Category Archives: Other

The Challenge Of “Local” Schools

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The Covid epidemic showed parents where the schools were failing their students. Anytime the lives of children are disrupted to that extent, the faults in the system will be more apparent.

 

The United States has always prided itself on how education is a local responsibility. That has led to vast differences in the quality of what is offered from district to district, even between neighboring counties. The pandemic brought those fault lines into the homes of the students because of remote computerized instruction.

 

The life blood of our educational system is funding. Funding is based on the number of students in a district. Since Covid, many students have simply disappeared from the student rolls, especially in larger districts. New York City, the largest district in the country, has somehow lost more than 50,000 students. But the size of districts is not the only indicator of lost kids.

 

The biggest indicator was how long remote learning continued. Because of the governor’s insistence on a return to the classroom earlier than other states, Florida has rebounded in the number of students and remains robust as compared to some other states such as New York and California.

 

However, private and religious schools have had a net increase of 75,000 students nationally as of the end of the last school year compared to two years earlier. I don’t think this is so much an endorsement of religious or private schools as parents realizing that many public-school districts had become unreliable about whether they would be open or not.

 

Schools are not only a place for education but also the default childcare facility for parents who work. Without predictability, many parents cannot hold down a job. Private and parochial schools have proven more dependable by remaining open.

 

Another benefit to these schools and public charter schools is the ability of parents to take a more active role in their children’s education. As we have just seen in Martin County’s recent school board election, the defeat of both Liz Bernstein and Tony Anderson was the rejection of the supposed experts in favor of parental control. Both Jen Russell and Amy Pritchett, the newly elected school board members, are in favor of parents being in ultimate control.

 

There is a problem in achieving this when schools are under a centralized district. By its very nature, a district needs uniform rules and instructions to measure success. The entire parental rights movement is hampered by a centralized district format.

 

The other factor keeping parents from being in charge is the state instituting too many regulations…from LGBTQ+ to how to teach history or civics. Some parents may see Tallahassee’s heavy hand as against centralized districts being in control, but it ultimately affects parental control by not allowing a divergence of curriculum.

 

Every school should be seen as a public charter school with decisions made in each institution on instruction and every aspect of a school’s operation. A board made up of parents working with a principal and teachers can accomplish that.

 

The state’s function should be to collect the taxes and then send the vouchers to whichever schools the parents have selected for their children. The state should certify teachers and administrators. They should devise uniform mandatory tests to determine that the students are being given a good education.

 

If he really believes in parental rights, Governor DeSantis needs to limit the involvement of the state. Self-limiting state authority is hard for any politician to do and the governor is no exception in this case. However, without a reduction of state-level mandates and requirements, it will be impossible to really have what so many profess to want…local parental control.

 

My Questions Have been Answered Regarding Rural Lifestyle

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The Discovery folks invited me, and a few Martin media people to the Hobe Sound Polo Club for an informational meeting about the Rural Lifestyle amendment. The new amendment is a very pared down version of the original presented back in February.

At the time, I was not ready to embrace the amendment because it was county wide and I didn’t think there were enough public information meetings explaining it. I also had questions about where the water and sewer lines were going to be run and how far they would extend. Every one of my concerns have been addressed in the new amendment.

 

The acreage that would be entitled to the designation has been substantially reduced from the entire county to 11,924 acres. The Discovery development is adjacent to the urban services boundary (USB). To qualify for the designation, the land must be along the boundary. The water and sewer lines cannot extend or piggyback onto adjacent properties. So, the idea of leapfrogging to other properties should be out of the question

 

There have now been four public meetings throughout the county held in the libraries of Indiantown, Hobe Sound, Stuart, and Palm City. They were moderated by Nicki van Vonno, the past director of the Martin County Growth Management Department. A few of those meetings also had Zoom participation.

