that's been bouncing around the government center for a decade, ever since Citizens for Sanity sued the county over the rezoning of land that is now home to the Oakstead subdivision in Land O'Lakes. At the time of that 1999 rezoning, commissioners discovered they had never enacted an ordinance spelling out criteria for wildlife studies of undeveloped land as its comprehensive land plan mandated. In settling the suit, the county agreed to the concept of wildlife corridors — paths linking preserved land to allow animals to travel to new habitats — and included the provision in the rewrite of the land plan. However, the commission has yet to adopt an enacting ordinance to enforce the rules.
In the meantime, following the protections has been arbitrary. A consultant and the county's biologist have advocated wildlife corridors at a minimum width of 2,200 feet, but commissioners rejected that argument last fall without hearing the scientific rationalization for the standard. Instead, they allowed the developer of a proposed project in Shady Hills to reduce the corridor to as little as 100 feet, a decision later overturned by the Department of Community Affairs. No wonder environmentalists are trying to jump-start county activity.
We do not agree with all of the Citizens for Sanity agenda and its attempt to scuttle an unrelated economic development proposal as a way to leverage its positions elsewhere damaged its credibility. The group, the public faces of which are just two men, Colson and Dan Rametta, bills itself as slow-growth advocates. But the T. Rowe Price project is intended to help the county combat its bedroom community identity that promotes sprawl, traffic congestion, lost productivity and an overreliance on construction and service industry jobs to support the economy. The expensive deal that includes $30 million worth of incentives is supposed to bring more than 400 jobs to Pasco at the outset and 1,200 more over the next decade. Citizens should embrace the idea of getting people a better opportunity to work closer to home.
The county's economic recruiting dodged a bullet on this one because the underfunded Citizens for Sanity does not have the ability to finance protracted litigation or to absorb assessed legal costs if unsuccessful.
But that doesn't invalidate portions of the group's environmental agenda and the commission shouldn't give it short shrift. It is foolish to wait for yet more litigation before completing promised protections for wildlife.
Citizens for Sanity is a varied group of concerned citizens with grave concerns for our precious limited resources, such as water, and our quality of life which is constantly being negatively impacted by inept planning with little attention to what is truly in the public's best interests.
We are a well founded, not-for-profit state corporation which attained federal 501c3 status. Our recent challenge to Southwest Florida Water Management District's (SWFWMD) first Environmental Resources Permit (ERP) for the Long Lake Ranch Development of Regional Impact (LLR DRI) has garnered us many new members. Our common purpose is “to improve quality of life and preserve our natural environment.”
We are consistently referred to as environmentalists instead of community activists. As defined by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary each and everyone of you is an environmentalist. Environment is “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded,” in other words your home, neighborhood, community and Pasco County. So we all are environmentalist because we care about the circumstances, objects and conditions surrounding us. Welcome aboard!
Back in 1999 Clay Colson and Citizens for Sanity sued Pasco over the rezoning of the Milo Thomas Ranch, which is presently Oakstead. However, it was Citizens, along with Judy Williams, Nancy Rosenberg and Jennifer Seney, who sued Pasco over the 1999 Amendments to our Comprehensive Plan (Complan), a citizens' blueprint for growth in our county. It was during this litigation that we discovered Pasco was in direct violation of the state's Growth Management Act of 1985. Pasco failed to implement the Conservation Elements (CE) of the Complan through ordinances as required by law –
and it remains that way to this day, 23 years later!
Pasco County had over 100 developers and large landowners intervene in that case to protect their rights to ravage your county. Citizens and the four plaintiffs entered into a settlement agreement with Pasco and the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to implement the CE of the complan by ordinance to protect wetlands, wildlife habitat and range as well as to establish wildlife corridors. Pasco is currently in direct violation of the law and our settlement agreement, ALL of which was to be enforced by the DCA.
