Reject stealth attempt to open western Martin

The Martin County Commission has two items on today's agenda that commissioners could best deal with by doing nothing.

The first is a little-noticed proposal to change Martin's growth plan to ease rules for extending water and sewer lines to rural areas. The change would allow water and sewer service anywhere within the county's secondary urban services area, with the commission's consent. It is one of those details that often escape public notice. The county draws a line -- the urban services boundary -- beyond which it won't provide utility service. A second line defines the secondary urban services district, an area of about 10,000 acres between urban and agricultural areas. Water and sewer services are not provided in the secondary area. The prohibition blocks most development.

The commission has made some exceptions to the rule and extended water and sewer to that secondary district -- but only if the land is within 660 feet of the primary urban services district, the area where the highest-density development is allowed. The change commissioners consider today, and which the county staff recommends, would allow the connection no matter how far the property is from the primary urban area. As Martin County Conservation Alliance Chairwoman Donna Melzer notes in a letter to the commission, the change "creates destructive loopholes" and would allow the commission to bypass the growth plan rules with a simple vote.

The change could effectively eliminate the urban services boundary, whose purpose is to contain urban growth within a specific area. If the county extends water and sewer service to rural areas, the rural areas become urban. Increased numbers of homes are allowed where, in essence, they were prohibited before by lack of services. Soon, the growth boundary no longer exists.

The second item the commission can skip? Hiring a consultant to make plans for Martin's agricultural lands. The consultants vying for the job want $300,000 and $500,000 respectively, for an eight-month study. The growth plan allows 20-acre ranchettes on the land, a solution that has held off sprawl development for two decades. The commission should ensure that former Commissioner Mary Dawson, who owns land in western Martin, is not part of the project. Membership in her Friends of Martin County is heavily weighted toward developers, landowners and others who could profit from changes to rules on western lands.

Both the growth plan amendment and the rural lands study are back-door attempts to grease the way for more growth. Neither is a way to make public policy.