 

Though it is a developer amendment, if adopted, it can be used by any landowner who meets the qualifications. There are precious few owners that do. Here is the list I received from the applicant’s consultant:

 

Along Bridge Road:

  • Discovery/Atlantic Fields: 1530 Acres
  • Whitworth Ranch: 2824 Acres
  • Harmony/DiVosta: 2727 Acres
  • Three Lakes Golf Course: 1218 Acres

Mid County:

  • Atlas Family IV: 1695 Acres
  • Agri-Gators Farm: 1930 Acres

 

Everyone speaks about the sacred comp plan as if it is Holy Writ. It wasn’t until the 1980s when adopted that we were required to have one by the state. It is required to be updated (changed) periodically to adjust for circumstances such as population increases within the USB. At some point in the next few years, the line of the USB will be moved.

 

The two ways we can preserve our rural lands are to encourage infill development and greater density within the USB and to allow limited development using planning mechanisms such as Rural Lifestyle. In Discovery’s case, 70% of their proposed development will be green lands and another 800 acres will be a permanent agricultural trust with Conservation Florida as the nonprofit owner.

 

We need to accept that these type developments will attract very wealthy people. They will pay a great deal in taxes and ask for few services. Martin County will be another playground to them. But is that bad?

 

I was in favor of leaving each project to stand on its own but then that may trigger a spot zoning claim. Spot zoning refers to when a piece of property or groups of property have special zoning laws applied to them that differ from the zoning laws surrounding them. By giving alternatives to landowners, the sprawl that these large parcels may engender could be avoided.

 

I am now convinced that the Rural Lifestyle is the way to proceed for Martin County in these very limited circumstances. I urge the commission to embrace and pass this amendment. Without it, I believe we will end up with western lands that may look like St. Lucie County or, heaven forbid, Broward.

 

But we need to remember there is a second piece to this puzzle. It is to increase density and development within the Urban Services Boundary preferably within the CRAs. If we do not do this, Tallahassee will do it for us in a one-size-fits-all bill. That may be a great boom to Miami-Dade but will be the end of the Martin County lifestyle that residents cherish.

 

FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS SPECIAL ELECTION EDITION

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Several surprises in Martin County elections yesterday will change how some municipalities and the school board will be governed. There were many more close races than in the past. If anyone doubts the strength of Governor DeSantis and the GOP in this county, they should not. And there are no longer any nonpartisan races here.

 

Congressman Brian Mast easily beat his three challengers in the Republican primary. Jeff Buongiorno, Melissa Martz, and Ljubo Skrbic combined had 22.5% of the 23,375 votes cast in the county. Mast should beat Democrat Corinna Balderramos Robinson in the general by similar margins.

Val Demings trounced her opponents for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary without breaking a sweat. She will go on to challenge Marco Rubio in November. Rubio a fixture in Florida politics for over 20 years will have a tough race on his hands. However, this is a red state and only getting redder. Governor DeSantis at the top of the ticket should insure Rubio’s re-election.

 

Former governor and now Congressman Charlie Crist came out on top over Nikki Fried in their Democratic primary matchup. He will go on to face Ron DeSantis in the general. At this juncture, Crist is on his own Quixotic journey. It may be time for amiable Charlie to practice law and lobbying.

 

In District 2, Stacey Hetherington beat her dark horse opponent T.J. McGowan handily. Hetherington has been a solid dedicated commissioner throughout her first term. She has grown in the job. McGowan came from nowhere and did not seem to have any accomplishments to point to in his bid for election. The final vote was Hetherington 22,931 to McGowan’s 12,491.

 

Sarah Heard beat Doug Mustapick by less than 5% of the 35,422 votes cast. Mustapick ran an almost flawless campaign. But going up against an iconic legend can be hard. While his mechanics were good, his message was unclear. He seemed to be anti-growth and an environmentalist. If so, how would he be different than Heard?  In this race one need to look where the money came from. The influence of the “Good Old Boys” almost won…message be damned.

 

Jennifer Russell, a newcomer to Martin County and to politics, beat Liz Bernstein with 56.2% of the vote. This was the most political of the non-partisan races. Russell had the endorsement of DeSantis and the PAC money to back her up. Bernstein ran a flawed campaign that did not take adequate advantage of her solid credentials. She was too close to Victoria Defenthaler and the teachers. Russell, even though her children do not attend regular public schools, is a mother and believer in parent involvement at the district level. Just what the voters of Martin County want.

