2012-141A - Laserfiche WebLink

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• The preservation of environmental areas that would be threatened by development beyond the urban service area, • The encouragement of energy efficient communities where residential development is located reasonably nearby to infrastructure and services, both public and private, and • The avoidance of public expense which is incurred when public services — including police, fire, emergency, etc — are provided to areas of low density, scattered development. Since 1990, the Board of County Commissioners in Indian River County has designated an urban service area in its comprehensive plan. A map of the urban service area is attached as Exhibit A. The urban service area consists of about 20% of the county, located primarily east of I-95 , and west along SR 512 to the City of Fellsmere. The non= urban service area consists of the remaining 80% of the county. The vast majority of the non-urban service area consists of four land use designations : three agricultural designations (AG4 , AG=2 and A&3) and a conservation designation (C- 1 ) . The Indian River County 2030 Comprehensive Plan carefully addresses development both inside and outside of the urban service area — thereby implementing many of the policies outlined above. Development outside of the urban service area has been carefully planned to avoid urban sprawl and preserve the current agricultural and conservation uses. Some comments from the, Urban Sprawl section of the Future Land Use Element of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan underscore this fact: "Urban sprawl refers to scattered, untimely, poorly planned urban development that occurs in urban fringe and rural areas and frequently invades lands important for environmental protection, natural resource protection, and agricultural production. Urban sprawl typically manifests itself in one or more of the following patterns . leap frog development, ribbon or strip development, and large expanses of low-density, single- dimensional development. The unchecked spread of residential and related uses into previously undeveloped land can have serious consequences in a rapidly growing community such as Indian River County. Those consequences include the increased cost of public services and facilities, loss of valuable agricultural and open natural land, and the possibility of negative environmental impacts. Because urban sprawl is a dispersed land use pattern, it is not energy efficient with regards to transportation or utility infrastructure. Generally, a pattern of dispersed development on large tracts of inexpensive land compounds the effort to provide public services in an efficient and economic manner. Such development provides for an increased demand