The state is reviewing a draft plan of specific requirements Brevard County Commissioners recently approved for the Brevard Barrier Island Area of Critical State Concern, but some worry the plan as currently written would fail to serve its purpose: protecting the area from uncontrolled development.
Florida’s Areas of Critical State Concern Program was enacted by state law in 1972, to protect important state resources and public facilities within certain geographic areas from uncontrolled development that would cause “substantial deterioration of those resources,” according to the state’s Department of Commerce.
But the draft plan unanimously approved by Brevard commissioners fails to provide that level of protection, according to several advocates, planning and environmental experts, who say the plan as currently written fails to incorporate valuable public feedback commissioners have received.
“Numerous changes need to be made to this draft, to account for the expertise that you've been given; the hundreds of comments made by the public. They need to be incorporated,” said Stacey Gallagher, Development and Policy Coordinator for the Sea Turtle Conservancy, during a recent commission meeting.
The draft plan allows for the possibility of approving more density and land use intensity in parts of the designated area.
“The whole intention of an Area Of Critical [State] Concern is to stop upzoning an area that is a … very critical environment,” Gallagher said. “At its best, unfortunately, what is going to be moving forward is simply a copy and pasting of what currently exists in the comprehensive plan.”
Policy and Planning Director for the nonprofit 1000 Friends of Florida Kim Dinkins agreed.
“The copy-and-paste approach for creating the new element from the existing policies doesn't clearly establish that the development standards in the Brevard Barrier Island area will be any more stringent than they are elsewhere within the county,” Dinkins said.
Craig Wallace, who chairs the nonprofit Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition, told commissioners he’s concerned the draft plan would allow more septic tanks to be installed close to the lagoon — even as the county also invests significant time and resources into getting people off of septic, and onto centralized sewer systems.
“It just seems like the comments have gotten lost somewhere,” Wallace told commissioners. “So we're really concerned that even if the next time around, we have this opportunity to make comments, are they gonna get incorporated in?”
District 3 Commissioner John Tobia took issue with the characterization that commissioners didn’t take public input into account.
“Like it or not, there was tremendous work that went into this,” Tobia said. “We're between a rock and a hard place here: many of the requests made would put us in some very tenuous positions when it would come to Bert Harris legislation out there.”
Florida’s Bert Harris Act allows property owners to sue governments for damages, if a governmental entity restricts or limits land use regulations in a way that negatively impacts property owners. But the main goal of the Brevard Barrier Island Area of Critical State Concern is to protect land that is still undeveloped, much of it public, Wallace said.
“The copy-and-paste approach ... doesn't clearly establish that the development standards in the Brevard Barrier Island area will be any more stringent than they are elsewhere within the county." Kim Dinkins, Policy and Planning Director, 1000 Friends of FloridaKim Dinkins, Policy and Planning Director, 1000 Friends of Florida
Florida District 32 Representative Thad Altman wrote the 2023 law designating the Brevard Barrier Island Area of Critical State Concern. Wallace said he hopes that once Altman steps into his newly-elected role next week as Brevard District 5 Commissioner, he will work to ensure the plan ultimately includes better protections for the area.
Once plans for it are solidified, the Brevard Barrier Island area will become Florida’s fifth designated Area of Critical State Concern. It’s the first such area proposed in at least 40 years, according to the county.
By early next year, the state will send back to Brevard commissioners a report of objections, recommendations and comments about the draft plan.
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