Letter to the Editor
Seminole County is the shining star of Florida local governments which have engaged in comprehensive planning in a high quality manner.
I served in the County Attorney’s for 15 years in the midst of the County’s massive planning efforts. Prior to my arrival, the County had gone to the Legislature and sought special legislation to engage in its first planning efforts. Other local governments fought the requirement to plan, Seminole County embraced it.
Resultantly, the County has by and large developed precisely as planned. Its core is highly urbanized along the I-4 corridor, its western part is far less dense protecting the Wekiva River and its eastern part is a relatively rural area protecting the Econlockhatchee River area. Indeed, current County Commissioner and former State Representative and Senator Lee Constantine caused the Legislature to enact a Wekiva River Protection Act in 1990 and worked with local governments to adopt the Econlockhatchee River Protection Area.
Both rivers, of course, run into the St. Johns River which requires protection on its own accord.
The County had to fight to uphold its plan. Once, it defeated a highly political and well-funded legal challenge by Kenneth Keating (of the “Keating 5”) who tried to power through a huge highly intense development right on the banks of the Wekiva River. The County endured a lengthy trial, arguments before the Governor and Cabinet and appeals to the Courts.
In the eastern area of the County, before the voters of the County approved a Charter amendment providing for a rural area, engaged with what a then very pro-growth management State government to plan the area as a rural area with low density residential development.
Now, decades later the Florida Attorney General seems to be working in the opposite direction in stating that the rural boundaries in Seminole and Orange counties are “likely” unconstitutional and violate property owners’ rights. He seems to favor developers who want carefully crafted land use protections nullified over the environment despite the Florida Constitution stating, in Article II, Section 7, that “It shall be the policy of the state to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty. Adequate provision shall be made by law for the abatement of air and water pollution . . . and for the conservation and protection of natural resources.”
The Attorney General relies upon the provisions of the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act which was enacted in 1995 and provides a specific process for landowners to seek relief when their property is unfairly affected by government action. Property owners may assert a claim if government inordinately burdens an existing use of real property or a vested right to a specific use of real property. It is a complex statute which requires detailed legal analysis in every case and has not been used with a great deal of success by property owners. It is odd that the Attorney General would take a leap in favor of developers on the basis of that statute.
Why the Attorney General is involved is a question when the general policy of the Attorney Generals of Florida has been that “Particularly difficult or momentous questions of law should be submitted to the courts for resolution . . .” and that “Opinions generally are not issued on questions requiring an interpretation only of local codes, ordinances, or charters rather than the provisions of state law. Instead such requests will usually be referred to the attorney for the local government in question.”
The Attorney General should not be taking the side of the development industry and should be working in the public interest to protect the “natural resources and scenic beauty” of our State.
Lonnie Groot
Groot Law
