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Commission narrows Urban Services Area expansion after cemetery and canopy-road concerns
Summary
After hours of public comment focused on Carr Cemetery and threats to canopy roads, the Leon County Commission voted to remove a contested 1,100-acre, single-owner parcel from a countywide Urban Services Area update and required future master planning and public notice for large developments.
A divided Leon County Commission on Tuesday scaled back a major proposed update to the countycomprehensive plan after residents and descendants warned that a broad Urban Services Area expansion could threaten historic cemeteries, canopy roads and require taxpayers to fund wide infrastructure extensions.
The boardopened a first-and-only public hearing on amendments to the land use and mobility elements of the Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan. The community comment period ran for hours; dozens of residents, neighborhood groups and descendants of families buried at Carr Cemetery urged the commission to slow the process and to protect sensitive sites from development.
Craig Stevens, who said he is a direct descendant of people buried at Carr Cemetery on Bannerman and Meridian roads, told commissioners the countyhad already confirmed graves by ground-penetrating radar and that the site, "is one of the only physical connections I have to my great-grandmother and generations who came before me." He asked officials to "choose remembrance over erasure."…
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