Our challenge was NEVER about T. Rowe Price (TRP) but was instead about the needless, unwarranted and unjustifiable destruction of fully functioning wetlands in the LLR DRI, which is positioned directly adjacent to and surrounding the South Pasco Wellfield, a major source of your drinking water supply. TRP received the first permit of the DRI as it was expedited through a severely flawed and improper Basis Of Review (BOR) by SWFWMD.
SWFWMD failed in many areas of the BOR, not the least of which was the blatantly flawed delineation of wetland E-9 as only 0.236 acres. The true nature of wetland E-9 is 1.8 to 2.2 acres of Class I wetlands as defined under Chapter 62.340 Florida Statutes when properly delineated by appropriately accepted scientific methodology – all of which was to be needlessly destroyed for 18-20 parking spaces while TRP proposed to build 3 multi-story parking garages.
Ask yourselves this simple question: If the applicant and SWFWMD were confident of their delineation of wetland E-9 then why not defend that position in a court of law instead of working to exclude any testimony to the contrary? Is it that they are afraid of the truth? Anytime the applicant and SWFWMD want to match scientific facts in an open forum we will be glad to prove the truth!
This of course is the actual reason we dismissed our petition against SWFWMD, as the crux of our action was wetland E-9. Being excluded from presenting any evidence or testimony to the contrary undercut the basis of our challenge. To go forward would have exposed our organization to the potential assessment of overwhelming legal fees. This does not mean that our action was unwarranted or frivolous. It just means that the other side, through various ploys and deep pockets, undermined our case. This was the only way for them to prevail.
As for Citizens using this as leverage against Pasco, it is simply not true. Commission Chairman Jack Mariano called no less than six times to ask what they could do to make our challenge disappear. Begrudgingly we agreed to a confidential meeting with him and John Gallagher in which, per their request, we submitted a list of Citizens' demands. After the meeting was over, Mr. Gallagher, in direct violation of the terms of the meeting, faxed our list to reporters and accused us of filing our action for false reasons. These are the people who are running your county!
The first item on the list was Leave the wetlands alone! Not just on that site but for all future development in the county. Doing so would have settled this and all future actions we might undertake against any development permits. Simply leave the wetlands alone! Had that been done, there would be nothing more to do. This has always been about wetlands protection and nothing else.
This demand is based on the facts that your precious water supply is in eminent danger, not just from drought, but also from poor policies and untoward politics. By failing to protect the intricate systems which recharge our severely depleted Floridan Aquifer, we are experiencing salt water intrusion at rates never before measured. Groundwater levels are at lows never previously seen.
Wetlands are the second major mechanism of recharge to our severely depleted aquifer (the first being undisturbed uplands). Our precious remaining wetlands serve as a major means of flood control, they collect, capture and contain our precious rain water while slowly filtering and allowing it to percolate down to replenish our aquifer. They provide habitat and range for many forms of wildlife. And they are certainly more beautiful than any parking lot.
Yet our elected officials and the agencies directed to protect our wetlands continue to do the same things over and over and over again, expecting a different result. Isn't that the definition of insanity?
Sincerely,
Clay G. Colson
Board Director and Water Issues Chair
Citizens for Sanity.Com, Inc.
citizensforsanity.com
We are a well founded, not-for-profit state corporation which attained federal 501c3 status. Our recent challenge to Southwest Florida Water Management District's (SWFWMD) first Environmental Resources Permit (ERP) for the Long Lake Ranch Development of Regional Impact (LLR DRI) has garnered us many new members. Our common purpose is “to improve quality of life and preserve our natural environment.”
We are consistently referred to as environmentalists instead of community activists. As defined by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary each and everyone of you is an environmentalist. Environment is “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded,” in other words your home, neighborhood, community and Pasco County. So we all are environmentalist because we care about the circumstances, objects and conditions surrounding us. Welcome aboard!
