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2 sides
happy on tier ruling
By Alyson Crean
acrean@keynoter.com
Judge rules county plan is
arbitrary
It was intended to simplify future land
development in the Keys, but challenges to the so-called
tier land-mapping system have mired it in legal limbo.
Administrative Law Judge Donald R. Alexander last week
ruled on a year-old challenge filed by two environmental
organizations that charged the system did not go far
enough in protecting sensitive habitat from
overdevelopment.
Both sides seemed optimistic after Alexander issued his
ruling.
“Overall, the tier system is a good
idea,” Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger said.
“It needs some refinement, but the concept was found
valid.”
Richard Grosso, the attorney for the groups Last Stand
and the Florida Keys Citizens Coalition, said the ruling
is favorable in that it challenged the criteria the
county had established for determining what parcels
should be protected.
“It's clear from the order that the county arbitrarily
under-protected a lot of important lands,” Grosso wrote
in an e-mail message, “but also that the vast majority
of lands in the county are not impacted by the ruling
and the need to re-do many of the maps.”
Alexander ruled a proposal to set aside
parcels of four acres or more for protection was
arbitrary.
“Four-acre tracts of natural areas are not insignificant
or common,” he wrote, “they are huge by Keys standards.
Simply because larger parcels have more value than
smaller ones does not mean that smaller hammocks ... are
unimportant.”
“The ruling on the four-acre threshold is crucial,” said
Dennis Henize, a board member of Last Stand. “That was
one of the changes that was added late in the process
and it really rankled us.”
Alexander also objected to the county
allowing landowners to petition for a change in
designation of smaller parcels simply by paving a road
on the property. Alexander said the loophole could allow
a landowner to circumvent a protected tier
classification.
“That could be fixed pretty easily so that someone
couldn't skirt the [required parcel] size,” Shillinger
said.
The tier system would create three levels, or tiers.
Tier 1 would be the most sensitive land,
Tier 3 would be the easiest to develop. The system
includes a point system that provides incentives for
developing in Tier 3 and preserving Tier 1.
“We won on one of the most important matters,”
Shillinger said. “They had challenged our ability to
allow some possibility of development in Tier 1, which
could lead to an outright taking. What we're trying to
do is balance protection and property rights and develop
a system that is defensible from a liability
standpoint.”
The county could face millions of dollars in lawsuits by
landowners who claim it devalued their property. There
are eight pending takings cases against the county, and
a past settlement in a major takings case - known as the
Shadek case - cost the county $6 million. |
