Category Archives: Government Spending and Taxation

The Decision Is Still Ours

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Florida will continue to experience huge population growth from now until 2060.

 

A new study by Woods & Poole Economics, a firm specializing in long-term economic and demographic trends, shows that the Villages will be the number one metro area for growth in the U.S. between now and 2060. Orlando, Cape Coral, and Naples-Marco Island are all high on the list to experience exponential growth by 2060.

 

The Port St. Lucie metro area will grow from 511,300 people today to 920,600 by 2060. The Port St Lucie MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) has that city as its hub. The city’s population is now 212,901 residents, and it is currently the 7th largest city, by population, in Florida.

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

Fort Pierce is part of the Port St. Lucie MSA and so is all of Martin County. Where do you think the additional 400,000 plus residents are going to live by 2060? It is highly likely that a big subsection of these new residents will call our county home, and to believe otherwise is denying the data.

 

What the study also showed was the growing urbanization of most of America in the past 20 years, and it is projected to continue. Government policies that do not take this into consideration will fail. Saying no to projects because of some belief that you control the use of land owned by other people will fail.

 

If Florida were an independent country, it’s economy would rank 15th in the world. By 2030, we could be ranked 10th according to a study conducted by the Florida Chamber. There is no study that doesn’t expect Florida to be an economic powerhouse now and well into the future. People are moving here not to just retire anymore but to make their fortunes and find jobs.

 

Tallahassee wants and needs tax revenue now and in the future. They need to keep the train moving to accomplish it. One place they will be looking to make sure ample housing and economic opportunities exist will be in Martin County. The days of saying no are over. There is no longer the luxury of many residents being armchair nay sayers.

 

Costco and the Kanner PUD are a good project that should go forward. It has less density than what Stuart’s comp plan allows. The state DEO pointed that out when it went for review. The developer, now owner, of the site has an excellent chance of prevailing with the Governor’s Council, but if not, it will be a slam dunk in the owner’s favor in court.

 

The state must find adequate housing for millions of people. I don’t mean affordable or attainable or work force…I mean homes to house the folks who are flocking here from all over the U.S. Businesses of all types will open to serve the population. Our growing population will fill those jobs and open those businesses. Tallahassee is not going to have a few naïve people stop it. The economic and demographic juggernaut that is and will be Florida will continue.

 

Either we are going to have rational housing policies in Stuart and Martin County by good planning or the state will do it. If the state does the planning for us, I can assure you that Martin County will be looking more like other parts of the Port St. Lucie MSA and even Broward. The decision for another year or two is still ours…after that look for the final decisions to be more and more made in Tallahassee if our county has not realigned its thinking.

Thank You Commissioner Hetherington

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Some people are saying that Stacey Hetherington sold out those who voted for her by ultimately supporting the rural lifestyle amendment to the comp plan. That is just nonsense!

In the beginning, what was originally called Discovery (now Atlantic Fields) was a project of multi-million-dollar homes off Bridge Road that was going to proceed as an exception. There was not going to be any new land use designation. The Becker and Discovery folks were making presentations throughout southern Martin County and on Jupiter Island to select audiences. It seemed everyone was on board.

 

There was no public outcry or fierce resistance. The way it was proceeding, every commissioner except Heard was in favor of it. Discovery was going to be a money generator, leave acres of open land, and even have 800 acres remain in permanent conservation for farming. What happened?

 

In the interim, the developer came back with a plan to not proceed with the project as an exception but rather as a new land use classification in the comp plan. Suddenly, thousands of acres throughout unincorporated Martin County seemed to be up for grabs. I firmly said that it was a good project, but the new land use category had me wondering why disrupt the project at this point in the approval process. Until I had answers, I could not support it.

 

There were now people who began to want to know much more about the project. When it came before the BOCC at the beginning of the year, there wasn’t so much opposition by the public as concern. They also had questions that needed answers and until we (and I am a member of the public) received them, we couldn’t support the change.

 

Ciampi went from a yes on the project to a definite no on the land use category. Hetherington said she would not vote for it until she understood it better and there was much more public outreach. I was right there with her.

 

Then election season hit. And to my chagrin Stacey was a bit too strident in some of her campaign rhetoric hitting Stuart as growing too fast. It made her seem as if she was anti, anti, anti-development of any sort and that is not true.

 

Chastened, Becker, the developer, did do informational meetings and took public comment. The result was a narrowing of where the rural lifestyle could be used by Becker and county staff. It now encompassed only those properties of at least 1000 acres contiguous with the USB but outside the boundary. The number of acres to which the amendment could apply was less than 12,000, and 70% must continue to be open with at least 500 acres additional in conservation. There are 6 properties that meet the criteria.