Back in 1999 Clay Colson and Citizens for Sanity sued Pasco over the rezoning of the Milo Thomas Ranch, which is presently Oakstead. However, it was Citizens, along with Judy Williams, Nancy Rosenberg and Jennifer Seney, who sued Pasco over the 1999 Amendments to our Comprehensive Plan (Complan), a citizens' blueprint for growth in our county. It was during this litigation that we discovered Pasco was in direct violation of the state's Growth Management Act of 1985. Pasco failed to implement the Conservation Elements (CE) of the Complan through ordinances as required by law –
and it remains that way to this day, 23 years later!
Pasco County had over 100 developers and large landowners intervene in that case to protect their rights to ravage your county. Citizens and the four plaintiffs entered into a settlement agreement with Pasco and the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to implement the CE of the complan by ordinance to protect wetlands, wildlife habitat and range as well as to establish wildlife corridors. Pasco is currently in direct violation of the law and our settlement agreement, ALL of which was to be enforced by the DCA.
Our challenge was NEVER about T. Rowe Price (TRP) but was instead about the needless, unwarranted and unjustifiable destruction of fully functioning wetlands in the LLR DRI, which is positioned directly adjacent to and surrounding the South Pasco Wellfield, a major source of your drinking water supply. TRP received the first permit of the DRI as it was expedited through a severely flawed and improper Basis Of Review (BOR) by SWFWMD.
SWFWMD failed in many areas of the BOR, not the least of which was the blatantly flawed delineation of wetland E-9 as only 0.236 acres. The true nature of wetland E-9 is 1.8 to 2.2 acres of Class I wetlands as defined under Chapter 62.340 Florida Statutes when properly delineated by appropriately accepted scientific methodology – all of which was to be needlessly destroyed for 18-20 parking spaces while TRP proposed to build 3 multi-story parking garages.
Ask yourselves this simple question: If the applicant and SWFWMD were confident of their delineation of wetland E-9 then why not defend that position in a court of law instead of working to exclude any testimony to the contrary? Is it that they are afraid of the truth? Anytime the applicant and SWFWMD want to match scientific facts in an open forum we will be glad to prove the truth!
This of course is the actual reason we dismissed our petition against SWFWMD, as the crux of our action was wetland E-9. Being excluded from presenting any evidence or testimony to the contrary undercut the basis of our challenge. To go forward would have exposed our organization to the potential assessment of overwhelming legal fees. This does not mean that our action was unwarranted or frivolous. It just means that the other side, through various ploys and deep pockets, undermined our case. This was the only way for them to prevail.
As for Citizens using this as leverage against Pasco, it is simply not true. Commission Chairman Jack Mariano called no less than six times to ask what they could do to make our challenge disappear. Begrudgingly we agreed to a confidential meeting with him and John Gallagher in which, per their request, we submitted a list of Citizens' demands. After the meeting was over, Mr. Gallagher, in direct violation of the terms of the meeting, faxed our list to reporters and accused us of filing our action for false reasons. These are the people who are running your county!
The first item on the list was Leave the wetlands alone! Not just on that site but for all future development in the county. Doing so would have settled this and all future actions we might undertake against any development permits. Simply leave the wetlands alone! Had that been done, there would be nothing more to do. This has always been about wetlands protection and nothing else.
This demand is based on the facts that your precious water supply is in eminent danger, not just from drought, but also from poor policies and untoward politics. By failing to protect the intricate systems which recharge our severely depleted Floridan Aquifer, we are experiencing salt water intrusion at rates never before measured. Groundwater levels are at lows never previously seen.
Wetlands are the second major mechanism of recharge to our severely depleted aquifer (the first being undisturbed uplands). Our precious remaining wetlands serve as a major means of flood control, they collect, capture and contain our precious rain water while slowly filtering and allowing it to percolate down to replenish our aquifer. They provide habitat and range for many forms of wildlife. And they are certainly more beautiful than any parking lot.
