Last week's enews brief generated a tremendous amount of discussion. We had over 50 calls to the office asking abou the County Codes removal of signs. There are reports that some have contacted the builder's association in an effort to take action. I have been informed that the "gentleman" bragging about taking and destroying signs last week exaggerated on the 300 he claimed. I have heard various numbers ranging from 60-150. I have offered to report the correct numbers once they are released. The question that needed to be asked and was asked is still relevant however as no legitimate answer has come forward: Why were signs promoting the Parade and bringing potential revenue to our county being removed when they have never been a problem before and what can we do to stop it?
It is time again to rally the troops. The Marion County Commission is going to hold a hearing on one of the most controversial and questionable proposals in many years on Halloween, when many people who might want to be heard will be with their families. The misnamed Springs Protection Ordinance will actually do little protection of our area's springs. It really is designed to protect groundwater, and there is a real serious question about whether it will do that. Instead of looking at the real culprits when it comes to nitrate seepage into the groundwater - ranches, farms and golf courses - the commission has decided to focus on septic tanks. If this proposal passes - and Wednesday is scheduled to be the first of two public hearings on the matter - it will substantially increase the cost of new home construction, as well as have current homeowners dipping into their own pockets. The result is that commissioners will be able to say they did something about groundwater protection. In reality, what they will have done is made home ownership more expensive without solving any problems.
So despite the fact that is Halloween, builders and other in Marion County who care about affordable housing must pack the commission chambers on Wednesday. That's where the Halloween horror show will be.
Just in time for Halloween, our website for Home™: Living in the Heart of Florida is now live. It is a great complement to the magazine, which has earned rave reviews. Check it out at www.livingintheheartofflorida.com. Please let us know what you think.
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www.BuildingEdgeMagazine.com
Our October issue is online, and has arrived in the mail. It features Isaac Construction in Lake City. The National Feature is on Weathering the Elements: HVAC, insulation, house wrap, anti-mold products, siding and brick, roofing, pest control . Our Edge Spotlight this month is on Griffis Tile & Flooring.
We are in production on the November issue, which will feature Demetri Homes of Ocala. The National Feature will be on Green Building: engineered wood/stone, heating/cooling alternatives, sustainable building materials, increasing IAQ (indoor air quality), plastic piping.
We will close out the year in December with GC Construction of Gainesville. The National Feature will be on Construction Technology. This is also going to be the Parade Wrap-Up issue, covering Alachua, Marion and Columbia counties. For more information, please contact us at (352) 372-3958 in Gainesville, or (352) 368-1707 in Ocala.
We kick start the new year with Allen Stine and All America Homes. Our National Feature will be on Home Technology.
Our Summer 2007 issue of Commercial Building Edge is now available. The cover feature is on Gray Construction Services. The National Feature is on Green Building.
Our Fall 2007 Commercial issue is in production. This issue should start arriving in about two weeks and will be in next weeks enews brief. The cover story is a feature on Ocala's Ausley Construction . The Winter issue will feature Trunnell Construction on the cover.
HOME™: Living in the Heart of Florida: The feedback on our newest magazine, Home™: Living in the Heart of Florida has been phenomenal. We have been busy the last few weeks restocking at all our distribution locations. Distribution is now at about 300 locations. We are thrilled that the Gainesville Sun gave us a blurb in Sunday's paper, but it was only half right. HOME is really for and about everything good in our community. In our opinion, HOME encompasses both the physical structure you live in and the community you have decided to reside in. Our magazine covers both. If you would like to have copies available at your place of business or model home, please let us know.
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Marion County to Hold First Meeting on Springs Protection Ordinance; MCBIA Questions Rush to Judgment
A doctor wouldn't operate before he knew a patient's illness, so why should we adopt new septic tank regulations before the community knows if the systems need improvement? That was the consensus from a meeting held Tuesday at the office of the Marion County Building Industry Association (MCBIA). Officials and members of the MCBIA will try to pack the room this Wednesday, Oct. 31, as the Marion County Commission considers a new springs protection ordinance. The hearing, the first of two, is scheduled for 3 p.m. The second meeting is scheduled for mid November.
