YOUR VOICE NEWS & VIEWS • PALM CITY & TESORO • DECEMBER 27, 2013 • 9
Martin opts out of Seven50 Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
MARTIN COUNTY — After numerous protests from the public, the county is joining a small exodus out of the Southeast Florida Regional Partnership and its end product, the Seven50 Southeast Florida Prosperity Plan. Both combined and individually are called “Seven50.” At its Tuesday, Dec. 17 meeting, the County Commission voted to make Martin the third county to opt out of Seven50. The opt out will be effective in February. Additionally, the commission voted to have no additional participation with the ad hoc southeast Florida partnership without discussion. Had the commission not taken the 4-1 vote, the county’s participation in the partnership would have ended in February, and it would have had no additional participation without commission discussion. The partnership self-terminates on Feb. 22. In a telephone interview after the meeting, Commissioner Doug Smith, Jensen Beach, said that the net result of the vote is nothing gained, but appeasing spectacle that’ll please a segment of voters. “The work is done,” he said in a previous interview. “The draft report is out. Regardless of whether we get out or not, the report is done.”
At the meeting, Smith told fellow commissioners that an opt out vote might signal an unwillingness to work with surrounding counties in future projects aimed at regional planning. “To turn a blind eye to the fact we may have three million-plus (more) people in south Florida is irresponsible if you ask me,” he said. John Haddox, Palm City, disagreed. “It’s a statement by the community made through the commission that we don’t support topdown government,” he said. He said that the estimated population growth of three million people over the next 50 years was highly speculative and not a sound basis for regional planning. The partnership released the first draft of the Seven50 report on Oct. 11. The report is a compilation of data gathered at public meetings and other places to give area governments data and ideas about how to plan for up to an anticipated 50 percent population growth in South Florida from about 6 million now to 9 million by 2060. Martin followed St. Lucie, which opted out at a special meeting in early November. St. Lucie followed Indian River. The “Seven” in Seven50 is for seven counties, Broward, Indian
See SEVEN50 page 14
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