A mandated but long-delayed ordinance to create wildlife corridors is again winding its way through public meetings, hearings and possible adoption by the Pasco County Commission.
Two public meetings were held in New Port Richey and Land O’ Lakes in May.
There will be a final meeting June 4 at 6 p.m., at the Dade City Courthouse.
The next steps will include two public hearings, and by late summer, a scheduled vote by commissioners.
About 10 people attended the May 28 meeting at the Land O’ Lakes Branch Library for an “informational” presentation that outlined the goals and routes for seven proposed corridors.
The county has been slow to act on this issue.
A proposed 2008 ordinance was postponed.
A second deadline of 2010, included in the county’s land use plan, came and went without county action.
It is important to the county’s conservation efforts to adopt an ordinance, said Keith Wiley, program manager for the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Management Program, also known as ELAMP.
“Development is coming. We know it happens,” he said. “If we don’t do it (preserve wildlife corridors) now, we’re going to miss the opportunity.”
Conservation brings a host of benefits, including clean air and water, flood control and carbon storage, Wiley said.
But it also has economic benefits from increased property values and revenues from eco-tourism, he added.
“It’s not about moving bugs and bunnies from one area to another,” said Wiley.
To date, the county has acquired more than 3,000 acres through ELAMP. Some of those acres are part of the proposed wildlife corridor that county officials say would eventually need more than 7,000 acres to complete.
The corridors in central Pasco would link current and proposed development projects at Starkey Ranch, Crossbar, Connerton and Cypress Creek.
About $36 million from the Penny for Pasco revenues were targeted for land purchases with about $17 million invested to date. Another $46 million from the same source has been approved, and the ELAMP program extended for 10 years.
Much of the needed land easements for the corridors pass through private land.
Most of the people at the May 28 meeting were landowners with concerns about property rights.
Land use attorney David Smolker had a generally favorable opinion of the proposed ordinance. But he also was critical of some provisions dealing with how landowners would be compensated for land acquired by the county.
“Remedies available to property owners are not workable or are really a burden,” he said. “Compensation needs to be streamlined.”
The landowner and the county would each provide a property appraisal and reach agreement on a price through negotiation, said Rebecca Stonefield, a county planner.
The ordinance allows appeals before the Development Review Committee and finally before the commission.
Smolker and others expressed concerns about the length of time the process would take. They also wanted to know if property owners would get land returned to them if a proposed development didn’t happen.
Pasco landowner George Southworth said local governments aren’t being honest when such ordinances are adopted. The end result, he said, is that private landowners lose land without fair compensation.
“Let’s just say we’re going to jump in and take this property,” he said.
Southworth described himself as an “agricultural” man with an interest in conservation. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department named Southworth a 2012 Landowner of the Year for a grazing plan adopted on his JY Ranch. The awards are given in recognition of wildlife management and habitat improvements on private land.
The initiative to create the wildlife corridors – also known as critical linkages – emerged from a lawsuit filed in the late 1990s as a challenge to the county’s land use plan and specifically objecting to the then-proposed development of the Oakstead subdivision, off State Road 54.
A settlement cleared the way for Oakstead’s development but required the county to adopt conservation measures, such as the wildlife corridors. The appointment of a task force that in turn led to ELAMP also was part of the settlement.
According to county officials, residents are on record in support of the kind of conservation measures addressed in the ordinance.
In 2012, about 72 percent of Pasco’s voters approved a second round of Penny for Pasco with money for ELAMP. And in 2014 about 76 percent of Pasco voters approved a water and conservation amendment to fund the state’s land acquisition fund.
“So, I think there is a mandate,” said Jennifer Seney, the county’s recycling coordinator.
For information on the proposed ordinance, visit PascoCountyFl.net.
Published June 3, 2015
