The flawed process for writing the new 2030 Horizon Comprehensive Plan is coming back to haunt Lake County’s economy. The chickens of this ill begotten plan have come home to roost, and this plan has laid a toxic, salmonella filled basket of anti-business eggs, which could stifle Lake County’s economy for two decades. The Comprehensive Plan is flawed because under the direction of Commissioners Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart the system was manipulated to ensure that 8 out of 9 members on the Land Planning Agency (LPA) were hardcore environmental zealots who were also ardent supporters of theirs.
Environmentally Stacked to Manipulate
In the summer of 2009, our group exposed the cronyism and corruption of the LPA, after uncovering emails wherein Commissioners Renick and Stewart were having background communications to ensure their friends were nominated for and voted in as members on the LPA. Subsequently, the LPA was disbanded.
While the LPA was being stacked with environmental extremists, the other Commissioners were either asleep at the wheel, scared of their environmental kabob, or simply didn’t care. The entire system was manipulated to put only those who agreed with Renick and Stewart’s extreme views on the committee. To illustrate, we pulled the official minutes of the March 19, 2009 LPA meeting to review the members of the LPA.
The members listed were:
- Rob Kelly – Environmentalist and Renick/Stewart Supporter. Kelly writes an ultra-liberal environmental blog, which openly supported anti-growth candidates.
- Keith Schue – Environmental Lobbyist Nature Conservancy and Renick/Stewart Supporter. According to our records, Schue actually wrote most of the Comprehensive Plan. A paid for environmental lobbyist was allowed to serve on, and write, this anti-business Comprehensive Plan.
- Vicki Zaneis – Environmentalist and Renick/Stewart Supporter. Zaneis wrote a testimonial for Linda Stewart, which was posted on Stewart’s re-election website.
- Nadine Foley – Environmentalist and Renick/Stewart Supporter. Foley is a member of many environmental groups and considered one of the chief anti-growth forces in Lake County.
- Terry Godts – Environmentalist who promotes Florida friendly plants through her business. We caught Godts lobbying to be put on the LPA, and she wrote a controversial email supporting Elaine Renick.
- Cindy Barrow – Environmentalist, Liberal Democrat, and Renick/Stewart Supporter. Barrow was in constant communications with Renick about the Comprehensive Plan process and she worked tirelessly to manipulate the process so that no-growth voices were heard. Barrow wrote a “My Voice” column for the Sentinel denouncing growth by saying it does not pay for itself.
- Michael Carey – Environmentalist who voted in favor of the plan’s adoption and according to our records he voted continuously with Peggy Belflower.
- Peggy Belflower – Staunch environmentalist, no-growth advocate and Renick/Stewart Supporter. Leading environmental activist in Lake County.
- Tim Morris – Owner of Ernie Morris Enterprise and an established business person not in the development industry. Morris was continuously harassed by other members for not supporting their over-the-top, no-growth policies.
Ladies and gentlemen, no one can dispute that the extreme environmental movement had an 8-1 edge in members on the LPA, and it appears 7 of the 9 members were ardent supporters of Commissioners Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart. The facts are indisputable – the fix was in.
Why is this important? The no-growth, environmentalists are now saying that four years and several hundred meetings were put into writing the Comprehensive Plan and that it represents the will of the people in Lake County. It is time for a get-real moment: Last week, 72% of the people in Lake County said they do not support the Renick/Stewart agenda, which includes the Comprehensive Plan.
The so-called public hearings were a farce, as any opposing voice during the LPA and Lake County Commission meetings were either shut down or given only three minutes to make their case to a pre-judging panel of environmentalists. It got so bad that they would not even allow Lake County’s own business task force to discuss problems with the Comprehensive Plan during these meetings.
The approval hearing that was run by Commissioner Renick, while Chairman Cadwell was ill, was a mockery to fairness because Keith Schue and Rob Kelly, both former LPA members, were allowed unlimited time to refute issues. The 2030 Horizon Comprehensive Plan is flawed because Commissioners Stewart and Renick scammed the system; nothing has been fair about the process.
The Plan Overlays
If stacking the LPA wasn’t enough, Commissioners Renick and Stewart pushed for an overlay on the Comprehensive Plan of a Rural Protection Area (RPA) designation primarily for South Lake County, which limits the area to two lane roads and five acre parcel developments. This move virtually ensured no commercial development in the area.
Even worse, in the final hours before the Lake County Commission’s approval hearing, Commissioner Elaine Renick concocted the South Lake Strategic Land Plan which was overlaid on top of the RPA and requires landowners to devote 60% of their land to green space. This plan takes property rights away form landowners without compensation. Commissioner Renick announced this new plan late on Monday afternoon, just before the Tuesday approval hearing in which Commissioner Cadwell absent. The landowners affected by this new plan weren’t notified and weren’t given due process. Once again, the system was scammed.
It was such a blatant backdoor attempt to manipulate the system that Commissioner Hill pleaded with the other Commissioners to postpone the vote for notification and the return of Cadwell. Despite her pleas, lapdog Commissioner Jimmy Conner sided with Commissioners Stewart and Renick. Commissioners Renick and Stewart manipulated the system in order to devalue most of the open in land in South Lake County therby affording the county the opportunity to purchase this land through its public land acquisition program. In other words, Commissioners Renick and Stewart were coordinating a government seizure of private property.
The Big Hitch
There have been some big hitches in Commissioners Renick and Stewart’s plan. Our group exposed them; the farmers in South Lake County stood up for their rights; and the people had enough of their anti-business ways, so they voted them out. Now, Lake County has a large number of landowners who have filed suits requesting administrative hearings to declare the Comprehensive Plan void.
The farmers and landowners should win, because it is crystal clear that the process was perverted by a group of environmental zealots who wanted to seize control of the private lands in Lake County.
The huge economic problem is that Lake County has a moratorium in place by the Florida State Department of Community Affairs because its current Comprehensive Plan is out of date. Businesses who would like to move to Lake County are very wary because there’s not an approved comprehensive plan. Without a road map, most are unwilling to invest millions of dollars in property which could be made worthless under a Rural Protection Area designation or Strategic Land Plan overlay. Without a good Comprehensive Plan in place, Lake County is shackled to this economic recession.
The Solution
- In November, after the election has been finalized and the new Commissioners take their seats, the Lake County Comprehensive Plan must be promptly fixed and finalized so that economic developers can aggressively pursue business opportunities.
- Lake County can’t afford to waste any more money on lawsuits because the landowners who have filed suit against the Comprehensive Plan are right and their cause is just. The new Lake County Commission should immediately commit itself to remedying the situation with these landowners by stripping out the Rural Protection Area and the South Lake Strategic Plan. Other legitimate private property concerns created by these overzealous environmentalists should be rectified at the same time.
- The County Commission should charge the Lake County Zoning Board in conjunction with staff members to correct the plan within 60 days so that it can be re-approved by the Lake County Commission and submitted to the Department of Community Affairs for approval.
This nightmare of a Comprehensive Plan must get resolved so that Lake County can get totally focused on attracting business and jobs.
It is almost criminal how the environmental extremists in conjunction with Commissioners Renick and Stewart manipulated the procedure for the Comprehensive Plan. Their inexcusable actions have cost this county its reputation, business, jobs, time, and a treasure chest full of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted so that a small kabob of people could take control over private property. These lawsuits must be settled, the Comprehensive Plan must be finalized, and Lake County must close this dark chapter of irresponsible governance by Commissioners Stewart and Renick.
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