Yet our elected officials and the agencies directed to protect our wetlands continue to do the same things over and over and over again, expecting a different result. Isn't that the definition of insanity?
Sincerely,
Clay G. Colson
Board Director and Water Issues Chair
Citizens for Sanity.Com, Inc.
citizensforsanity.com
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A Times Editorial http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1006369.ece
Governor Gridlock
In Print: Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Gov. Charlie Crist just made it easier to pave over what's left of Florida. By signing SB 360 into law Monday, the governor clearly values the voices of developers and big business — and their campaign checks for his U.S. Senate campaign — over the concerns of environmentalists and local governments. Crist set growth management back more than 20 years and left a permanent stain on his legacy.
With a stroke of the pen, the governor removed the most powerful tools to manage growth, require road improvements and prevent overdevelopment. No longer will governments be able to require most developers to pay for the road improvements needed to handle the traffic their projects generate. No longer will enormous developments such as those proposed for the site of the old Bay Area Outlet Mall in mid Pinellas or the controversial SunWest Harbourtowne in northwest Pasco be subjected to a broad study of their effect on neighboring communities. And in another gift, key state and local development permits are now automatically good for another two years.
For developers, Christmas came on the first day of June. Floridians will be paying for it for years.
Once again, this was another botched opportunity for the governor and the Legislature to look further ahead than the next election and the next campaign contribution. There was broad agreement that transportation concurrency is unnecessary in urban settings such as downtown St. Petersburg or Tampa. But this new law goes well beyond any reasonable definition of urban and will end transportation concurrency in small towns and suburbia as well. There also was broad consensus that the Development of Regional Impact process was too cumbersome and needed an overhaul. The simplistic answer in this new law is to essentially abolish the entire DRI review, leaving communities adjacent to giant projects outside their own boundaries with little recourse for coping with the fallout.
In a short news release, the governor's office does not attempt to justify those failures. It says "incentivizes entrepreneurs'' when it should say "free pass to developers.'' It notes that the law requires the study of a new mobility fee that developers could pay for transportation. But there is no requirement for a new fee. If the Legislature would not keep transportation concurrency this year, it is naive to suggest, as Crist did, that it would adopt a new mobility fee next year with elections looming.
Signing this bill into law is one of the most serious mistakes Crist has made since taking office in 2007, and it is at odds with the rest of his record. The governor who appointed growth management expert Tom Pelham to head the Department of Community Affairs has just eviscerated growth management. The champion of restoring the Everglades has just endorsed urban sprawl. And the booster of better mass transit and visionary rail systems has just become Governor Gridlock.
Monday, June 1, 2009
What a most telling and interesting article
It is amazing that almost 10 long years later, after 10,000 new homes and the virtual destruction of almost all of our transportation nodes, newly created in the last decade, that ya'll exercised your intellect to have some high paid consultant, Urban Land Institute (ULI), explain to you the EXACT same thing that Dr. Octavio Blanco and myself told ya'll back then!
I even gave ya'll and the CAC books on the subjects of planning and land use to edify yourselves (see 2000 article, tampa trib, J. Fox). They are probably being used as door stops somewhere in the county, just as Harry Wright and I witnessed with a volume of our Complan, it is certain they were never read. This is witnessed by our present state of affairs in this county where the ONLY property rights that matter are those of large land owners and developers, no one else has any! Of course this is true for our whole state as is evidenced by the New Yorker magazine's 40 page article of February 14-19, 2009 titled "The Ponzi State", a very good read if you want to know how we got to where we are!
Most interesting though is that you choose to ignore their most expen$ive advice!!! It is understandable though, oh not because you are stupid Pat, but more because ya'll are stuck in a mind set unable to visualize the BIG picture. Mr. Gehring is right as rain, the tip of the iceberg is the only warning you are going to get, just ask the souls of the Titanic! The idea that this is only 5 small, insignificant acres and therefore makes no difference, well the Chinese have a name for that ... the Death of a Thousand Cuts! It is about the small, insignificant, incremental actions we take, like this 5 acres, which when put with the 1,000 others that ya'll viewed in the same way, results in something hugely detrimental ... like death, this failure is irreversible!
