Recent FHD News Articles

Judge orders transfer of land use amendment case

WEST PALM BEACH — The statewide battle royale over whether the November ballot should include a proposed amendment requiring citizens to vote on changes to a community land use plans landed in the wrong court, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra ordered that Florida Hometown Democracy's case against Secretary of State Kurt Browning be transferred to the federal district that includes Tallahassee.
[ Read the full article here ]

Judge hears Fla. planning amendment case

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. --  
Supporters of a proposed Florida consitutional amendment requiring voters to approve changes in local growth management plans told a federal judge Wednesday that a host of discrepancies and problems improperly blocked the measure from the November ballot.

Among problems described in testimony before U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra were mistakes in double-counting invalid voter petitions, widely disparate standards used by the state's 67 election supervisors and suspiciously high rejection patterns in some counties.

"It was just a myriad of problems," said Barbara Herrin, a former New Smyrna Beach banker who closely tracked the petitions for the Florida Hometown Democracy Inc. group. "Some were human, and some were system problems."
[ Read the full article here ]

Voters can bring politicians to heel

By the time you read this, Florida Hometown Democracy may have gathered enough petitions to make the ballot. As of Thursday, 607,961 signatures were validated by the state, with thousands more in the pipeline. A total of 611,009 is needed.

In the face of a hostile Legislature, well-heeled corporate opposition, erratic counting procedures by supervisors of elections, questionable emergency rules from the secretary of state and inexplicably blasé (or non-existent) news coverage, FHD marches on.
[ Read the full article here ]

Road is concrete symbol of problems with sprawl

Has anyone thought of renaming the toll road running through the middle of Pasco and Hernando counties the "Cone Porkway?'' You know, the toll road that came online at just the right moment, when cheap gas and easy money converged to unleash a perfect storm of developers and speculators gone wild.

Oh, the bubble was sweet while it lasted; no questions asked, no money down, just hope and hype because the market couldn't be wrong. Don't worry. Be happy. Go shopping. Go out to eat. And you can always refinance!

That big toll road, slicing like a can opener for 42 miles through virgin land, cost about $1-billion. Its official purpose was to alleviate traffic on U.S. 19 and U.S. 41. By the way, how is the traffic there these days?

But you know the real purpose: Build it and they will come.
[ Read the full article here ]

'Dirty Tricks' muddy citizen petitions

On Tuesday, two “emergency rules” went into effect in Florida. They were invoked, the Secretary of State’s Office says, due to “an immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare.”

Scary stuff? Indeed. The emergency rules — as much as the “danger” they identify — pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of democracy in this state.
[ Read the full article here ]

Not over yet

The battle for an anti-growth constitutional amendment heads to federal court.

At the dawn of 2008, things were going so well for Florida Hometown Democracy. The group – launched in 2003 to promote a state constitutional amendment that would restrict growth by forcing local comprehensive land-use changes to go to referenda – won the unanimous approval of the Florida Supreme Court in 2006, and was within inches of securing its place on the November ballot.

But when the state’s Feb. 1 deadline came around, Hometown Democracy came up 15,567 signatures short of the 611,009 signatures that state law requires. They missed by just 2 percent. When you consider that the group turned in more than 814,000 petitions, and that some 200,000 signatures were rejected as invalid by local supervisors of elections, you can count on some disappointment – and a lawsuit. The fight isn’t over yet.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy petitions for grievances

Florida Hometown Democracy is now a federal case. Supporters of the proposed state constitutional amendment filed suit in U.S. district court this month seeking certification of all valid petitions, and placement on the ballot as early as November.

With the clock ticking away, the wheels of justice may not turn in time. But, if nothing else, FHD's legal challenge strikes a blow to Florida's (mis)handling of the constitutional amendment process.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy files suit against the State of Florida

FHD ASKS FEDERAL COURT TO DIRECT STATE TO PLACE
THE HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY AMENDMENT
ON THE NOVEMBER 2008 BALLOT.

How Florida lost its sense of place

Proposal gives residents a voice on growth

Stanley Price's observations (in the May 25 South Florida Sun-Sentinel) are the latest in the bare-knuckles campaign to discredit the citizens' movement to amend the Florida Constitution, which has overcome one barrier after another thrown in its way by the growth machine that has served taxpayers and voters so poorly.

