Lawsuits challenge county's land-use agreement with state
BY LAURIE KARNATZ
Citizen Staff Writer
Two Florida Keys'
citizens groups on Friday filed a legal challenge of state rules that
would increase development in Monroe County, delay yet again a county
work plan designed to protect the environment, and delay implementation
of the Florida Keys Carrying Capacity Study.
Last Stand and the
Florida Keys Citizens Coalition, both made up of Keys residents
concerned about the environment and quality of life in the island chain,
are seeking to invalidate portions of state rules governing land use in
unincorporated Monroe and Marathon, according to Richard Grosso,
executive director of the Environmental and Land Use Law Center at Nova
University.
Specifically, said Grosso,
the groups are challenging action by Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet,
sitting as the Administration Commission, that increases the number of
annual building permits by 25 percent and restores building permits lost
in previous years because of the county's failure to meet state-mandated
goals.
The changes to the
land-use rules were negotiated between county and state officials
earlier this year and conceptually approved in March. Grosso said he
believed the final draft of the rules would come before the
Administration Commission again before final approval, but that did not
happen. Instead, the new rules are set to go into effect without
follow-up from the state board.
"They probably wanted to
keep from making a controversial decision," Grosso said late Friday.
The rules opposed by
Grosso and the two citizens' groups would give the county a three-year
extension on the five-year — now 10-year — work plan, which was designed
to curb growth, protect endangered habitat and endangered species, and
create affordable housing. It was implemented in 1997.
"Many promises were made
by local and state officials" over the years, said Ed Davidson, a
longtime Keys environmentalist. "There were all sort of stipulated
conditions that were part of previous settlements over the county's
failure to live up to the goals outlined in the plan. They were legally
required to do it and they just plain didn't do it."
County Growth Management
Director Tim McGarry on Friday disputed the allegations.
"It's the same stuff that
they've been hammering us on for the last year and a half or so," he
said. "We disagree with them and we think the county is finally making
good progress. Some of the issues have already been addressed. Others
I'm not sure we would ever reach agreement on."
The changes at issue are
those negotiated in large part by county Mayor Murray Nelson. They
require the county to spend $130 million on land conservation, sewage
treatment upgrades and housing for workers over the next few years.
In exchange, the state
will speed up the purchase of conservation lands and increase the amount
of growth allowed by restoring housing credits lost in the past.
"This proposal
eviscerates the integrity of the entire process," said Grosso. "The only
reason that the current growth rate and rules had passed legal muster
was because they were required to revise these things after the carrying
capacity study was done."
That hasn't yet happened,
though the deadline to do so was last summer, said Davidson.
lkarnatz@keysnews.com |