 

There would be no package plants allowed. Water and sewer lines must be brought in at the developer’s expense and no other project can tap into those lines. My questions were answered, and there was ample opportunity for residents to go to the informational meetings held at the libraries.

 

Hetherington’s position was that questions needed to be answered and the number of acres narrowed. This was accomplished.

 

Unfortunately, she was less articulate on the dais when she was conveying her thoughts. That is too bad. But for anyone to believe she betrayed her beliefs or had situational ethics is not true. Hetherington conveyed to me that she needed a narrower definition of the rural lifestyle amendment.

 

If I had been a commissioner before the changes, I would not have voted for the designation either. Hetherington, by constant pressure on staff and the developer, received the changes she thought best for the county.

 

She also received something more…the commission’s vote to go out to RFP for a company to facilitate public meetings about where the future is for Martin County’s development. Doug Smith has been trying for years to have a real plan. Ciampi, Smith, and Jenkins all voted to do this.

 

In fact, Hetherington would not agree to vote in favor of the rural lifestyle amendment until a vote was taken on having a better planning model going forward.

 

Unlike Ed Ciampi, she never stated that she was unequivocally opposed to the rural lifestyle amendment. What she said was that she could not support the amendment as it was drafted back in February and without the chance for the public throughout the county to attend workshops on the proposal. I know that is true because Hetherington and I were of like minds and discussed it a couple of times.

 

Regarding this development and amendment, our five commissioners acted in good faith. Heard and Ciampi voted no, but I understand why even though I disagree. Smith and Jenkins were always in favor of it. Jenkins explained his position very well at the commission meeting as did Smith.

 

To think that Hetherington was somehow disingenuous is utter baloney. Is she a politician? Yes, what else is new. For that matter so are the others. Could she have better explained her position? Yes, that is for sure.

 

I applaud Hetherington for sticking to her guns at making the amendment better. I further clap my hands for putting the county on a footing to be able to construct a plan for our future. Thank you, Commissioner Hetherington.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

How To Replace The Stuart Rail Bridge

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I recently went on the Federal Railroad Administration’s website. It can be a fascinating read for those looking for money to do rail transportation projects.

 

And what I found was a $7.2 billion a year program that is slated to continue for the next 5 years at the same funding levels. This program is “to advance projects that expand and establish new intercity passenger rail service…” I don’t know about you, but that seems exciting to me.

The first grant I came across in the program was one to replace the 100-year-old San Luis Rey River Bridge with a double track concrete bridge and eliminate a .6-mile single track bottleneck in the city of Oceanside. The tracks are also used by BNSF freight lines. Sounds like a place I know in South Florida where I live.

 

There is also a grant for a new bridge across the Connecticut River in Connecticut. Maryland has a replacement slated for a 115-year-old bridge crossing the Susquehanna River. There are more rail bridges being replaced than I can list. But you get my point.

 

What I don’t understand is why isn’t the St. Lucie River Bridge in Stuart, Florida on the list? It is a partnership between the states and the federal government so is that the reason? Tallahassee doesn’t want to take any Democrat Washington money. The projects I saw that were funded were not for private companies. Yet there was the San Luis Rey Bridge that has the BNSF component. There is nothing that said only government owned rail roads need apply.

 

It appears that elected officials need to be engaged to bring home the money. This is more than doable. It requires that all our governments work together to accomplish something. That is a hard ask in our complex fractious political world.

 

In the meantime, our federal and state representatives will speak with the Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard to have a more equitable open and close bridge time and other such well-meaning but less effective problem-solving ideas. What we won’t do is ensure the funding for a new bridge. Isn’t that what our federal and state officials should be trying to do?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

clipart review

Indiantown Contemplating Debt For A New Vilage Complex

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COUNCIL MEETING MAY 26, 2022

 

A public comment delivered in the form of an email was read. In it, the writer stated that the village has moved away from the government lite approach that was promised by the incorporators. There is no doubt about that.

 

The elected council is in the big government camp. It has been the same five council members since incorporation. Together, they hired someone as their village manager that is carrying out the big government vision of the council. Everything points to a continuation, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see another doubling of the village’s employees to 70 or more in the next three years.

 

The ones who were elected to the council were not those who were instrumental in incorporating the village. The incorporators ceased to matter when the voters chose the current council. Susan Gibbs-Thomas could have been a government lite member, but she is constantly a lone voice in that direction.