This mentality is also best illustrated by our current water crisis that no one wants to call a crisis or take any of the truly difficult steps to properly deal with it, just stick your head in the sand and hope it gets better!! Of course to do that you must 1st recognize the true nature of our crisis, it is MANMADE! Not drought, not weather but poor policies and politics as we drain the swamps for more development to create more demand for more water!!!
Development traditionally goes on the undisturbed uplands which provides the highest quality recharge to our severely depleted aquifer, while the 2nd highest quality recharge, our wetlands, are also allowed to be plowed under for even more development and water demands. Wetlands provide amazing functions which cannot and are not duplicated through "creation" or mitigation.
See for yourselves, just LOOK at the monstrosities that represent this failed policy; they can NEVER pass the delineation procedures of any agency to be found "functional". Yet these agencies ACOE, FDEP and SWFWMD continually permit the needless, unwarranted, unjustified and clearly avoidable destruction of our 2nd best method of recharge to our severely depleted aquifer, our wetlands! There are NO isolated wetlands ALL are connected to our aquifer and even a severely degraded wetland provides more function than anything the agencies approve to mitigate their destruction.
Most importantly are the functions provided by wetlands as a natural means of flood control to collect, capture and contain our precious rain water and then to filter it while allowing it to slowly percolate down to our severely depleted Floridan Aquifer. These functions alone are reason enough to protect every wetland left, yet there are additional functions provided such as wildlife habitat for foraging, nesting, aesthetics and conservation.
We have already destroyed more than 100,000 acres of wetlands in our state and you wonder why we have a water crisis, this IS the Death of a Thousand Cuts to our severely depleted groundwater resources! And yet the permitted destruction continues unabated. Our local governments are the 1st to blame for their shortsightedness and false belief that the agencies authorized to protect will do so even when they personally know that will NOT happen.
However it allows them to pass the buck, ditching their responsibilities to their constituents!
The agencies themselves, especially at the top, are corrupt to the core. When you confront them as to their failures to protect and enforce the rules they pass the buck right back to our elected officials. They argue that because the local municipality authorized it they are now required to make it work, a vicious cycle of blame.
That giant sucking sound you hear is why we are in Land of used to be Lakes as Tampa Bay Water exceeds their groundwater permit by more than double and SWFWMD fails to regulate not just TBW but hundreds of other users industry, mining, agriculture, golf courses, the list is endless! But YOU must conserve while they permit more and more users while destroying the last remaining mechanisms to replenish our severely depleted water resources.
The end result will be irreversible ... salt water intrusion into our aquifer is occurring at an amazing rate. Just as Pinellas destroyed their portion of the Floridan Aquifer by salt water intrusion while ignoring the warnings and the science, the tip of the iceberg! TBW, FDEP, SWFWMD, ACOE, EPA and your elected local officials are destroying what is left of ours one wetland at a time!!! The Death of a Thousand Cuts.
My point is that despite, nay in the face of overwhelming warnings from scientific research, professional advice, educated minds and the very nose upon their faces our elected officials continue to do the same things over and over again expecting a different result ... isn't that the definition of insanity?
With highest regards, peace and be well,
Clay G. Colson
Board Director and Water Issues Chair
Citizens for Sanity.Com, Inc.
I even gave ya'll and the CAC books on the subjects of planning and land use to edify yourselves (see 2000 article, tampa trib, J. Fox). They are probably being used as door stops somewhere in the county, just as Harry Wright and I witnessed with a volume of our Complan, it is certain they were never read. This is witnessed by our present state of affairs in this county where the ONLY property rights that matter are those of large land owners and developers, no one else has any! Of course this is true for our whole state as is evidenced by the New Yorker magazine's 40 page article of February 14-19, 2009 titled "The Ponzi State", a very good read if you want to know how we got to where we are!
