The Political Whore

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist

Stay out of the water! That was the warning just prior to the start of this year’s 4th of July holiday about the Courtney Campbell Beach. Was it because of a bull shark attack? Nope. Maybe an invasion of rogue lionfish? Nope. Maybe a jellyfish convention then?

No, silly, there was just too much shit in the water. Course they said the high bacteria count could be due to several things including animal feces, stormwater runoff, and lastly they mention sewage. Uh-huh. Don’t forget there is a 14-mile-long algae bloom going on right now that’s also attributed to contaminated run-off. Oh goodie, let’s make it easier to build more houses!

Photo Credit: James Laurence Stewart at Flickr.com Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I know, it is a wonky issue. SB 360. Most Floridians don’t give a crap about growth management. Just get the economy going and cut my taxes to near nothing while boosting public services, parks and investments in infrastructure, they figure.

Right.

But Charlie Crist’s cowardly signing Monday of the bill that the St. Petersburg Times says sets back Florida’s growth management by 20 years. He didn’t have a public signing, opting instead for a 5 p.m. news release from his flacks. How shameful not only to do the wrong thing but to hide like a guilty 5-year-old while doing it.

How do you sign a “growth management” bill that even the wildly pro-growth Hillsborough County Commission opposes???

Signing SB 360 leaves Crist’s legacy as a popular governor who didn’t fight the tough fights and who made his decisions on a matrix of how many influential Floridians and/or voters would love him for it. On that scale, SB 360 had lots of upside (campaign contributions for his Senate campaign in 2010) and no downside (the handful of environmentalists and planners who give a crap about such things doesn’t amount to enough to elect the local dog catcher).

And this man wants to be our next U.S. senator? What a chickenshit.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Grant Rimbey
Green Community contributor

The term “sprawl” was coined in 1956 and is defined as unplanned greenfield (undeveloped land) development on the periphery of urban areas that is generally single-use, single-story, low density, inexpensive to build, and requires little knowledge or expertise to create. Sprawl gobbles up our farmlands and woodlands while increasing dependency on fossil fuel, fosters obesity because you have to drive everywhere, diminishes the natural environment, decreases the feasibility of mass transit, all while failing to create a “sense of place” or build community.

There was once a time in America (before the second World War) when sprawl didn’t exist. The ascent of sprawl to the predominant development form in the United States is based on many criteria: Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Pam Iorio’s State of the City Address

During her first term in office, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio had the luxury of an up-market, sunny days and lots of people interested in building new condos and offices in her city. But for the past two years, in her second term, Iorio has spent her annual State of the City Address trying to reassure city workers that they wouldn’t be laid off and discussing how to live within the new boundaries that local governments in Florida are facing with the so-called tax reform measure taken two years ago.

On Monday, she stayed with that theme, but added a strong condemnation of Florida’s “boom-and-bust” growth mentality that if not aimed at county and state leaders should have been. And, she said, approving her rail transit plan that will hook up the airport with downtown with the USF area ushers in “an era of smart growth” that could just restore and grow our economy.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Two Comprehensive Plan amendments that would have breached the Hillsborough County Urban Service Boundary, violated the Comprehensive and Community Plans as well as pushed us further down the slippery slope of sprawl were shot down 7-0 Thursday night by the County Commission. Don’t get too excited, because as often the case, even when we win we lose (mainly because the unsavory characters on the Commission are still in office the next day).

Read the rest of this entry »

Judging by the picture in this article in the Times, there is something green growing in the Hillsborough County drinking-water reservoir…….it looks like grass. Hey, my pastures are looking kinda rough with this drought and I do live almost next door…. I wonder if they would consider leasing it out as grazing land since even if we had water it isn’t so good at holding any?

The article is about Swiftmud voting not to tighten water restrictions……….drought? What drought? Drink up and more importantly BUILD UP! The conversation that nobody really wants to have is that while local and state politicians are scrambling to weaken rules for building and raping the environment all in the name of economic development (think developer welfare) what they are really avoiding addressing is the severe water shortage we are in.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Here we go again. Is there no end to the dirty tricks the growth machine in Florida is willing to go to in order to stop Florida Hometown Democracy? Nope. Hometown Democracy is a citizen petition amendment that should have been on the ballot in 2008 but due to nasty gutter politics from Palm Beach to Tallahassee it was never added. If passed the amendment would allow voters instead of politicians to vote on any land use changes outside of what our Comprehensive Plan currently provides for.

Maybe they should have renamed Florida Hometown Democracy to “You Can Say No to Sprawl” because the Sprawlpushers Florida Chamber of Commerce has its own competing amendment to block Hometown Democracy, and of course they named it “The Smarter Growth” amendment. This is sort of like Ralph Hughes naming his group Let’s Make The World a Better Place Because We Have Been Here, like Ronda Storms trying to push religion into public schools but naming her bill the Evolution Bill! Like drug dealers with Say No to Drugs stickers on their bumpers. Like……Senator Craig or preacher Ted Haggard wearing an I Hate Gays t-shirt. The Economic Stimulus Package. You get the picture.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor

Budget Crisis? What Budget Crisis?

