The recent two day Global Planning Conference sponsored by Martin County

and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council focused on management of

our growth and development for a long-term sustainable future. Martin

County was

designated one of five Sustainable Communities in Florida several years

ago, and we have prepared and adopted our "vision" of how we should

develop

through sustainable community workshops.

Martin County's "vision" is of a compact developed area along the coast,

respecting the existing urban services boundaries, and undeveloped green

space (except for Indiantown) in the rest of the county. There are many

reasons taxpayers should support this future, as it helps control the

cost

of government. Alarmingly, several speakers pointed out that policies

currently found in our Comprehensive Plan are not going to produce this

vision, and will in fact lead to a very different and much more

expensive future for Martin County’s taxpayers.

It was pointed out that within the urban services boundary, our rules do

not allow mixed use development, nor does it encourage the densities

necessary to facilitate redevelopment, infill and alternative types of

transportation. Compact land uses are stifled by virtue of the strict,

non bending environmental standards for wetland/upland protection and

buffers from such areas. Our development rules as well as fiscal

policies encourage low density gated communities and development

patterns that require many car trips to reach necessary services. The

current policies discourage redevelopment of old developed areas closer

to existing infrastructure. In short, our county development rules are

based on and result in suburban sprawl. Although many of us like our

patch of suburban sprawl, it is expensive for taxpayers and it gets more

expensive as density decreases and development moves out from core urban

service areas.

Most alarming is that the Comprehensive Plan allows at least one unit

per

20 acres over all the rest of the county outside the urban service

boundary. Meanwhile, the real estate market is hot for 20 acre

"ranchettes". All the open and agricultural land outside the urban

service

boundary that our "vision" shows as being kept green and/or in

agricultural production is headed for the worst form of suburban sprawl,

a low density land use and ecosystem consuming development pattern, and

it is enabled by our Comprehensive Plan.

This land use pattern happened in Palm Beach and Broward counties, where

agriculture land was first legally divided into small acreage parcels

for "rural" equestrian communities, who then demanded and eventually

received better services from county government. Once these costly

services are extended, and after the ranchettes became all pasture,

those closest to the urban areas were reassembled and developed into

typical suburban subdivisions. This is exactly the pattern of land

consumption and increasing taxes that we do not want.

The Taxpayers Association is evaluating another way of achieving our

vision

of the future of Martin County. What if we (Martin County) purchased all

of

the residential development rights of the agricultural land that now

allows

one residence per 20 acres? What if we then redirected those units to

our

Community Redevelopment Areas, and sold them to encourage redevelopment

of

urban infill housing?

Our research shows there are about 11,000 units allowed in Martin County

on 215,000 acres of agriculture land at 20 acres per unit. Perhaps each

unit allowed on undeveloped land is "worth" $7500. If so, the county

could purchase all of these units for $83M, or about five years of

voluntary one cent sales tax. The county could then sell these units to

encourage urban redevelopment in older areas of the county along the

coast, and we could require that the proceeds be spent on parks,

libraries, bicycle paths, and related improvements to raise the quality

of the coastal urban areas and especially the designated Community

Redevelopment Areas.

There are about 42,000 units in the County today on residential land,

with

a maximum planned buildout of 83,000 units. The average residential

density

at buildout will be less than one unit per acre, even if all 11,000

units

allowed on agriculture land are transferred to residential land.

Our residential density will never be high, but transferring 11,000

units

now allowed on agriculture land to redevelop older urban land might be

the

best investment Martin County could ever make. The vision of Martin

County

contained in the Sustainable Community Plan cannot be attained without

both

protecting green space, and encouraging redevelopment closer to the

coast.

The unspoken issue is whether we could "condemn" the units as a valid

public purpose, as many large tract owners fully expect to get more

density

someday, and would not sell on the value of a unit today at 20 acres per

unit.

We urge our County Commissioners and community leaders to continue

research

and creative analisis into how our sustainable vision can be realized

and to enact the policy changes needed to attain that vision. The future

predicted with the current Comprehensive Plan policies, and the

consequences for taxpayers and our good nature, are not acceptable.