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Amendment takes step toward smart growth

Evidence is mounting to support warnings from the Hernando County Commission's planning staff that bold steps must be taken to manage growth along the county's busiest transportation corridors.

State Road 50, from U.S. 19 to just east of the Suncoast Parkway entrance, is already overburdened. The traffic is so heavy that a partial moratorium on development has already been imposed because a stretch of that road exceeds state safety standards.

And the situation will only worsen, because it will be several years before the road can be widened. It might be a little less than five years, or it might be a little more, depending on how much money is available for buying additional rights of way and how high the cost of materials and construction will increase.

Facing that bleak probability, State Rep. David Russell Jr., R-Brooksville, attempted to reassure members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization last week that help is on the way with additional funding for road construction. Russell also is confident that his influence as chairman of the House Transportation Committee will bring that state money to Hernando County sooner than anticipated.

Even if that happens - and we certainly hope Russell achieves that goal during the last of his eight years in the House - the inescapable truth is that it won't be soon enough to keep pace with the county's steady surge in population and commercial development.

While plans for improving the road network should be expedited to the extent that is fiscally responsible, other steps can be taken now that should make the need less critical in years to come.

At its monthly land use hearing in Brooksville on Wednesday, the County Commission will consider several proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. One stands out as a particularly significant step toward smartly managing growth along SR 50 and U.S. 19.

The change would limit commercial development along those highways to so-called "nodes," or pockets, that concentrate businesses near designated intersections, rather than allowing strip shopping centers along frontage roads that run adjacent to the highway. The latter adds to traffic congestion, planners say.

Commercial nodes also save taxpayers money, because less is needed to buy rights of way for the frontage roads.

Developers and Realtors objected to the original proposal, but the planning department since has made exceptions for smaller parcels of land (less than 300 feet). That was a fair compromise that protects property rights without undermining the concept of development nodes.

Planning Department Director Larry Jennings summed up the intent of the comp plan amendment well at last week's MPO meeting by providing an easily understood analogy: "Our goal is (to) not become a U.S. 19 in Pasco County. We all can agree that that kind of situation is detrimental to the community, and our residents don't want it."

He's right, of course, and the County Commission has an opportunity Wednesday to do more than pay lip service to that oft-repeated lament.

[Last modified August 7, 2005, 01:29:21]