Smart Charlotte

Smart Charlotte

Developers and builders have skipped over Charlotte County because of its reputation as an unfriendly place to do business. The county's 34-year-old director of growth management wants to change that.

GOVERNMENT WATCH by Jean Gruss | Editor/Lee-Collier

What will Charlotte County look like in 2050?

That's longer away than Jeffrey Ruggieri has been alive. But the ambitious 34-year-old director of growth management in Charlotte County is determined to nail down the answer by late next year.

More surprising, Ruggieri is also asking the question almost no one in government planning does: What will it cost? Every scenario for the Charlotte 2050 plan will have a price tag, courtesy of Orlando economist Hank Fishkind.

"You want to put 70% of the land in conservation? Here's what it'll cost," Ruggieri says. This is the kind of reality-based planning that you're not likely to find in many other counties in Florida, but that is critical to crafting a successful roadmap.

To understand how different Ruggieri's perspective is, consider that he trained as a planner in Houston, unique in the country for its lack of zoning regulations. "People in Florida think they can control growth," Ruggieri says. "In reality, it's still people making decisions."

Ruggieri says he's in favor of growth and development "because of the futility of fighting it." He's put a priority on helping developers and builders accomplish their plans. "Saying 'no' is not an answer," he says.

There's a lot riding on whether Ruggieri succeeds. The economic downturn on the Gulf Coast has hit the county especially hard just as it was starting to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Charley. "The whole county's just in shock," Ruggieri says. What's more, political winds can shift easily in a volatile economy and the current pro-development commission could be voted out of office.

Ruggieri will also be the watchman on duty when the massive Babcock Ranch project gets underway in the southeastern part of the county. West Palm Beach developer Syd Kitson and Morgan Stanley have teamed up to build a new town on 14,000 acres there. "It fit every definition of sprawl, but it was approved so we move forward," Ruggieri says.

Babcock isn't the only pressing issue. There's the on-again, off-again redevelopment of Murdock Village and what to do about the U.S. 17 corridor in the northeast part of the county, among other issues. In total, there are six separate planning studies underway in Charlotte, mostly paid for by developers and landowners.

Houston's sausage factory

Houston is well known in planning circles as the only major city without zoning regulations or future land-use plans. The city's laissez-faire attitude is either vilified by those who favor land-use restrictions or hailed as an oasis of freedom by property rights supporters.

As a senior planner for Houston's division of development services from 2000 to 2003, Ruggieri routinely reviewed as many as 40 to 50 development projects every two weeks. His department regularly reviewed plans for 500 to 600 subdivisions each month. "It was a sausage factory," Ruggieri recalls.

With only engineering standards to guide him, Ruggieri says the approval process was a "humbling experience in problem solving." But the system worked because developers used common sense as a guide (an industrial building doesn't fit well next to a residential subdivision, for instance). The absence of rules translated into more competition and, as a result, more affordable housing.

"I think it was a good way to operate," Ruggieri says, looking back. "I think it would work anywhere."

After three years working for the City of Houston, Ruggieri went to the other side, working as a senior planner helping developers with the planning firm Northrup and Associates. "My work ethic caught up with me," he chuckles.

But Ruggieri had always wanted to move to Florida, and he jumped at the chance when Kimley Horn and Associates in Sarasota hired him in 2005 at the height of the residential-housing boom. He saw first-hand the speculative frenzy that occurred as he was planning three residential projects in the rural area of Polk County. Developers showed up in helicopters and one arrived in a $750,000 special Mercedes-Benz to oversee their middle-of-nowhere projects. "It was over the top," Ruggieri says. "I think back on it and it was silly."

By 2006, Ruggieri was a successful planner, his second child was born and he had bought a house. Then, he was diagnosed with cancer. He declines to discuss it except to say he underwent radiation therapy for eight months. After that experience, Ruggieri didn't want to travel anymore and took a job as planning manager for Charlotte County. Cancer gave Ruggieri a new perspective. "Conflict doesn't upset me," he says.

Twenty years insufficient

By the time he rose to become Charlotte County's director of growth management last year, Ruggieri decided the area needed to map out its future. Charlotte County has the benefit of large tracts of undeveloped rural land, but it's also hobbled by thousands of lots platted decades ago in land scams.

While most counties develop plans that look out 20 years, Ruggieri says that's not long enough for a county with Charlotte's twin rural and platted-lot challenges, which take decades to evolve. Thus the ambitious 2050 plan, which Ruggieri optimistically hopes will be adopted by the end of next year.

To get the broadest participation, Ruggieri is going to put the entire process online so interested parties can have a hand in crafting the plan remotely. Call it Wiki urban planning.

Having such an open process risks becoming a free-for-all. Recent suggestions included letting golf carts on roads and allowing yurts or tents on empty lots with septic tanks and water hookups. But Ruggieri says the county hired the well-respected planning firm Gladding Jackson to keep the plan's focus clear.

Ruggieri won't say what his vision is for Charlotte County because he says he doesn't want to influence its outcome. "We want it to be a learning document," he says.

One of the keys is to put price tags on all the options so that participants can see the cost of their choices. For example, how much in government revenues and economic development would be lost if land was set aside for environmental conservation? "There's a price you have to be willing to pay for things," Ruggieri says. "That was my idea."

The challenge now is how to pay for studies and plans when the county's budgets are shrinking faster than anyone expected and growth seems a far-off dream. But Ruggieri says now is the perfect time to plan for the future so the county is prepared for the growth when it inevitably returns. "Hopefully we can catch the next one," he says.

With the economic slowdown, landowners have been more eager to participate in subsidizing planning studies that will benefit their properties. One such study is the U.S. 17 corridor. Ruggieri says the county only had $50,000 to spend on a study, but he persuaded landowners in the area to pony up six times that much to pay for the whole thing by threatening to have the county do it for them. Ruggieri is doing the same thing for the eastern part of the county.

The best part of it is that no one's forcing Charlotte County to create the plan. "No one is making us do it," Ruggieri says. "We want to get ownership back."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Issue. Charlotte County long-range planning

Principal. Jeffrey Ruggieri, director of growth management

Key. Putting a price tag on every idea puts reality into urban planning.