The Incredible Shrinking Regional Plan: Seven50 morphs into Four50

No. This isn’t a 1957 science fiction tale of man who shrinks, ultimately, to atomic size (“The Incredible Shrinking Man”).

This is the story of a group of Southeast Florida citizens who have awakened and cried out to central planners: “We’re mad as heck, and we’re not going to take it anymore.”

News Flash:  On December 17. 2013, in front of a packed-to-overflowing audience of citizens in the commission chambers, Martin County, Florida, Board of County Commissioners, voted 4 to 1, to end the County’s involvement with the 3-year, $4.25 million, seven county, 50 year regional planning effort funded by a US Department of HUD Sustainable Communities Initiative Grant, marketed under the name Seven50.

Martin County becomes the third county to withdraw from the regional planning consortium that originally consisted of seven southeast Florida counties stretching from Indian River County in the north, to Monroe County in the Florida Keys.

According to the American Coalition 4 Property Rights (AC4PR), “Palm City resident Jerry Kyckelhahn delivered a knife-sharp presentation of fact-filled analysis that laid bare, the arthritic core skeleton of the regional plan that central planners have worked so diligently to disguise under the fancy clothing of carefully contrived public consensus-building sessions, slick marketing materials, and extensive public relations efforts.  For those fortunate enough to be in the audience, it was like witnessing the work of a skilled surgeon.”

Martin County follows the earlier efforts that began in Indian River county when Indian River citizens filled to overflowing, the Indian River County Commission chambers on December 18, 2012, slightly one year earlier, to witness their Board of County Commissioners make their historic 4 to 1 vote to withdraw from the Seven50 Plan and program.  St. Lucie County was the next major domino to fall nearly 11 months later in November 7, 2013.  In between there have been additional jurisdictions including the City of Vero Beach, the Town of Indian River Shores, the Indian River School District and the Indian River Metropolitan Planning Organization, all of which have voted to withdraw from Seven50.

Next stop: Palm Beach County says AC4PR.