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Highlands Today

Heartland 2060: Will We Protect Our Historic Cities, Resources?

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: September 21, 2007

SEBRING — If we keep doing what we're doing today, what will Highlands County look like in 50 years?
That's the question Pat Steed posed at the end of the Heartland 2060 meeting.

The Heartland of Florida is made up of small towns and agricultural areas, said Steed, executive director of Central Florida Regional Planning Council. But think of how Highlands and other counties have already sprawled out.

Steed was speaking to 150 planners, government officials, environmentalists and business people who met to ask when and where the Heartland's people should begin the planning process.
Two officials reassured that the state has already begun planning.

Craig Meyer, deputy commissioner of agriculture, said that despite the recent housing market slowdown, he has no reason to believe that 1,100 people aren't still moving to Florida every day, a figure used last year. By 2030, he figured, the entire state of Ohio (population, 11 million) would have moved to Florida.

"And they're going to want food," Meyer said. There are 8,922 farms in the seven Heartland counties, and that's 20 percent of the state total. But farms are disappearing every day. Polk County alone lost 600,000 citrus trees last year, about 5.7 percent of the 10 million total, according to the Florida Agriculture Statistics Service.

Dennis Gilkey, CEO of the Gilkey Corp., believes the population of Florida will double in the next 50 years.
Charles Gauthier agreed. "Even though the economy has slowed down, we've seen a huge uptick in planning," he said. That is, developers have asked cities and counties to amend their planning maps to include new subdivisions or businesses which will add substantially to highway traffic.

Two more interesting facts:

• Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in two of the seven counties of Central Florida. With 1,000 employees, Florida Hospital is No. 1 in Highlands, and Highlands Regional Medical Center is No. 3. Wal-Mart is No. 2 with 650, but when the Avon Park store opens, it could become Highland's top employer.

• The two hospitals are the top employers in Highlands County because the average resident is 50 years old. In the surrounding counties, the average resident is 38 years old. However, the median age dropped from 51.4 in 1990 to 50 in 2000.

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