Growth Beyond Urban Service Boundary

MY VIEW - Many of our residents may not be familiar with the area in question, Mahan Drive at Wadesboro Rd. Below is a map of the project area, showing within a 3 mile radius several suburban-style housing developments consisting of homes built on lots ranging in size from less than 1/2 an acre to well over 10 acres. Developer Rockaway, Jacksonville, FL, is proposing to build 382 homes on 509 acres which breaks down to about 1 home to 1.33 acres. Of that 509 acre project site, aprox. 1/2 or 255 acres are to remain natural -- untouched for the purpose of conservation.

Tallahassee has a similar conservation community approved on Centerville Road. That development has been approved for the construction of over 200 dwelling units on 976 acres at a density of about 1 home per 4.88 acres.

In Tallahassee and Leon County, we've established rules that are supposed to protect the community from harmful growth. That would be growth that contributes to sprawl, increases human dependence on the automobile, and stretches urban services such as utilities, sewer, storm water management systems, and cable into new areas whereby the rate and tax payers will bear the burden for installation.

Southwood in many ways was a test of Tallahassee's ability to expand our boundaries -- a test that was passed with flying colors in our opinion. Southwood developer, The St. Joe Company, had the resources to donate Right Of Way (ROW) for roadway improvements, land for local schools, parks, and future civic buildings. The project worked in harmony with the city/county's preexisting design of widening Capital Circle, the school board's desire to add an educational facility to that area, the need to address the State of Florida's desire to expand their offices into a satellite office complex and the desire to provide nearby housing for the employees.

However, the previously mentioned developments, both the Centerville and newly proposed Mahan Drive Conservation Communities, have no such purpose or contributions beyond providing more housing outside of Tallahassee's urban service area (predetermined growth boundary designed to discourage sprawl) for the needs of speculative residents.

UrbanTallahassee’s mission is to not only inform you about Tallahassee’s growth, but to encourage smart growth. Growth that brings people back into the heart of the city and the downtown, growth that will help to push this community in a cleaner and greener direction, growth that will help to boost mass transit in the community, reduce Tallahassee’s carbon foot print and help us to establish ourselves as the national leader in Sustainability.

Stretching the limits of our city will only cost the community more in the long run as roads will have to be widened to accommodate future growth, schools must also be built to accommodate future children – that means more school buses (carbon), and new fire stations (have you seen the price tag of 1 fire truck?!), utility transfer stations, and much more will be needed for purposes that we now have the opportunity to avoid.

There will come a day when we will need to grow outward, however, there remain places within Tallahassee’s urban service boundary that we should be focused on rebuilding, revitalizing, and infilling. For that reason we should not be in the business of making special exceptions for developers who seek to build housing inconsistent with our community's plans for growth.

We do not begrudge the developer’s right to build according to the zoning already in place for the subject property, however, we oppose any changes to the rule that will allow ANYONE to build in a manner inconsistent with our community's growth objectives and priorities.  -- UT