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Broward officials tell their tale of annexation
By MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN SEMINOLE -- Deal with annexation now because it won't go away -- that's the one bit of advice Cynthia Chambers hopes a group of local politicians heed. Chambers would know. For the past 17 years, the director of Broward County's Planning Services Division has been consumed with annexation issues. She says the longer Pinellas County waits to seriously address annexation, the tougher it will be. "You need to get cracking is the final word here," she told a group of about 100 elected officials gathered Thursday evening at the Seminole Recreation Center. "It's really an interesting process even though it can be contentious. You have the ability to lay out the future for a lot of people and to make it happen." Seminole Mayor Dottie Reeder invited Chambers and Marcie Gelman, Broward's assistant director of budget services, to give a presentation on how the South Florida county is dealing with annexation. Not to duplicate what Broward has done, Reeder stressed, but to hear how another county has tackled annexation and its accompanying issues. "We all go through very similar things in the state of Florida," she said before the presentation. In Broward County all unincorporated areas have been mandated to join one of the 30 existing municipalities by 2010, Chambers said. The deadline has since been changed to 2005. The mandate is the result of the 1996 Florida Legislative session in which the Broward legislative delegation created a committee on annexation policy. The 19-member committee was responsible for developing and recommending policy to the Broward legislative delegation regarding the terms under which it would consider future annexations. Annexation problems began surfacing in Broward long before the '90s. Ways to deal with annexation started as early as 1974, when local concerns led to the first annexation plan for the county. Since then, Chambers said, Broward has had successes and failures with its efforts to control annexation. Gelman said Broward's successful annexation policies include: Keeping defined neighborhoods intact. Encouraging annexing cities to provide inducements or incentives to unincorporated residents. Funding studies of tax and fee structures for each city vying to annex an area. Prohibiting annexing any county facility currently in the unincorporated area without the consent of the County Commission. Having a transitional plan for displaced county employees calling for employment within the annexing municipality. Allocating $500-million for infrastructure improvements in unincorporated areas to make them more appealing to annexing cities. Discouraging the practice of annexing a tax lucrative area and leaving behind an adjacent tax deficient area, also known as "cherry-picking." Chambers said 100 percent annexation became a goal because it got too expensive to service pockets of unincorporated areas. Today, only 8 percent of Broward's population of 1.6-million and 27 square miles of the county's developable 412 square miles remains unincorporated. When Chambers commented that people who oppose annexation should just accept it and "get on with their lives," some in the audience chuckled. "I just wish it was that simple," Reeder said. Elected officials listened intently to the one-hour presentation. Afterward, they took turns asking questions focusing on the countywide millage rate, cherry-picking and consolidation of services. Antiannexation activists also were present at the public meeting. "I don't understand how you think our county compares with yours?" asked Dorothy Book, who lives in an unincorporated area near Seminole. Realizing the question was one Chambers and Gelman were not there to answer, Reeder interjected. "That is really not an appropriate question for our guests."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
