Next week there is another public meeting regarding Plant City’s Northeast Masterplan Update (N/E of Park Rd. and I-4). Like all such activities, it is a thankless and necessary task to give some texture to the possible future. I have been involved in such work in the past and appreciate its goals and partial utility. Of course, even before such plans are printed they are already out of date to some degree and will grow more so with each passing week. Back when the current plan was printed manual typewriters and indoor malls were still prevalent, our downtown had a family-owned hardware store, and Blockbuster was still around. Yet despite the march of time and often missed targets, even a flawed roadmap can be better than none at all, and arguably one of the most contentious areas of trying to strike a balance of hoped for land usage in the future is in the area of commercial or light industrial space.
For Consideration As To My Perspective
• My family has owned farm/grove/pasture lands in that area since before WWII.
• Our past businesses there included citrus growing and harvesting operations, cattle pasture under lease, hayfield under lease, irrigated strawberry/row farming, landscape container tree farm, and dirt excavations past and current.
• Additionally, I built my home and have raised my family there since 1996.
• Unlike most other large trac acreage owners out there, I will not be relocating elsewhere if I sell to out-of-towners trying to maximize their R.O.I. for far away investors while repaying out-of-state bank loans. Anything I will do or facilitate on my family’s land I will do with an eye to my remaining a neighbor of it for the rest of my days. Thus, for me valuing my return includes the intangibles of preventing the fowling of my nest or my abandoning ship.
• Lastly please be aware how my working past also includes the perspective of my being active in and watching the citrus grove lands that once were prominent in Brandon (when parts of Lumsden Road were dirt) fade away, turning into sprawl lacking a community spirit.
The two main reasons development of lands to commercial or light industrial use (or admitting to plan for such) can be difficult is not always because we don’t have adequate roads, or that such uses are a drain on city resources and facilities, or that they increase or cause flooding. In fact, such developments pay much more in tax revenues than any cost of services they require. The reasons for difficulty are because of either 1) a powerful nearby jurisdiction that is hungry for those necessities and possessed of clear appreciation of them, or 2) the gigantic disconnect between what people and communities think they need versus reality.
Plant City is a fabulous treasure of a town in large part because we have all manner of commercial activity; not because we have peaceful and quiet houses backing up to our arterial roadways leading us to far away jobs. Every time residents who lament the passing of our rural past and lobby for those lands to be “planned” to become bedroom community housing subdivisions rather than businesses that could create a job or sell a product, those residents are reducing Plant City’s future. They are unwittingly administering a poison of vitamin “Bedroom Community.” Retirees who only want peace and quiet and open roadways have forgotten their past of having a job. They remind me of those who complain of the Amazon jets overhead right after having made an online purchase of golf clubs for delivery to their home.
Another hugely important pitfall of “master”-plans is in how they grow to quack and waddle like policy ducks rather than simply being past guideposts of vision casting. Almost immediately the pull the ladder up type opponents of development not to their liking start using legalese like “well it does not comply with the masterplan” when voicing their objections to change. Some treat the plan as if it were cast in marble of law. Emotion often reigns supreme in matters of public debate, and loud voices full of fear sometimes shout down and megaphone calm reason. They unfairly appear to be heavy voter blocks while the voices of the future have not yet arrived to cast their vote and show gratitude for employment.
If you want Plant City to emulate the worst parts of Brandon, then by all means continue demonizing light industrial or commercial development – keep on cheerleading instead for more planned housing communities all unable to generate the revenues needed to process their toilet flushes or the educational needs of their children, and all backing up to precious arterial roadways – keep on believing that what we need are more residents like you than jobs to sustain them.
Planners gotta plan, even if they sometimes need directions on how to get to Plant City, or perhaps have never had a job in the private sector since their teens. But just remember how the best protection against any “master”-plan from acting like a policy duck of mandatory sentencing over time is always to make sure you leave room for and support Plant City’s elected officials if/when they make change to it as their future judgment and loyalty to Plant City allows.