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02-15-2006, 07:24 AM
February 15, 2006
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Vero Beach developer Bob Swift grinned Tuesday.
After insisting in 2004 that colleagues preserve native habitat, instead of buying out of that requirement, he hailed the County Commission's passage of his proposal.
"This (ordinance) doesn't have everything I'd like to see, but it's a good start," he told the commission.
The county in 1990 began requiring developers of sites larger than five acres to preserve 15 percent of the native uplands, or dry habitat, and allowed for a fee in lieu of the preservation, county Environmental Planning Chief Roland DeBlois said.
The 15 percent was a compromise with state officials, who wanted 25 percent of a site's upland habitat preserved, he said.
In a 5-0 vote Tuesday, the commission toughened its regulations to require developers to exhaust various options for on-site or off-site preservation and prove they won't work before the county would entertain a fee.
"It's the last alternative to promote the preservation of green space," DeBlois said.
The law applies to developers in residential areas, DeBlois said, not to homeowners or owners of agricultural tracts.
Swift, who proposed the idea in the summer of 2004 as a member of the county Planning and Zoning Commission, said he would have retained the law's allowance that let developers conserve only 10 percent of their woods if it was all one piece.
"It was a mistake to take that out," he said after the meeting. "Now there's no inducement for the landowner to look at (entire) habitat preservation in the environment."
He said developers can make up the 15 percent with scattered pieces of habitat.
DeBlois, however, said the revision controls size directly, requiring preservation tracts to be at least 50 feet wide.
Overall, Swift said, it's better than the prior version of the ordinance that gave developers the option of paying fees in lieu of preservation.
That version of the law, he has said, has allowed too much native land to be developed over the years.
"We haven't used the fee-in-lieu for quite some time," ever since Swift addressed his concerns, DeBlois said.
So far, the fee has been equivalent to the tax-assessed value of one acre of the project site, multiplied by the number of acres of habitat type that would otherwise have been set aside.
But that changed Tuesday when commissioners agreed to base the fee on the market value. That would require an appraisal from the developer, DeBlois said.
Commissioner Sandra Bowden, however, said she'd prefer the county get the appraisal done and bill the developer.
"Sometimes the appraisal says one thing if you're the one paying for it," and another thing if it's the other party, she said.
DeBlois said the appraisal will have to be done by a member of the Appraisal Institute, the Chicago-based professional organization.
Saving the uplands
Indian River County's native-upland protection ordinance is revised to:
• Require developers to set aside 15 percent of a parcel's native habitat, if any, for conservation in separate tracts — not as an easement across a resident's yard.
• Eliminate the incentive that allowed developers to preserve only 10 percent if they kept habitat in one piece.
• Limit developers from paying a fee in lieu of preservation unless they can prove they can't get "reasonable use" of a tract by setting aside that area.
• Increase the fee, when allowed, from 1 percent of the tax-assessed value to 1 percent of the market value of a project site, multiplied by the number of acres of uplands that would otherwise have to be set aside.
• Require developers to provide a management plan for the conservation tracts.
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Vero Beach developer Bob Swift grinned Tuesday.
After insisting in 2004 that colleagues preserve native habitat, instead of buying out of that requirement, he hailed the County Commission's passage of his proposal.
"This (ordinance) doesn't have everything I'd like to see, but it's a good start," he told the commission.
The county in 1990 began requiring developers of sites larger than five acres to preserve 15 percent of the native uplands, or dry habitat, and allowed for a fee in lieu of the preservation, county Environmental Planning Chief Roland DeBlois said.
The 15 percent was a compromise with state officials, who wanted 25 percent of a site's upland habitat preserved, he said.
In a 5-0 vote Tuesday, the commission toughened its regulations to require developers to exhaust various options for on-site or off-site preservation and prove they won't work before the county would entertain a fee.
"It's the last alternative to promote the preservation of green space," DeBlois said.
The law applies to developers in residential areas, DeBlois said, not to homeowners or owners of agricultural tracts.
Swift, who proposed the idea in the summer of 2004 as a member of the county Planning and Zoning Commission, said he would have retained the law's allowance that let developers conserve only 10 percent of their woods if it was all one piece.
"It was a mistake to take that out," he said after the meeting. "Now there's no inducement for the landowner to look at (entire) habitat preservation in the environment."
He said developers can make up the 15 percent with scattered pieces of habitat.
DeBlois, however, said the revision controls size directly, requiring preservation tracts to be at least 50 feet wide.
Overall, Swift said, it's better than the prior version of the ordinance that gave developers the option of paying fees in lieu of preservation.
That version of the law, he has said, has allowed too much native land to be developed over the years.
"We haven't used the fee-in-lieu for quite some time," ever since Swift addressed his concerns, DeBlois said.
So far, the fee has been equivalent to the tax-assessed value of one acre of the project site, multiplied by the number of acres of habitat type that would otherwise have been set aside.
But that changed Tuesday when commissioners agreed to base the fee on the market value. That would require an appraisal from the developer, DeBlois said.
Commissioner Sandra Bowden, however, said she'd prefer the county get the appraisal done and bill the developer.
"Sometimes the appraisal says one thing if you're the one paying for it," and another thing if it's the other party, she said.
DeBlois said the appraisal will have to be done by a member of the Appraisal Institute, the Chicago-based professional organization.
Saving the uplands
Indian River County's native-upland protection ordinance is revised to:
• Require developers to set aside 15 percent of a parcel's native habitat, if any, for conservation in separate tracts — not as an easement across a resident's yard.
• Eliminate the incentive that allowed developers to preserve only 10 percent if they kept habitat in one piece.
• Limit developers from paying a fee in lieu of preservation unless they can prove they can't get "reasonable use" of a tract by setting aside that area.
• Increase the fee, when allowed, from 1 percent of the tax-assessed value to 1 percent of the market value of a project site, multiplied by the number of acres of uplands that would otherwise have to be set aside.
• Require developers to provide a management plan for the conservation tracts.