Originally Published: Sunday, September 20, 2009

 

In Marion County, home to Ocala and some beautiful horse farms, the County Commission became smitten by a proposed 800-home development. Commissioners gave it their blessing in 2007, with commissioners voting 3-2 to amend their comprehensive plan to allow the development.

The planning staff had recommended against approval, noting, in part, that the community was already glutted with the same housing the development sought to provide. The state Department of Community Affairs, which must approve such changes, ruled that it complied with the commission's view of growth.

And then along came Ocala horse-farm owner Susan Woods and her neighbor, Karen Recio.

Last week, based on their two-year battle to hold the county to its comprehensive plan, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet unanimously supported a recommendation to reject that zoning change.

"I want to thank you for your tenacity, your candor and your hard work," Crist told Woods, who served as her own attorney. Other Cabinet members include state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and Agriculture and Consumer Services Secretary Charles Bronson. CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES The matter still could come up again, should the developer or the County Commission decide to resubmit the development to the Department of Community Affairs again.

They might want to think about that before acting. Doing so would give more cannon fodder to Florida Hometown Democracy, a grass-roots group that managed to get an amendment on the 2010 ballot that would make it much more difficult for comprehensive plans to be changed.

And it's because of cases much like the 800-unit development that helped put Hometown Democracy on the ballot in the first place.

DCA Secretary Tom Pelham admitted that his planners mistakenly approved the development in the first place, but said the department wanted to rectify that mistake. Not to do so, he said, "would take away from these ladies their hard-fought victory."

Now is a good time to discuss the lone reason for comprehensive land-use plans: Comp plans are drawn up to ensure balance in how we develop our communities. Changing those land uses, even a little, means changing the character of the community - forever.

County commissioners (and city commissioners) across the state had best be quick to realize that more and more citizens are becoming aware of that reason. So, too, should county commissioners.