SEBASTIAN — The Sebastian City Council Wednesday night had a discussion on whether to pursue potential annexations to broaden the City’s tax base.
The discussion was prompted by Councilman Richard Gillmor, who told his fellow Council members the City will need more commercial and industrial land, which the City’s Comprehensive Plan projections currently call for.
He warned that if Sebastian doesn’t move to bring available land along County Roads 510 and 512 into the fold, Fellsmere would beat Sebastian to it.
Noting that Fellsmere had been proactive in annexing a lot of land, including considerable acreage along CR 512 between the two municipalities, Gillmor said “whether Sebastian or Fellsmere controls the development depends on who gets there first. If another city does, we’ll have no control and no taxes from it.”
Gillmor turned to City Manager Joe Griffin, asking him if Fellsmere would like to have that land between the two municipalities.
“Fellsmere would love it,” Griffin replied.
Gillmor had recently been “going through the City’s Comp Plan,” specifically the future land use element. He said he is concerned that the City, within the next 10 years, will need the additional land for commercial and industrial uses, in order to sustain the needs of a growing population, but there “are no sites available” within the current City limits.
He pointed out that land with commercial/industrial potential in the 512 corridor at 510 has annexation potential to serve the future needs of a population already at about 23,000, and “5 or 10 years down the road it IS going to be developed.”
Gillmor requested consensus from Council to “give Joe Griffin and staff a leg up to talk to property owners and say ‘If you are thinking about annexing, think of us.’”
He specifically referred to the Ansen Property, significant acreage in the area under discussion.
“We don’t just run out and annex,” said Vice Mayor Jim Hill. “Annexation is volunteer and has to be asked for (by the property owners). I do think we can be more aggressive in courting the 512 and 510 landowners – by phone call, letter, knocking on doors. But we only annex by request of the landowners. When the property owners are ready, we’ll annex, but they’re not ready at this time.”
Councilwoman Andrea Coy concurred.
“I echo Mr. Hill,” Coy said. “And we don’t want a repeat of ‘03-‘04, when we (annexed) five residential developments and no commercial.”
Such a situation burdens infrastructure while not bringing in revenues to support the increased needs, she explained.
Referring to the Ansen property, she said, “A little birdie told me they are talking about water farming, with some talk about future state funding. We need to be clear we’re open to the Ansens.”
“We don’t want Sebastian not to look like Sebastian,” Gillmor said, “but there are lots of little holes we can fill in.”
Coy was skeptical, and asked what incentive landowners would have to annex.
“Why would they want to pay more taxes?”
Gillmor said having five City Council members to come to with issues as opposed to one County Commissioner representing Sebastian would be appealing, and added that Sebastian offers a number of amenities for its residents and businesses.
Coy appeared unconvinced.
Mayor Bob McPartlan made a suggestion.
“Maybe we could send a letter, looking at property on an individual basis, making them aware we are open for business and would like them to come in,” he proffered.
Griffin said, “We do have a very friendly building department, very responsive, you call them and they come out right away. That’s an incentive. I’ll start knocking on doors.”
Gillmor reminded the Council of the time when Fellsmere was aggressively annexing toward Sebastian.
“We didn’t do anything,” he said. “They’ll keep coming this way.”
