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Future land use changes are identified by the County in each comprehensive plan published by <br />the Community Development Department. This document is regularly updated in order to designate the <br />appropriate location for future land uses and sets forth the policies regulating growth and development <br />within the County. These policies are not just limited to density and intensity of appropriate land uses, <br />but also address other factors, including the timing and location of future development. Future <br />development is important to understand for the whole watershed of the Lagoon. Within the watershed, <br />waters ultimately make their way to the Lagoon, so even if a property is not adjacent to the coast, it can <br />still impact the Lagoon through other factors, such as runoff and groundwater pollution. <br />Past land use changes were determined based on the Florida Land Use and Cover Classification <br />System (FLUCCS) using a one -mile buffer around the Lagoon shoreline. These codes were retrieved from <br />SJRWMD. No significant changes were found using the data pulled from 1999, 2004, and 2014. Previous <br />years were not able to be used because they changed photo -interpretation standards for the aerial <br />photography of land use and land cover, and there is no way to transform data from before 1999 to make <br />it representative of current standards. As of the most recent 2014 data, using the one -mile buffer around <br />the Lagoon for the County, urban and built-up lands accounted for approximately 34%, agriculture <br />accounted for approximately 4%, rangeland accounted for approximately 6%, upland forest accounted for <br />approximately 6%, water accounted for approximately 37%, wetlands accounted for approximately 11%, <br />barren lands accounted for approximately 0.4%, and transportation, communication, and utilities <br />accounted for approximately 2% of the total land cover. The County currently enforces a 50 -foot shoreline <br />protection buffer for un -platted parcels and a 25 -foot buffer for existing platted Tots measured from the <br />mean high water line. However, the buffer should not exceed more than 20% of the parcel or lot depth <br />perpendicular to the Lagoon. No development is permitted within this buffer, other than docks, boat <br />ramps, pervious walkways, and elevated walkways. Native vegetation must remain unaltered in these <br />buffer areas and shoreline alteration is prohibited, unless it is in the public interest, prevents erosion <br />damage, or provides reasonable access to the water. It is important to maintain these standards in the <br />future so that the Lagoon continues to have a direct buffer between activities on the shoreline that may <br />be detrimental to its health. This is also why it would benefit the County in having County -wide shoreline <br />mapping completed, in order to understand the limits of mangroves and marshes and understand how <br />future development may impact the survival rates. It would also benefit the County to encourage the use <br />of BMPs in future land use changes so as to not change the size and drainage patterns of the Lagoon's <br />watershed. These impacts are most pronounced along the Lagoon shoreline where dredge and fill <br />activities, hardened shorelines, and coastal development have altered natural upland -wetland -lagoon <br />connections. <br />100 <br />