What Florida Hometown Democracy will do is to require a popular vote of changes to local growth plans, required by the State of Florida through its Growth Management Act. When this amendment to the Florida Constitution is passed by 60 percent of voters in a state-wide election, it will do more to curb the costs of suburban sprawl than any measure in Florida history.
[ Read the full article here ]

A public vote on growth not unlike Florida Hometown Democracy works in a California county

While Florida and the Treasure Coast wrestle with growth and sprawl, a Southern California county voted to manage development via voter referendums similar to what Florida Hometown Democracy proposes.

Here's a status report on Ventura County's program to Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, a decade after its wimplementation.
[ Read the full article here ]

So you want to halt sprawl? Fat chance.

It doesn't matter that Florida has a huge glut of abandoned homes thrown up in the hinterlands, dragging down the economy.

Our political leaders want more.

Not only are they refusing to control sprawl, but they also are making sure you don't either. It's the biggest disconnect I've ever seen between public desire and political action.
[ Read the full article here ]

'Representatives' build a case for Hometown Democracy

It could have been worse. The 2008 Legislature could have passed laws to:

• Erase urban service lines.
  
  
• Prohibit citizens from holding local referendums on land-use changes.
  
  
• Create a new "ag enclave" in Palm Beach County.
  
  
• Exempt developments of regional impact from urban-sprawl rules.
  

Volusia lawmaker's intervention scuttles growth-limit bill

TALLAHASSEE - Ormond Beach state Sen. Evelyn Lynn says she only was trying to help rural areas around the state lure more development.

But the result was that Lynn last week helped derail a proposed rewrite of Florida' growth laws in the dying hours of the legislative session. She tried -- but failed -- to add an amendment that would have exempted some large-scale rural developments from Florida's anti-sprawl law.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hostile to constitution

Republican legislators thought that they could limit citizen petitions by making it hard for any but the best-financed efforts to get constitutional amendments on the ballot. Doing so meant violating the Florida Constitution but that didn't stop them, until last week.

The 1st District Court of Appeal blocked one of the worst surviving "reforms," the revocation of signatures from petitions.
[ Read the full article here ]

Court rules against petiton signature revocation

A controversial law passed by the Legislature and deployed by opponents of the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative is unconstitutional, three state appellate court judges ruled Wednesday.

The 2007 law, which allowed people to revoke their signatures on ballot-initiative petitions, does not ensure ballot integrity when citizens' groups try to amend the state constitution, according to a written opinion of the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee.

Instead, it burdens the process in a way not required by the constitution.
[ Read the full article here ]

Power to the people, right on, court says

Here is how it works in Florida:

If enough citizens sign a petition, they can put a proposed amendment to the state Constitution on the ballot.

The Constitution says so.
[ Read the full article here ]

State appeals court rules in favor of citizens group

People cannot take back their support once they sign petitions to get citizen initiatives on a ballot, an appeals court ruled Wednesday in a case over whether voters should have a say in changing infrastructure and development plans.

The 1st District Court of Appeal said a law that let people take back their signatures is unconstitutional, so it overturned a trial court's ruling.
[ Read the full article here ]

Court strikes down petition law used against Hometown Democracy

In a rebuff to the Florida Legislature, and its allies at the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the First District Court of Appeal has sided with Hometown Democracy. The court on Wednesday ruled that the law that created the process that allows the revocation of petition signatures is unconstitutional and that rules used by the state to implement the process are also not allowed.
[ Read the full article here ]

A loaded question about growth

Central Florida Is Embarking On A Seven-County Venture Called "How Shall We Grow?" The Question And Its Implicit Assumption - That We Must Grow - Has Major Implications For The Treasure Coast.

Wedged Between The Sprawling Metroplexes Of Orlando And South Florida, Our Region Is Being Squeezed Like Orange Juice. Even In The Midst Of A Real-Estate Market Meltdown, Planners And Developers Are Mapping Our Future

...Literally.
[ Read the full article here ]

To hear critics tell it: Florida Hometown Democracy will lead us to ruin

To hear the critics tell it, Florida Hometown Democracy will lead us to ruin.

Why, it will allow each and every one of us to vote on the comprehensive plan amendments that shape the communities in which we live.

Think of it. If the proposal reaches the ballot in 2010, and if voters approve it as a constitutional amendment, they might say no the next time a developer wants to fill in wetlands for a condo project.

