Development Board's role about to get juicy

The firestorm over whether Marianne Knudsen will be reappointed to the county's planning Board on Tuesday so far has focused on the applicants: Knudsen, a longtime board member and lifelong environmentalist , whose three-year term expired at the end of November, and handful of wannabes, including the president-elect of the builders association.

The issue has been framed as a choice between those who wish to protect the natural beauty of Citrus County , and those who seek to exploit those resources for profit.

The public in general, however, may ask: What difference does any of this make? Who cares who sits on the Planning and Development Review Board?

The deeper thinkers out there may add: Knudsen has been on the board 1987 and never before has her reappointment been openly opposed. Why is there such intense interest and now in replacing her with a representative of the building community?

The answers may lie in the long list of issues that the board will face over the next few years.

To be sure, the PDRB has always dealt with weighty issues and hot topics. But the items in the pipeline now affect everyone, particularly those who make a living through development. An awful lot of money is writing on the ports actions.

What sort of things? For starters, there is the EAR.

That would be the Evaluation and Review report, an analysis of how citrus County has done over the last seven years in abiding by its state-mandated growth-management plan. More importantly, it will describe out the comprehensive plan will be changed and updated.

The EAR is to July 1 and lots of people on both sides of the building permit counter are paying close attention to what goes into it. The draft is available for review on the county's web site (www.bocc.citrus.fl.us) under the community development section. In

Take a look at the subjects can play: protecting water and wetlands; defining the hurricane evacuation zone; handling traffic on US 19 and other congested highways; synchronizing the various growth management rules; determining whether running water and sewer lines into environmentally sensitive areas will promote growth there; and making sure the county and school district building plans are on the same page.

Oh, and it also discusses a little something called the Suncoast Parkway II.

The planning board already has held workshops on the plan and is expected to have a public hearing and to make recommendations to the County Commission in January. The commissioners will hold workshops and a hearing in the spring.

The real impact will come over the next few years as the planning board works out the amendments to the comp plan that will implement the changes. Those who are willing to immerse themselves in this complex process realize that there is gold in the details. Tweak the language here, change a map there and business opportunities miraculously blossom.

If that is not enough, consider that the PDRB will take on issues such as building heights, impact fees, development in the hurricane evacuation zone (also known as waterfront property) and anything else the members initiate.

By far, the biggest issue heading their way concerns the development plans for the major subdivisions throughout Citrus County. These plans, called Developments of Regional Impact, are nearing the end their lives. The PDRB must decide whether to extend them or make the developers start the complicated review process all over again to ensure the DRIs reflect the changes that have occurred in the developments over the years.

For the zippers of fast-growing communities such as the sprawling Citrus Hills, millions of dollars could be writing on these decisions.

This may explain why developers, real estate agencies, contractors and their associates has been so generous with their campaign contributions to certain commissioners in recent elections. Besides making major decisions themselves that impact development, commissioners also appoint members to various boards, such as the PDRB, where decisions are made on matters that never get to the County Commission.

It could also explain why the Citrus County Builders Association is so keenly interested in having another seat on the planning board (at-large member Jimmy Kellner is a former CCBA president). Mike Moberley, another late entry to the PDRB derby who has applied to replace J.J. Bard, is the immediate past president of the CCBA. His late candidacy is seen as something of an insurance policy for the CCBA in case Knudsen somehow survives the purge.

One theory making the rounds is that the leadership of the county's development community is feeling a bit stung these days after losing out in issues ranging from the Halls River Retreat case to the new tree ordinance and is looking to flex its political muscle.

The Knudsen appointment, the theory goes, presents a golden opportunity for these interests not only to eliminate a thorn in their side and to set the table for the upcoming DRI cases, but also to remind certain people about who really is in charge. They expect a better return on their campaign investments.

All of which puts Commissioner Josh Wooten squarely in the spotlight as the likely deciding vote. Does he attempt to mend fences with his political foes by backing Knudsen or does he try to keep his contributors happy by putting a CCBA official in her place?

Either way, the alliances are not going to change. A vote for Knudsen is unlikely to win over his opponents, just as the building community will continue to support Wooten. Who else would they back in next year's commission race, Joyce Valentino? Not in this lifetime.

Wooten recently was handed the chairmanship as a reflection of what his ally Jim Fowler praised as his stellar leadership ability. This issue offers Wooten his first real opportunity to show off those skills.

The stakes hardly could be higher for Citrus County's future. Assuming the vote on Knudsen's reappointment is not delayed yet again, the public will see on Tuesday just whose interests the members of the County Commission will choose to advance.