County threatens more overdevelopment

By John Labriola - As Citrus County faces ever-increasing levels of traffic due to overdevelopment, the Citrus County Commission will be discussing ways to bring even more development to the county in the name of "affordable housing." 

The Citrus County Commission's agenda today (Tuesday, Dec. 13) includes a discussion item in which commissioners will "review and discuss Affordable Housing Incentive Strategies." Among the options the commission will consider is granting "density bonuses" to allow developers to build higher density projects than what is permitted under current zoning if they agree to set aside at least 20 percent of their units as "affordable."

As I pointed out during my recent campaign for Inverness City Council, when politicians talk "affordable housing," it's generally code for changing an area's party demographic to make it more Democrat and liberal, not to mention increasing the crime rate. (For speaking the truth, the Citrus County Chronicle condemned me as a "bigot" in a series of hit pieces and editorials designed to swing the election to one of my developer-friendly opponents.)

Pro-development politicians whose campaign coffers are filled by the developers generally argue that more low-income housing is needed to keep our younger generation from moving out of Citrus County. This is a crock, because most of the new subsidized housing that has been built in Citrus County in recent years is being snapped up by out-of-towners. The younger generation continues to move elsewhere because of a lack of jobs, not because of a lack of affordable housing. To focus on housing before jobs not only puts the cart before the horse, it makes the problem worse by increasing the number of residents competing for the same number of jobs. 

Given the shortage of jobs, it's questionable how many of the new residents we're adding to the local population through increased development are actually working locally. Before pushing for the construction of more low-income housing, maybe the county should conduct a study to find out how many people in the county's new subsidized rental properties are commuting to Tampa or Orlando every day because we made it cheaper for them to live here and add to our traffic woes while contributing nothing back – except maybe more crime. Keep in mind the Citrus County Commission recently increased our property tax rate due mostly to a significant increase in the sheriff's budget, which the sheriff said was necessary to keep up with the county's growing population and the higher crime that comes with that.

Let's face it: Housing prices are set by the market, and government usually only makes things worse by getting involved. In fact, real estate prices have skyrocketed in recent years mostly because of the government's massive meddling in the economy during the COVID scare. Why would we look to government to solve a problem it caused? 

Without even getting into the question of the fairness of charging people different amounts for the same type of housing, it's clear that subsidized housing schemes have a long history of failure throughout the country. If you don't believe it, try taking a tour of the wreckage they've left behind in some of our major cities. Why then would Citrus County want to repeat that failure here at the risk of destroying our cherished small-town conservative Christian character? 

These are all good questions to ask our county commissioners before they decide to turn us into another overcrowded, high-crime liberal metropolis. So plan on showing up and speaking out if you can. The commission will meet at 1 p.m. today in the Citrus County Courthouse, 110 N. Apopka Ave., Inverness, FL 34450. 

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