County move shocks state
BY ANN HENSON
Citizen Staff
News that the
County
Commission might
backtrack on its sewer agreement with the state sent "shock waves"
through Tallahassee, according to a county commissioner who spoke with
state officials Friday.
County
Commissioner
George Neugent said he traveled to Tallahassee on Friday to, among other
things, take the temperature of the state government after this week's
County Commission meeting during which the board decided to review its
agreement with the state.
"Three weeks after the
deal was done, Commissioner [Murray] Nelson is bringing it up to
renegotiate," he said. "The buzz among staffers was that they were in a
state of shock — that this cannot be happening."
The county and state
spent months on a rule change that would allow an increase in the
county's building permit allocation, money for sewer projects,
affordable housing and help with purchasing environmentally sensitive
lands.
The Cabinet delayed
voting on the rule twice because of political squabbles between the
county and the state-mandated sewer authority — the Florida Keys
Aqueduct Authority.
Department of Community
Affairs Secretary Thaddeus Cohen was dispatched to the Keys by Gov. Jeb
Bush to bring both sides together.
The last piece of the
agreement was finalized recently with the FKAA board and County
Commission approving a lease agreement that spelled out each agency's
responsibilities.
But at the same meeting,
Nelson said he wanted to review part of the agreement — saving sensitive
lands.
He said he wanted to take
another look at the parcel size to be protected, currently set at 1 acre
or greater, and he wanted to re-examine what breaks the parcels from
being contiguous, which now is only U.S. 1.
Nelson said he believed
the board was too hasty in its agreement.
"We want to buy the
largest parcels, not the smallest," he said during the commission
meeting. And, he added, by using only U.S. 1 as a dividing line,
building costs would rise for hundreds or even thousands of lots, which
would force out all but the wealthy.
Adopting the provision
that U.S. 1 was the only divider "was a high-pressure, last-minute thing
that I regretted when I walked out the door," he said.
Commissioner David Rice
tried to temper Nelson's actions by suggesting that the board meet with
the state and jointly review the two components.
But Neugent said that
meeting may not appease the state.
"There will be a briefing
of the Cabinet and governor's staff on Monday and the matter will be
discussed," he said.
Contacted late Friday,
Nelson said he didn't know that Neugent was in Tallahassee.
"I don't know why he went
up there — to create problems, I guess," Nelson said.
The county again appears
before the governor and Cabinet on Oct. 25, when the county's work plan
will be reviewed. If the Cabinet finds that the county's work is not
satisfactory, the county could, at the very least, lose building
permits.
Growth Management
Director Tim McGarry was not at all surprised at the state's reaction.
McGarry said he called state officials the day of the commission meeting
after Nelson said that Cohen was agreeable to being "more flexible."
McGarry said that was not
the staff's understanding.
Nelson insists that Cohen
told him on Tuesday, the day before the County Commission meeting, that
the state would be more flexible.
"I'm hoping this will all
work out," McGarry said Friday. "I got the impression that the state
will hold off on reviewing our work plan, but I got that impression
informally from staff."
McGarry said he hopes the
anger will subside when his staff is finished "ground truthing" all lots
in the Upper Keys next week. Ground truthing means surveying by ground
to confirm the findings of an aerial survey.
He said he will use both
common sense and science to determine which lots are attached to
hammocks.
"If you have two vacant
lots surrounded by homes, but across the street there's 5 acres, to say
they are contiguous doesn't make sense," he said.
He said he and his staff
would sit down and go through the criteria that make sense and bring
state staff into the discussion.
McGarry believes the
number of affected parcels will be reduced.
"People have got to
understand that anywhere you have hammock, you have endangered species,
whether they are actually there or not.
"This will not deny the
ability to build, but it will make it more expensive," he said.
Neugent said he believes
the commission must call a special meeting prior to the Cabinet meeting.
"I'm hoping that we can
do some damage control to distance ourselves from this situation," he
said. "The state is not happy."
State officials were
contacted for comment, but did not return phone calls by press time.
ahenson@keysnews.com
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