810/910 Rules Will Be No More.

This is a sad day for Pine Island, but of course a great day for King Ranch and the other big landowners. The 810/910 rules that have served us so well for 28 years are to be no more. The new rules will give us more development on Pine Island and more traffic through Matlacha. We cannot afford either, but I know how to count votes, and thus will not waste my 3 minutes trying to convince you to vote against this measure.

Instead I’m going to try to salvage what I can. You promised us that the rewrite would preserve the rural character of Pine Island and provide for open space in new developments. The proposed LDC amendments however make open space optional to the developer. The Planning Committee only asked for one change to the rewrite, and that was to remove the language in LDC Section 33-1054 (b) (4) giving developers the option to not provide open space. The County Attorney’s Office turned us down, so we are appealing to you.

Please only approve this measure on condition that the LDC package, which will come to you for approval on 16 February, be rewritten to make open space mandatory. That request is the only request the Pine Island Community has made for changes. Don’t we deserve at least that much input to our Community Plan.

The County Attorney's Office has otherwise done a good job of the rewrite. They preserved many of the provisions unique to Pine Island, properly dealt with the bridge issue, and created a very innovative TDR program.

Phil Buchanan
email: coolcherokee@comcast.net