TampaBay.com

Friday, January 8, 2010

Unheard voices clamor for change

It's a new year; we need a new way of making land use decisions.

Pasco County commissioners have been grappling with major growth management decisions for the last 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of residential units have been approved — enough to keep construction crews working well into the foreseeable future.

This manifest destiny of grow until you can grow no more may reflect the views and values of the commissioners themselves, but in many instances, it has failed to reflect the values and visions of the residents, the same residents who put their faith and trust in the people they elected into office.

We, who have been trying to work within the system, are beginning to question the process. We believe that the only way for the system to work is for it to change. Possibly the answer is the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment 4, which will be on the ballot in November. Our commission is scheduled to vote on a resolution opposing Amendment 4 at Tuesday's meeting.

Citrus Ridge, a development near Dade City that won unanimous approval by the commission in August, is a perfect example of how commissioners blatantly disregarded the wishes of those who elected them in favor of a developer, and why the argument that Amendment 4 isn't necessary because we have a representative form of government is dangerously inaccurate.

Despite a unanimous recommendation of denial by the county's planning commission, which listed seven or eight reasons why the development was incompatible, and objections from the city of Dade City, the project was approved with the rationalization that it would generate funds to improve a failing intersection.

In 2005, Pasco County spent $3 million drawing up a comprehensive plan with components to protect the rural quality of northeast Pasco and never got around to writing the ordinances to support the plan.

Having participated in the evaluation and review of the old comprehensive plan, the writing of the new plan, the hearings of the Citrus Ridge application for annexation into Dade City and the process through the county, many of us have invested five years of our lives and thousands of hours at our own expense trying to protect the rural character of northeast Pasco. As citizens concerned about the density of the Citrus Ridge development, we tried to educate ourselves, we made our concerns known to the commissioners, and our position fell on ears that were prejudiced for the developers.

Neighbors and at least 350 citizens requested that the commissioners limit the Citrus Ridge development to two units per acre. The only people who supported a higher density were those who stood to gain from a higher density. However, the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve 2.7 units per gross acre. This is not a good example of democracy. In fact, there have been way too many developments like Citrus Ridge that have been approved over the objections of the many people whose quality of life was negatively impacted for the benefit of a few.

We, the citizens, think that Hometown Democracy might be the only way the people can get a fair representation.

Barbara Jones, Peggy Woods, Debbie Parks, Tom Parks, Sally Redden, Pat Carver, Dade City