Proposed referendum ties roads to growth

Collier County commissioners are considering putting a referendum on the November ballot that asks voters if they want adequate road capacity to exist before development can begin.

The ballot language will be looked at and voted on during a two-day commission meeting today and Wednesday.

Collier officials want this on the ballot as one of their ways of fighting back against Florida's new growth-management law. The county worries this law will devastate their current growth-management system, which requires roads be built before development occurs.

The state's Department of Community Affairs had told the county that its system, usually referred to as checkbook concurrency, can still exist because it was around before the growth-management law passed.

But under the new law, Collier will have to pass a proportionate fair-share ordinance by the end of 2006, and county officials are dubious that concurrency can survive under that ordinance.

If the issue is approved by voters, it won't have the force of law. But Collier officials want to be able to insist that they are following the will of the people when they push to keep their concurrency system intact.

The ballot language being recommended by county staff says:

"State growth management law permits new development to proceed under certain circumstances even if adequate road capacity will not exist for 3 to 5 years. Should this law be changed to require adequate road capacity before new development can begin?"

The general election is Nov. 7.

Commissioners meet beginning at 9 a.m. today in commission chambers at the county government complex at the intersection of U.S. 41 East and Airport-Pulling Road.

The meeting is expected to last two days, with commissioners returning at 9 a.m. Wednesday. They also are scheduled to:

• Hear a report on the possibility of building affordable housing on the residential portion of the Bembridge planned unit development. This PUD, located off Santa Barbara Boulevard, was originally supposed to be the location of the county's new emergency operations center.

County officials chose to build the EOC at another location, and are now looking into the feasibility of building affordable housing on the site.

• Consider approving a change order to the contract with Magnum Construction Management Corp. for $2.5 million for additional work on the Golden Gate Parkway overpass.

• Step into a "muddy" dispute with the South Florida Water Management District.

Water managers will offer 750 acres in rural Belle Meade to make good on a 2003 promise to find land suitable for off-road vehicle play. The two sides struck the deal after the county gave up control over roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates, then a semi-legal haven for ORVs, as part of the state's restoration of the subdivision.

Water management officials missed an Oct. 1, 2005, deadline to supply the county with at least 640 acres where off-roading enthusiasts could roam freely. The county rejected an offer of district-owned land near Lake Trafford after tests showed the muck being dumped on the land as part of the cleanup of the lake had left behind potentially dangerous levels of arsenic.

Last April, under pressure from off-roading advocates, commissioners issued a 60-day ultimatum to the district to put up an offer or rescind the deal.

About 500 of the 750 acres in Belle Meade could be developed into a recreational site. Belle Meade is the area east of Collier Boulevard between U.S. 41 East and Interstate 75.

This issue is time certain for 4 p.m. today.

Staff writer Jeremy Cox contributed to this story.