 

In the other school board race, Amy Pritchett defeated incumbent Anthony Anderson by less than 1% of the vote. Anderson, a past teacher in Martin County and brother of the late David Anderson who was a fixture on the school board for over thirty years, was in his first term. Pritchett who is active in the “Moms for Liberty” movement has been involved with the school district for several years. Anderson had the experience but was too closely aligned with the educational establishment for this election’s voters. The nature of the school board will be very different in the future.

 

The continued ½ mill referendum designated mainly to fund a stipend for teachers passed by a two to one margin. I would have thought with the anti-educational fervor, this would have gone down to defeat. I am sure the teachers are very happy with the result.

 

The voters in the City of Stuart rejected incumbent Merritt Matheson for newcomer Chris Collins. Collins is firmly anti- growth. The vote in that race was 51.31% to 48.69%. Incumbent Eula Clarke beat back challenger William Laughlin with 1930 votes to his1687 votes. The open seat was that of Mike Meier who chose not to run. Campbell Rich won over Mark Brechbill by almost 10%.

 

Both Rich and Collins were beneficiaries of a voter backlash to perceived over development. New projects in Stuart will be coming to an end. Developers are already saying the gates are closed. The developers are not wrong.

 

Indiantown elected two newcomers to the council and returned Susan Gibbs Thomas. Both Jackie Clarke and Anthony Dowling were handily defeated in their races for reelection. Carmine Dipaolo won over Dowling by almost 20% of the vote. I would call that a solid drubbing. Clarke was defeated by Angelina Perez by almost 6% of the vote.

 

The electorate was tired of an ever-growing village government. The rub will come if the developers knocking on the door are allowed in. No matter who sits in these seats, the village will have a vastly expanded population moving in. The one person who may have been the biggest loser is Manager Howard Brown. The new majority will not be as accommodating as the last one.

 

This is our special election edition. More on the changes that this election will bring in our newsletter of September 4th.

All Schools Should Be Locally Controlled

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At times, the rhetoric on both sides of the education debate can be disingenuous.

 

Florida has embarked on a path that, if taken to its logical conclusion, will result in a school voucher system which is something I believe in. Competition is good in providing the best product for the least amount of money.

 

Unfortunately, the school unions and administrators have not embraced the concept. They believe that only professionals should guide the education of our children. That has given us in Florida and nationally some of the most uneducated students in the world for the most dollars spent.

 

If the state were to truly devolve education from districts to individual schools, teachers and principals would have greater freedom to institute and try different programs. Parents would choose their children’s schools based on what they felt was important. This would require that the state stop mandating as much of what they do today.

 

Tallahassee would set the millage for local real estate taxes as they do now including the local amount. It would be collected by the counties and then remitted to the state. The state would distribute the tax money in the form of a voucher for each child.

 

Their entire role in education would be to set minimum standards for teachers and schools and then stay out of the way. Would this mean the end of local public schools? I don’t believe so. What it would mean is an end to the billions of dollars that districts siphon from schools for the bureaucracy’s support.

 

Transportation and other district-wide operations such as buses would be turned over to voluntary consortiums funded by the schools if they participated. I would also remove the mandatory security that is now required and leave it up to the school to decide the level needed if any.

 

One of the few mandatory rules I would have the state enforce would be every school must have a governing board that is composed of parents of the students attending. They would be the ones that choose the principal and oversee the curriculum. This would mean real choice and not what passes for it in many instances today.

 

Tallahassee would have to be disciplined enough to not intrude in education except for enforcing those minimum standards and making sure that the money was not being syphoned off by the boards and principals. Are schools and teachers any different than other professions that they should be more closely monitored? I don’t believe they are.

 

Teachers will be able to be paid commensurate with their skills just like professionals are in other sectors of the economy with schools now being more market driven. Instead of inflexible rules, teachers would bargain not only for pay and benefits but for the ability to determine the best way of instructing their students.

 

There are far too many outdated concepts that have not allowed our students to prosper. Stop playing politics with our kids.

 

We don’t need curriculum mandates from the capitol. We don’t need state bureaucrats telling individual schools what not to include as part of their material or what books to have in their libraries. Let the parents and teachers in every individual school decide. We keep hearing about freedom, but what we really have are too many politicians and bureaucrats making decision for parents and children.

