News :: Opinion
Agritourism Doesn't Justify Safari Wild
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: June 12, 2008
As residents of Moore Road in Lakeland, and neighbors to the Safari Wild facility, we felt compelled to respond to Lex Salisbury's article, "Safari Wild Will Benefit Community, Environment" (Other Views, June 4.)
We found his presentation on agritourism to be interesting and informative, progressive and visionary. However, much of the information in the letter is an attempt to deflect attention from the real issues.
Individually, we have lived in Polk County from 12 to 65 years. The ancestors of some of us arrived in Polk County in 1860. Some of our individual land holdings in the Green Swamp have been in the same family for three generations, well before the area was designated as an Area of Critical State Concern in 1974. We all support minimal development in the Green Swamp, and some of us have even gone so far as to sell our development rights to the state to ensure that the Green Swamp is maintained as a "natural landscape."
Salisbury's reference to Safari Wild as "a green project ... using minimal development (fences and animal support buildings)" fails to acknowledge that the Safari Wild approval also includes 40 overnight cottages; and large buildings for a main lodge, plaza; arrival building and such.
The Florida legislative session passed an agritourism bill (CS/HB 1427) in June 2007. Our own review of the document reveals that the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is charged with:
• Assisting specified entities in agritourism promotion and marketing.
• Requiring local governments and others to meet to discuss agritourism.
Presumably, once local governments meet and accept the merits of agritourism, the eventual result might be inclusion of the concept and development of regulations governing agritourism into land development codes and comprehensive plans. However, the bill does not appear to require that local governments do so.
Based upon our review of Polk County's land development code and the comprehensive plan, agritourism is not a concept recognized or provided for in those documents, either in 2006 or today. We, as well as county government, can only assess the Safari Wild project based upon the regulations and concepts that existed at the time approval was sought and obtained in June 2006. Legislation signed into law in June 2007 really has no relevance.
The concept of "agritourism," generally, may sound like a very fine idea on paper, but it remains to be seen if it holds up in practical application. Until adopted and regulated by county or state agencies, the bill could serve to further degrade Florida's remaining agricultural lands under the guise of preserving them.
Salisbury states that Safari Wild was presented to Polk County as an "agritourism activity" and that the process and the project was "led and championed" by county planning staff. Yet, the term "agritourism" does not even appear in the county's administrative determination document.
Notification for public comment consisted of a very small notice in The Ledger and noted that the land development division director had already made the administrative determination. The notice advised that any person wishing to file an appeal could do so by paying a $250 fee.
In June 2006, when the administrative determination was made, the property had not even been sold to Salisbury. We would have had no reason to read these legal notices to the religious and careful degree that would be required to be "notified."
It is true that not everyone welcomes change or immediately understands the benefits of new ideas. That is especially true when change is thrust upon groups of people with no explanation until after the fact, and deception and secrecy are practiced before and during the fact.
That said, however, we remain committed to learning as much as we can about the project. Change and new ideas must first be accommodated within the framework of legal permissibility, or chaos ensues.
Jan and Keith Davis, Carla and Shawn Parry, Joyce and Robert King, Laura and Kenneth Sherrouse and Lois and Lamar Murphy all live on Moore Road in Lakeland.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
