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Hillsborough warned on subdivision delays

Growth officials are told that rejecting housing projects to help crowded schools could bring litigation.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published September 29, 2005

TAMPA - Hillsborough County attorney Renee Lee said Wednesday that developers cannot be delayed in building homes because of a shortage of classrooms, a decision that exposes a rift among county officials about how to ease school crowding.

Just this week, county growth management officials recommended denials of four new subdivisions in areas that lacked adequate schools. It was the first time the county tied residential zoning to school crowding, a move planners made to relieve a school district with one-fourth of its schools at or above capacity.

But the move upset some developers, who argued the new restriction would delay their projects for months without giving them a clear indication of how to remedy the shortage of schools.

In an e-mail sent to county planners Wednesday morning, Lee said they didn't have the legal authority to require adequate schools because county commissioners hadn't passed an ordinance to that effect.

"To enforce this policy without an ordinance may result in arbitrary enforcement and no due process," Lee wrote.

Her conclusion forces commissioners to decide whether the county has the authority, without an ordinance, to delay subdivisions based on a lack of classrooms.

If they decide an ordinance is needed, then they must decide whether to approve one and what it would say, a process that could take weeks. Commissioners are scheduled to discuss it Wednesday.

Commissioner Kathy Castor said she strongly disagreed with Lee's conclusion, and urged Hillsborough schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia to ask County Administrator Pat Bean to side with the planners.

"Further delays are not necessary and harmful to students and teachers who are suffering in overcrowded classrooms," Castor wrote to Elia on Wednesday.

Castor cited a policy commissioners passed last year requiring the county to "manage the timing of new development to coordinate with adequate school capacity." State law, Castor said, required that planners do exactly what they did when they recommended denying those four projects.

But Elia and school officials have been far from supportive of the county's new method to ease classroom congestion, despite their concerns that the district faces a $364-million deficit in its five-year construction plan.

Elia and a school planner, John Bowers, said the county's method was "premature" and that they favor waiting until the county adopts another way to control growth .

Like Castor, Commissioner Ronda Storms said she believed the county should do whatever it can to limit development in areas with congested schools. She said the county had to take the lead because the school board has been AWOL in offering solutions.

But Storms also said she's apt to listen to Lee's advice to draft an ordinance first to avoid litigation.

Commissioner Mark Sharpe also said he leaned toward approving an ordinance before delaying any projects.

Commission Chairman Jim Norman and Commissioner Brian Blair, however, said they needed more information on overcrowding, suggesting there might be other ways to ease congestion. Norman said he wanted to form a committee with people from the building industry before going any further.

It will be up to Bean, the administrator, to frame the discussion on where to go next. Bean said she didn't even know what planners were doing until a developer called her on Friday.

"I'm not saying we don't have to seriously address the issues that growth has as it relates to schools," Bean said. "I am saying that we have to do it in ways that are defensible and appropriate."

--Times staff writer Melanie Ave contributed to this story. Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3402 or mvansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 29, 2005, 01:18:09]