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Highlands Today

The End?

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Stephen Goodman

Published: July 9, 2008

I read recently about local government's decisions to allow several large tracts in Hardee County to be developed in major fashion. This brought sadness to my heart. Pastoral views from my truck window may soon be replaced with construction cranes and vegetation destruction.

No longer will the sun rise unobstructed over tree-bordered pastures. Nor will turkey buzzards soar majestically to and fro without an unsightly billboard as backdrop. Nor will lush orange groves grow row upon row as far as the eye can see. Nor will cows graze unfettered in pastures as big as multiple ball fields. Oh, they may still graze here, next to a supermarket or a strip mall.

King citrus is diminishing, though still very big here. Cargill announced the shut down of two processing plants in the past year in Frostproof and Avon Park. Some groves are being plowed under and sold to developers. Even though real estate is sluggish, Sebring, in nearby Highlands County, has had several big stores go in recently on critical U.S. 27.

Florida's coastlines are being maxed out, so the Heartland is a logical next place for development, especially for retirees. I saw Lakewood Ranch outside Bradenton go from a real ranch to suburban sprawl in just a few short years, clogging traffic and destroying trees and wetlands, not to mention the rural character of the area.

That's the point; it starts out small; a housing development, then a convenience store and gas station; then a supermarket and pharmacy; then a movie theater; then a school; then churches; then strip malls. There goes the neighborhood!

It's never enough. Predatory, that's what it is. Developers often have no roots here. They just see dollar signs, profits.

Also, ecological balance is severely disrupted and compromised. The natural flow of things is disrupted. Birds of many types leave. Only the most urban and adaptable stay. Streams dry up, get diverted and turn into open cesspools of garbage and pollution.

Of particular importance on the U.S. 27 corridor from Lake Placid to Lake Wales is the Lake Wales Ridge, unique to this area in vegetation, wildlife and ecological danger. Development and road expansion continues to threaten it at an increasingly alarming pace.

Now, though on the backburner, a couple of proposed toll roads threaten to disrupt the area in the most major of ways. First is the north-south route between U.S. 27 and U.S. 17. Second is the east-west route roughly running from the Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach area to the Gulf Coast near Tampa. It would run more or less parallel with current S.R. 66/98 connecting to S.R. 64 into Bradenton.

More than anything, these two routes would almost virtually destroy the rural character of this area east to west and north to south. J.D. Alexander, a legislator from this area and part of the Ben Hill Griffin citrus and cattle family, now is a big mover and shaker with Alico, a spin-off development company of the family business. He never met a stretch of pavement he didn't like.

Stephen Goodman
Tampa

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