 

That belief in small government has been left for dead. The only question is whether, at some point, the village goes whole hog and has its own police and fire departments. For most other village departments, bigger is better. Big government also means big flash and subsidization of costs by their fairy godmother, FPL. Which brings us to the new village complex.

 

Conceptional plans were rolled out at the meeting. The administration building, along with the community building, will be over 39,000 square feet. A water park is also being considered located between the two buildings, but no price was given for it. Also contemplated is a fire/rescue station, police station, and aquatics center in the future.

 

There could be a third floor for the administration building for future growth adding an additional 10,000 square feet. The cost of the two buildings currently planned would be $15.3 to $18.7 million and if the third floor is added, $3.8 million more. While building costs now range from $300 to $475 per square foot, the architect consultant believes it will be brought in at $375 per square foot. It takes 33 months from council approval to completion using the consultant’s timeline.

 

This is not government lite. I would suspect that the council will approve the plan and add a considerable amount of debt to the village. There will be some talk about grants paying for some of it.

 

Is this project necessary? Depending on who you ask, village government is growing at a speedy pace. Is this what was intended when people voted to incorporate? Is it time to have a vote to see whether the citizens want to go into further debt? There was some rationale for the water and sewer plant. The numbers that were given to repair the facility were proven incorrect. To bring the waterworks up to speed will cost many millions. Now many more millions are being thought about for a new city hall and gym.

 

This should go to the voters to decide. They can overwhelmingly support this or reject it. It is too big to entrust to the council. Let’s see if there is a mandate to appropriate this money and continue with big government or look at government medium as an alternative. Lite is past coming back.

 

You can see the presentation here https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:94dcd5fd-53ab-3bc8-b5da-9bdd74978094

Where Have All The Environmentalist Gone?

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“Where Have All the Flowers Gone” is a folk song by Pete Seeger, written in the 1950s. It reached its height in popularity during the Vietnam War protest movement.

 

The last time I was driving from Trailside back to Stuart, that song became stuck in my head. I was thinking about the plight of the Trailside residents and Pal-Mar being ecologically destroyed by supposed owners of the tiny lots that now make up much of the Pal-Mar property.

 

I began singing the song to myself and substituting Martin County ecologists in place of flowers. Like the soldiers dying in a war mentioned in Seeger’s song, places like Pal-Mar that disappear can never be replaced. So far in this tragic plight, not one environmental organization or so-called environmentalist has said a word about this destruction.

 

Everglades Foundation, don’t you care about wetlands or is it only when some landowner wants to build a project on his property that you pipe up? Sure, there is no massive housing project going in at Pal-Mar, but there are trailers and campers being brought in and shacks being constructed one at time in violation of the rules and the comp plan that you claim to want to uphold and preserve. Dragging a trailer across ecologically sensitive lots not even owned by the miscreant is an egregious violation of our environmental laws.

 

The Guardians and Director Braun Trailside residents would like to ask if the destruction of native species by four wheelers only counts when the rich say it does. Where are the 1000 Friends of Florida complaining about unregulated hunting that goes on out-of-season and for species that should be protected not slaughtered? How about all the usual suspects who call themselves environmentalists and come to commission meetings to bemoan any change in land use even on an old farm site, while earth moving is going on at Pal-Mar without the benefit of any permits.

FWC has jurisdiction but apparently it is too hard to make sure that their own rules are enforced. It is ludicrous that they do not give out gate keys only to legitimate permit holders, but they leave the gate unguarded and unlocked for anyone to call Pal-Mar home. South Florida Water Management District is one of the largest property owners in Pal-Mar yet seems incapable of making sure that the land will be used to clean water headed for the Everglades and Florida Bay as it is intended to do instead of being a race track for four wheelers.

 

Where have all the county commissioners gone? I know they claim they can’t talk about anything because of pending litigation. The litigation concerns dues that should or should not be paid to the Pal-Mar Board. I am tired of listening to that same refrain in the county’s songbook. They simply won’t enforce our building codes because they are afraid of the big bad men defying their rules.

 

Lastly, where is the law? The duly sworn sheriff and deputies who have pledged to enforce all laws. We hear about the helicopters and how they can swoop down and make sure that lawbreakers are caught in the act. Where are the drones paid for by tax dollars patrolling the skies looking for those not obeying the law? Would it be different if the Pal-Mar gunmen belonged to a Broward street gang coming here to do bad?

 

How do you think the landowners of Trailside feel when confronted with the lack of responsibility by all these elected and appointed officials? All of whom are on the government payroll yet won’t lift a finger to do their duty. Just another day in the life of a fool…but that is a different lyric from a different popular song…though it could apply to the governments here.