CONTINUED NO WILL BRING A BIG FAT YES

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Within the next dozen years, Martin County will have thousands of units being built.

 

While Smith, Heard, and increasingly Hetherington have lobbed bombs at Stuart for approving new units within an urban area, the county has with great stealth by the commission decided to create one city and probably a second. I am not speaking about Atlantic Fields or Three Lakes Golf Course. In my opinion, projects like those will save hundreds of acres of open land from development. Sure, the roll out of the “Rural Lifestyle” use was botched but that is imminently fixable.

Florida scrub habitat in early springtime at Lake Kissimmee State Park in Lake Wales.

Kiplinger’s Newfield will be a new urban center in Palm City. If it is developed as the now plan suggests, it will eventually have the same population as Stuart currently has. I support it because it is creating mixed use and mixed income housing and jobs within walkable neighborhoods. Not to mention all the open land that will be incorporated into the “town.”

 

Indiantown is open for business and the sprawl will occur there. The South Florida cookie cutter homes with every family having a car, truck, (and probably several) will happen. Residents that need to go for a quart of milk, be prepared to hop into your car to travel to the new Publix that will be built in a shopping plaza with hundreds of empty parking spaces. Schools, fire/rescue stations, and more will need to be constructed to support the population.

 

You doubt that Indiantown is becoming known as the next South Florida land development grab. Ask a hedge fund based in West Palm, Miami, or even New York, and they will have heard about the village. Acres that are not even in Indiantown will be annexed in to accommodate the Divostas and Pultes.

 

The reason the village was incorporated was because the county commission said no to everything from industrial to new homes. Instead of smart development we are likely to get what was feared…any development. See what I mean when a continued no ends up as an unqualified yes.

 

Could that new motor track we heard about be on county land? Maybe Lakepoint will morph into a track from the current mining operation. Perhaps King Ranch’s or Becker’s lands will be ripe for the track and the ancillary uses such as hotels, fast food joints, and gas stations.

 

The biggest unknown could be Harmony. That is still a ticking timebomb waiting to go off. The “Rural Lifestyle” could have helped prevent the thousands of homes that may come out of the ground there. While Newfield is an integrated community, Harmony will be a classic 1950s sprawl development.

 

The mishandling of the new land classification could have been easily prevented. Instead of relying on elites such as the Guardians to sell it, the county should have mounted their own dog and pony show and travelled near and far to explain what “Rural Lifestyle” was and wasn’t. While the supposed movers and shakers usually still win, the people are gaining ground on the good old boys whether moneyed environmentalists or developers.

 

Lastly, with the mood of the governor and legislators to keep Florida growing, there is no way they will allow a local government to stop the flow of new residents into the state. Florida’s entire way of life needs new blood for the economy to prosper. That means the new residents will need a place to call home.

 

A continued response of no from Martin County will have Tallahassee declaring a big yes. That of course will strip away even more home rule.

 

OUR POLS ARE PLAYING WITH FIRE

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In our everyday lives, many of us do things we really do not want to do. Mostly because we have no choice.

 

District Attorneys and law enforcement may not agree with whether there should be a particular law or not. They do not have the option about whether to prosecute or enforce laws Only the legislative branch has the power to pass, repeal, or change the law. The executive branch is the enforcement branch and as such has an obligation to make sure all laws on the books are adhered to.

 

There is such a thing as prosecutorial and police discretion. For example, are there extenuating circumstances or can the evidence support a conviction? These are valid questions that should be asked before proceeding. Having discretion is one thing, but complete refusal to act should result in those cops and D.A.s being removed.

 

Governor DeSantis has the authority to suspend elected officials who are not doing their jobs. Recently he removed Andrew Warren, the State Attorney for Hillsborough County, for saying he would not enforce certain laws. However, nowhere could I find an instance or the governor citing under what circumstances Warren had not enforced the laws. Therefore, did DeSantis remove Warren for saying he wouldn’t prosecute abortion laws or for not doing so?

 

Saying you won’t do something is different from a person not doing something. One is abstract and the other an act that would need to be punished. Did DeSantis overstep the authority granted him? I would say the answer is yes.

