Annexation revisited

If you did not get a chance to watch the City Council meeting from 5/9/07, you might want to take a look when it gets replayed this week. The issue of Fellsmere and it annexation plans came up again, and I think the council finally realized that they have painted themselves into a corner.

The reason for this is that in the 2006 election, campaign promises were made that there the new council would not annex any property for residential development, and only a limited amount for commercial development. Which sounded great to every one here who wanted to keep it a small fishing village style community. Three of the current council members were elected on that promise. To their credit, they have kept that promise.

However, recent discussions about creating a charter government for the county, or perhaps an agreement between the 5 cities  to limit growth and building heights have suddenly opened they eyes just a fraction. With Fellsmere planning on adding thousands of acres to its holdings, the Sebastian Council is very concerned just how all of those new residents are going to impact the City of Sebastian.

The city attorney, Rich Stringer, discussed the annexations and other issues at length during the meeting and just what was going on with all of the parties involved. It would appear that the charter government may not fly, but everyone feels that more time is needed to come up with a solution to the problems that may or may not occur as a result of Fellsmere attempting to create an economic base.

What has been proposed is that all of the cities sign on to an agreement that would allow the proposed annexations to go through, but prevent any others not already on the books for at least one year, and possibly two as the city governments work through an agreement that protects the county from the rampant development seen all along the Florida Coast. Part of this agreement would be the limit on building heights.

For those that may not know about those, there are restrictions in Sebastian, Vero Beach and Indian River County which limit building height east of US 1 to 25 ft, and west of US 1 to 35 ft on all new construction. Fellsmere does not currently have such a restriction, and they want to build an 6-8 story hotel in the land they recently annexed at the intersection of I-95 and Hwy 512.

Back to the proposed agreement. As most of the city council was nodding their heads and saying what a good idea the agreement was, Dale Simchik made a comment that it also ties the hands of Sebastian for the duration. Basically, because the city does not have any proposed annexations on the books, it could not annex any type of property for the duration of the agreement.

Panic set in, and suddenly it was a question of what properties should we consider annexing. Al Minner, the city manager was at the over head making marks on this piece and that piece and was finally directed to come up with a list of possible properties by the next council meeting.

The problem is that there is no plan for the future. Faced with a smaller city annexing thousands of acres that surround us, our city council is looking at postage stamp size parcels scattered every where. Just how they think that this will lessen the impact of Fellsmere development escapes me and a large number of other people.

To have the city manager cherry pick properties here there and every where just does not make sense. He should proposed that the City of Sebastian pursue the annexation of all properties not already claimed from the Sebastian River on the north to Wabasso on the south; and from the Indian River on the east to I-95 on the west side. This does not mean that we have to annex them, just that it is the intention of Sebastian to have sufficient space for future growth and needs.

I am not in any way suggesting that there be a forced annexation of any type, because some of the property owners may not want to be included in the city. However, our city needs to develop some kind of economic base, and I can't see how that can be done with the limited space we have, and the lack of foresight shown by the majority of our City Council.