Most interesting though is that you choose to ignore their most expen$ive advice!!! It is understandable though, oh not because you are stupid Pat, but more because ya'll are stuck in a mind set unable to visualize the BIG picture. Mr. Gehring is right as rain, the tip of the iceberg is the only warning you are going to get, just ask the souls of the Titanic! The idea that this is only 5 small, insignificant acres and therefore makes no difference, well the Chinese have a name for that ... the Death of a Thousand Cuts! It is about the small, insignificant, incremental actions we take, like this 5 acres, which when put with the 1,000 others that ya'll viewed in the same way, results in something hugely detrimental ... like death, this failure is irreversible!
This mentality is also best illustrated by our current water crisis that no one wants to call a crisis or take any of the truly difficult steps to properly deal with it, just stick your head in the sand and hope it gets better!! Of course to do that you must 1st recognize the true nature of our crisis, it is MANMADE! Not drought, not weather but poor policies and politics as we drain the swamps for more development to create more demand for more water!!!
Development traditionally goes on the undisturbed uplands which provides the highest quality recharge to our severely depleted aquifer, while the 2nd highest quality recharge, our wetlands, are also allowed to be plowed under for even more development and water demands. Wetlands provide amazing functions which cannot and are not duplicated through "creation" or mitigation.
See for yourselves, just LOOK at the monstrosities that represent this failed policy; they can NEVER pass the delineation procedures of any agency to be found "functional". Yet these agencies ACOE, FDEP and SWFWMD continually permit the needless, unwarranted, unjustified and clearly avoidable destruction of our 2nd best method of recharge to our severely depleted aquifer, our wetlands! There are NO isolated wetlands ALL are connected to our aquifer and even a severely degraded wetland provides more function than anything the agencies approve to mitigate their destruction.
Most importantly are the functions provided by wetlands as a natural means of flood control to collect, capture and contain our precious rain water and then to filter it while allowing it to slowly percolate down to our severely depleted Floridan Aquifer. These functions alone are reason enough to protect every wetland left, yet there are additional functions provided such as wildlife habitat for foraging, nesting, aesthetics and conservation.
We have already destroyed more than 100,000 acres of wetlands in our state and you wonder why we have a water crisis, this IS the Death of a Thousand Cuts to our severely depleted groundwater resources! And yet the permitted destruction continues unabated. Our local governments are the 1st to blame for their shortsightedness and false belief that the agencies authorized to protect will do so even when they personally know that will NOT happen.
However it allows them to pass the buck, ditching their responsibilities to their constituents!
The agencies themselves, especially at the top, are corrupt to the core. When you confront them as to their failures to protect and enforce the rules they pass the buck right back to our elected officials. They argue that because the local municipality authorized it they are now required to make it work, a vicious cycle of blame.
That giant sucking sound you hear is why we are in Land of used to be Lakes as Tampa Bay Water exceeds their groundwater permit by more than double and SWFWMD fails to regulate not just TBW but hundreds of other users industry, mining, agriculture, golf courses, the list is endless! But YOU must conserve while they permit more and more users while destroying the last remaining mechanisms to replenish our severely depleted water resources.
The end result will be irreversible ... salt water intrusion into our aquifer is occurring at an amazing rate. Just as Pinellas destroyed their portion of the Floridan Aquifer by salt water intrusion while ignoring the warnings and the science, the tip of the iceberg! TBW, FDEP, SWFWMD, ACOE, EPA and your elected local officials are destroying what is left of ours one wetland at a time!!! The Death of a Thousand Cuts.
My point is that despite, nay in the face of overwhelming warnings from scientific research, professional advice, educated minds and the very nose upon their faces our elected officials continue to do the same things over and over again expecting a different result ... isn't that the definition of insanity?
