Since the late 1980s our understanding of the relationship between development and the environment has enabled us to learn how to "plan smart" so that we can build and develop with minimal harm.
      The old quarrel that once ensnared pro-growth and anti-growth activist is dead.
      A new paradigm that speaks of smart sustainable growth that respects nonrenewable natural resources is emerging as the dominant for community building locally and throughout the nation. It forces us to ask if we are doing things in a smart way as opposed to an expedient way.
      An excellent example of smart development is the Southwood community recently proposed again by St. Joe's Arvida Corp. for southeastern Leon County. This is what can happen when a developer recognizes and accommodates the interests they share with neighborhoods and environmentalist.
      Arvida's proposal, as different as night and day from their previous efforts in the 1980s, reflects the new standards of how developers relate to and react to community input. The cooperation this company will enjoy from local government and citizens alike will be a model for future development.
      Permit approvals will come faster and the project will move from the drawing board to reality promptly because of the attitude shift by all parties away from antagonism to cooperation.
      Smart growth development issues currently before the County Commission illustrates how our quality of life is vitally affected by the relationship between land use, transportation and environmental decisions. Because of the impact on our future, the recently approved Bradfordville Stormwater Study, Miccosukee Greenway and the long-promised Lake Lafayette Special Development Zone are important to all of out interests.

Miccosukee Greenway is planning at its best
      This project is one of the best things county government has accomplished. The greenway will preserve Miccosukee Road's canopy, rolling hills and beautiful scenery. Over the past 20 years, as developers raced along Thomasville Road and east along Mahan Drive and Apalachee Parkway, the Welaunee Plantation, a vast pie shaped area between Miccosukee and Centerville Roads, is still not developed.
      The greenway plan, hammered out through years of careful negotiation between the Trust for Public Land, Leon County and the Welaunee's owners preserves the Miccosukee and Centerville canopy roads. By providing a right of way transportation corridor for Welaunee Boulevard, the greenway anticipates the transportation problems associated with connecting thousands of Welaunee Plantation and other northeastern residents to our city center.

Lake Lafayette protection zone is needed
      It is time for County Commission to establish a special lake protection zone around Lake Lafayette. A requirement of the 1990 Comprehensive Plan, environmental staff were asked last summer to prepare development zone parameters similar to those put in place for Lake Jackson, limiting development to parcels two acres or larger, establishing setbacks above the 100 year flood plain, and restricting commercial development.
      It is shortsighted of us not to invest in a preventative approach today in order to avert what will certainly be a very costly cleanup measure for the community in later years. Last year the city and county commissions adopted near-uniform land development regulations thus reducing the confusion for people who build inside and outside the city limits. This new recognition that sustained growth occurs when development standards respect nonrenewable natural resources requires heightened teamwork between elected and appointed officials and citizens.
      In Bradfordville, along the Miccosukee Greenway, and around the shores of Lake Lafayette, the County Commission has begun to identify things in our community that should be sustained; we have recognized an intrinsic value in certain specific things that define us as a community and have determined to preserve them for the generations-to follow.
      We need to commit ourselves to a philosophy of smart growth for a sustainable future. We will only be successful if we all realize that there is only one canoe, and we are all in it together.
      The 1990 Comprehensive Plan recognizes the threats development poses to the unique rural quality of Bradfordville and the watersheds of Lake Iamonia and Lake Lafayatte. The Plan wisely provides for a study to determine how much development the area could accommodate without further degrading our water resources and to determine how to control flooding.
      In addition, a mediated court settlement between county government, Publix and the Killearn Lakes Homeowner's Association stipulated that this study be conducted. All too often lakes and watersheds are destroyed by polluted stormwater run-off and require millions of dollars for costly restoration.
      Our experience with Lake Jackson restoration should be enough warning for us to get it right. Because Bradfordville's five basins drain into already stressed Lake Iamonia and Lake Lafayette, the risk of not getting this right is too great to pass up. Two weeks ago, at my urging, the County Commission voted to initiate the study. The study will extend our understanding of how to develop and build on the body of science developed through our multimillion dollar Lake Jackson experience.