10-15-2007, 04:07 PM
Article published Oct 15, 2007
STAFF PHOTOS / DANIELLE RAPPAPORT
Jono Miller, a professor at New College, did a study on the growth history of North Port as part of his master's degree work at the University of South Florida. He lays the blame for many of the city's growing pains on its now-defunct developer.
More photos
Garbage sits in front of a home on Ortiz Road in North Port :shock: . Miller writes that "scattered residences and poor road quality" keep the city from improving services such as garbage collection.
North Port grappling with history of poor planning, study says
By PATRICK WHITTLE
NORTH PORT -- Sarasota County's fastest-growing city is a place where low housing prices attract young families, but a lack of employment opportunities encourages them to leave. :shock:
North Port's man-made canals made it possible to build where drainage is a challenge, but the waterways also block emergency routes and make firefighting difficult. And the city has more than 500 miles of roads in need of repair. :shock:
A new study by a local academic traces those problems, and many others, to a lack of foresight by North Port's now-defunct developer, General Development Corp.
Jono Miller, who directs the environmental studies program at New College of Florida, did the study for a graduate program course that required him to write the story of a Florida community.
He found the perfect subject 35 miles south of the New College campus, in North Port, a place where the costs of rapid population growth and outdated urban planning are left on the shoulders of 50,000 residents.
The study, titled "Depressed Roads and Draining Canals," focuses on how developer General Development Corp. saddled the community with inadequate roads and drainage.
Miller's project describes North Port as place where "past mistakes that looked like solutions at the time ... now require increasingly expensive solutions."
Miller says most of the blame falls with the Mackle brothers, General Development Corp.'s owners, not today's city officials.
Steve Crowell, North Port's city manager, said the city "still has impacts from GDC, good and bad."
Miller's project suggests the GDC legacy is mostly bad.
The developer paid $2.5 million in 1954 for 80,000 acres that became North Port and Port Charlotte. North Port became a separate city in 1959.
Miller traces North Port's development back to the Mackle brothers' sale.
His study faults GDC for planning North Port without a town center or downtown :shock: . And while GDC platted hundreds of building lots, the developer did not leave enough room to adequately widen roads.
Today, services such as garbage collection lag behind, but residents and officials routinely oppose "catch-up fees," Miller said.
Miller said GDC's lack of planning is one of the reasons North Port's economy has been almost entirely dependent on single-family home construction. The cool housing market has hit the city hard. North Port issued building permits for 12 new homes in August, the lowest monthly total in five years.
"Most North Port residents weren't alive when the core decisions that affect their quality of life were made," Miller's study states. "It is a vast social experiment with citizens as the subjects."
Miller, 55, has worked at New College for more than 25 years. He is working toward a master's degree in Florida studies at the University of South Florida.
Miller said he became fascinated with the way cities grow during his childhood in 1950s New Jersey, a place where what he calls "post-war suburban 'Leave it to Beaver' sprawl" was all the rage.
Miller said he decided to study North Port's growth because of his belief "that communities have personalities and the personalities may stem from the people people that live there. But they may equally stem from how they are laid out, the environment, the planning."
He added: "Darwin had the Galapagos. North Port seemed like the perfect place to test that premise."
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STAFF PHOTOS / DANIELLE RAPPAPORT
Jono Miller, a professor at New College, did a study on the growth history of North Port as part of his master's degree work at the University of South Florida. He lays the blame for many of the city's growing pains on its now-defunct developer.
More photos
Garbage sits in front of a home on Ortiz Road in North Port :shock: . Miller writes that "scattered residences and poor road quality" keep the city from improving services such as garbage collection.
North Port grappling with history of poor planning, study says
By PATRICK WHITTLE
NORTH PORT -- Sarasota County's fastest-growing city is a place where low housing prices attract young families, but a lack of employment opportunities encourages them to leave. :shock:
North Port's man-made canals made it possible to build where drainage is a challenge, but the waterways also block emergency routes and make firefighting difficult. And the city has more than 500 miles of roads in need of repair. :shock:
A new study by a local academic traces those problems, and many others, to a lack of foresight by North Port's now-defunct developer, General Development Corp.
Jono Miller, who directs the environmental studies program at New College of Florida, did the study for a graduate program course that required him to write the story of a Florida community.
He found the perfect subject 35 miles south of the New College campus, in North Port, a place where the costs of rapid population growth and outdated urban planning are left on the shoulders of 50,000 residents.
The study, titled "Depressed Roads and Draining Canals," focuses on how developer General Development Corp. saddled the community with inadequate roads and drainage.
Miller's project describes North Port as place where "past mistakes that looked like solutions at the time ... now require increasingly expensive solutions."
Miller says most of the blame falls with the Mackle brothers, General Development Corp.'s owners, not today's city officials.
Steve Crowell, North Port's city manager, said the city "still has impacts from GDC, good and bad."
Miller's project suggests the GDC legacy is mostly bad.
The developer paid $2.5 million in 1954 for 80,000 acres that became North Port and Port Charlotte. North Port became a separate city in 1959.
Miller traces North Port's development back to the Mackle brothers' sale.
His study faults GDC for planning North Port without a town center or downtown :shock: . And while GDC platted hundreds of building lots, the developer did not leave enough room to adequately widen roads.
Today, services such as garbage collection lag behind, but residents and officials routinely oppose "catch-up fees," Miller said.
Miller said GDC's lack of planning is one of the reasons North Port's economy has been almost entirely dependent on single-family home construction. The cool housing market has hit the city hard. North Port issued building permits for 12 new homes in August, the lowest monthly total in five years.
"Most North Port residents weren't alive when the core decisions that affect their quality of life were made," Miller's study states. "It is a vast social experiment with citizens as the subjects."
Miller, 55, has worked at New College for more than 25 years. He is working toward a master's degree in Florida studies at the University of South Florida.
Miller said he became fascinated with the way cities grow during his childhood in 1950s New Jersey, a place where what he calls "post-war suburban 'Leave it to Beaver' sprawl" was all the rage.
Miller said he decided to study North Port's growth because of his belief "that communities have personalities and the personalities may stem from the people people that live there. But they may equally stem from how they are laid out, the environment, the planning."
He added: "Darwin had the Galapagos. North Port seemed like the perfect place to test that premise."
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