The tragic and unexpected events of September 11 have sent shock waves

throughout our economy; these will have major impacts on federal, state

and local budgets. These events highlight the need for continuous fiscal

prudence as well as the need for us to critically assess public policies

and their effect on government budgets.

In addition to working with the local government to improve fiscal

efficiency for specific services and tax years, the Taxpayers

Association looks at long term policies and trends and their impact on

our taxes and quality of life in the future. The growing pressure for

westward development caused our association to form an adhoc committee

to look at how this pressure might affect our future. The following is

from the report issued by this committee which we will be forwarding to

the County Commission.

The County has adopted a "Sustainable Vision" for our future, including

where land development should take place in the County, through

community workshops. Martin County's adopted "vision" is of a compact,

developed area along the coast, inside the existing urban services

boundaries, with undeveloped green space retained for agriculture or

preserved lands (except for Indiantown) in the middle and west county.

There are many reasons why taxpayers should support this future. Compact

development is more efficient than suburban sprawl, which saves

taxpayers money for government services. New residential development at

the fringes of suburbia generally does not pay its share for services.

Impact fees are less expensive the further west one goes, yet it is

significantly more expensive to provide services, so overall cost of

government increases faster than population. Other obvious effects are

more roadway congestion at key intersections, more road construction,

more road maintenance and higher taxes.

Our Comprehensive Plan allows at least one unit per 20 acres outside the

urban service boundary. The real estate market is hot for 20 acre

"ranchettes", with several thousand acres outside the urban service area

recently converted to this development pattern, and more in the planning

stages. The Growth Management Department reports there are now 638 such

ranchettes outside the urban service area, covering more than 13,000

acres. All the agricultural land outside the urban service boundary that

our "vision" shows as being kept green may be headed for a common form

of suburban sprawl; a very low density land use and ecosystem-consuming

development pattern.

This happened in Palm Beach and Broward counties, where agriculture land

was first legally divided into smaller acreage parcels and sold to

individuals for "rural" equestrian communities. These residents then

demanded and eventually received better services from county government.

Once the services are extended, and after the ranchettes are converted

from native land to pasture, those closest to the urban fringe were

reassembled and developed into typical suburban subdivisions. The

political rationale is these homes are already requiring services but

not paying enough taxes, so by raising density, the assessed valuation

and tax revenues will increase. This pattern of land consumption is

opposite of the sustainable vision in Martin County.

It is unrealistic to believe that our current strict land development

regulations will preserve the overall ecology of central and west Martin

County if it is subdivided into private parcels of 20 acres each. A tour

of existing ranchette lands, including the new subdivisions, suggests

that native uplands and wetlands are not and will not be protected and

preserved per the urban rules in a rural ranchette setting.

There are some major problems with outright public purchase of vacant

land. The land is seldom maintained properly, it is subject to rapid

exotic plant invasions, illegal dumping, and insufficient funding in

general. Private persons and entities tend to view land management

differently than government, and the agricultural and conservation

interests, who have control of large acreage, are often more effective

stewards of land.

In addition, when the county purchases land, it removes that land from

the tax rolls, and all of us then pay more taxes. More significantly,

the land is generally removed from agriculture production. It is easy to

overlook how important farm revenues are to our community economy, but

these revenues are multiplied many times over in value because farm

products are more like basic industry products than services, and just

as worthy of keeping in terms of economic sustainability as new industry

is worthy of attracting. The secondary benefits of agriculture in

providing open space and wildlife habitat are generally undervalued by

most of us.

The Taxpayers Association established ad hoc committee investigated

these issues. We learned that a number of techniques have been

successfully used in other locales to deal with the problem of sprawling

consumption of the agricultural community, and our Comprehensive Plan

already allows us to use some of these planning techniques. Many of

these have been developed by organizations such as the American Farmland

Trust, founded to preserve agricultural lands. There are too many

examples of alternatives in planning techniques to cover in this space,

but if any of our readers are interested, we would be glad to share our

research.

The future development pattern allowed under the existing Comprehensive

Plan, and the consequences for taxpayers, are of great concern to the

Martin County Taxpayers Association. We urge our County Commissioners

and community leaders to extend our initial research on these issues.

There is no point in having a sustainable vision that is precluded by

the Comprehensive Plan. A formal planning effort with extensive

community involvement is necessary, and it should be begun promptly.