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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019 08 13 - IRNA Executive Director Dan LamsonINDIAN RIVER NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION dedicated to qualitygrowth Tuesday, August 13, 2019 Chairman Bob Solari Indian River County Board of County Commissioners 180127th St A, Vero Beach, FL 32960 Dear Chairman Solari: Thank you for covering the issue of the Graves Brothers Annexation into Sebastian at the MPO Meeting yesterday and taking actions this morning at the Board of County Commission meeting. The IRNA Supports your actions and the stated goal of slowing the annexation down so that all of the outstanding issues will be addressed. We fully support this slowdown and have encouraged the City of Sebastian in our letter dated August 9, 2019, to take it under consideration. This issue has come on very quickly; We spoke to the City of Sebastian staff in early May and at that point, the only activity related to this annexation was a pre -application meeting, with no public records available to be requested. Going from a pre -application meeting approving an annexation in just four months seems far too fast. Further, the Cih- of Sebastian has many unanswered questions on this issue. They have not addressed any of the impacts potentially affecting the people not only in their City but also in the rest of the County: traffic, schools, water and sewer, taxes and fees, etc To work cooperatively, such as was done with Fellsmere, would provide a benefit to all involved. There am many different ways to address these concerns, especially in an annexation agreement but Sebastian seems like they will not produce one. The annexation process has gone in a way which prohibits the IRNA support as it stands currently. The process which Fellsmere has and does go through with annexation is much more in- depth and has a longer vision for the lands and their uses. At your regular meeting today, the commission left the door open for taking actions after the property is potentially annexed at the August 28 Sebastian City Council meeting. We encourage you to keep your options open and to take actions you need to protect residents of the county who would be negatively impacted by a poorly managed annexation. There is a right wav and many wrong ways to annex property Thank you for doing all you can as a commission to ensure that this annexation ends up as a benefit to our community. If the IRNIA leadership or membership can be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerelv, G_ an Lamson Executive Director, IRNA CC Board of County Commissioners County Administrator and Attorney Sebastian City Manager 1>DIA%RJ%Lk NLILHBi WHO( 0 X�S,'e i511, IN Nr. P� I BOX e.-ti4,v S [A, I BL Al11 I1.ukll'a 4n'.