Activists Sound Sprawl Alarm

By JEROME R. STOCKFISCH and MIKE SALINERO The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 24, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - The worst-case scenario is projected more than 50 years out, but environmental activists said Tuesday that the time to start protecting Florida's agricultural lands from urban development is now.

"This is a crisis. The land conversion of the last 10 years is terrifying," said Nathaniel Reed, chairman emeritus of 1000 Friends of Florida. "I'm bullish enough to say that you have to start with an idea. Now we need some constructive thinking about how. I'm past the stage of 'when.' The 'when' is now."

Last year, 1000 Friends commissioned a University of Florida research group to develop a population distribution scenario for the state. It projected a frightening 2060 scenario of paved paradise, with coast-to-coast urbanization of the central state and full build-out of Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and several other counties.

This year, 1000 Friends gathered conservationists, developers, planners and agricultural leaders to come up with a plan to protect vanishing natural lands and avoid that worst-case situation. Long on the spirit of inclusion but short on detail, the "Call to Action" unveiled Tuesday is designed to avoid a do-nothing approach.

There is one element any strategy will require: Money.

"The people of Florida have got to recognize that there is a different future for the great agricultural lands of Florida, but you have to be willing to pay to keep those wonderful lands in agriculture," Reed said.

How much? "I have no idea," he said at a capital news conference. "If we give [preservationists] $100 million a year, $200 million a year, and say, 'Go and preserve the very best of Florida agriculture,' that's what I'd like to do."

That money could be used to purchase easements, which would compensate farmers and ranchers for conserving the land they would continue to own. That could combat the temptation of a much greater payday from developers willing to pay a premium for rural land.

Peter Spyke, a citrus grower in Martin and St. Lucie counties, said the old agricultural model doesn't work because crops can be grown at much lower costs in countries such as Mexico and Brazil. For Florida farmers to stay in business, they have to be compensated for the environmental benefits their land provides.

For instance, cities and counties are facing millions of dollars in costs related to cleaning up polluted waterways. Some of those costs could be reduced by draining water from urban areas onto citrus groves, where the nitrogen can be taken up by the trees.

Farmers could be paid or given other financial incentives, such as tax breaks, to use their land as water-holding and recharge areas.

"They're paying big bucks to build reservoirs to attenuate stormwater for the Indian River and the Everglades," Spyke said. "[Instead], pay the farmer. We can do it cheaper and better and it will accomplish the same purpose."

In Hillsborough County, environmental officials are reworking wetlands rules to lighten the regulatory burden on farmers with small, isolated wetlands on their property. Rick Garrity, executive director of the county's Environmental Protection Commission, said farms provide a direct environmental benefit, and the government should help farmers stay in business.

"We're better off green than paved," Garrity said. "The slower the rain falls off the land, the more it can be absorbed onto permeable surfaces such as crops and forests."

The 1000 Friends' "Call to Action" also endorses redirecting infrastructure spending to existing cities and downtowns, re-examining growth management laws, and allowing greater densities only to accomplish public benefits.

For decades, Florida's political leadership, both Democrat and Republican, has used public money to guide growth toward cheap, open land instead of rehabilitating cities, said Sam Poole, former executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. The sprawling development around Brandon, east of Tampa, is a perfect example, he said.

"We can talk about regulations trying to regulate growth," Poole said, "but until we start spending our capital dollars on rehabilitating cities, until we make our public investments in those places, we're not going to do anything about the consumption of land for private development."

Reporter Jerome R. Stockfisch can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or jstockfisch@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.