With highest regards, peace and be well,
Clay G. Colson
Board Director and Water Issues Chair
Citizens for Sanity.Com, Inc.
Land-use fuss is look into future
Where it meets State Road 54, Trinity Boulevard is lined with brush and trees - a condition that might make the casual observer wonder what all the fuss was about this week when developers sought to make changes to their plans for the intersection.
Adam Smith Enterprises, which is developing the eastern parts of Trinity - a 20-year-old project between S.R. 54 and the Pinellas County line - asked the county for permission to shift five acres of future retail land from the east side of Trinity Boulevard to the west side.
That kind of request isn't uncommon for a project as large and as old as Trinity. But it came at a time when county officials are trying to reform the way they do business with developers, particularly those whose land is earmarked for job creation.
Those changes are growing out of last year's visit by the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advises communities on issues of growth and management. ULI had sharp words for Pasco County, among them: Protect your future employment sites.
About 80,000 people - half of Pasco County's work force - commute to Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for jobs. Pasco officials would like to stem that tide and maybe even reverse it by turning the S.R. 54 corridor into a magnet for high-wage employers - a strategy that got strong support from ULI.
Land loss would be 'tip of iceberg'
As the county works toward formally adopting ULI's guidelines, this week's debate over Adam Smith's five acres offers a peek into the future when the county's new philosophy toward development is likely to run headlong again into landowners' plans for their property.
The crux of Adam Smith's request was this: shifting the retail space to the other side of Trinity Boulevard took five acres away from Trinity Corporate Center, a site the developer has set aside for a high-end industrial park.
Five years after the developers demolished the North Tampa Executive Airport to make way for it, the corporate center has yet to sprout a major employer. Its only tenant at the moment is a gas station, but the potential for jobs is there.
That was the reason Richard Gehring, the county's new growth management administrator, gave for opposing the request. It was a decision that put him at odds with Adam Smith officials and with the majority of the county commission.
"The loss of these five acres are, to us, the tip of the iceberg," Gehring said. "Those jobs we're trying to get to come up and stay here - this is where they should go."
The corporate center's position within a few miles of both northern Hillsborough and northern Pinellas counties makes it vital to the county's plans for luring work north, Gehring said.
"This land use doesn't move real fast when we're in a recession cycle," Gehring said of the industrial land. "But you have to have a site when the economy recovers."
Adam Smith officials insisted shifting the retail site across Trinity Boulevard wouldn't spell the end for future job growth in the area.
"We're going to build every square foot of entitlements that we have," said Lew Friedland, president of the development company.
Friedland said the ongoing debate over the five acres is putting the rest of the property at risk.
"We have been held up to the point where we have people who want to build on our property who believe we have no support from this county," Friedland said.
Commission votes to support swap
Wednesday's debate descended briefly into accusations of lying and misrepresentation, culminating with Commissioner Pat Mulieri chastising Gehring directly for his handling of the situation.
"I almost feel you're saying we're stupid sitting up here," Mulieri told Gehring. "I feel we're sitting here, and you're saying we don't know what we're doing."
Gehring, on his 47th day working for Pasco County, defended his position regarding the five-acre tract by citing the ULI study's recommendations.
"All I'm trying to do is protect employment," Gehring said.
In the end, commissioners voted 4-1 to support Adam Smith's land swap.
Commission Chairman Jack Mariano, one of the county's staunchest supporters of the ULI study, dissented. Mariano cited a recent survey of county residents where only 10 percent said the county offered enough job opportunities.
"We've got a chance to really capitalize on the S.R 54 corridor," Mariano said. "We already gave up prime land for a gas station."
On Thursday, Mulieri defended her vote in favor of the land swap as important to protect the developers' property rights.
"I just felt that it was the right thing to do," Mulieri said. "I don't think this five acres will cause the whole ULI process to implode."
Commissioner Michael Cox said Thursday he understood Gehring's "tip of the iceberg" argument regarding the land swap and the county's loyalty to the ULI study.