It might even shift the balance of power and alter growth patterns in Florida.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy dead for now But Backers Question Why

Although the Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) movement - which would have given local voters the right to veto efforts to allow faster growth - has been declared dead by the state for the 2008 election cycle, backers say it didn't die for lack of petition signatures, but was killed by powerful opponents through the legislature, abetted by the Elections Division of the secretary of state's office.

Hometown Democracy co-founder Leslie Blackner believes her campaign for 2008 might not be over.

Blackner sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist and the state's 67 election supervisors Monday demanding information under the public records law and citing several "systematic errors" and violations of election law in the petition validation process, including the rejection of petitions from voters who moved, were purged from the rolls or have not been active voters - contrary to law and division rules.

The letter also demands those errors be corrected and amended count totals provided.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hey, buddy, watch who you call an 'elector'

Two groups had a shot at getting on this November's ballot in Florida by using citizen petitions. One made it and one didn't.

The first group, Floridians4Marriage.org, got enough signatures verified by the Feb. 1 deadline. So we will vote on its measure against same-sex marriage.

The second group, Hometown Democracy, which sought voter control over growth, did not make it. Now that group must wait until the 2010 election.

Hometown Democracy, naturally, is not happy about this. The group says that it got enough signatures but the government didn't count them in time.

The reply of Hometown Democracy's opponents has been, more or less: "Boo hoo! You should turn them in earlier next time!"

But this is a legitimate question. There is a sort of "twilight zone" in our laws about petitions. The Legislature ought to fix it.
[ Read the full article here ]

Is the party really over for developers?

Tom Pelham can ruin a good party.

Pelham, Florida's prophet of doom, shows up at gatherings of deal makers and their subservient politicians and sucks the fun out of the room.

Pelham, head of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, a k a the Secretary of Woe, was back at it last week, warning a state Senate committee that its days of unbridled exuberance were nearly over. He warned that the electorate, seething with frustration over uncontrolled development, was contemplating something terrible.
[ Read the full article here ]

Has Florida stooped to Third World tactics?

Imagine waking up to the headline: "Diebold accidentally leaks results of 2008 election." You'd be outraged. Fortunately, this scenario, so far, is just in the mind of the Onion, the satiric newspaper that recently spoofed this topic.

But what if forces are present to predetermine the outcome of ballot measures?
[ Read the full article here ]

Signing away your rights

The first-ever revocation campaign in Florida toys with citizens' democratic petition process

The first and, so far, only attempt at revoking petition signatures in this state has claimed partial credit for keeping the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment off the November ballot.

Even if you think FHD is the worst idea ever conceived, the enemy of the enemy doesn't make him your friend. Next time, that enemy may be aiming at you.
[ Read the full article here ]

Vote on growth in 2010

There's little as satisfying as a protest vote.

As much as I wanted to vote for Ron Paul to poke a stick in the eye of establishment politicians, I wanted to vote for Florida Hometown Democracy more.
[ Read the full article here ]

For Floridians, enough may finally be enough Growth

In the future, 2007 may be remembered as the year Floridians finally gave up their faith that growth is inevitable and, on balance, a good thing.

Beset by water shortages and a sputtering real estate industry, the state's residents discovered that much of the booming growth of recent years was based on speculation and mortgage fraud, not actual need. New subdivisions are filled with empty houses with unkempt lawns, tempting targets for vagrants and burglars. Yet some of the state's natural resources, such as wetlands vital to recharging the underground aquifer, were sacrificed by regulators to accommodate this spurious demand.
[ Read the full article here ]

Florida's shaky democracy breaks down on Hometown

Development interests band together, defeat grass-roots effort

While the United States expends blood and treasure bringing democracy to Iraq, the power brokers back home keep Florida's feudal fiefdom intact.
[ Read the full article here ]

Developers block environmentalist ballot plans

TALLAHASSEE - It may be one of the costliest ballot fights voters won't see at the polls this year.

Since 2004, a few wealthy environmentalists backing the Florida Hometown Democracy campaign had hoped to force public votes on big development decisions. But this winter, they ran into one of the more sophisticated opposition campaigns business groups in Florida have launched in years.
[ Read the full article here ]

Battle remains for opponents of ballot effort

TALLAHASSEE - Opponents of the so-called Hometown Democracy amendment won a battle late last week. But they have no illusions that the war was over.

Michael Caputo, executive director of Floridians for Smarter Growth, an Orlando-based, business-backed group formed in June to fight the proposed amendment, said Friday they have at best held off a vote on the proposed constitutional amendment to require voter approval of all comprehensive plan amendments.
[ Read the full article here ]

'Special interests'? Oh -- that's you

As I was sitting in traffic this morning, I reflected on our current system of development and growth management - I had lots of time to do this.

As it happens, I was on Highway 98 in South Santa Rosa County, but I just as easily could have been on Highway 90 in North Santa Rosa County, Davis Highway in Pensacola, or Avalon Boulevard. In traveling all of these places, it is glaringly obvious that the current system used to plan for future growth is not working and it's time to try something new.
[ Read the full article here ]

Contested ballot initiative seeks to control growth

Opponents fear the amendment could stifle development, cost money.

While voters will decide on Amendment 1 this Tuesday, another possible ballot initiative on the horizon has already begun to make waves.

Florida Hometown Democracy would put development management in the hands of citizens. The proposed constitutional amendment aims to require voter approval for all land-use revisions to a municipality's comprehensive plan, a document that serves as a blueprint for development.
[ Read the full article here ]

Florida's growth machine runs out of gas in suburbia

Can it be mere coincidence that Florida's housing depression coincides with spiking oil prices?

When you think "subprime," think "suburbia" - as in miles of streets and stucco boxes where there is no "there" there. Fueled by easy credit and once-low gasoline prices, Florida's housing boom has gone bust. Nowhere is that more evident than in this state's suburbs.

Leveraging Florida's loose planning rules, developers have been on a decades-long building binge, and politicians were happy to go along in exchange for campaign contributions.
[ Read the full article here ]

Rip up letter and mail it back to Thrasher

The e-mail came a few days ago from a Clermont woman who signed a petition to get the Hometown Democracy Amendment on the November ballot.

"Ms. Ritchie," it began, "Do you know of a way to stop the letters that come to my home from [former Florida House Speaker] John Thrasher pushing for the revocation of my signature from the petition? I received my second or third one today.
[ Read the full article here ]

Another bad count in Florida

A Florida recount may stop an election before it begins. Maybe two.

Yes, it would not be a Florida election without counting and processing problems. It's just that we've gotten used to these things happening after people have voted.

But now the first glitch of November's general election already is in progress. This time, it's not a problem of vote-counting, it's a problem of petition-counting.
[ Read the full article here ]

Changing landscape

Florida Hometown Democracy or constant bulldozing? Clear choice. Overnight we've seen landscapes razed that once gave this place character and refuge for wildlife and the human spirit. Thoreau's ethics -- Archie Carr's, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas' -- have been cast aside like Cheetos bags along Interstate 95.

This travesty stems from the relative ignorance of power elites about ecology, but also from the murky bonds between developers and officeholders.
[ Read the full article here ]

A count meltdown and bully tactics

The battle over Hometown Democracy has made gathering petition signatures in Florida look more like trading pork bellies. Combine the latest bully tactics of business opponents with a computational meltdown in the state capital, and this is making the constitutional privilege of citizen initiatives look like a bad joke.

Last week, Secretary of State Kurt Browning pulled the plug on a computer system that has been used for the past 12 months to tally and track signatures as they are certified by county election supervisors. Hometown Democracy organizers had questioned the accuracy of election division counts, and serious discrepancies between state and county numbers were uncovered.
[ Read the full article here ]

Your Last Chance To Stop Chaotic Growth

You still haven't signed the Florida Hometown Democracy petition? If you are a Florida voter, and you haven't signed it yet, please do so today and mail it in. Time is running out for us to make the 2008 ballot.

You still haven't heard about Hometown Democracy? It's a statewide petition drive to amend the Florida Constitution to give voters the final say over whether local growth plans should be changed.
[ Read the full article here ]

Old Florida fights back

When developers and local officials get cozy, residents take control.

Nestled along the northern banks of the Withlacoochee River just as it makes a final crawl to the Gulf of Mexico lies the village of Yankeetown, population about 760.

It's a snapshot of old Florida thrown into turmoil when residents found out their Town Council and developers had plans that could drastically change it.

