Is This OLF-8 Master Plan Actually an Opportunity to Get Growth's Impacts on Infrastructure Right?

I don't support it, But if we must accept thousands of additional residential units on OLF-8 in Beulah--I believe we should charge Impact Fees on OLF-8 specifically and exclusively---to offset the burdens on infrastructure and schools such high-density, high-intensity, urban-style residential will create.

As we stumble toward the end of the excruciating, apparently non-impartial, Rube-Goldbergesqe "effort" to finish the OLF-8 Master Plan----a question comes to mind that is worth asking.  Is this relentless, unending, concerted and orchestrated push for massive, additional residential development in Beulah on OLF-8 specifically---is this actually an opportunity to get growth's impacts on Infrastructure right as it pertains to what we allow on OLF-8?

One of the reasons I ran for this job in 2016 was because I saw the rampant, uncontrolled residential growth in Beulah that was permitted that swamped our schools and overwhelmed our infrastructure.  It was allowed to continue unfettered by the county because the state got rid of concurrency in 2011, and the County did likewise in 2013--stripping the concurrency provisions from the Land Development Code (LDC) in that year.  And then, the residential development floodgates opened in Beulah and we are seeing the resultant condition:  Schools overcrowded and traffic and stormwater infrastructure overwhelmed.

This is why I have funded the $300,000.00 effort to master-plan the greater Beulah area--a process that is moving forward.  It is also why I spent 13 months with a 9-member committee the county impaneled at my request to get community feedback about the best way to master plan this greater Beulah area--precincts 43, 68, and 5 (and subsequently the new precinct 114 in Beulah as well).  This "Greater-Beulah" contract has been awarded--and the work will commence soon.  More to come on that later.

And this is why--if we are now going to "approve" thousands and thousands of new residential units forced on us, constructed on OLF-8 at the behest of the "opinion" of DPZ and their influencers within the NFCU coalition--we ought to implement impact fees on any such residential construction contemplated on OLF-8 if we are legally allowed to do so.  We should do it because our infrastructure cannot take it without upgrades and the only Beulah elementary school is hundreds of students over capacity already.

To summarize: we don't have the infrastructure to support 60 DU/AC and the concomitant 1000's of housing units this would produce on OLF-8--so I am arguing against allowing this at all. 

Commercial development and jobs projects would build slowly, over years and decades--allowing for the infrastructure to build to match. If residential is permitted however--the private sector would swoop in and build apartments, townhomes, and condos faster than you could say "abracadabra" and we would be further gridlocked within 8-10 months. Residential builders are aggressive, determined, relentless and FAST. (They are not FDOT project managers struggling for years to finish two-lane blacktop projects…)

So----- If I must accept any residential on the field (which we do not need), I will argue for impact fees for this one geographic area, OLF-8, if legal to do so--in order that this massive residential influx if allowed will have to pay for the impacts to the school board and also for the road widening on Frank Reeder Road that simply cannot support this MASSIVE residential infusion of building.