Help from unexpected quarters in the brawl over sprawl
April 9, 2009 at 12:06 pm by Kelly Cornelius
Re-zoning and re-election signage shared space last year in Lutz.
By Kelly Cornelius, PoHo contributor and activist
Rural residents against sprawl (or as opponents negatively call us, diehards) successfully defended the rural area against another assault last Thursday. Not without first having to battle arguably one of the most influential developers in the county, Stephen Dibbs, who was asking the BOCC for a change in zoning from ag-rural and residential to suburban mixed use on property he owns in Keystone.
What Dibbs was asking for would have violated the Comprehensive Plan, expanded the Urban Service Area and violated a Community Plan — all equaling more sprawl. Dibbs has financially backed 5 of our current 7 County Commissioners (Sharpe, White, Hagan, Norman and Al the New Blair Higginbotham). In fact, according to this article he hosted a fundraiser for the current Chairman Ken Hagan and Ex Commissioner Brian Blair. During public comment I asked Hagan to recuse himself due to his ties with Dibbs and cited the article. He told me not to believe everything I read in the paper (or in blogs, he made sure to add) and did not recuse himself.
Even Hung Mai, the engineer on the Planning Commission closely associated with Dibbs and the consistent sprawl vote, recused himself from these two amendments when they came through the Planning Commission! I suggested maybe we could ask somebody about the conflict of interest and thought maybe the Internal Performance auditor might do so, since he seemed like a jack of all trades, but quickly remembered the guy was in Vegas.
During public comment I also congratulated Commissioner Ferlita for her recent awards including the Josephine Howard Stafford Memorial Award and the Women of Distinction Award . In addition, I gave kudos to newly elected Commissioner Kevin Beckner for being named Legislator of the Year by the local chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. I reminded the rest of them that they can either follow the fine examples set by Ferlita and Beckner or they could follow the example of Ex-Commissioner Blair.
The “citizens” in support of the sprawl showed up from ritzy subdivisions like Cheval Golf and Country Club and begged for a commercial center for “common folks” to get a cup of coffee. One lady even started her sprawl plea with being a single Mom…………that is the first time I have heard that excuse to justify sprawl……….being a single MOM? Come on people, you can do better!
As for the vote, I was pretty sure that nobody wanted to tag their name on such sprawl (especially when we have no water) but considering they circumvented the rules last time I didn’t know what to expect.
Of all people, Commissioner Al the New Blair Higginbotham made the motion to go with staff to find the amendment inconsistent. Not sure who seemed more surprised, us diehards or Commissioner Ferlita who looked over at him with obvious surprise and said she didn’t understand (he started out saying something in support but then quickly made the motion to deny). Recall Ferlita was the citizen’s hero at the last round of amendments when she threw the sprawlmeisters under the bus and then made the motion to deny the sprawl to the absolute delight of the large crowd. Looks like the New Blair Higginbotham either tried to steal her thunder by making the motion first this time (nobody cheered) or maybe he is finally catching on? Don’t hold your breath. I have suffered through enough BOCC meetings to see that Higginbotham and Ferlita make oil and water look compatible so my bet is he was just trying to upstage Ferlita. While seeing the New Blair make the motion wasn’t nearly as much fun as watching Ferlita throw the bad guys under the bus the last time, the outcome was still the same as the last round (7-0). Like I always say we take help from the willing as well as the unwilling soooo THANKS New Blair Higginbotham!
