Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Counties deplore move to let cities trump regulations

By LUCY MORGAN
Published April 19, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Pinellas County officials say a bill aimed at settling a dispute in South Florida could overturn decades of planning and reignite long-settled annexation wars in Pinellas and 18 other charter counties.

Pinellas County Commission Chairman Kenneth T. Welch was among those testifying before a House committee considering the bill (HB 949). "Our system works well," Welch told lawmakers. "In a county with 24 cities, the first builtout county in Florida, we can't afford to revert to 25 different strategies."

Sarasota County Commissioner Paul Mercier suggested the state should instruct cities and counties "to play nice" and let local officials work out their own problems.

Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah, has proposed the bill to resolve a conflict between Palm Beach County commissioners and the city of Wellington. Arza says cities should have the right to determine their own futures. His proposal has sparked a lobbying war between cities that support the bill and counties that oppose it.

Rep. David Russell, the Brooksville Republican chairing the House committee, said he doesn't think the bill will be approved by his committee, but county lobbyists are fearful it will reappear as an amendment to other bills in the final days of the legislative session.

The proposal could undo existing county ordinances in all 19 charter counties, leaving it up to individual cities to opt out of land use, water restrictions and other regulations enacted over the years.

It would be like allowing individual counties to ignore state laws, suggested Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman.

Pinellas and Broward counties have countywide planning councils that give cities a voice in making decisions, Welch and Lieberman noted.

[Last modified April 19, 2006, 01:57:07]