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Comprehensive Plan <br />Intergovernmental Coordination Element <br />With its recent annexations, the City of Fellsmere created two new enclaves. One enclave is <br />along 97th Street west of North Willow Street which is about 25.13 acres in size and another one <br />is north of CR 512 west of I-95 which is about 10 acres in size. This illustrates that, while state <br />law is designed to prevent the establishment of new enclaves, inefficient annexations can still <br />occur. Two major problems which can occur with annexations are: (1) developers <br />circumventing county regulations through annexation and (2) county service/facility provision <br />plans undermined by annexation. <br />For those reasons, coordination is important regarding annexation. Not only do municipalities <br />need to set annexation criteria; they need to specify annexation areas and adopt annexation <br />policies. Currently, the county and municipalities are developing an Interlocal Service Boundary <br />Agreement (ISBA) to address issues such as annexation, density, height and other issues. If the <br />ISBA is approved by all affected parties, the ISBA will address a number of these annexation <br />issues. In the future, the county should continue to work with the municipalities to develop and <br />implement the ISBA. <br />■ Joint Application for Land Acquisition Grants <br />In 1992, county voters approved issuance of a $26,000,000.00 general obligation bond and, in <br />2004, a $50,000,000.00 bond for acquisition of environmentally significant lands for the <br />protection of water quality, open space and wildlife habitat. The county land acquisition <br />committee, which has representatives from the county, municipalities, and special interest <br />groups, identifies and ranks environmentally significant land within the county for purchase with <br />those bond funds. <br />Since 1992, hundreds of acres of environmentally significant land have been purchased, utilizing <br />bond funds matched with other funding sources. These lands are used for passive recreational <br />activities throughout the county. <br />As part of this land acquisition process, the county has coordinated with municipalities on <br />several acquisition projects by jointly applying for matching grants from state funding agencies <br />for acquisition of environmentally significant lands within the municipal boundaries. Also, the <br />county has partnered with municipalities to construct public access improvements to some <br />conservation areas. In the future, the county's policy should be to continue working with the <br />municipalities in the county to submit joint grant applications for conservation land acquisition. <br />■ Countywide Recreation System <br />In the past, the county coordinated with all municipalities within the county to try to establish a <br />countywide recreation system. Due to political and fiscal constraints, a countywide recreation <br />system has not been established. The county, however, has coordinated with separate <br />municipalities to provide recreational facilities and services. <br />Specifically, the county has coordinated with the City of Fellsmere, City of Sebastian, and the <br />City of Vero Beach to provide recreational facilities and services. In so doing, the county <br />provided funds for the construction of capital improvements at the Barber Street sports complex <br />Community Development Department Indian River County 4 6 <br />