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In Water War, Marion County Not Alone
Marion County is pursuing the right course in trying to control how local water resources are used, but will have to work with other counties and the state in the future, state Rep. Kurt Kelly said Thursday. Kelly addressed the monthly board of directors meeting of the Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce, saying Marion County is a target for other regions seeking water. "Marion County is in pretty good shape, compared to many of the counties south of us," he said. "The reality is, Marion County is an attractive area to come and grab water."
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Interim No More: Leesburg Confirms Evans
City Manager Jay Evans can finally discard that pesky modifier - interim - from his title. The commission approved Evan's contract package for $135,000, officially making him Leeburg's city manager. The commission tapped Evans for the top position in September following the termination of former city manager Ron Stock. The only issue of contention in Evans' contract was whether to approve it with three or six months' severance.
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UF Senate Backs Sustainable Energy Fees
In its pursuit of a more sustainable campus, the University of Florida may eventually be able to institute a fee generated directly from student money to support renewable energy projects on campus that could help to alleviate pollution and electricity costs. The Student Senate passed a resolution Tuesday night urging the Florida Legislature to pass a law allowing Florida's public universities to establish renewable energy student fees.
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Columbia County School Board Briefed About Proposed New Elementary School
The proposed elementary school planned for the west side of the county is expected to be completed by March 2009. School district officials were briefed on the pre-construction and pending work of the county's proposed new elementary school at the Tuesday School Board meeting by a representative from the PPI Construction Management Company which is handling the project.
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UF's Grade Up from 2007; Transparency Still an Issue
The University of Florida is among the nation's leaders in campus sustainability, but UF still gets failing grades for the secrecy of its investment practices, according to a report released Wednesday. The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit group, gave UF an overall grade of "B-" in its 2008 College Sustainability Report Card - an improvement from last year when UF was given a "C."
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Commissioners Plan to Decide on Hatchet Creek on Monday
Gainesville city commissioners inched closer to a decision on Hatchet Creek, a 2,000-unit subdivision around the Ironwood Golf Course, late Tuesday, agreeing to reach a vote on the project next week. Commissioners are expected to make a decision on the project at 3 p.m. meeting Monday in the City Hall Auditorium, 200 E. University Ave.
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Widening of SR 40 to be Discussed at DOT Meeting
The Florida Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 7525 S. U.S. 41, Dunnellon. On the agenda: review the changes to a 1996 environmental study concerning the widening of State Road 40 to four lanes from U.S. 41 to County Road 328.
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Waste Without Haste
With an eye toward the future, the City of Lake City currently is trying to acquire land from the Butler Tract that eventually would become home to the Greater Lake City Regional Utility Authority's new Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. The 180 acres, which would be built at a projected cost of $19 million, is located off of Sisters Welcome Road, south of the Interstate 75 overpass.
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Lake OKs Legislative Wish List
Lake County commissioners approved their yearly legislative wish list which asks the state for funds to help with capital improvement projects and other programs. The legislative position paper identifies what the commission considers its priority projects to improve operations and the lives of residents.
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MCBIA Calendar of Events
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BANCF Calendar of Events
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Crist: Accept Lesser Tax-Cut Plan
Faced with a legislative stalemate on property taxes, Gov. Charlie Crist said Friday that lawmakers should be willing to accept a scaled-down plan that gives a break to homeowners who move. That may be all the monthslong effort to trim property taxes may accomplish by Tuesday, the deadline to get a proposal to voters on the Jan. 29 ballot.
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Florida High Court to Consider Amendment for Property Taxes
The Florida Supreme Court decided Wednesday to consider whether a proposed constitutional amendment on property taxes should be placed on the Jan. 29 ballot. The court asked Gov. Charlie Crist's office to file a brief by Tuesday explaining why a lower court erred when it called the state's ballot language "misleading" and struck the proposal for bigger homestead exemptions from the ballot.
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Crist Signs $1.1B Budget Cut Plan; OKs Tuition Increase
Gov. Charlie Crist has made final $1.1 billion in state budget cuts - but he did so grudgingly and without fanfare. Crist fixed his signature Friday to the budget revision bills sent to him two weeks ago by the Legislature. They enact tuition increases at public universities and colleges and cuts to the state's water supply projects, among other things.
