Let's ease the Betz Farm hysteria

Happy Monday! Welcome to the Betz Farm Geek Squad.

Everyone and his sister jumped on the anti-Betz Farm bandwagon in recent months, awakening to the idea that giving away 350 acres of valuable public land to a developer isn’t the wisest move.

I’ve been on the Betz Farm kick for quite some time. Even when the proceeds were loosely tied to the new animal shelter, I questioned the logic. What made sense just five or six years ago — unloading surplus property to raise revenue — no longer makes sense because of the intense development taking place countywide.

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Citizens don’t want to see another square foot of dirt developed unless it’s already on the books.

The Betz Farm arrangement is wrong, wrong, wrong. It's a cozy pact between the County Commission and a favored developer that does the public zero good, other than the few pieces of silver we’ll get in exchange.

I say all this to remind readers I’m not a JWC-come-lately on Betz Farm. It should stay in public hands...period.

I’m also a government geek play-by-the-rules guy, and I’m telling ya, all this handwringing about canceling the contract, as Commissioner Janet Barek wants the board to do on Tuesday, makes a bad situation worse. 

We are much better off letting this play out. Let me explain.

A little background: The county has marketed Betz Farm, on Turkey Oak Drive across from Crystal River High School, for several years. It had a potential buyer who dragged his feet on contract benchmarks, so the county sought buyers again.

Enter Bravo Land Group LLC, known by its parent company, DIX Developments, which has its hands in several new Citrus County projects. The County Commission seems enamored with this particular developer. I don’t know why. But there’s no rationale to the sweetheart deal that’s part of the sale contract.

DIX, smarting from losing the first Pine Ridge Golf Course vote, demanded the Betz Farm transaction be tied directly to the county approving his land-use plan for the property FIRST. No approval, no sale.

The board voted unanimously for this arrangement exactly two years ago this month. Barek had not yet joined the board.

There are no benchmarks in the contract. No milestone deadlines that I could find. But it includes this very significant statement:

“Should any rezoning or modification of zoning be required for the property, the seller will fully cooperate in the modification approval process.”

The sale hinges on the county approving the project, which is an extraordinary conflict of interest. I don’t know how any commissioner with a straight face says his/her vote on Betz Farm isn’t influenced by the developer dangling $6 million in front of their eyes.

It’s a horrible arrangement, one that every single sitting commissioner, with the exception of Barek, owns. It serves no good for the public and lots of good to an influential developer.

And it can’t be broken. Look at that wording again. The county must “fully cooperate” in the process to keep the contract alive.

So, two things:

One, we can’t stop the land-use process. Simple as that. If we cancel the contract for no purpose than we feel like it, that’s going to be a Clark Stillwell special all the way to the Courthouse.

Two, that process concludes with a public hearing and vote. The process doesn’t require a yes vote. I’ll repeat that for those in the back. The process DOES NOT require a final yes vote. It’s political suicide for any commissioner (or candidate) to even consider giving Betz Farm the green light.

Plus, there’s a political reality that I’d rather the County Commission not squirm out of. And that’s this lousy contract. Sorry, commissioners, but you approved this silly thing. It should come to fruition. You’re stuck with it.

So, let it roll. Commissioners eventually vote no, DIX doesn’t buy the property, and life goes on.

Look. Betz Farm is toast, and everyone knows it. I suggest we tone down the rhetoric some and let this play out organically. Canceling the contract now only invites unnecessary trouble.

That’s how I see it. Have a great Monday, friends.

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