By Mark Holan, Tampa Tribune, 9/29/05

TAMPA - Hillsborough County Attorney Renee Lee has put the brakes on county planners’ first attempts to slow development in neighborhoods with crowded schools.

Lee issued a five-sentence memorandum Wednesday recommending the county suspend its one-sentence planning policy intended to "manage the timing of new development to coordinate with adequate school capacity."

"I am of the opinion it cannot be enforced at this time," Lee wrote to county commissioners and other officials. "Many policies in the [county’s] Comprehensive Plan require a companion ordinance — this is one of them."

As The Tampa Tribune reported Tuesday, county planners this week tried to use the policy to deny rezoning to three developments near crowded schools in east and south Hillsborough County. It was the first such attempt since the policy was adopted in July 2004.

Two developers asked for their rezoning requests to be postponed until October; the third accepted conditional approval to get more time to show that classroom capacity will be available when construction starts.

Commissioner Kathy Castor, a land use lawyer, said she "strongly disagrees" with Lee’s position.

"You can’t just suspend a policy in your comprehensive plan," Castor said. "I’m sure there are many developers who would love for us to suspend policies in our comprehensive plan."

Castor sent a letter to school Superintendent MaryEllen Elia urging her and school board members to ask County Administrator Pat Bean to enforce the policy.

"Further delays ... are not necessary and are harmful to students and teachers who are suffering in overcrowded classrooms," Castor wrote. "Common sense must prevail."

Cathy Valdes, the school district’s chief facilities officer, was more cautious.

"We are on some shaky ground," Valdes said. "While the policy is there, there is no ordinance."

The concern over crowded schools comes as school officials grapple with how to meet the state’s class-size amendment and a new state growth management law, called concurrency, that will require links between development and classroom capacity.

Hillsborough will blaze the trail for how other districts implement the state law by 2008 as one of six Florida counties selected for a concurrency pilot program.

"We are excited about being able to write the plan" for enforcing the new law, Valdes said. "It is not a five-minute process."

Bob Hunter, executive director of the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission, said an ordinance could be drafted and approved within three months without waiting for decisions on how to enforce state concurrency.

"We can move quicker than that if we want to address the problem," Hunter said. "We have to address school capacity if growth is going to continue to be approved."

Hunter said Hillsborough’s policy is based on language similar to Orange County’s comprehensive plan, which was upheld in a court challenge.

Planning and Growth Management Director Bruce McClendon, who oversees the staff who recommended the rezoning denials, said he will wait for Bean’s direction before taking further action on development proposals.

County Commissioner Ronda Storms placed the county’s school capacity policy on the agenda for Wednesday’s commissioners meeting. She also wants to discuss increasing school impact fees, fees charged to builders for each new home to pay for land to build schools.

Hillsborough’s impact fees, the lowest in the state, haven’t been increased in 20 years.

"Even people on the development side would say [impact] fees for school sites are very low," said development attorney Biff Craine. He represents a fourth project county staff considered for rezoning denial.

School officials said their construction plans would open more classroom space to accommodate students from the project, 78 town houses on 25 acres in Apollo Beach.

Craine said the county school capacity policy should apply to development approvals, not rezoning requests.

"Flying by the seat of your pants without including the proper legal framework [of an ordinance] is probably problematic," he said.

Craine said bringing development "to a grinding halt" won’t benefit school or county officials, who collect taxes on the growth.

"It’s easy for the public to paint developers with a broad brush," he said. "You shouldn’t have to hire attorneys just to use your property."

Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 259-7691.