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Regulators: Cut Workers' Comp Rate Even More
It's not just property-insurance companies that have earned special attention from state insurance regulators. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation also is pushing the "reject" button for other types of insurers operating in the state. Regulators said Tuesday that Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is calling for deeper rate cuts in workers' compensation insurance rates after rejecting a rate filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance that would have saved Florida's employers more than $700 million.
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Freeze on Residential Development Proposed
Polk County voters could get a chance next year to put the brakes on the redrawing of local growth maps that enable more and more subdivisions to spread across the countryside. Environmental activist and Polk County Planning Commissioner John Ryan has proposed an amendment to the county charter that, if approved, would freeze the total amount of residential development to the level it was at the time of the referendum.
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South Florida Hotels Go Green
When Bob O'Neill started his new job as director of security at Miami's Four Seasons hotel four years ago, he was shocked by what he saw each day in the hotel's loading dock, and he vowed to put a stop to it. Was it doors being left unsecured? Unauthorized personnel wandering about unchecked? No, it was cardboard. Tons of it -- and his hotel was paying a premium to have it hauled off and dumped in a landfill.
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Robert Parrish Takes on Big Project as President of FHBA
Robert Parrish is not afraid to take on a challenge, but he has taken on a different one now as a builder and president of the Florida Homebuilders Association (FHBA). His success - or failure - will be felt in Tallahassee for a long time. It may be trite to say, but Parrish is a self-made man. His Parrish Homes, which started as he built one spec home at a time in other developers' upscale neighborhoods, has blossomed into Parrish Builders, a firm noted for bringing beauty to office buildings in key parts of Tallahassee.
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Citizens Property Insurance to Lose 200,000 Policies
Instead of being swamped with new policies, state-run Citizens Property Insurance now expects to see more than 200,000 leave its books before year-end. In the next two months, 100,000 multi-peril policies will be taken out of Citizens by several smaller Florida-based insurers. The insurer expects to have about 1.36 million policies on Dec. 31. Already 131,262 policies have been taken out of Citizens. As a result, direct premiums written will grow about 17 percent this year, rather than the expected 30 percent, to about $4.1 billion, Citizens' CFO said.
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Reports Show Mixed Economic Picture Ahead of Fed Meeting
New data on the economy presented a mixed picture last week, providing little guidance for investors ahead of the Federal Reserve board's meeting next week to consider an interest rate cut. Sales of new homes rose slightly in September but remained near the lowest level in a decade. Orders declined for durable goods - major consumer products like appliances, airplanes and machinery - but a crucial measure of business spending rose.
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NAHB to Launch Green Building Program
The National Association of Home Builders announced that it will launch that it will launch the much-anticipated NAHB National Green Building Program Feb. 14 at the 2008 NAHB International Builders' Show in Orlando. The program launch will be the highlight of a day of green-themed activities at the convention, which last year attracted more than 100,000 building industry professionals. The initiative will link dozens of successful state and local green building programs with a universal online certification, national registry of green homes and green builders, and a wealth of education tools.
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NAHB Calls for Green Building Awards Entries
Entries are now being accepted for the 2008 NAHB National Green Building Awards. Each year, the National Association of Home Builders recognizes individuals, companies and organizations for excellence in residential green design and construction practices for green building program and advocacy efforts. Applications are due Jan. 30, 2008.
New-Home Sales Rise 4.8 Percent in September
Sales of new single-family homes rose 4.8 percent in September, recovering a portion of the substantial ground they lost in the previous month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Sales reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 770,000 units following major downward revisions to figures for the previous three months.
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Bill Seeks to Curb Abusive Mortgage Lending
Rep. Barney Frank presented a bill to restrict lending practices partly blamed for the nationwide surge in mortgage defaults and foreclosures. It aims to prod states into enacting stronger mortgage regulations and sets up federal-level regulations if they don't do so. Frank's bill was crafted through months of discussions with consumer and industry groups and is designed to protect future borrowers.
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Mortgage Rates Fall to Lowest Level in Six Weeks
Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to the lowest level in six weeks as financial markets grew more hopeful that the Federal Reserve will boost the sluggish economy by cutting interest rates further. The 30-year, fix-rate mortgages fell to 6.33 percent, down from 6.40 percent last week. It was the lowest level since 30-year mortgages dipped to 6.31 percent on Sept. 13, which had been the lowest point since last May.
