Attended the latest neighborhood information meeting on the Allora project March 20th 2024. In my estimation the show up of community citizens was poor. I wonder who in the community received the Information Meeting notices? Basically the City reps and BDG were there to tell us how it is going to be and that we were going to have to swallow it like it or not.

• They sprung the traffic study on us without any prior commity circulation of it beforehand. As before the City allowed the BDG developer to hire the company to do the traffic study with no specific standard applied to what/how it was to be done.
• Of course the results were that NO improvements needed to be made to 8th Ave SE. Surprise Surprise. Just look at all the image in this post and all of the traffic generating properties that surround the Allora project site.  Do you believe their traffic study? There was no analysis of the Lake Ave Donegan road traffic or intersection. No analysis of the traffic was necessarily included at times when middle school pick up and drop offs were in progress or when events were happening at the activity center facilities such as Central Park, Performing Arts or Library and the church on 8th Ave SE. No changes to the dangerous accident prone curve in on 8th Ave SE were mentioned.
• No mention was made of any mitigation they intended to carry out for the destruction of the wildlife and their habitat was mentioned by the presenters. The only positive was providing a sidewalk along 8th Ave SE for some distance.
• If there is any other positive, it would be that this is still a preliminary site plan and not a final one accepted by the City/County and it still has to go through the administrative review process when the final site plan is submitted by the developer. However due to the Live Local act (State of Floida) there will be No Public Hearings. Between now and when the final plan is submitted is the time to organize and look for legal grounds that we can use to fight back. Some say it is a done deal and we have no options but I say we should leave no stone unturned. Why is there no appeal process provided in the Florida Live Local act? The community surrounding these developments should have a right to appeal. This state law is taking away citizens right to be heard at a public hearing with formal responses required Are we going to stand by and let this happen?  The municipality's hands are tied to an extent on this but it was they and the county are responsible for putting this property in the target by designating it "IL" in the first place. But they could probably do something to remove the target land use.  The residents of Largo are all going to LOSE PROPERTY VALUE AND PAY HIGHER TAXES for the infrastructure improvements that will have to be made.
• Review and approval by SWFMD will be required and we need to urge them, the FWC and other review participant agencies to be present and very active in the review process.  
• The Live Local act needs to be scrutinized to look for legal hitches.  This land should never have been designated IL future land use in the first place.
• BTW, when we questioned the presenters on the increased potential for flooding because they are planning to raise the land on the development site, they kept telling us that the development retention ponds had to be made to contain ALL of the runoff water it produces but, pressing them further, they won’t be held responsible for runoff during exceptional rainfall or storm events. 
• Lastly how is the middle school that is adjacent to this property going to handle the increase in students from a 336 apartment complex?  Where is the School Board in all of this?WAKE UP OUT THERE PEOPLE!....HELP US FIND LEGAL ASSISTANCE AND VOLUNTEER TO HELP USING THE SKILLS YOU HAVE.