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By Pat Hatfield
posted Dec 6, 2009 - 8:17:01am
The state gave thumbs down to the Brevard County part of the proposed Farmton development, and that doesn’t bode well for approval of the Volusia County piece.
Farmton, a 59,000-acre parcel that spans both Brevard and Volusia counties, is the subject of land-use-plan amendments approved by both counties and sent to state growth overseers. Volusia County’s amendment is yet to be reviewed.
The amendments, if granted, would allow massive residential and commercial development of the land, using smart-growth principles.
The Department of Community Affairs didn’t like what it saw in the Brevard County part of the plan, and state regulators said so in the required “objections, recommendations and comments” report on Farmton, called an “ORC report.”
The report suggests nine revisions to the Farmton plan, but the sentence “Recommendation: Do not adopt the proposed amendment” follows 11 of 20 concerns.
Only 11,468 acres of Miami Corp.’s Farmton property are in Brevard County. The remaining 47,000 acres are in Volusia County, stretching north from the Brevard line to Edgewater.
If the entire plan is approved, some 29,000 homes plus millions of square-feet of commercial development could be built on the property over 50 years.
State growth regulators aren’t the only ones worried about the effect of all that growth.
Both Volusia County Schools and the City of Deltona, on Nov. 23, wrote letters to the Volusia Growth Management Commission objecting to the Farmton plan.
In turn, the Growth Management Commission, which reviews land-use-plan changes, notified Volusia County it cannot approve the Farmton amendment or certify it to the state until the concerns brought up in the letters have been addressed.
Volusia County Schools Director of Site Acquisition Saralee Morrissey has said the school system has no plans to build schools on the Farmton tract, and has no money to do so. Since the acreage had not been identified as a source of students, she said, the school system isn’t prepared to build there.
In her letter to the Growth Management Commission, Morrissey wrote “... please be advised that district staff cannot support this amendment unless and until a capacity enhancement agreement (CEA) has been approved by the School Board.”
A capacity agreement could provide for the developer to contribute to the costs of needed new schools.
Deltona Director of Planning and Development Chris Bowley based his city’s objection on the massive scale of development planned, in a remote area of the county, without infrastructure and in wetlands, agricultural and environmental-resource lands. Bowley’s concerns echoed the state’s objections.
Growth Management Commission Coordinator Merry Chris Smith said a public hearing on the Farmton plan has not yet been scheduled.
OBJECTIONS
A cover letter from Department of Community Affairs planning chief Mike McDaniel accompanied the ORC report.
McDaniel told the Brevard County Board of Commissioners the state’s objections include “concerns with the suitability of the site for the proposed level of development, along with urban sprawl, public facilities, internal consistency and need.”
McDaniel also noted concerns about natural-resource protection and the Farmton plan’s 50-year planning horizon.
If Brevard County does not or cannot address the objections, the state can reject the amendment as “not in compliance.”
The state’s concerns include:
•Site suitability — The proposed amendment designates 3,700 acres as mixed-use, residential and commercial. The land is currently designated agriculture, with a maximum allowable density of one unit per 5 acres. The proposal would increase the development potential of the site from 2,306 dwelling units (with no nonresidential) to 4,612 residential units, plus 1.25 million square feet of commercial space.
The site is not suitable for these land uses, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) said.
•Wildlife — The site is a lynchpin in the system of connections serving wildlife movements from South Florida to North Florida. This particular corridor is key to connecting isolated bear populations.
The report notes the plan would create narrow, half-mile-wide corridors for bears, who are known to be in the area, while garbage and other byproducts of development would attract bears to populated areas.
•Flooding — Around 35 percent of the area tagged for mixed use is in the 100-year FEMA flood zone, and 32 percent of it is wetlands not suitable for development, the state noted.
•Consistency — The plan contains contradictory and inconsistent goals, objectives, policies and text, the state said. The DCA report specifically objected to a plan to develop only a gateway area in Volusia County before 2025, and to transfer development rights from other portions of the property to the gateway.
One provision requires fiscal neutrality for required infrastructure, such as roads. However, other sections allow for “proportionate fair share,” which could place the cost to improve a road on the county or state, meaning the development would not be fiscally neutral.
•Transportation — The amendment does not include any commitments to extend public access to the site, and no data were provided to address the scope of needed transportation improvements.
•Schools — Public-school facilities will be affected by doubling the population, but no data are provided to show the schools can provide a necessary level of service in the long term.
•Water supply — The amount of development is not anticipated in any local government’s 10-year water-supply planning. The Farmton plan does not identify the level of demand for water the plan would create, or the sources or amount of groundwater available from the aquifer in the area proposed for development.
•Infrastructure — Capability to handle water, sewer and stormwater needs has not been demonstrated.
•Urban sprawl — The site leaps over undeveloped lands. Development controls introduced in the plan to overcome this urban sprawl are not adequate, the state said. The development and its configuration “reflect a pattern that threatens natural resources, and represents sprawl and inefficiency.”
•Need — A need has not been demonstrated for the scope of development requested.
Miami Corp. attorney Glenn Storch, who has represented Farmton’s owners for 20 years, said the owners are already working with Brevard County on a response.
“Most of it seems to be a misunderstanding about what we’re doing,” he said.
Storch said 2,306 ranchettes could be built on the property under its current land-use designation. While the Farmton plan would double the number of residential units, clustering development and creation of “a vast habitat corridor” would provide better growth management, he said.
Storch said he has never seen an ORC report with the recommendation “do not adopt.”
“Clearly they did not understand,” Storch said. “If they’re telling us, from the DCA perspective, they prefer ranchettes, they need to tell us that.”
To read the entire ORC report, go to “Brevard Co 09-2ER” online at http://www.dca.state.fl.us.
Reader Comments
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The voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum setting aside the county's center and north for limited development and conservation. Already, our votes are being scoffed by the council. The horrendous Farmton plan, creating the county's largest city, falls directly into this area. The council is not stopping at simply trampling our wishes though. They have decided to get around other issues as well.
The Farmton plan said nothing of several 3,300acre reservoirs (larger than Lake Konomac in DeBary which can be seen from space). These reservoirs will capture water as it flows south to Lake Monroe before becoming part of the St. Johns River. They know voters hate the idea of using river water to feed growth so they have found a way to use it before it reaches the river. Of course, these acres are not in the Farmton plan. Consider it a christmas gift of $20 million and 3,300 acres of land from us to Miami Corp. To add insult to injury, they have voted to use Florida Forever dollars set aside for conservation to destroy this land for the Miami Corp.
The plan does not mention John Mica's pet project toll road which conveniently passes through the Farmton tract. He proposed this to allow a more direct route for Edgewater to Orlando commuters almost a year before Miami Corp's plans were revealed. Who do you think will be funding his reelection campaign? Another gift of millions of dollars and thousands of acres tacked onto the plan.
There is no mention of the taxpayers providing schools, emergency services, roads connecting the monstrosity to the rest of the county and widening existing roads to stay below capacity. Add these millions of our dollars and thousands of acres to the plan. And let me remind you, all these gifts of land and resources fall squarely in the conservation areas voted for by the council's constituency.
Miami Corp's own attorney said he had never seen a plan of this kind receive a "do not adopt" recommendation from the state. Even the county's model for growth without borders - Deltona, objects to this. Storch says this development would create a "vast habitat corridor". This finally shows the disdain they have for the petty voters of our county. We dont need Miami Corp to create the vast corridor: WE ALREADY VOTED FOR IT! I hope we will vote for it again by ridding ourselves of these charlatans at the next election.
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