By Henry A. Stephens
staff writer
August 30, 2005

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The days may be numbered for a 15-year-old rule that has allowed developers to pay fees instead of preserving some of the native woods or scrub on their land.

Endorsing a tougher uplands preservation law, however, was the only thing the county Planning and Zoning Commission did Thursday as South Florida residents braced for Hurricane Katrina to make landfall.

Four developers or landowners withdrew their requests, delaying them to the Sept. 8 meeting, after they learned there would be a bare four-member quorum.

"I'd say they didn't want to gamble" on 4-0 votes, Chairwoman Donna Keys said Monday.

That's because a rezoning or site-plan applicant needs at least a 4-3 vote from a full board to get approval, or a unanimous vote from a bare quorum, she said.

Vice Chairman George Hamner and commissioners George Christopher and Scott Chisholm were absent Thursday.

The county's own planners, however, fared well with a proposal to tighten the county's uplands preservation ordinance.

Keys, George Gross, Bob Bruce and Craig Fletcher all favored the measure, which would make it harder for a developer to put homes in native habitat by posting fees.

The County Commission is expected to consider the proposal for final action in October.

The county in 1990 began requiring developers of sites larger than 5 acres to preserve 15 percent of native uplands, or dry habitat.

The county also allowed for a fee in lieu of the preservation, county Environmental Planning Chief Roland DeBlois said Monday.

Under the new proposal, developers would lose the choice of paying a fee. The county could still allow the fee, but only if the developer first proves the site can't be developed with the preservation.

The proposal also changes the fee calculation. Currently, it is equivalent to the tax-assessed value of 1 acre of the project site, multiplied by the number of acres of uplands that would otherwise have to be set aside.

The proposal bases the fee on the market value of an acre, not the tax-assessed value.

Property Appraiser David Nolte hailed that change, saying his office's figures are meant only for calculating tax rates.

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