 

Unless Warren refused to prosecute an individual, who had broken a law, there is nothing that the prosecutor did that should be considered grounds for removal.  I think DeSantis should have waited until Warren’s actions were more than rhetoric. On both Warren and DeSantis’ parts they are playing politics. There is no crisis.

 

In the past decade, a movement has started that think that county sheriffs are sovereign. There is an entire organization made up of sheriffs and other law enforcement officials that believe that federal and state laws are subordinate to county sheriffs having the final decision on whether to enforce a law or not. The doctrine of these so-called “Constitutional Sheriffs” believe that they can ignore laws that they deem to be unconstitutional. It is a real development that is being tied into the sovereign citizen movement.

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The office of county sheriff goes all the way back to medieval England. Then the sheriff of a shire was the one calling the shots. You need to think the Sheriff of Nottingham of “Robin Hood” fame. Even in medieval England the shire’s sheriff was in office for only the period the king wanted. In many instances the sheriff was also subordinate to the barons or earls in that particular shire. The constitutional sheriff’s movement ignores the last thousand years of common law, court decisions, and the U.S. Constitution to come up with this half-baked theory. There are at least 5 Florida sheriffs who believe they are the ultimate deciders of what is and is not constitutional and what laws they will enforce in their jurisdictions.

 

Governor DeSantis has conveniently ignored them. Shouldn’t he remove officials who not only don’t recognize his authority but also that of the legislature, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the president.

 

Today everything is politics. Right or wrong is conveniently tossed aside for the politically expedient. We are fast approaching the point of no return. DeSantis and others are turning real and cherished principles into political theater. The nation will not be able to tolerate much more of this.

 

Demographics Makes All The Difference

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For some time, the Democrats have been saying that Florida and Texas will become “Blue” states.

 

A younger and more urban population tends to be more diverse economically and culturally than their suburban and rural counterparts are. California is the biggest contributor to the recent increase in the population of Texas. The transplants have been going to the urban areas of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio but especially Austin.

 

Texas is an open primary state and does not require a voter to declare for a party. There are 2 million more voters in Texas than there were just 4 years ago. Presumably since they are flocking to urban areas, they should be more Democrat than Republican.

 

There are 14,250,000 registered voters in Florida. 5,150,000 are Republicans and 4,250,000 are Democrats with 3,900,000 showing no party affiliation with the rest belonging to minor parties. As a closed primary state, only those registered with a party can vote in the primary unless there is no other candidate running from the other party or as an independent in the general election. However, that also may lead to more voters registering with the dominant party in their county to be able to vote in closed primary elections.

 

Those who have contributed to Florida’s population gains have migrated to the suburbs and small cities of the Sunshine State. They tend to be older and more conservative than what many believed that the population increase outcome would be. Cities such as Fort Lauderdale, which are Democratic hubs, have not seen the same influx of new residents as places such as the Villages which skews Republican.

 

The demographics of the Hispanic population in Florida and Texas are also different. Mexicans, the majority Hispanic group in Texas, have usually voted for Democrats. In Florida, there is much more diversity of the Spanish speaking population with the Cubans and Venezuelans flocking to the Republican party. That was because of Democrats being portrayed as Socialists and Communists. With more than one in four Florida Hispanics being Cuban-Americans, that is a rich source of votes for Republicans.

 

In the not-too-distant future, Texas may be an interestingly purple place. Because of gerrymandering, the Republican legislature will continue to be overwhelmingly Republican for the 2020s. However, other local offices and maybe some statewide races could be much more in contention because of these new residents.

 

In Florida, the Republican legislature gerrymandered the districts for the same results as Texas. However, because of the demographic differences between the two states, Red will continue to be the predominant Florida color. Once Florida becomes a more urban and younger state, it will become more purple.

 

Until then, Democrats should not waste much time with statewide races in Florida. I would suggest to Democrats in every state that they build up their local organizations. They need to stress the grass roots and to win local offices. They need to capture more statehouses and governor’s offices to be a viable party. Get out of the Northeast and West Coast and get back to the heartland. Otherwise, Democrats will continue to be a regional party.

