Martin Commissioners to decide future of rural lands Tuesday Feb 22
Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative has provided the community with this information.
This was sent to them by Maggy Hurchalla. She was suppose to be at the meeting.
The Martin County Commission meeting that is going to decide the future of rural lands is on Tuesday Feb 22.
While it’s about the 180,000 acres in the Agriculture Land Use west of town. It will affect everyone in the County.
If this gets approved on Feb 22 there will be only one more hearing necessary to finalize it.
While the proposed Discovery PUD and the “Rural Lifestyle” land use are purposely complex and confusing, the concept is simple:
The urban boundary will be meaningless because suburban homes, golf courses, workers dormitories (servant quarters), stores, and clubhouses, and event centers will be allowed ANYWHERE in the county all the way out to Lake Okeechobee.
Sewer and water extensions will be allowed anywhere outside the urban boundary.
Three times as much density will be allowed outside the urban boundary. Instead of approximately 9000 units there will be the potential for 27,000 units plus worker dormitories (servant quarters) and “golf cottages” which will not count against the density limits.*
Given those incentives the prices of rural land in Martin County and the profit to be made from development will dramatically accelerate conversion of farm land. It will become difficult or impossible to purchase public lands for environmental restoration – for the Loxahatchee, CERP, Loxa-Lucie, or Palmar.*
-The experience of the Ag Preserve in Palm Beach County appears to demonstrate that ag easements will not last. Owners of lands with easements will insist that they are surrounded by suburbia and will be relieved of their easements.
-The assertion that a PUD will guarantee the promised benefits is simply not true. The PUD for AgTec, which got a special land use based on PUD promises, has failed to deliver any of the promises while the land retained the higher intensity land use.
-Basing a land use on the promise that residents will be very rich and will increase the tax base and have no interest in using any Martin County services cannot be constitutionally supportable.
All of the Martin County Commissioners promised when running that they would defend the comp plan and the urban boundary. The only way to stop this from wrecking the comp plan and making Martin County WORSE than Palm Beach and Dade County in terms of containing urban sprawl in undeveloped farmlands, is for everyone who cares, to:
-write letters to the editor of the Stuart News
-phone or email your commissioners
-get other folks involved in doing the same thing
This will be the most dramatic change to the County Comprehensive Plan since it was adopted in 1982. At the very least, the public deserves to have a series of open public workshops where they can have their concerns answered and better understand the long term consequences.
CONTACTS
County commissioners
EMAILS
Stacey Hetherington <shetherington@martin.fl.us>; Commissioner Doug Smith <dsmith@martin.fl.us>; Commissioner Sarah Heard <sheard@martin.fl.us>; Harold Jenkins <hjenkins@martin.fl.us>; Edward Ciampi <eciampi@martin.fl.us>
PHONES
Hetherington (772) 288-5421
Smith (772) 221-2359
Heard (772) 221-2358
Jenkins (772) 221-2357
Ciampi (772) 221-1357
County Planner – cdulin@martin.fl.us
or
Below is the formal “contact” site for Martin County Planning Dept
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The 1500 developed acres will include
-a gated private community of 420 acres with 317 homes, worker dorms, (servent quarters), golf cottages, and a golf course,
a clubhouse and stores for residents’ needs
-125 acres of preserved uplands and wetlands
-a world-class equestrian facilities and gathering spaces for the public
-preservation of the old Hobe Sound train station
see
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*The concept approved by the LPA is that if you place an agricultural easement on 800 acres, you get to quadruple the density on 1500 acres. Applied to the approximately 180,000 acres in 1 per 20 Agriculture Land Use it would appear to triple the density and place over 60,000 residents in the rural area
