Making growth 'smart' is a work in progress for Volusia County

Making changes will be a long process, County Council is told

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Apr 29, 2008 - 12:00:00am

By the time all is said and done, more will be said about smart growth before anything is done — and that prospect troubles the Volusia County Council.

After years of talking about dealing better with growth, the council is wishing for quicker establishment of a new system to direct growth and protect environmentally sensitive lands.

At an April 24 workshop, council members learned another year or so may be necessary to refine smart-growth policies. The county’s growth-management plan will have to be amended, and another panel will have to be appointed to review ideas for planning for future development.

“This workshop is about going from the planning phase to the doing phase,” said Kelli McGee, the director of the county’s Planning and Development Services Division.

Council Member Carl Persis worried aloud the long process may dull commitment to better growth-management policies, or may result in major changes in the council’s goals.

“I hope it is action, but it still seems like we have a long way to go,” said Persis. “I hope we don’t end up dumbing down smart growth.”

For several years, county officials have tried to deal with the environmental and social effects of a growing population, and to prevent environmentally sensitive lands from being covered with asphalt and concrete.

Dozens of meetings, in-depth seminars, consultants’ studies, draft reports, and still more seemingly endless discussion have marked the process up to now.

Former County Council Member Clay Henderson, a leader in the local smart-growth effort, assured the governing body the process will come to a satisfactory end.

“We’re going to keep coming back, and keep coming back, until this is implemented,” he said.

Volusia Council of Governments Executive Director Mary Swiderski said the workshop shows there is a consensus for a change in growth policies.

“I don’t think there has ever been a time when people were as mentally cooperative as they are now. You might say the horse and the water have met,” Swiderski said.

One of the key goals of Volusia County’s smart-growth process in the making, according to proponents, is the protection of the remaining water-recharge lands in the center of the county.

Council members say they want to make certain the Volusia Conservation Corridor — a series of wetlands, meadows and forests forming a north-to-south spine in the center of the county between Flagler and Seminole counties — remains in its natural state. The Conservation Corridor also includes some agricultural lands.

Much of the 50,000-plus acres in the Conservation Corridor is in the public domain, but some is privately owned. County officials say they do not have enough money to buy all of the land they would like. Thus, a new policy to save these natural lands must be developed.

Under a 1986 amendment of Volusia County’s home-rule charter, the county may enact minimum environmental standards for the entire county, including lands inside cities.

Another charter amendment adopted by the county’s voters the same year provided for the county’s purchase of endangered lands, and authorized the County Council to levy a tax of as much as one-fourth of a mill for such a program.

The 1986 land-acquisition program was followed by a similar effort in 2000, known as Volusia Forever.

There are other concepts coming into the public discourse:

• Map A — This map shows the environmentally sensitive lands that currently have no protection against development, based on existing land uses and zoning.

“There are parts of Map A that go into every city, but it is predominantly in the unincorporated area,” said McGee.

McGee suggested the County Council rename Map A lands “ECO,” an acronym for Environmental Core Overlay. The term overlay refers to an area with special regulations or restrictions.

“What we really want to do is preserve Map A,” said Joel Ivey, a land-planning consultant.

• Transfer of development rights — This principle would allow a landowner or developer to develop at a higher density or more intensity in one area, if a lower density of less intense use is developed elsewhere.

• Green Ribbon Committee — Volusia County will set up a new special panel of planners, city and county officials, business leaders, landowners and environmentalists to consider new and higher development and environmental standards.

The committee will develop the new standards and work with each of the cities within the county to make certain there is uniformity in policies and goals, while trying to reach a consensus among all parties concerned. The Green Ribbon Committee will be appointed by Growth and Resource Management Director Steve Kintner.

In addition to the Green Ribbon Committee, the Technical Advisory Committee working under the Volusia Council of Governments will continue working on model smart-growth ordinances throughout the summer, McGee said.

• Joint-planning agreements — The county intends to enter into more joint-planning agreements, or contracts, with cities on the future development of lands annexed into cities. The intent of these agreements, county officials say, is to shield sensitive lands from urban-style development.

The county is near signing an inter-local agreement with Deltona on how to develop tracts along State Road 415 in and around Osteen. Many Osteen residents claim their historic and rural settlement is threatened by urban pressures from the biggest city in the county.

While the Green Ribbon and VCOG’s Technical Advisory Committee work on new regulations, McGee said the county will begin amending its comprehensive plan to include such things as Map A. The amendment process will take place this year, she added.

“The whole intent is to protect those environmental lands,” said Persis.

Those environmental lands include farms. An Edgewater resident, Mike Thompson, urged the County Council to save agricultural lands from urban sprawl. Thompson warned those lands will be needed for food production.

“Three or four years from now, food is going to become the No. 1 topic, just like gasoline and oil is the No. 1 topic,” he said, as he referred to rising food prices around the world. “Any kind of crop beats no crop. ... If we turn our ag land into five units per acre, eight units per acre, you may see people gathered at the courthouse because there is no food. That does not go over well with the American public. ... We need our ag land, and we need it intact.”

Unlike previous growth-management policies, however, proponents of smart growth say they will rely on providing incentives for developers to create environmentally friendly neighborhoods and commercial projects, rather than simply mandating standards.

“The key to this is working with private developers,” said Henderson.

— al@beacononlinenews.com

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