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HOUSING IS A CONCERTED EFFORT

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I had heard that the Crossings in Stuart was losing its affordability status. That would have been a serious blow to families in the city.

 

Stuart City Manager David Dyess forwarded to me an email he received from the county’s Housing Program Coordinator clarifying that this was not true. The complex will continue having rent limits based on the adjusted AMI (Adjusted Median Income) until 2044. As the AMI changes so too will the rents. Even with a rising AMI, there are rent caps for tenants.

 

While this is much better than the apartments going to market, using the AMI may still place rents out of the reach of many people. When HUD was active in providing funding for different housing programs, the rent people paid was more tailored to the individual. That of course has all changed with the shrinking of those programs, which has resulted in the crises we see today.

 

Using solely the AMI to determine affordability will leave many renters not able to afford their apartments. The government needs to greatly expand the number of families that would be eligible for HUD’s Section 8 program.

 

Section 8 is a voucher program that allows those eligible to find their own apartment in which to live. The tenant then pays the landlord a pre-determined amount based on their income, and the government sends the landlord/owner the remainder of the rent.

 

This program worked extremely well in the 1980s and 1990s. All properties are eligible to participate. There were gross rent caps on the funding depending on family size. The Section 8 program was instituted at a time when public housing was failing to provide safe housing. The program became the perfect public-private partnership.

The federal government has all but given up on housing for people who need help. Homelessness for families is one of the outcomes of greatly reducing this type of aid. Can we really expect a few private owners, even using other government-backed programs, to build all the housing needed? The answer is obvious.

 

There are many problems in Martin County when it comes to affordable, workforce, or attainable housing. Some of the housing shortages for more affluent people can be solved by just building. The more product on the market, the cheaper prices are.

 

Years ago in big cities, unions and manufacturers constructed housing for their members and employees. This was an attempt to provide “wholesome” homes instead of tenement apartments. It was very successful in combatting social as well as economic problems and contributed to a stable workforce.

 

I don’t quite understand why the school board and Cleveland Clinic do not investigate doing something like that. Employees just starting out in their careers could be offered this type of housing first since their earnings are the lowest. More and more employers throughout the country are coming to this realization such as the “Teachers Village” in Newark N.J. and “Sea Pines” in Hilton Head S.C. Employers who want to attract good personnel can also provide rent subsidies as a perc.

 

Progressive has come to mean socialist in our political era. It wasn’t always so…just remember Theodore Roosevelt. Nothing beats the free market for sorting winners and losers. The government needs to be ruthless in not protecting industries or individual companies and enforcing anti-trust laws. However, when it comes to individuals, government has an obligation to provide basic needs…one of which is housing.

 

The question is will we? The answer would require a national effort. It is not anything we can do on the local level alone.

 

STUART PD

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The death of anyone is not something to be ignored. When the deceased is a young person, it is even more tragic.

 

I have heard that a patrol cop’s days can go by in tedium and boredom, but that boredom could become dangerous and life changing in a second. Police see the worst moments of a person’s life and only occasionally the best. They are thrown into situations that the rest of us do everything to avoid. When things go wrong, cops must respond.

 

That is what happened the other night on East 10th Street in East Stuart. An officer responded in about a minute to a call of a shooting. What the cop found was a teenager bleeding profusely from gunshot wounds. As other officers and Stuart Fire/Rescue raced to the scene, there was apparently some in the crowd who were hostile to the responders. Dealing with that is part of their jobs.

 

An officer applied a tourniquet and was trying to stop the kid from bleeding out. The victim was rushed to Guy Davis field where he was then taken by helicopter to a trauma center. The victim, Devone Delancy, died.

 

Some would call these cops and emergency services personnel heroes. I wouldn’t because they were just doing their jobs. They were doing those jobs under very stressful circumstances, but those were jobs they chose to take and perform knowing full well that they could be thrown into this type of situation at any moment.

 

While I was in a nice restaurant with my wife eating dinner, these guys were tending to a victim of violence laying in the street. Some in the crowd were trying to provoke trouble, but they failed. There were probably some in the crowd who witnessed the incident but won’t say a word to the police trying to find justice for the police and his family while, at the same time, cursing them for instances like this occurring.

