drc.htm August 14, 2005
Pasco Tribune -- Sunday, August 14, 2005 -- My View column on Pasco section of Tampa Tribune.
By
RICHARD K. RILEY
Growth
in
controlled.
The
project
wants to build 653. These development proposals and
requests
for high-density land uses are trying to make east
not
have to accept this.
County
commissioners should accept the recommendations of their
staff
that this is an inappropriate change and the projects are
designed
for unacceptable growth.
They
should listen to those concerned that these proposals will
violate
water quality, confuse storm drainage, destroy the
environment,
clog traffic and insult the county's rural and
aesthetic
assets.
Commissioners
have reminded me that the constitution of the
right
to sell property to anybody for almost any reason. But the
Constitution
does not guarantee that a landowner is endowed with
the
inalienable right to make the most money possible by
building
the most homes per acre possible, and do it with the
least
concern for the rest of the county or state.
The
western part of
ruined
by inappropriate overdevelopment. We have the chance to
protect
what is left of our land and provide homes that fit the
rural
atmosphere that attracted us here. Raping the land in the
name
of development and profit may be the history of American
real
estate, but it doesn't have to be the present or future of
it.
If
landowners and developers are not allowed to make the highest
amount
of profit, I feel they can still sell their property and
the
intelligent homes built on them. Attractive, sensible and
affordable
homes can be built with reasonable lot sizes on
soon-to-be-abandoned
ranches, groves and open spaces of east
We
have the opportunity to develop east
can
be proud of and increase the quality of homes and the tax
base,
as well as attract people with higher incomes so they can
better
support the county.
If
you reduce the quality of life by crowding people in 5-
foot-lot-line
homes with garages in the front and front doors in
the
back, you will get people who do not respect their
neighborhoods,
neighbors or themselves.
High-quality
homes and a high quality of life will attract and
develop
quality homeowners. This is what will benefit
best.
Quality … not quantity.
I urge commissioners to deny approval of these proposals.
The
writer is a Trilby area activist and a former program
director
for the Maine Department of Education.
Editor's
note: The county commission, acting as the
county's
land planning agency, meets at the Historic Pasco
group
of applications to amend the comprehensive land use plan,
the
guide for growth. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m.