When we lived in Pasco Lutz, Susan and I had our first taste of neighborhood civic activism. We lived in a nice subdivision, Turtle Lakes. Behind our house was a pine tree famr that had served as a buffer between our subdivision and State Road 54. Then the developers came in an wanted to turn it into a another subdivision. We were told the zoning was going to be changed to a denser area than what our neighborhood. Our neighborhood and the neighborhood next to us were worried about it. We rallied and then fought it. We won the first round when the Pasco Planning Commission voted against it. However we lost in the County Commission and eventually the homes were built. Basically the developers literally threatened the County Commissioners and they gave in.
At the time the Turtle Lakes Neighborhood Association was almost dead, and this helped revive it.
It was an interesting, except for the poor gopher turtles who were just buried in their holes by the developers.
1 comment:
The developers pay a nominal amount per dead turtle. Suffocating turtles in their burrows was much easier then trying to save them. Who determines how many turtles die and how much the developer has to pay? Not only turtles live on that land. Other creatures use the burrows for homes, but the turtle was endangered, so was the only one priviliged enough to have a price attached to its demise.
Post a Comment