Citrus County Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR)
Ian McDonald admits he has never found a way to make planning documents fun to read. They are like technical manuals, only much more important.
The content of the documents often have far reaching effects on the lives of citrus county residents, even if few people bother to read them.
McDonald's latest effort as a county senior planner has been to assist in developing a document known by planning professionals as "The EAR."
The evaluation and Appraisal Report peers into the future and makes recommendations about how to keep Citrus county a nice place, McDonald said.
The EAR is written every seven years by county planners, with input from the public. Most of the recommendations in the previous EAR, written in 1997, became rules, policies or objectives in the current county comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan governs how land is used in the county and where growth can occur. It also guides where and how the county will provide services and build roads.
The EAR, in a word, is important because it is tied directly to the county's master planning document - the comprehensive plan.
The 11 issues detailed in the latest version of the EAR must be adopted by the county commission before July 1. The issues were developed during a series of 13 public workshops. The county also published an EAR Web site that allowed residents to comment online about issues they felt were important.
But it will take several years before the planning issues identified in the EAR are translated in the policies, rules and regulations that govern life in much of Citrus County.
In the 2004 edition of the EAR, 11 issues are identified. The two most important issues are the need to protect the county's three first-magnitude springs on the coast, and protect wetlands.
The springs are fed by massive watersheds encompassing most of the county, according to McDonald. AS rainwater filters through the soil, it replenishes the aquifer, which in turn feeds the springs. The aquifer is also the county's primary drinking water supply. The tricky part is keeping enough open space to guarantee flow to the springs.
The county has detected no obvious changes in spring flow or in the aquifer, according to the EAR, but the county's population is projected to expand by 70,000 people by 2030. The county is not sure what impact those additional homes, people and businesses will have on the aquifer or the springs.
County residents also want the county to be more involved in protecting wetlands. The state is normally in charge of wetland regulations, and the county, to this point, has deferred to state regulations. But McDonald said some residents apparently believe the state has done a poor job of wetlands protection, and have asked for more county involvement.
McDonald said the county's authority would be limited, but he said one thing the county might attempt is to protect the highest-quality wetlands.
He said if Wal-Mart, for example, wanted to build a store on top of a 12-acre cypress swamp, as it once proposed, the county might require the retail giant to purchase another swamp of equal quality nearby. Currently, developers can destroy wetlands in one location if they purchase conservation land at a distant site. The process is called mitigation, but McDonald said it does little to compensate for the damage.
McDonald said the EAR also assumes Suncoast Parkway 2 will be constructed. The EAR says the county should plan for attractive, well-designed interchanges on the toll road. Currently, three interchanges are planned.
However, the county has no control over how the toll road itself is designed, or how much impact, if any, the road would have on the springs or the aquifer. The parkway is a state road.
The EAR also calls for the county to develop a map identifying state lands that are burned on a regular basis. The county wants to warn new residents about control burns if they are moving to an area where smoke might be a problem. Heavy smoke can harm people with breathing problems and it can create traffic hazards.
Other EAR issues: