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Open space rules made optional

The county backs off a mandatory approach to development in settling with landowners.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published November 14, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - County attorneys reached a settlement Monday with 19 northeast Pasco landowners who had sued over the county's stronger open space requirements for new developments.

Pasco effectively backed down from making the "conservation subdivision" a mandatory policy. A key component of the plan to retain northeast Pasco's rural feel, conservation subdivisions would cluster homes on half the property, leaving the rest as open space.

Under the settlement, the policy would now be optional, said Assistant County Attorney Barbara Wilhite.

The settlement followed a 13-hour marathon mediation hearing Thursday, and both sides said they came to the agreement Monday afternoon.

"We're pleased," said David Smolker, the lead attorney for the landowners. "We got the major objective achieved. Our objection was the involuntary nature of it. ... It runs counter to a lot of fundamental precepts of private property. The objective was worthy, but the way they went about it was the problem."

The settlement comes on the heels of the county beating back a broader challenge by the Pasco Building Association.

The association threatened to sue the county on an array of policies, including the conservation subdivision, but backed down after Pasco vowed to fight the lawsuit and hinted at imposing a ban on new developments.

This time, the county opted not to drag out the fight.

At stake was a law embedded in the county's new comprehensive plan that would have required those seeking rezoning for developments of 100 acres or more to set half the property aside as conservation space.

In exchange, the county would have given landowners incentives on increasing densities in their developments.

The law would have applied to owners of large northeastern properties, where homes sit on 5- or 10-acre tracts. Its intent was to preserve the last remnants of Pasco's rolling green landscape.

But the landowners sued on Sept. 7, saying the law was unclear, not based on sound analysis and imposed unfair demands on developments, because they would have to provide additional utilities if forced to cluster the homes.

County attorneys say the settlement preserves the policy intent because it retains existing laws that still require 50 percent set aside as open space, dubbed "open space master plan." The difference is that developers now have a freer hand in how they cobble together "open space."

Under current laws, open space would include areas set aside by individual lot owners, and could include buffers and easements.

It is less stringent than the proposed law, which would have required the developer to put half of the property under some form of common ownership, such as a homeowners association.

The downside for potential developers is that they can now no longer get the additional density - more homes per acre - that the "conservation subdivision" promised. But the landowners never found the incentive all that appealing.

Pasco's existing growth management policies, called "master-planned unit development," also give the county some control on how large-scale developments are structured, Wilhite said.

The lawsuit averts some $100,000 in expert fees for Pasco, said Wilhite. The settlement has not yet received the County Commission's blessing.

"I think it's a good resolution for the county," Wilhite said.

Sharon Hanna-West, a member of Northeast Pasco Concerned Citizens, a group that had pushed the "conservation subdivision" and joined the lawsuit on the county's side, had not been informed of the development Monday night. She declined to comment until she learned more.

The landowners that sued the county include big players like Evans Properties, with 3,481 acres in northeast Pasco holdings; the Al-Bar Family Limited Partnership, with 1,305 acres; Southsee Corp., Tampa Farm Service, with 820 acres; Massey Partners, with 207 acres; and Lake Placid Groves LLC, with 230 acres.

Their lead lawyer said Monday that he had hoped to get more concessions from Pasco on "employment centers," another comprehensive plan change that targets how developers structure business and industrial land uses on their properties.

With the key objective on "conservation subdivisions" accomplished, Smolker said he now hopes the county would consider tweaking "employment center" rules in the future, he said.

The county hopes to have the comprehensive plan in effect by end of January, Wilhite said.

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development. He can be reached at 813 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 14, 2006, 07:06:40]