Progress slowly
being made on countywide smart growth plan
Remember the hoopla over the
concept of “smart growth” last year? If
you are wondering whether anything is
happening these days, the answer is yes.
But the movement has progressed to the
complex tasks of achieving consensus on
the tenets that will govern smart growth
in Volusia County.
“I’ve never been able to get
comfortable with the slow pace of
government,” said Volusia
County Council member
Art Giles. “And this is
government.”
The process began in
2005 when the Volusia
County Association for
Responsible Development
(VCARD) got the ball
rolling by hosting a series
of smart growth summits.
“These events were
very well attended and
included many community
leaders, government
officials, land owners and
interested individuals with no particular
concern other than the well-being of the
community,” said Dave Castagnacci,
executive director of VCARD. |
Art Giles, County
Council member |
After the group helped bring smart
growth advocates together, it now is
energizing the Green Development
Committee, a group dedicated to helping
builders and developers create
communities and structures that are
environmentally sound and energy
efficient.
The process now has progressed and
is in the hands of the Volusia Council of
Governments’ Smart Growth Committee,
which is comprised of mayors, city
managers, officials from the county and
the Volusia County School Board.
“What the committee is working on
now is deciding precisely where in the
center of the county the conservation
corridor for wildlife wetlands (Map A) is
going to be,” saidMary Swiderski,
executive director of the Volusia Council
of Governments, which is ushering the
process along. “The members also are
working on a ‘tool box’ that will
encourage owners of environmentally
significant lands not to develop those lands, but to exercise their
development
rights elsewhere through a process called
transfer of development rights (TDRs).”
In brief, the committee is working to
perfect what is known asMap A and Map
B.
Map A will outline environmental
core lands the committee believes
deserve the greatest degree of protection
and be the least impacted by development
while protecting the owner’s
development rights. The
consensus is not to increase
the overall density within
the Map A lands.
Map B will deal with
lands that are outside the
environmental core area, but
still have environmental
value in their natural or
semi-natural state.
While it seems simple
enough, there is plenty to
consider. For example, there
is disagreement on how to
accommodate the influx of
new residents.Many agree it is best to
increase density in urban areas to protect
rural areas. But there are differing
opinions on whether to increase density
horizontally or vertically.
“Florida has a one-story mentality,”
said Swiderski, who explained the debate
sometimes evokes strong feelings over
building height limits.
Yet, with the movement toward
green cities, most agree the more green
space the better in rural and urban areas.
Still, it appears that getting it right
trumps the clock.
“For example, what we found is that
some lands that are zoned for
development ended up on Map A and
some tributaries that are to be protected
ended up on Map B,” said Giles. “These
are things we are working out so we can
move ahead.”
Extensive discussions will focus on
the use of transfer development as a tool
to help achieve conservation goals while
accommodating growth in an appropriate
manner. The committee also will be
hearing from land use consultants whose
work in Volusia County has been
extensive.