"That's a valid point," Cox said. "But we haven't implemented the ULI study yet. The point will be well-taken six months or a year from now."
Adam Smith Enterprises, which is developing the eastern parts of Trinity - a 20-year-old project between S.R. 54 and the Pinellas County line - asked the county for permission to shift five acres of future retail land from the east side of Trinity Boulevard to the west side.
That kind of request isn't uncommon for a project as large and as old as Trinity. But it came at a time when county officials are trying to reform the way they do business with developers, particularly those whose land is earmarked for job creation.
Those changes are growing out of last year's visit by the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advises communities on issues of growth and management. ULI had sharp words for Pasco County, among them: Protect your future employment sites.
About 80,000 people - half of Pasco County's work force - commute to Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for jobs. Pasco officials would like to stem that tide and maybe even reverse it by turning the S.R. 54 corridor into a magnet for high-wage employers - a strategy that got strong support from ULI.
Land loss would be 'tip of iceberg'
As the county works toward formally adopting ULI's guidelines, this week's debate over Adam Smith's five acres offers a peek into the future when the county's new philosophy toward development is likely to run headlong again into landowners' plans for their property.
The crux of Adam Smith's request was this: shifting the retail space to the other side of Trinity Boulevard took five acres away from Trinity Corporate Center, a site the developer has set aside for a high-end industrial park.
Five years after the developers demolished the North Tampa Executive Airport to make way for it, the corporate center has yet to sprout a major employer. Its only tenant at the moment is a gas station, but the potential for jobs is there.
That was the reason Richard Gehring, the county's new growth management administrator, gave for opposing the request. It was a decision that put him at odds with Adam Smith officials and with the majority of the county commission.
"The loss of these five acres are, to us, the tip of the iceberg," Gehring said. "Those jobs we're trying to get to come up and stay here - this is where they should go."
The corporate center's position within a few miles of both northern Hillsborough and northern Pinellas counties makes it vital to the county's plans for luring work north, Gehring said.
"This land use doesn't move real fast when we're in a recession cycle," Gehring said of the industrial land. "But you have to have a site when the economy recovers."
Adam Smith officials insisted shifting the retail site across Trinity Boulevard wouldn't spell the end for future job growth in the area.
"We're going to build every square foot of entitlements that we have," said Lew Friedland, president of the development company.
Friedland said the ongoing debate over the five acres is putting the rest of the property at risk.
"We have been held up to the point where we have people who want to build on our property who believe we have no support from this county," Friedland said.
Commission votes to support swap
Wednesday's debate descended briefly into accusations of lying and misrepresentation, culminating with Commissioner Pat Mulieri chastising Gehring directly for his handling of the situation.
"I almost feel you're saying we're stupid sitting up here," Mulieri told Gehring. "I feel we're sitting here, and you're saying we don't know what we're doing."
Gehring, on his 47th day working for Pasco County, defended his position regarding the five-acre tract by citing the ULI study's recommendations.
"All I'm trying to do is protect employment," Gehring said.
In the end, commissioners voted 4-1 to support Adam Smith's land swap.
Commission Chairman Jack Mariano, one of the county's staunchest supporters of the ULI study, dissented. Mariano cited a recent survey of county residents where only 10 percent said the county offered enough job opportunities.
"We've got a chance to really capitalize on the S.R 54 corridor," Mariano said. "We already gave up prime land for a gas station."
On Thursday, Mulieri defended her vote in favor of the land swap as important to protect the developers' property rights.
"I just felt that it was the right thing to do," Mulieri said. "I don't think this five acres will cause the whole ULI process to implode."
Commissioner Michael Cox said Thursday he understood Gehring's "tip of the iceberg" argument regarding the land swap and the county's loyalty to the ULI study.
"That's a valid point," Cox said. "But we haven't implemented the ULI study yet. The point will be well-taken six months or a year from now."
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