More often than not, growth management doesn’t work in Florida, even though a law requiring it has been on the books for 25 years.
The Growth Management Act mandates that each county and municipality adopt a long-term master-growth plan. Lots of time, effort and millions of taxpayer dollars go into crafting these plans. Their goal is to ensure orderly growth that doesn’t swallow the community in a tidal wave of speculative, ill-conceived construction.
Despite good intentions, “growth management” in Florida has proved to be an oxymoron. Too much of this gorgeous state has been swallowed by ugly sprawl and overdevelopment.
A big part of the problem is the tendency of local commissions to rubberstamp developers’ requests for plan changes. Even the best plan doesn’t mean much if it can be changed willy-nilly.
Not only has much of Florida’s unique beauty been unnecessarily destroyed, “development gone wild” has driven Florida’s economy over the cliff. The recent binge of growth has stuffed nearly every corner of the state with a glut of every type of construction — single family, condo, commercial. The oversupply is driving down property values while, perversely, sticking taxpayers with a swelling bill for new construction’s infrastructure and services.
To add insult to injury, Floridians’ quality of life has steadily eroded.
It’s important to note that all types of growth – from schools, roads, water, hospitals and so on – are already embedded in Florida’s plans. The Department of Community Affairs, the agency overseeing growth, recently noted that Leon County has enough growth capacity already in its plan for the next 268 years. Osceola and St. Lucie counties follow, with enough growth for the next 105 and 212 years, respectively. Jackson County has growth ensured until the year 3000. In fact, there is enough capacity built into Florida’s growth plans to add another 80 million people to our current population of 18 million.
You begin to see why Floridians are unhappy with the status quo.
Why can’t our commissioners respect our growth plans? Why do so many of them run on a platform of “responsible development” and then, once elected, approve yet one more request to add yet more housing and commercial supply to local plans?
Too Many Politicians in the “Sprawl” Business
Changing a growth plan is a political decision, not an automatic right. Yet in Florida, developers make it their business to control politics through generous campaign donations. Moreover, many politicians are in the sprawl business themselves. The developer/politician nexus helps explain the construction frenzy and the subsequent meltdown.
Hometown Democracy, on the November ballot as Amendment 4, finally would put the public interest back into growth management. It would do this by giving voters a veto over plan changes approved by their commission.
Opponents of Hometown Democracy – the very people who went wild with overbuilding and crashed the economy – have the nerve to say Amendment 4 would kill construction jobs. Why aren’t they building now? As noted, there’s plenty of growth to go around for decades to come without ever changing a plan. But the fact is that construction jobs have evaporated because demand crashed.
Opponents of Amendment 4 don’t want to build now; they just want to continue building whatever they want, wherever they want. They know Amendment 4 would cramp their style.
Opponents also say residents would have to vote in frequent elections on lots of little technical things. Yet Amendment 4 would not require special elections. Changes to local comprehensive plans are made, on average, three to four times a year by local governments.
Reckless changes to growth plans can ruin a community for decades to come. Praying for our commissioners to “do the right thing” has not worked. Let’s put Amendment 4 in the Florida Constitution for ourselves and future generations.
The hometown you save will be your own.
Lesley Blackner is the president of Florida Hometown Democracy, a nonpartisan political action committee that is the sponsor of Amendment 4. You can learn more at www.floridahometowndemocracy.com
