INTRODUCTION

As a studio class in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida we were approached by the Ichetucknee River Water Quality Working Group (IRWQWG) and asked to examine a worrisome trend that was impacting the Itchetucknee Springs and River, a major tourist attraction and source of regional income as well as great pride in the community. In January our Environmental GIS/Design Studio began an in-depth analysis into the problem of contamination of the Ichetucknee Springs and River with the ultimate goal of developing a future land use map and set of implementation tools which would help to mitigate the future impacts of development on the water quantity and quality within the Ichetucknee River Basin.

In undertaking this process our studio was divided into four groups with each group tasked with examining a different element of future development. The Agriculture Group was asked to look at agricultural land uses and impacts within the basin area. The Conservation Group was responsible for identifying areas that should be conserved and protecting those uses within the new future land use map. Our group, the Urban Group, was tasked with examining the urban and related needs of the population of Columbia County with the goal of ensuring that the future land use map contains sufficient and appropriate urban areas to accommodate the population growth of the county up through the year 2020. Last was the Growth Group who were asked to develop a growth model for the region based on historical data and trends.

COLUMBIA COUNTY HISTORY

In the early years Lake City and the surrounding areas were inhabited by Indians and wild animals. In an effort to convert the Indians to Christianity, monks from Spain established a number of missions in Florida. In fact, a Spanish mission was found on the land near Lake Alligator. The Spanish influence on what was to become Columbia County was dominant in the years prior to the acquisition of the land by the United States government. The Spanish introduced new plants and animals to the Florida landscape, such as orange and peach trees, cotton plants, cows, horses, and hogs.

Records indicate that Hernando Desoto passed near Lake City during his travels through Florida. However, before Spain traded Florida to Great Britain in 1763, no white settlers were recorded in Columbia County. The British occupied Florida for twenty-five years and made a strong effort to attract white settlers.

Along with the United State's purchase of Florida in 1821 came a great deal of conflict between the white settlers and native Indian peoples. Runaway slaves from Georgia, North and South Carolina created much of this conflict. These runaway slaves joined forces with the Florida Indians. The slave owners raided Indian villages in an effort to retrieve their slaves. These conflicts created hardships for both white settlers and native Indians.

Columbia County was founded in 1832 from part of Alachua County. Columbia County included areas of Suwannee, Bradford, Baker, and Union Counties. The County seat was in Alligator (Lake City).

During this time the Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroads were built through the city and the name was eventually changed from Alligator to Lake City (1859). This established Lake City as a transportation hub and lifted its economy greatly. The Civil War, however, put a damper on its economic growth. Three years prior to the railroad and the town's name change, Lake City built its first courthouse. The courthouse survived the Civil War due to the fact that no battles were ever fought in Lake City. After the war ended, the courthouse was destroyed by the townspeople in order to prevent carpetbaggers from using the building and its documents.

The years 1876 through 1900 marked a period of strong growth and development for Lake City that goes unrivaled in its history. With the reconstruction of the railroad lines, Lake City became a tourist hotspot. This sparked interest was due to health and vacation opportunities coupled with the convenience of travel by train.

Lake City established the state's Agricultural College in 1883. The college remained in Lake City until 1905 when it was moved to Gainesville and eventually became the University of Florida. This loss did not affect the general economy, but it did slow progress.

The early twentieth century was marked by a sense of community pride and was celebrated by the building of the new courthouse (1901-1905). Lake City took pride in the accomplishments of the late ninetieth and early twentieth centuries. This marked a period in which factories, tourism, agriculture, and Agricultural College created a sense of prosperity.

During the time of the Depression and World War II (1930-1945) Columbia County struggled. This was mainly due to its dependence on agriculture. The depression and war sent crop prices down and put many banks out of business. After World War II, Columbia County's growth was steady but there was no boom in urbanization. Its economy and life style remained dependent on agriculture. By the 1960’s tobacco had become the county's main crop. And in Columbia County the peanut crop was also very important to agriculture. Peanut crops were grown as cash crops and also as swine food.

Today, as in the past, Columbia County has established itself as a transportation hub. The junction of Interstate 10 and Interstate 75 confirms its role as a transportation hub and so in a way it acts as a gateway for many of the state's visitors. The county still maintains a strong presence in agriculture, although in recent times it has become much more diverse.

Lake City Community College is the new center for education in the County and offers a more divers range of studies than the previous Agricultural College. The uncanny parallels that exist between the County's past and present are clearly visible in agriculture, education, and transportation. These are the key ingredients of its past and present successes.

STUDY AREA

For the Urban Group's analyses, the study area was extended to include all of Columbia, Suwannee, and Union counties. The primary reason for this was that we realized early on that many of the factors which influence the suitability and location of new development are not constrained by an artificial, political boundary, the county line. Therefore, all information pertinent to our part of the project was analyzed for each of the three counties. All results and maps were then clipped to the original study area boundary, that was defined at the beginning of the class project, for the synthesis and final analysis portion of the project.

GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

Each of the four different groups discussed earlier adopted their own unique methodologies in order to achieve their specific objectives. We, the Urban Group, were primarily concerned with identifying areas that were most suitable for development and then allocating urban development within those areas. More formally, our Primary Goal was:

To achieve a sustainable development pattern that is seamlessly integrated into the surrounding natural areas and that becomes a vibrant, functional part of the environmental/cultural matrix.

With this goal in mind we also developed a series of Objectives that we would follow to achieve our goal. Our Objectives were as follows:

Maintain quality of life for the inhabitants of the region; Encourage development while maintaining the agrarian character of the region; Evaluate multiple design scenarios to determine the ideal urban pattern; Protect the water quality and quantity within the Ichetucknee Basin; Encourage maximum utilization of existing infrastructure where appropriate; & Provide adequate space for all land use types based on population projections through the year 2020.

In order to identify those areas that were most suitable for development we developed and employed the methodology shown in Figure 1 (Methodology image). The various stages of analysis involved in the process are Physical Suitability Analysis, Infrastructure Analysis, Other Relevant Factors, Intermediate Suitability, Existing Land Use Considerations, Population Projection Considerations, Growth Model Results, and Input of Design Scenarios.

Recognizing that commercial and residential interests are affected differently by different factors we decided to develop separate suitability maps for each. The factors that went into each of the two maps along with the relative weights given to each of the factors may viewed here: RESIDENTIAL and COMMERCIAL.

DESCRIPTION OF STAGES

Physical Suitability Analysis

This is the initial stage of the actual analysis phase of the project. In this phase we have identified several physical characteristics which we will study further. The main physical characteristics of the land under study are surficial and underlying geology, suitability of soils for urban development and suitability of soils for septic systems, suitability of the hydrological conditions, presence of floodplains, and analysis of land use and vegetative cover.

Infrastructure Analysis

This step ties in with one of our group's goals which is to, as much as realistically possible, "ensure maximum utilization of existing infrastructure where appropriate." Here we will identify areas that are served by roads, intersections and access points, etc. We will also examine areas that are located near public facilities such as wastewater treatment plants, prisons, and other such uses . The idea here is to get the most use you can out of the existing facilities and to avoid locating development where it may not be appropriate. The important point, however, is to encourage this type of effort only in areas which are "appropriate". We define "appropriate" to mean that urban or related land use that is located in such a place that it doesn't substantially compromise the efforts made in the Physical Suitability Analysis to preserve the state and natural function of the environment in which it is located.

Other Relevant Factors

In this step we looked at other factors that are important to the location of development but do not fit neatly into one of the other categories. Factors included in this section include archaeological and historical sites, conservation lands, proximity to existing city limits, etc.

Intermediate Suitability

In this step we combined the Preliminary Residential (Residential Suitability Map) and Commercial Suitability Maps (Commercial Suitability Map) that were created based on our analysis of Physical Suitability, Infrastructure, and Other Relevant Factors. The two maps were weighted equally and combined into an overall Intermediate Suitability Map (Intermediate Suitability Map).

Existing Land Use Considerations

This step consists of using existing land use maps, maps showing area conservation lands, points of interest, and archaeological and historic sites to identify areas of pre-existing, appropriately located urban and related land uses. Appropriate here is used in the same context as in the previous section and so the definition from previous section would still apply.

Population Projection Considerations

The important thing to point out in this section is that we made sure that the land uses we proposed in our final Urban Land Use Map were sufficient to meet the needs of the additional population that was expected to be added by the year 2020.

Growth Model Results

This step involves the incorporation of the results of the model developed by the growth potential modeling group of this project. This information identified areas of high development pressure It is our responsibility to accommodate, to the extent possible, this development while at the same time preserving the integrity of the Itchetucknee Basin.

Alternative Design Scenarios

In this last step we attempt to impose several different ideas for how we think the community should take shape. We do not want to merely distribute development around the landscape with no purpose. We seek to distribute it so that it protects the integrity of the Itchetucknee Basin while at the same time is economically, aesthetically, and psychologically pleasing. For our project we chose to examine a Rural by Design scenario by Randall Arendt and a Traditional Neighborhood Development scenario by Peter Calthorpe and others.

RESULTS

To develop a Land Use Map we combined our Residential and Commercial Suitability Maps with the results from the Growth Modeling Group. The Residential and Commercial Suitability Maps were each given a weight of 0.4 and the Growth Modeling Group's Development Pressure Map was given a weight of 0.2. We gave less weight to the Growth Group's map because the growth modeling results, based largely on historical trends, represent a 'status quo' growth pattern and we were proposing a development scenario different from the status quo. These three maps were combined into a Final Suitability Map.

In developing our Urban Final Land Use Map we used our Final Suitability Map as a foundation and incorporated the Growth Model Results, existing land uses, population projections, and our design scenarios.