Monday night was the first of three public input meetings on the new 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The meeting was held at the new Cooper Memorial Library in South Lake County. This was the first time I was at Cooper and it is a fantastic facility with a Cafe. I am looking forward spending time there.
The meeting lasted a little more than an hour. There was not a large crowd, about 50 people but probably good for a Comp. Plan meeting. All five Commissioners (BCC) were present.
CHANGE THE GREEN SWAMP BACK
Numerous citizens requested the Commissioners to change the 400 acres in the Green Swamp back to the 1 per 10 designation that it had before last Tuesday's BCC workshop when the BCC increased the density on the property by 100% after a landowner claimed there was a mistake 20 years ago. There has been such a long battle getting the cities and the County to protect the the Green Swamp that we hope the County Commission will reconsider this. I asked the BCC to apply the highest level of standards possible to the review and consider that the County Commission has indicated no land use in the Green Swamp would be changed during this process.
The land in question has been on the map as 1 house per 10 acres for 20 years. We are simply asking them to leave it like this instead of accommodating the landowners request for increased density. There are no "property rights" issues if it is just left the way it is now. A woman that was on the Planning Agency for the 1992 Comprehensive Plan when the Green Swamp was designated, indicated that the property was given 1 house per 10 acres, not 1 house per 5 acres as the landowner is claiming.
Commissioner Renick started the meeting and stated that at last Tuesday's workshop, when the 400 Green Swamp acres were changed, she did not want to change it, but did not have the support of the other commissioners to keep it as it was, so there was a compromise. We don't understand how the original request for changing 170 acres went to a review of 409 acres, resulting in changing 198 acres to higher density, during a "compromise".
With the public outcry and the new information presented, hopefully they will take a second look and Commissioner Renick will fight hard to convince the other Commissioners to make the change back. Yesterday, County Staff sent out a correction on the affected acreage indicating that 198 acres were changed, not 400.63 as they originally indicated. 409 acres were reviewed as a result of the original request and 198 acres were increased in density.
KARLTON GROUP REQUESTS REMOVAL OF RURAL PROTECTION AND CHANGE
The Karlton folks attended the meeting. Their attorney spoke and requested to remove the South Lake Rural Protection Area designation south of Kings Ridge. They provided Commissioners with a booklet requested to have approximately 2000 acres changed to some type of "high technology center" and are again dangling an east/west connector road from 429 to 27 as a benefit (that taxpayer would fund, of course). It would likely include homes as described below in the "workplace district" request. The previous Karlton development included more than 5000 homes. We hope the Commission recognizes that the 19/27/Turnpike area has thousands of acres already approved for regional office/industrial and commercial. Developers and some Chamber members that support Karlton don't seem to recognize the 19/27/Turnpike area or the Minneola area with current approvals for millions of square feet of commercial and office as part of south Lake. They want their own area. They want more widgets to sell. Some Chamber members and EDC members are looking into developing a new airport south of Kings Ridge in the area formerly-known-as-Karlton. Anything approved here will compete with, and increase the risk of other areas failing. Lake County does not need to open more land until some of the existing thousands of acres are successful. Especially in this economy. There is already more than enough for the next 30 years.
ICI HOMES REQUESTS CHANGE FOR 2000+ HOUSES
An attorney for ICI homes spoke and indicated she had given the Commissioners a binder of info for a proposed development south of the Karlton area. I think it's 2000+ homes with the typical commercial stores along a road. They are also touting yet another connector road from 27 to 192 as a benefit in addition to the the Karlton road. ICI is typically like any other development you've seen. They proposed three different versions of their development to the LPA. The first time it had mostly business uses. Second time it had less business, more homes so they could "afford" to build it. Third time it was little business, lots of houses, standard strips with Home Depot, etc. The LPA didn't see a benefit and voted "no" on increasing the density.
ICI's attorney asked that at a "minimum", the Commission change the density of the land to have the same density on all of their parcels. Because of wetlands, rural areas, and good planning principles, the LPA assigned different density to some parcels - which was at at odds with the request of the developer but there was a density increase on some parcels from what it currently is because it made sense. They want all of it at higher density. ICI's attorney is requesting yet another increase because she thinks it "makes planning sense" and will make it easier to develop. Of course.
Or they could design a development that with the allowed density, but why do that if you can get everything increased like she is asking. We hope the Commissioners will listen to the meetings when the LPA heard this issue three times. We hope they review the discussion before accommodating this request. Some won't. Gotta give it to ICI's attorney. She keeps "adjusting" the variables until they get what they want - asks for something "far out" and compromises for a "little more" . Even after a "little more" was already provided by the Planning Agency. Little more+Little more = sprawl just like we've always had it. ICI Homes is using the same attorney that KAM Services used to spin a brain damaging argument convincing three Commissioners to approve the illegal zoning change in the Green Swamp last week. She's on a roll and doing pretty well.
HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY USED AS REASONING FOR CHANGES NEEDED NOW
Karlton folks and ICI folks indicated that they wanted the changes now because if Hometown Democracy passes next year (Amendment 4), it will require a public vote to increase the density, making it more difficult to get approvals later. Hometown Democracy, or Amendment 4 (A4) as is being called, will be on the November 2010 ballot and if it passes, changes to the Comprehensive Plan will require a public vote. Developers are scared of not getting approvals and we are seeing requests in other counties where developers won't develop for 40-50 years "if they can just have the approval now". Many thought Lake had been "spared" the barrage of Comp. Plan change requests that A4 would bring because changes to the existing plan are not allowed until the new plan is finished. Now developers are trying to change the new plan instead of the current plan. We hope the County Commissioners don't bite.
WORKPLACE DISTRICT RE-EMERGES
Remember when the Karlton project of 5000+ homes was denied? After the denial, Sean Parks, a member of the LPA created a "Workplace District" land use that would allow even more houses than the original Karlton request. For a short period of time the LPA went with his request to put the new Workplace District category over the Karlton area.
The LPA soon figured out what was going on, reversed course, removed Workplace District from the plan, and put the area in a Rural Protection Area - like the huge majority of citizens in Lake County want, and clearly voiced, during the Karlton hearings.The category was completely removed from the Plan so it couldn't be used to create new cities like Karlton in the future. Parks is a planner and planners typically like to create new areas from a blank canvas. It's tough for them to just leave areas alone. And they make their living from it. Parks quit the LPA shortly afterwards to run for the County Commission in 2008.
Parks also asked the Commission to merge the two industrial categories into one, and to implement something called Interlocal Service Agreement Boundaries - which the County is already doing. Commissioner Renick has been researching ISBA's for over a year. They can be good or bad, depending on how they are used. They don't need to be "in" the comp. plan to use them.
Former Planning Agency member Cindy Barrow explained to the BCC that the Planning Agency implemented two industrial categories (light and heavy) so even more light industrial could be put on the map that otherwise would not have been appropriate next to existing developments and neighborhoods. If it had been one category, there is a high risk of a heavy or inappropriate use being approved through the zoning process. By having it in the Plan as two categories, the risk is minimized and more sites were allocated. None of the light industrial sites on the map would be appropriate for heavy industrial anyway's, so this should not be an issue to keep two separate categories as written. We hope the BCC understands this. If they merge the categories into one, the map designations should be revisited and sites should be removed.
A few other people spoke indicating that they thought the plan was good as written and it shouldn't be changed much, if any. They indicated that the plan is never going to be perfect for any individual person but it's a good plan that was created in a democratic process. It is time to send it on.
Next meeting is Thursday, Nov. 5 — Cassia Community Center, 29245 State Road 44, Eustis, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
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Rob Kelly
CCLC
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