The Heartland 2060 Conference was held at South Florida Community College, just off of Hwy. 27 in Avon Park. Although it was outside of Polk County, we were definitely included.
The conference was more or less to bring the "Heartland" or interior counties together as a region to discuss growth and planning opportunities. The idea is to start planning now for the shape of the future, not neccasarily for us, but for our children. Years ago and even recently cities, counties and regions haven't worked together. Sometimes compatibility happens for residents, sometimes not.
Pat Steed, Executive Director, Central FL Regional Planning Council, made a very valid point in one of her slide presentations about upward growth instead of urban sprawl. Cities elsewhere have chosen to limit the boundries of their towns and instead of increasingly growing out, build upward and compact their cities. I thought this was a very good arguement for efficient land use, as well as centralizing transportations systems, fire, medical, police and so forth.
Winter Haven City officials were there, as well as County Commissioners Bob English, Randy Wilkinson, Jean Reed and Sam Johnson. No Jack Myers. At least five other counties had representation there too.
It was nice to see the turn out, but my question still remains.
All the good planning in the world in wonderful, but if you can't hold cities such as Winter Haven to these efforts, then where do we go from here? Is there a way to change current regulations which give the county no control over cities and their annexation? If someone out there knows, we would appreciate the answers.
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