Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Land purchase plan falls short on votes

Dunedin's proposal to buy 2.95 acres on Lorraine Leland Street for wastewater plant expansion is defeated.

By MEGAN SCOTT
Published May 6, 2005

DUNEDIN - After several months of discussions, city commissioners on Thursday decided not to purchase property from the Housing Authority for expansion of the wastewater treatment plant.

The motion to purchase the 2.95 acres on Lorraine Leland Street failed on a 3-2 vote. A super majority, or approval from four of the five commissioners, is required to make land purchases. Commissioners Bob Hackworth and Dave Eggers voted no.

Hackworth said he wanted to see affordable housing developed on the entire property.

The site is home to the vacant Highlander Village. That apartment complex had 60 units.

He was okay with Dunedin purchasing the property, as long as the tract of land would never be used as an industrial site.

"Affordable housing is now," he said. "It's critical now. I don't want that land that could become revitalized to be land banked by the city for its future needs.

"Now we have to prioritize," he added. "Are the future needs of the wastewater treatment plant higher priority than the affordable housing? I would argue it's not." Eggers made a motion to allow Dunedin to buy the land for affordable housing. He also wanted any future land use change to require a super majority. That motion failed.

"I would not like to move forward with the intent of having an open ended piece of land we're going to bank for years that we may or may not use," he said.

"In the meantime, we have an opportunity to continue building the community."

Mayor John Doglione said the city has to look 20 to 30 years into the future. He pointed out that a number of townhomes and condos are going up in the area. He also said the authority could use the money from the purchase to build affordable housing.

"This commission is responsible for looking forward to what we're leaving this community 20, 30 years from now," Doglione said. "We're building things in this city for 20, 30 years down the road. Why wouldn't we look at our services 20, 30 years down the road?"

Members of nearby Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church reiterated their concerns again Thursday about the odor coming from the existing plant.

"Housing makes a community better," said the Rev. Clem Bell, pastor of the church. "A sewer plant, first of all, it takes up space where a house could be. It doesn't build up a community. It downgrades a community."

Bilal Habeeb-Ullah, who was born and raised in Dunedin, said the wastewater treatment plant has been an insult to the African-American community.

"Now we're talking about tearing down the apartments and expanding something that has been insulting to our community all of our lives," he said.

All of the arguments, however may be premature, considering the authority has not even decided whether it wants to sell the land.

The authority owns a total of 5.5 acres at Martin Luther King Jr. and Howell Street. Dunedin had agreed to help the board develop affordable townhomes on the rest of the property.

Tim Shepherd, chairman of the authority board, said it was having two strategic planning sessions in June to discuss whether it wants to sell the land. There are other developers, including Habitat for Humanity, who are interested in building affordable housing on the entire property.

Megan Scott can be reached at 445-4167 or mscott@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 6, 2005, 00:38:16]