Palm Beach Post
Hobe Sound cluster project wins environmentalists' OK

By Jason Schultz
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 09, 2007

HOBE SOUND — In Martin County's contentious debate over housing developments, there will be some unusual allies this week.

Environmental activists ordinarily try to run proposed developers out of the county, accusing them of harming sensitive land and covering the county in urban sprawl. But they are praising Dania Beach developer Alberto Micha and saying they will vocally support his proposed Atlantic Preserve project in Hobe Sound when the county commission considers it Wednesday.

"I can't thank you enough," Hobe Sound activist Jeff Wittman said to Carlos Garcia-Velez, vice president of Micha's development company.

Micha, best known for developing western Jensen Beach, wants to cluster 650 homes on about 460 rural acres and move the county's urban service boundary to allow water and sewer service to the homes. In exchange he will give the county another 2,300 acres to preserve for habitat.

"We've come up with a plan for this piece of property where everybody benefits, the developer and the community," Garcia-Velez said.

Slow-growth activists including Wittman, County Commissioner Sarah Heard and former commissioners Maggy Hurchalla and Donna Melzer normally criticize plans to cluster homes or to change the urban boundary as conspiracies to cover Martin County in urban sprawl. But they all vocally support Micha's plan.

"I'm an ardent environmentalist, and this is the best environmental project we've attempted since I've been a commissioner," Heard said.

Most of the land has never been cleared and contains wetlands, uplands and scrub habitat, said biologist Tom Fucigna, who is working on the project. On a tour of the property last week, wild hogs and turkeys could be seen in the grass marshes and dense forests around the property.

"It really has that Old Florida type of feel to it," Fucigna said.

Environmentalists point to the donation of so much pristine land as the reason for their blessing.

"We've bought properties where the restoration is going to take years or decades. This isn't the case here," Heard said.

Garcia-Velez said the developers would like the county to give the land to the state to become part of the adjacent Atlantic Ridge State Park.

The county also is exploring using part of the land as a "gopher tortoise mitigation bank," where other developers would pay the county a fee to relocate tortoises from land where they want to build.

Melzer said the fact that Hurchalla helped write the language of the proposed ordinances allowing the project also caused environmentalists to support it. The strict wording of the amendment would make it difficult for other developers to use it to expand the boundary.

"It's not something we came to easily, but at the end of the day we have a stronger urban service boundary than we did before," Melzer said.

One of the biggest targets of criticism by environmentalists is a county study that suggests allowing clustering of homes on rural land in western Martin County where current rules allow one home per 20-acre lot.

County growth management officials have suggested using the Micha development as a test case to see how the clustering proposed in the study might work in other places.

Garcia-Velez said he thought the two cases were totally different because his land is directly adjacent to the existing urban service boundary and is already zoned for clustered development much denser than one home per 20 acres.

Environmentalists also say that the Micha case has nothing in common with the clustering proposed in the study, so they can support Atlantic Preserve without supporting the study's recommendations for western clustering.

"If they're going to tie their hands to an amendment like this, that's great for us," Heard said. "We'd never see clustering out there."

But not everybody has come out in support of the project.

Commissioner Lee Weberman said he is undecided about the project and has some serious concerns about the traffic problems the homes could create on nearby Bridge Road. Weberman said he will ask Micha to improve Bridge Road, donate about $227,000 to a trust fund for low-income housing and name the preserved land after Arnold Stanberry.

Stanberry, the former Martin County NAACP chapter president and an affordable-housing advocate, died in February.

"I think that would be a great tribute to Arnold," said his brother, Lawrence Stanberry.

Commission Chairman Michael DiTerlizzi, more commonly known for supporting business and development efforts in the county, said he probably won't support the project. He said the environmentalists were flopping their position for Micha while he has never supported moving the boundary.

"The politicians who cry the most not to move the boundary are now offering to move it," DiTerlizzi said. "Short of doing away with my oath, I don't see how I could vote to move the boundary."

DiTerlizzi said Atlantic Preserve appeared to be patterned after the recommendations in the county's growth study.

He thinks that without the urban boundary issue, the project could become an example for using clustering elsewhere.

"It should be looked at for that," DiTerlizzi said. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."