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Florida is on a new path to growth management

Today more than 16-million people call Florida home, and we continue to be one of the fastest growing states in the nation. With close to 1,000 new residents moving to Florida daily, the state's population is projected to grow by 5-million during the next 17 years.

Recently, a report by 1000 Friends of Florida made dire predictions about Floridians' future quality of life based on future growth. The good news is that Gov. Jeb Bush has spearheaded landmark growth management reforms that partner the state with local governments and the private sector to fund the infrastructure needed to meet growth demands. This "pay-as-you-grow" system bases decisions about new development on the ability of regions to construct roads, build schools and supply water for new and growing communities.

Additionally, the new law discourages urban sprawl by providing regulatory incentives to develop within urban service boundaries and urban infill and redevelopment areas.

The reforms also require a closer link between local growth and development plans and the available revenue for necessary roads and transit systems. The growth management law also encourages partnerships and places a stronger emphasis on statewide and regional approaches to improve the current transportation system and prepare for future demands. The legislation provided more than $1.1-billion for transportation reforms last year, with a recurrence of $542-million annually.

Perhaps most significantly, the reforms established a new trust fund to support water restoration and sustainability - a groundbreaking shift in water policy. Instead of tapping Florida's underground water supply, local governments can now tap matching state funds to develop alternative water supplies. More than $200-million was made available last year alone for desalinization, reuse and conservation projects.

By taking a commonsense and collaborative approach, Florida is on a new path to manage growth, one that crosses political boundaries, ensures economic prosperity and preserves natural habitat. These reforms, coupled with a strong financial investment from the state, guarantee room on our roads, space in our classrooms and water for our natural environment, ensuring our economy continues to grow and our quality of life continues to improve.

Colleen M. Castille, secretary, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee

Survey: Transit tax has support Dec. 28, story

Bus riders available

Public transportation takes passengers to pay the bills. Do you realize that Pinellas and Hillsborough counties each have duplicate bus systems now? Yellow buses carry kids in public schools, and PSTA and HARTline carry anyone.

The county bus systems need more riders, and they are already here. Why not take the high school kids off the yellow buses and give them student passes on PSTA and HARTline buses? The students will receive several years of bus-riding habits that will carry them right on into their working life.

This alleviates the yellow buses from carrying that entire age group and uses bus maintenance and driver money for the remaining elementary and middle school ages.

The buses of different companies cover the entire Tampa Bay area. What freedom of movement that would offer the students, and they don't need an expensive car with insurance and gas and a driver's license.

The people I have talked to about it like it.

John Custer, Largo

Let's save water

Lowering levels in the Hillsborough River and other area water bodies are of enormous concern. At the same time, the river, downstream of the Tampa dam, has had no freshwater inflow except for occasional storm sewer inflows from isolated rains. These have provided little, but much-needed freshwater to the lower Hillsborough River.

Records show no flow at the dam for the periods from mid-March into August and from early October to present, a total of well-over half a year. If you were certain fish species or manatee, dependent on freshwater, you would not be likely to inhabit the Hillsborough River downstream of the dam anymore. You couldn't. And upstream, the river's shoreline is expanding as the waterline continues to visibly shrink toward the center of the river as more and more water is extracted to meet area water demand.

Water conservation measures enacted in Tampa, Temple Terrace and the Hillsborough County don't seem to be having any beneficial effect to date in reversing lowered river levels. It is worrisome to see one of the area's most valuable resources being depleted. It is also important to note that these kinds of fluctuations do occur on an annual basis but not to this extreme.

It is past time for area residents to seriously reduce their water use. If the area doesn't see some considerable rainfall along with significant reduction in water demand, the future of our water supply and our "way of life" too will be in peril, just like that of the fish and manatee that live in the Hillsborough River.

Robert Carnahan, Temple Terrace

Pinellas County Value Adjustment Board Dec. 28, legal notice

Assessment insult

I was really shocked to see the insensitivity of this board to place an ad in your newspaper last Thursday about how much assessed property values went down (boo hoo) due to complaints about errors and then make an underlined statement that the rest of our property taxes will go higher as a result.

The fact is that hundreds of property owners spent time and money to show the board the errors that they made. I see no apologies in the ad either.

It seems that when I'm ready to sell my house, I will consider them in my decision to buy another one in Pinellas County and be at their whim to charge whatever rate they think they need. Assessed values are going up and you can't even sell a house in my neighborhood.

Bob Berlanti, St. Petersburg

Judge orders dog visitation Dec. 27, story

Adding to the hurt

To those in the Tampa area who adopted the dogs from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, I admire what you have done. To take the animals into your homes shows a true love for animals.

But I think that any good you have done has been wiped out by depriving the original owners of their dogs. These owners are also members of a family, which consist of parents and young children whose lives have been turned upside down. By trying to keep these dogs, you have kicked those who are already dealing with personal tragedy.

This family is in the process of rebuilding their lives after Katrina, and you have taken it upon yourself to keep them in a continued struggle. Why would you want to make a suffering family struggle even more.

Daniel Blevins, Hernando Beach

Mint should strike this idea Dec. 25, commentary

Coins should be used

These presidential coins are is just another stupid idea coming out of Washington. Is there no one there with any common sense?

The principle purpose of dollar coins is to be used for money, not for collectors items. This should not be that difficult a concept to grasp! So what do we do? We make them pretty and different so that people will collect them and take them out of circulation. In the process, our government may even make a profit on the minting. However, that is not the stated purpose of the coins.

We have only to look at Canada for a common-sense approach to minting. Their dollar coin, nicknamed "the loony," is in daily and constant use, as is their two-dollar coin, "the double loony." How often do we see our dollar coin in use? We would rather use and constantly replace our paper dollars.

Even the thickest heads in Washington should realize the absurdity of our low-denomination paper money and follow the example of our northern neighbor. Give us something we can use rather than something for people to save.

We may not use the common loon on the reverse side of our dollar coins, but we can use the eagle (call the coin an eagle), and we can use another eagle on the two-dollar coins (call it a double eagle). It would be so simple and so useful.

David S. Swan Jr., Clearwater

[Last modified January 2, 2007, 14:39:34]