Why do we keep rubber-stamping development in Wakulla County?
“Please, please drive carefully! About 6:30 this evening, Jack and I were on Hwy 319 in Crawfordville on the way to Publix, and an oncoming car turned left just a few yards in front of me and stopped, completely blocking my lane. I braked hard and barely avoided hitting it. A little further up the road, a bear ran up a steep bank on the right shoulder, entering the road and crossing directly in front of me. I hit the brakes a second before I hit the bear. He kept running, and I don’t know how badly he was hurt. My car is damaged but drivable and we are okay. There was no way to avoid him. With a lot more traffic on the roads, and more and more animals displaced by uncontrolled development, it’s very dangerous driving, day or night. Please, please be careful!”
Those are the words that Jane Brand posted on her Facebook page on December 12th.
The unfortunate bear that we smashed into came bolting out of one of the remaining strips of forested land in the midst of Crawfordville’s cluttered roadways. It’s only a matter of time before the woods are scraped away. The property is adorned with Wakulla County’s Planning and Zoning change signs, so the bear will have no place to hide.
Some people reading Jane’s post will immediately cry that there are too many bears: I say there are too many developers, contractors, speculators and realtors that are tearing our county to shreds. Bear in mind that bears mind their own business. Omnivorous they are, but mostly they go about their lives eating berries, fruits, sedges, insects, leaves, and grass. So, what’s a bear to do when their natural foods and cover are bulldozed away to make way for new subdivisions?
Likely they return to their familiar habitats, but instead of finding their normal food, they raid the garbage cans filled with delectables and make a mess. But their mess is nothing compared to unbearable disarray that our four county commissioners have made by granting endless comp plan revisions for subdivisions. At the same time they are ruining other people’s existing yards when the muddy water washes off onto their property.
Without planning or traffic studies, and wiping their feet on the comprehensive plan, they have created a nightmare of car crashes and death. Not a day goes by that you don’t hear the wail of sirens and see the flashing blue and red lights headed for wrecks. Look around as you drive by, the roadsides are littered with roadkill death: deer, possums, raccoons, otters, birds, smashed turtles, crushed snakes and alligators. And still they build on, with commissioners not charging the developers and land speculators a dime for impact fees.
Some people say there are too many bears and demand that FWC should open hunting season on them again. I say No! I much prefer the big furry creatures that are happy eating a fish or honeycomb or two, over avaricious land speculators and realtors. They will never be satisfied and will always want more and more and more. County Commissioners, with your insatiable greed and rising taxes that impact your neighbors, you have become unbearable.
Come election time, you have to go and take your developer county manager and attorney with you. Only the beleaguered Chuck Hess who consistently votes against all your misdeeds should remain.
Jack Rudloe is president of Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratories, Inc., in Panacea, Florida.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to letters@tallahassee.com. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at Tallahassee.com/Zing. Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: It’s time to put the brakes on development in Wakulla County
