Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/136775
Sarasota News Leader June 14, 2013 OPINION Page 66 Those lands become part of the larger fabric But with the stalling of the "development exof prudent development under the county's press," the County Commission has been parcomprehensive land use plan. ing the developers' share of the impact from any new development. For example, the transWhy then would the County Commission use a portation impact fee was halved in the depths "bank" of undeveloped lands, especially those of the Great Recession, despite the fact that in the ESLP, as a catalyst for overdevelopment the creation of transportation infrastructure elsewhere in the county? Why would it confer has continued to increase in cost. Moreover, on preserved wilderness some sort of unused in a move we deplored at the time, the County "development right" that could then be sold to Commission recently extended that consida developer otherwise chafing under the "burerable gift to developers for the foreseeable den" of compliance with the county's zoning future, agreeing only to "revisit" the matter as laws? time goes by. This brings us to the ancient biblical admoniThus, it appears, the concept of TDRs is only tion, "Money is the root of all evil." one more gambit by the County Commission The Great Recession brought the "develop- to encourage developers to resume with rement express" — and the considerable rev- newed vigor their draining, filling, paving over enue flowing into public coffers that accom- and otherwise despoiling. Obviously, in the panied it — to a grinding halt, both here and commissioners' view, the poor benighted developers teeter on the edge of economic ruin, across much of the nation. and only generous concessions by the taxpayIn the intervening years, the County Commis- ers of Sarasota County will save them — consion has fretted about this reality … too little, cessions, it should be pointed out, which will we believe, out of an altruistic concern for the be paid for by those taxpayers for generations economic well being of the county and too to come. much out of concern for some of the biggest When the matter of setting a sale price on players in the county's political landscape. TDRs was raised again this spring by county All development — from a tar-paper fishing staff, the ESLOC had not even been consulted. shack to a planned community with 20,000 Only after members of the ESLOC plaintively residents — has an impact on the rest of the begged the commission to defer any decision county, and it has been public policy that de- until they had had an opportunity to review velopers must share in the financial cost of the matter did the commission delay its acdealing with that impact, especially the cre- tion. ation of essential infrastructure that additional development necessitates: roads and bridg- Unfortunately, the ESLOC, like many others in es, schools and libraries and water and sewer the county, has determined that the sale by the county of TDRs is a foregone conclusion; that services, to name just a few.