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Published PNJ.com | Opinion | August, 11, 2007
Hurricane
lessons lost
in county's Perdido Key plan
How the state Department of Community Affairs reacts to Escambia County's
proposal for unlimited development on Perdido Key will speak volumes about
what the state has learned from recent hurricanes.
The County Commission appears to have learned nothing.
A major reason for the current Florida insurance crisis is the growth
crowding our coastlines and other storm-vulnerable areas.
Especially our barrier islands.
Perdido Key took one of this area's hardest hits from Hurricane Ivan. And
there's a reason for that.
As a barrier island, one of the key's primary jobs in nature's scheme is
to absorb the blow from storms. It takes the first, and hardest, punch
from hurricane-force winds and storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico.
That is why National Park Service officials have been so slow to rebuild
the road to Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island. It has been washed away
multiple times, and rebuilding it risks wasting millions of dollars.
If they do rebuild, one proposal is for a low-cost "sacrificial" road to
minimize the cost of losing it to the next storm.
Perdido Key is similarly vulnerable. Because of the hit it took from Ivan,
it lagged most of the Pensacola Bay Area in recovering from the hurricane.
Even today's stronger building codes will not protect barrier island
development from significant damage — including to public infrastructure
such as roads and water and sewer systems.
To respond by allowing even more development is simply asking for more
problems.
The state has for years had on the books a law designed to limit the
expenditure of tax dollars on public infrastructure on places like barrier
islands. In practical application the law has enough loopholes to be
evaded, but it reflects officials' understanding that public investment
should be minimal.
It is possible reality could end up limiting growth on the key anyway.
High insurance costs, for one. And the county could limit it by refusing
to expand the road and bridge serving the key. And of course much of the
key will remain undeveloped in Gulf Islands National Seashore and the
state recreation area.
But the county is proceeding with a plan to four-lane Perdido Key Drive.
And now it has approved removing the development cap.
That has led to fears that the key will end up like the "condo canyons" of
Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Ala., to the west, or Destin, to the east.
When commissioners voted to remove the growth cap earlier this month,
Commissioner Gene Valentino said "I have seen responsible growth
strategies used since I have been on this board. The concrete canyons are
in Gulf Shores, and it won't be on Perdido Key."
Without the growth cap, that could be a hollow promise.
Link to original article: PNJ.com | Opinion | August, 11, 2007  |
