“Our little town is changing,” says Epling, president of the Homestead-based Community Bank of Florida for the past three decades and a resident of the town for most of his life. “The face is changing. Its a community in transition.”

If you haven’t been to Homestead in a few years, you might not recognize it. Nearly 10,000 new families have moved into the area since 2000, a growth rate of 32 percent, or almost triple the county average. Now retail shops are moving in, and city leaders are looking to attract offices and industrial businesses.

Before Hurricane Andrew walloped Homestead in 1992, the city’s two principal industries were farming and the Homestead Air Force Base, which then employed close to 10,000 people.

After the storm, the military reduced the site to an Air Reserve Base. The facility has taken on more personnel in recent years, but its still nowhere close to pre-storm levels. It now has around 1,100 full-time workers, plus about 1,200 reservists who come to perform monthly drills. An additional 175 full-time workers are expected to arrive soon.

“We could do more creative things associated with, if you will, The Jetsons,” said Jay Marder, director of the citys Development Services. He was talking about the possibility that the city could encourage future development in the Miami Modern style.

Marder and city consultants broached the topic during a workshop held April 3 to kick off the drafting of a proposal that would lay the groundwork for new development in Miami Gardens.

Miami Modern, or MiMo, the post-WWII style sometimes compared to the futuristic city drawn in The Jetsons cartoon and already incorporated through some sections of the city, could be used to create a physical identity for Miami Gardens, consultants from Iler Planning Group said.

IPGs support of renewable energy and carbon offsets with Carbonfund.org is a natural extension of the work it does on behalf of its clients. “Iler Planning Group is excited to join the growing number of businesses who have made the decision to offset their CO2 emissions and help fight global warming,” said Henry Iler, AICP, President and Principal of IPG. “As municipal planners, we are at the forefront of policy change and we embrace that responsibility by working comprehensively within our communities to reduce greenhouse gases at the local level.”

“IPG already understands that future urban development must be sustainable—its been providing eco-conscious planning services for over 12 years,” said Eric Carlson, Executive Director of Carbonfund.org. “Now IPG is taking its green initiatives even further, and were proud to help IPG go CarbonFree.”

City leaders said last October the economic benefit of the quarry outweighed concerns raised last fall by homeowners as well as environmental and park officials. The city will be paid about $277,000 a year by the mines operators in order to offset the loss of taxes the city would have received from other uses on the site.

For every ton excavated, 10 cents will go to Florida City. The 10-cent price will also increase with inflation.

This agreement makes sure the city will receive its compensation for doing this project, City Planner Henry Iler said.

”He built this city from its ashes,” said Herbert Griffin, a Florida City resident since Hurricane Andrew who showed up at the polls last month to vote for another term for Wallace.

Wallace feels that experience taught him to survive any tough circumstances by planning ahead.

Currently, he is plotting the future growth of Florida City.

”The project I hold dearest to my heart are the bad areas that I want to redevelop,” Wallace said.

So far, about 2,500 acres have been annexed and the city is looking to take in more than another 2,000 acres, according to City Planner Henry Iler.

The Palm Beach Town Council gave preliminary approval at a special meeting Monday to several proposed zoning amendments.

The decisions, all of which were unanimous, were instructions to Town Attorney John Randolph to return with draft ordinances that will require further council approval. They would: Prevent formula restaurants from opening in commercial zoning districts.

Iler Planning Group drafted the ordinances to aid the Town of Palm Beach. The town was worried that other chain restaurants would follow Starbucks onto the island, the council in 2006 imposed zoning-in-progess rules to block chain restaurants while the town staff refined criteria to define those restaurants.

The document, researched and completed by Iler Group of Palm Beach Gardens over the last several months with input from local residents, eventually will become part of the citys comprehensive plan, the guiding document for the citys growth and development plans. No final decisions were made Tuesday.

More than 130 people participated in two fall workshops that gleaned input from city residents. The first day of workshops focused on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and obstacles. The second focused on specific subjects.

Among the subjects recommended to receive further weight in the future: waterfront development and access, commercial redevelopment, economic development, investing in the citys youth, and ecotourism and green planning.

Florida City Mayor Otis T. Wallace knows that the housing boom is deflated.

But it will be back, and Florida City hopes to be ready with thousands of acres as one of last communities in South Florida to have so much land available.

So far, about 2,500 acres have been annexed and the city is going after another 2,200 acres or more, according to City Planner Henry Iler.

Worried that other chain restaurants would follow Starbucks onto the island, the council in 2006 imposed zoning-in-progess rules to block chain restaurants while the town staff refined criteria to define those restaurants. Iler Planning Group was hired to develop the new regulations for the Town of Palm Beach.

The guidelines tentatively approved Monday would define a formula restaurant as one belonging to a chain of three or more establishments nationwide and meeting at least two of three additional criteria.

The City held a series of three visioning sessions where citizens were given the opportunity to provide their vision of the future. During the third visioning exercise a visual preference survey was conducted. The visual preference survey used images and simulations to help people focus on how they would like to see future development occur. In this session, the groups also will be working to expand on the previous goals and strategies.

All attendees were given the opportunity to vote on the major issues. The results from the meeting were compiled by City staff and given to the Iler Planning Group, a consulting firm hired by the City to assist in long-range planning research. The Iler Group will be compiling the results from all three visioning sessions into a final report that will presented to the public early next year. The final visioning session will take place in mid-January 2008.