Remember Chapter One of the Lithia Pinecrest Chronicles – A Road Widening, Some More Lying and We Just Ain’t Buying? Turns out we might not buy it but it looks like we sure as hell are paying for it! The reason this whole controversy regarding this road PD and E study started is that the consultants doing the study to possibly widen Lithia Pinecrest told citizens (screaming about the rural section of the study) that they had to study 6 lanes to be eligible for Federal Dollars (that argument didn’t really hold up) so then they used the logical termini defense for federal dollars and that one is at best arguable. There is one thing they all seem to agree on and that is the fact that the study can’t be predetermined according to Federal guidelines.

Enter a 10+ acre parcel of land off Lithia Pinecrest and Valrico in 2006 for sale for possible right of way (ROW). Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Cornelius is a civic activist with R-Land and a contributor to PoHo:

Two assaults …….oops I mean Comp Plan Amendment proposals …… on the rural area were heard last week at the Hillsborough Planning Commission. The attacks on the rural area were directed at Keystone in the northwest part of the county, but if passed, they would have set a dangerous precedent countywide. Both were in violation of our Comprehensive Plan (which is our county’s blueprint for growth) and Keystone’s Community Plan, so passing either one of them would have been undermining community plans everywhere which citizens work long and hard on.

An army from Keystone showed up to defend its plan, and several people outside of Keystone (myself included) spoke out against this would be breach of the rural service area. Joining together with our rural neighbors does two things: 1. It makes us stronger so that a small community has less chance of being marginalized. 2. It really pisses off developers that don’t like to follow the rules (so I sign up when I can.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Cornelius is a civic activist with the R-Land group in rural eastern Hillsborough County, fighting against sprawl.

Well, the holidays are over, and I am finally making time to go through my public records requests, which include more than 2,000 pages of e-mails from Hillsborough County’s Public Works Dept over the last two years regarding its Lithia Pinecrest Widening/Not Widening Project. When I first started going through them, it seemed kinda creepy to read other people’s e-mails, but fighting sprawl is dirty bidness so I got over it rather quickly. It is making for some very interesting reading, very interesting indeedy.

Lithia Pinecrest road today; planners are discussing six-laning it

Recall: Residents, NIMBYS, concerned citizens and activists had a hairy when we were told in November that Lithia Pinecrest Road in eastern Hillsborough could be six-laned all the way to CR 39. Strange because last year they told us our rural section would not be widened. At the most recent workshop the “federal dollars defense” was born. We were told at that November workshop that although our section MIGHT NOT really be widened, they had to study it for the six lanes in order to get federal dollars.

We screamed, the county commission had a meeting, and the six-lane excuse didn’t really wash, so the “logical termini defense” was played, and it was anything but logical. I am nowhere near done reading all of the e-mails about this bureaucratic mess, but this is what I have learned so far. (And oh, they fully expected our backlash, according to one e-mail.)

Read the rest of this entry »

New feature time: I’m going to point out great conversations that occur on our comments, as well as the comment of the week. You win nothing except your 15 minutes of fame.

This week, the best conversation occurred in response to my latest post about the doings of Sen. Ronda Storms, and an anti-city law that would limit the finances of urban redevelopment districts, between Chris, Chris W, Bill Peak and Can’t We All Just Get Along. Here’s a sample:

1. Chris W Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 6:07 pm eMaybe it’s time for Tampa and points west to form West Hillsborough County and leave the rest of it to the social conservatives so they can form their own inbred utopia.
2. Chris Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 6:42 pm eLOL Chris W

   I grew up on the “west side” and to me anything east of US 301 was foreign territory.

   However, many younger, up and coming families have moved into Brandon, FIshhawk, etc in recent years (b/c of jobs and waning affordbility of home in Tampa proper)…give them some time to stay and get acclimated (unless the market drives them right back out first), and you might see a “moderation” across the county in a few years.

   And Tampa, the city, could stand to do a better job of moving itself out of the bubble for which it has viewed the world for years…Wayne was right in the aritcle, there’s 3x as many unincorported residents than city denizens…that’s a political fight the city lost 2 decades ago and will never get back.

3. BillPeak Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 7:11 pm eOf course Help me Ronda would want to renew the city-county wars, these kooks thrive on dissension and the “us against them” attitude that is killing our county. Ronda and her master Hughes simply would never let the city and the county unite and heal towards the common goal of making the area a better place to live…”them gays is wiked”. In the united world of ideas and creativity they’d be lost and insignificant. They are only head honchos when they can mis-inform, play dirty politics, and buy off politicians….i.e. make things shitty for the rest of us.

