Ancient Islands Group has forwarded comments to the Florida Department of Commerce to protest a proposal by the Polk County Commission to loosen development density regulations in the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern.
The Department of Commerce oversees development proposals in the state’s areas of critical state concern in the aftermath of the abolition of the Florida Department of Community Affairs during the Rick Scott administration that reduced most state review of local growth-management decisions.
What Polk County is proposing is to allow easier development on parcels containing wetlands by allowing more density transfers from wetlands areas and using parts of county rights of way to make up for lots that fall short of the required acreage.
The measure is being pushed by County Commissioner Neil Combee on behalf of some of his neighbors along Rock Ridge Road.
Ancient Islands Sierra proposes changing the county development code instead to allow variances in cases of hardship. This would allow the claims to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis rather than giving wholesale exemptions that could potentially allow hundreds of new homes to be developed in this area that is important to the region’s water supplies and regional movement of wildlife through a network of statewide corridors.