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Countrywide Offers Help for Reset Shock
Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, announced a program to refinance or modify up to $16 billion of its loans. The program is targeted to 80,000 borrowers who face the risk of default because their current variable rate mortgages would see payments jump to levels they could not afford. The bank says it has identified 52,000 borrowers, who collectively have borrowed about $10 billion, that it believes it can move into prime loans or those guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.
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IBS Coming in February
The International Builders' Show® is the single most important building industry event that you will attend. More than 1,900 exhibitors will showcase their latest products and services at the IBS. The Show will also feature almost 300 education sessions designed to help you stay current on industry trends and issues.
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Big Enough to Build
Where do you turn to build Gainesville's largest hospital project, maybe the largest one-time construction project the city has ever seen? For the University of Florida Shands Cancer Hospital, the answer was a company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Skanska has construction operations throughout Europe and Latin America, and Skanska USA Building is headquartered in New Jersey. Construction management for the Shands project is based a little closer to home - a joint venture between Skanska's Tampa and Atlanta offices.
Corporate Park Hits Critical Mass
Progress Corporate Park in the city of Alachua has grown along with its biotechnology companies for more than 20 years, adding office space as the old businesses grow and new businesses move in. Now it has reached the kind of critical mass to start luring restaurants, service providers like office suppliers and engineers, and possibly a hotel, according to park officials. The first eatery - a café - will open soon inside the park, which houses 900 employees, and more restaurants, including national chains, have inquired about property fronting U.S. 441, according to Sandra Burgess, park manager.
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Construction Industry More Focused on Safety
The focus on safety starts before the sun comes up at the construction site for the University of Florida Shands Cancer Hospital. As a tower spotlight illuminated the yard early Tuesday, dozens of construction workers gathered in hard hats, safety glasses and reflective vests as Darrell Dunaway, safety manager for Baker Concrete Construction, spoke from a trailer deck about the previous day's safety violations and gave a pep talk about treating each other with respect. He paused while an employee translated his points into Spanish for a Hispanic majority of concrete workers.
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Alachua County Puts Hold on Retail Plan
A proposal for increased retail development on the southeast corner of Tower Road and SW 24th Avenue was postponed Tuesday night by the Alachua County Commission. Commissioners expressed concerns about the traffic burden the development would place on Tower Road and subsequent funding to improve the road.
Eastside Projects Being Discussed
A hotel, office and retail complex could open across NE 12th Avenue from the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Waldo Road by 2009, an engineer on the project told a group of east Gainesville residents Wednesday before hinting at a 120-condo eastside development that is now in the works. The projects, which add to a growing number of new developments proposed for east Gainesville, were outlined by Robert Walpole, with the engineering firm Causseaux, Hewett & Walpole, at a neighborhood workshop with 10 residents of neighborhoods near the development.
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Clermont City Council OKs Hospital Plan for Expansion
South Lake Hospital's request to amend its development plan to accommodate future expansion received unanimous approval Tuesday from the city council. With the proposed changes, the 104-bed hospital will be allowed as many as 300 beds, along with a 140,000-square-foot, three-level patient tower and the option to build a parking garage, permanent storage facility and a temporary building to house various departments during construction.
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Senate Cuts Funding for Oversight of Union Financial Disclosures
The U.S. Senate voted to defeat an amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions that would have restored the $2 million planned cutback in the budget of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS). The amendment would have also increased funding for OLMS by $3 million. The Associated Builders and Contractors urged senators to support the amendment.
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Bill Fairchild Elected to Lead ABC; Jerry Gorski Elected Chairman-Elect
On Oct. 19, the Associated Builders and Contractors Board of Directors elected Bill Fairchild of R.W. Murray Co. to serve as chairman of the association in 2008. Jerry Gorski of Gorski Engineering, Inc. was elected to serve as the 2008 chairman-elect. In his acceptance remarks, Fairchild said that he would focus on data-driven membership growth, enhanced business development services, industry-wide alliance and the election of free enterprise and merit shop supporters in the 2008 elections.
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AGC of Greater Florida Calendar of Events
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