Once again, Martin County finds itself without the right development code in place to move projects to completion.

I have written about the Discovery Land project on Bridge Road before. It will bring extremely expensive homes to the county in a resort setting. For all intents and purposes, there will be millions in tax revenue and require little in county services. Those who believe that placing enough roadblocks up will deter development are dreaming.

Suburban Sprawl

Discovery will bring many fewer units than what would be built in a more traditional development project. The choice is several hundred units worth millions each or several thousand worth $300,000 each. The latter would require many county services, and the former would not.

Most of the land in the Discovery project will remain undeveloped. In addition to the construction jobs which are always temporary, there will be a slew of others to support the resort plus ancillary businesses like shops and restaurants. To me it has always been an easy choice…the feared Browardization of thousands of rooftops or a few rich ones.

That doesn’t mean that development of Discovery will not come without rules. Right now, it does not seem current code quite fits the “rural resort” nature of the project. I understand staff and the applicant are attempting to write the code but is that the best way to go forward?

This project and others that may come after may be more than the staff can handle. And to rely on the applicant to help define the code changes necessary may not be the best for the county. The county needs to hire a consultant to expeditiously write what is necessary to move forward. Commissioner Smith is very fond of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. As time goes by, I have become a convert.

The county should get a quote from the council and others if it wants to write the best code for “rural resorts” for the benefit of all the parties. That would also take an immense pressure off the Growth Management department. At the same time as a neutral third party, the council would be able to more fairly hear the concerns of all sides.

There are several other projects that are in the wings that would fit the rural resort criteria, e.g., very high-end golf courses. These are not golf course communities but rather places where the rich fly in to play golf for a couple of days like Michael Jordan’s existing club. This type of development would be preferred to having endless rooftops in western Martin.

In my mind, this is smart development. People have a right to develop the property they own. Let’s make it easy for them to do so by creating a rural resort classification. At some point, the Harmony development, and others like it will end up being built if alternatives are not provided. In my opinion, that is what most Martin County residents want to see.

The government does not own the property…private property owners do. A well-written land classification may help keep endless seas of rooftops from the area. I think that is the smart way of having the inevitable growth.