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In the area of the subject property, the Main Canal and the 58h Avenue/Lateral "B" Canal Corridor form clear, distinct and logical urban service area boundaries. The proposed amendment breaches those boundaries by permitting residential development at the county's second highest density to abut agriculturally designated land containing citrus groves and residences on 10 -acre tracts. For these reasons, residential development of the subject property would be anticipated to increase incompatibilities with surrounding areas. The site has been cleared, and contains no environmentally important land, such as wetlands or native upland habitat. Therefore, development of the site is anticipated to have little or no impact on the environmental quality of the site. For this reason, only minimal adverse environmental impacts associated with this request are anticipated. There are three principal issues associated with urban service area expansion. These are: Timing - Is there a need to expand the urban service area at this time? Location - When the urban service area warrants expansion, where should that occur? Development Pattern - When the urban service area warrants expansion, should the expansion area be allowed to develop in a single -use, non -connected, sprawl manner or should it be required to develop in a better planned manner? Urban Service Area Expansion: Timing The above analysis demonstrates that the urban service area does not warrant expansion at this time. Not only is there significant land available for development within the urban service area, the Residential Allocation Ratio indicates that there is no need for expansion. Urban Service Area Expansion: Location When circumstances warrant expansion of the urban service area, the expansion should occur only after an analysis of where that expansion should occur. There are many areas of the county which are adjacent to the current urban service area, adjacent to arterial roads, and adjacent to public utility lines. Those areas may also be near other public facilities such as schools and parks. Approving this request without assessing whether this would be the best area for expansion could result in an inefficient land use pattern In addition, approval of this request would make it difficult to deny similar requests along the urban service area boundary throughout the county. Urban Service Area Expansion: Development Pattern When circumstances warrant expansion of the urban service area, the county will have two choices as to the development pattern in the expansion area. The first alternative would be for the county to designate the expansion area with one of the current land use plan designations. This would produce a development pattern of single -use residential area with unconnected subdivisions, having limited pedestrian opportunities, without a mix of uses, and inefficient to serve with public facilities. The second option would be for the county not to expand the urban service area for conventional development. Instead, the county could choose to expand the urban service area only when the expansion area will be developed in a traditional neighborhood development pattern. JULY 119 2000 -130- BK 114 PG 146