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Background
on the Mims land deal
April 19, 2006
By Mike Moehle
Concerning
the 86 acres Brevard county has obligated itself to buy in
North Brevard, which was the subject at several community
meetings.
I
attended one of these meetings at the Mims library last year hosted by
Commissioner Scarborough. This is where the totally inaccurate
Future Land Use Map (FLUM) was displayed for the last time before I
corrected it myself and brought it to Commissioner Pritchard's
attention.
The
county's north area FLUM is about 40,000 acres shy of depicting the actual
amount of government owned conservation land.
The
purpose of the meeting was to derail the (development) project. Commissioner
Scarborough had the heads of most of the county departments there.
The entire meeting was about finding a way to not give the property
owner the requested zoning change to what was allowed under
the Future Land Use Map.
Most
of the concerned citizens at the meeting wanted to deny, deny,
deny. Scarborough allowed as how, legally, the county needed some
sort of legitimate concurrency issue to deny the rezoning.
None
of the county staff members could think of any legitimate reason for
recommending the denial of rezoning.
That was when Truman pointed to the current FLUM and told everyone at the meeting that it needed to be changed to keep any rezonings from happening in north Brevard in the future. That all density in excess of existing zoning needed to be eliminated if north Brevard was to remain the same. That the county should refrain from improving any more roads or run water and sewer to any more property in order to provide the requisite concurrency issues.
It is
now clear to me that what happened after the meeting was that Commissioner
Scarborough somehow pressured the EELs staff and/or The Nature
Conservancy into acquiring the property.
The
EELs Land Acquisition Manual states that the "EEL Selection and
Management Committee will be composed of local environmental scientists
and individuals with demonstrated expertise in environmental and land
management issues. ...The EEL Selection and Management Committee has
sole authority to receive and review proposals for lands nominated for purchase
and make specific land acquisition and management recommendations."
I
cannot find justification in the entire manual for this politically
motivated purchase. I can't imagine that the EEL's Selection and
Management Committee chose to purchase this 85-acre property at
$3,600,000 for the required reasons. |