Crowd Speaks Out Against Efforts To Limit Lake County (FL) Development

[hatrack]

TAVARES -- Developers, attorneys and landowners took turns Friday speaking out against a proposal to preserve rural areas amid Lake County's enormous growth. Many said the county should stay away from limits that could make it harder to develop their rural properties. One said the county has plenty of rural areas among the Ocala National Forest, the Green Swamp and the Wekiva River basin.

Some wore buttons proclaiming "FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS." And some even accused the Local Planning Agency, an advisory body working to update Lake's comprehensive plans for growth, of being determined to stop future development.

Agency members argued, however, that considering rural protection did not make them anti-growth. Instead, they said, they are trying to find a balance in the comprehensive plans that would allow the county to develop without giving up some of its rural character.

EDIT

The rural protection areas proposed by the Citizens Coalition of Lake County would keep dense residential development away from five large zones across the county where a majority of properties currently are limited to one home per 5 acres. Each of the rural zones would be bordered by transitional areas of higher densities of homes. The plan would encourage the most urban development around most of Lake's 14 cities.

EDIT

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lplanning1106feb11,0,5896128.story?track=rss

[SujiwanKenobee]

1. Money talks.

Interesting how the people who have the most money to gain are so often found to stand against public goods that are harder to quantify in monetary terms except over time.
Sure sounds like northern Virginia lawyers and land owner/ speculators. Saw a lot of this in Loudoun County.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. This is a very organized, concerted effort in Florida.

There has been some very devious groups working to make Florida the next Georgia in loose development. Believe me, if ordinary citizens are involved with this, they don't really know what they're buying into. Just look at the evidence of those developments that lost their golf courses, or nearly lost their golf courses. People think that it's a good idea to back these things, until they realize it means that their Country Club can become a high density development if it feels like it.

You have some very ignorant people in the Chamber of Commerce going along with property rights tycoons, until they finally figure out what this all means to them.