 

As a resident of Stuart, I have interacted with the officers. When I was a city commissioner, I did so more often. In my experience, they want to do their jobs and make it through their shifts. Some go far beyond their duty and are active in the community. The men and women of Stuart PD are not heroes. Yet at times they perform heroically. Last Wednesday night was one of those times.

AFFORDABLE, ATTAINABLE, WORKFORCE HOUSING

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The most significant item of the day wasn’t even on the agenda.

 

During commissioner comments, Ed Ciampi brought up how much the county needs affordable or attainable or workforce housing. That was precipitated by the comments made by advocates for such housing during public comment which Ciampi probably knew were going to be made. Ciampi wanted to keep the ball rolling from the joint meeting last month.

 

As usual with such a spur of the moment discussion, there were many ideas floated. Doug Smith would like to see focus groups headed by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. Ciampi wants to use staff and existing groups and others to move it along.

 

Heard made it quite clear that taxpayers don’t want to grant any subsidies for such housing nor have it in their backyards. Then she began saying density is not the solution. Too much traffic on the roads and zoning incompatibility were also bywords.

 

Hetherington wants the private sector involved and, perhaps, the school board. She has constituent families that have had their rents raised. But she believes too much housing is already being built. And non-profits should collaborate.

 

Jenkins does want an item to come back. He is working with Banner Lake on a community land trust to foster home ownership. Ciampi made a motion to bring back an agenda item that Jenkins seconded. It passed 5-0

 

At the present, the members of all these committees who are pushing for an answer to the affordable, attainable, and workforce housing shortage have no real experience with operating, building, or maintaining such housing. I have worked with and managed this type of housing using the Section 8 program and other such federal and state programs, and it is daunting. One thing those programs did do was allow the private sector to make money. Alas most of those programs are now history.

 

On a national level, that is one of the reasons that fewer and fewer units are available at affordable rents. This isn’t the only reason. But This problem will never ever be solved without an infusion of massive federal money. Even states can’t do it, and it is certainly prohibitive for local government to do so.

 

Sybil was a book in the early 1970s that dealt with a woman that had 29 multiple personalities. Martin County may have that many or more when it comes to its affordable, attainable or workforce housing goals. It can be seen by the commissioners’ comments.

 

It is not that they are not serious about the task, but it is beyond county or municipal government capabilities. To encourage private sector response, you will need to encourage building of more housing not less. Real estate is where supply and demand make the market. As a glut happens then prices fall, and this is very true of the rental market. Right now, we have nowhere near the number of units needed.

 

The county can eliminate impact and other fees for those who will commit to a specific number of apartments with rental rates based on an AMI derived formula. They could give a density bonus in their CRAs if the extra apartments had cheaper rents using an AMI derived formula. The more apartments that came under the formula, the more they would be allowed to build up to 30 units per acre.

 

Every single-family home, regardless of where it is located even within HOAs, could have an accessible dwelling unit that, if rented, would not be subject to increased real estate taxes. The community land trust idea is a good one, but like Habitat for Humanity, it can only build so many homes.

 

In fact, all these suggestions would eventually lead to more housing options. However, these are stop gap measures without a commitment by the feds to release billions in housing dollars. And that is not likely.

 

Heard and Smith and, now to a lesser extent, Hetherington are not interested in more housing being built. The City of Stuart did approve more housing for the last few years but has now gone back into its shell and is not likely to come back out for a decade or more. Politicians cannot blame greedy developers and property owners when the reason existing prices are so high is a lack of product.

 

Government adds about 25% to the cost to build and that doesn’t consider the increased building prices due to more stringent construction codes. The private sector’s motive is profit. Local government can incentivize to some extent, but it cannot do so unless it gets behind a continuous effort to produce these units. They cannot retreat every time people complain about a new project being built.

 

So, form any committee you want. I would be glad to lend my expertise. Commissioners, just realize you can’t complain about the lack of housing and then do everything in your power to prevent new housing. And if you think by allowing more single-family homes to be developed you are going to solve the existing problem, you are not. That is what will contribute to sprawl.

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