   Without the “us and them” theatrics these losers would be exposed as the short-sighted cowards they really are.

4. Can’t We all Just Get Along Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 1:11 pm eBill, I don’t disagree with your vew ont the policy issues.

   However, it’s not like the City of Tampa is brimming with gracious comraderie as well.

   The fact is the County – by nature of the role of local governments and by electoral facts – will always politically and fiscally hold the upper hand.

   That puts the city in a position of “suck it up and deal with it if you want to accomplish anything” that it frankly has never embraced, nor gotten past the denial that it is no longer top dog.

   And at the end of the day, perhaps the BOCC is representing their constituents well. Have you ever asked residents in the unincorporated county what defines their quality of life?

   If it comes down to 3 county residents opposed to mass transit versus one city resident in pro, you know how that vote is always going to go.

   And the more shrill you get calling those residents names like hillbilly, rube, ignorant, etc., the more they will glady exert that 3:1 power they have to strike you down in opposition.

Read the entire exchange here.

It ain’t sexy stuff to write about Hillsborough County’s urban services boundary, but the imaginary line that is supposed to contain suburban sprawl around Florida cities is important nonetheless. Around these parts, it is under assault:

[Hillsborough County] Commissioners allowed a last-minute continuance of another bid to breach the county’s growth boundary, a move that angered 50 or more citizen activists who traveled from far-flung areas of the county to oppose the development on Lutz-Lake Fern Road near the Suncoast Parkway.

Developer Stephen Dibbs, who was not at the meeting, sent a letter this week to the commission asking for a delay on his proposal for a 36.6-acre development on Lutz-Lake Fern Road and Suncoast Parkway.

Dibbs wants to increase the density on his property tenfold, from one house per 5 acres to two houses per acre, and build a shopping center.

The continuance was the second granted by the commissioners this month after dozens of residents turned out to fight growth plan amendments that would push high-density development into rural areas.

“They’re making a mockery of this process,” said Kelly Cornelius, who then turned to the audience and asked, “Who else is tired of these continuations?” The crowd answered with a roar.

That’s the Trib’s account. The Times downplayed the vote and didn’t mention the dissension:

Commissioners were scheduled to vote on two other controversial amendments, but hours earlier, developer Stephen J. Dibbs withdrew his request to remove 305 acres from the Keystone-Odessa Community Plan, which governs growth in the northwest Hillsborough community, and asked commissioners to postpone until 2009 considering a proposed denser development near Lutz-Lake Fern Road and the Suncoast Parkway.

Dibbs is particularly well connected to the commissioners, raising thousands of dollars in commission races and serving on host committees for high-powered fund-raising events. He just missed making my list of 10 “Money Men” in 2006, raising a litle more than $10,000 for county candidates (including 6 of the 7 current county commissioners — Ken Hagan, Mark Sharpe, Jim Norman, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White and Brian Blair) since 2002.

The only person he didn’t give to was Commissioner Rose Ferlita:

Commissioner Rose Ferlita, who didn’t arrive at the meeting until after the vote to give Dibbs the continuance, asked chairman Ken Hagan to hold the vote again so she could record her disapproval.

The vote was held again, with Ferlita and Mark Sharpe voting no.

“I think this has been done before, and it … beats down our citizens,” Ferlita said.

Dibbs was also the driving force behind a move to gut the county’s environmental protections for wetlands.

So let’s face it; it’s hard to say no to a guy who has raised thousands of dollars for you. And that’s why our urban services boundary is susceptible to change and further sprawl.

On the upside, commissioners did vote 6-0 against extending the growth boundary out east of Tampa, along I-4, when they turned down a request by an Orlando company that wants to build an industrial park:

Orlando’s M.L. Carter development wanted a land use change on 94 acres near I-4 and McIntosh Road. Representatives of the developer said that was the perfect spot for an industrial park and could draw high-paying jobs to Hillsborough.

“The county’s missing many opportunities,” attorney Vincent Marchetti said.

But commissioners said they wanted to wait for the county staff to complete its study of the I-4 corridor.

About 20 people spoke against M.L. Carter’s proposal, which they said would jeopardize the county’s rural communities.

“This is absolutely outrageous that you would even consider this,” said Terry Flott, president of the Seffner Community Alliance.

The commission voted 6-0 against the land-use change. Commissioner Kevin White left before the vote.

I don’t find any record of the Orlando firm contributing to county commission races, but its attorney, Vin Marchetti, is a major local donor, contributing more than $12,000 in city and county elections. He has donated $7,000 total to all seven current county commissioners.

So is the lesson the Hillsborough County Commission can’t be bought with campaign contributions? Or that contributions from a developer carry more weight than those from a land-use lawyer?

(I’m going to post a spreadsheet of Dibbs’ and Marchetti’s campaign contributions and other documents about Dibbs’ request to push beyond the growth boundary over at Fix It Now Tampa Bay, our civic journalism website.)