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Highlands Today

Growth Plan

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Gabriel Read

Published: December 27, 2007

Editor's Note: We are republishing this letter to the editor due to an error. We apologize for the error.

It is good that our county leaders are seeking sound suggestions for the future growth of our county. It would have been more significant if they had actually accepted and followed through on suggestions in the last five years.

For instance, a number of citizens had pleaded for alternate arterial roads parallel to U.S. 27. There are still no through arterial roads unless you count the Sebring Parkway, which has a number of traffic lights, and is a number of years from completion north of Avon Park. Even the 2025-year bypass from south Sebring will stretch west into Hardee County and come back to U.S. 27 in Polk County.

Great concern had been expressed about development in the wetlands and flood plains, to no avail. The recent decision to rebuild State Road 8 at twice the cost, because of the low-lying topography, apparently ignored that concern. Even after the county government bought a number of houses in that area due to flooding, the county commission approved another permit to build in Venus.

The fact that some areas in this county are un-developable apparently is not a logical deterrent to development. The issue of conserving water run-off, etc. has been in the news recently, and the related agencies have expressed concern about employing a number of measures to achieve that goal. This includes preventing pollution of our lakes. Rain run-off must have a place (wetlands and flood plains) where it can be filtered into the aquifer.

Thus, it would behoove the county commission to revisit those concerns and actually employ those valid measures when approving developers requests with appropriate restrictions. No one has the right to develop property when it will damage others' property. This has occurred a number of times when new sites are filled at higher levels than existing home sites.

One more concern is the cramming of more and more units to the acre. As one drives or flies across this country, one cannot but notice the density of units, whether they be in urban, suburban or rural areas. Florida already has 17-plus million residents and will reach 18 million in about five years. What with the water issue, the run-off of billions of gallons of water into the Atlantic and the Gulf, plus the drawing of more billions from the aquifer, there is a looming catastrophe in the making.

Highlands County has already faced the "pilfering" of its aquifer by entities elsewhere in the state. That and mass development of multiple units statewide will significantly diminish the qualities of life here that enticed those 17-plus million already here. Will that happen in Highlands County? Therefore, comprehensive analysis of a suitable growth plan is definitely warranted. This does not include penalizing those who are already here, for example, developers should pay for the infrastructure demands they create (impact fees.)

Gabriel Read
Avon Park

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