"It would destroy the reason why I live here," Charlene Strong said.
[ Read the full article here ]

Not fooled by 'urgent' warning from former state House speaker

Just under the letterhead announcing the writer as "The Honorable John Thrasher, Former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives," were two words in red.

"Extremely Urgent," they said.

Then came his strident pitch urging the recipients -- people who had signed a petition to put an amendment to the state constitution on the statewide ballot -- to quickly sign a form revoking that signature.

Thrasher told them they had probably signed mistakenly, after being grossly misled about the amendment's true purpose.

Good thing such a reliable statesman was there to help fix their mistake.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy: People want right to say no

It's easy to tell who the bad guys are in the Hometown Democracy debate. They lie so viciously and creatively that they make normal dirty politics seem friendly. They are committing huge piles of money to say and do whatever is necessary to stop Florida Hometown Democracy from getting on the ballot. They clearly believe that people will vote for it and it will slow growth.

And then there are the innocents - the frustrated, angry public that have watched the best planning laws in the country turn into bureaucratic pablum. They want the right to just say "no."
[ Read the full article here ]

Sign and gain freedom from a squandered future

A once-small group of Floridians frustrated with their local elected officials over land-use decisions now numbers more than 300,000 citizens who have signed a petition supporting the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment.

The amendment is focused on reducing the number of local comprehensive plan changes by giving voters an opportunity to veto them.
[ Read the full article here ]

Pelham's warning: Manage growth better, or else

Five years ago, when Floridians approved the class-size amendment, their vote was as much an expression of frustration and anger as it was a desire for better schools.

Citizens for so long had felt misled, bamboozled and betrayed by state and local officials about their so-called "commitment to excellence" in education that they simply didn't believe the rhetoric anymore.

So, despite legitimate concerns about the financial impact of the amendment and how it would tie the hands of policymakers, particularly in tight economic times, voters approved it by a margin of 52 to 48 percent.

Floridians were in large part saying that they were fed up and weren't going to take it anymore. By approving an amendment that much of the political establishment opposed, voters felt empowered.

It was an important lesson for political strategists - but an even more important one for political leaders, particularly in light of another proposed constitutional amendment whose most important ally is anger.
[ Read the full article here ]

Florida's top planner tells legislators: Tackle sprawl or voters will

TALLAHASSEE - With a public fuming over congestion and sprawl, state planners and legislative leaders are again seeking ways to better manage Florida's growth.

But unlike years past -- when politicians and planners passed tough growth laws only to water them down afterward -- they're up against a possible public uprising.

Florida Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham asked lawmakers Wednesday to consider sweeping changes to the state-review process that decides what gets built and where -- aimed squarely at the slow-growth Florida Hometown Democracy amendment that could go before voters next year.
[ Read the full article here ]

With 'Friends' like these, who needs growth lobbyists

As the campaign for Florida Hometown Democracy approaches a Jan. 31 deadline for collecting ballot petitions, the opposition is building. Benign neglect has turned into active attacks.

The latest fusillade comes from a curious source -- 1000 Friends of Florida, a Tallahass-based consortium that advertises itself as the state's premier environmental organization. The Friends' widely distributed objections are doubly dubious, considering that the group s 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service limits substantial lobbying on citizen initiatives, such as FHD.

In a detailed position paper, 1000 Friends aimed six shots at Hometown Democracy's proposal to require voter referendums on local comprehensive plan changes. Here is a synopsis of the Friends' objections, followed by responses from Ross Burnaman, a Florida attorney who co-authored FHD -
[ Read the full article here ]

Craig field neighbors could benefit from amendment

If there ever was a reason to sign a petition to put the Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment on the ballot in November and then to vote for it, the fight over extending a runway at Craig field is it.

The amendment would require that changes to local comprehensive plans be approved by local voters.

The argument behind it is that special interests and powerful developers often run roughshod over local elected officials who are beholden to them for campaign contributions and that the people who are adversely affected by the comp plan changes have very little say.
[ Read the full article here ]

Democracy Takes A Back Seat At Public Meeting

Is development attorney Joel Tew running Pasco County?

I sat in the Pasco County Development Review Committee meeting Nov. 29 and watched as Tew misrepresented one important fact about the Citrus Ridge project, proposed on 112 acres just west of the Dade City city limits off St. Joe Road, for well over an hour.

To my dismay, no one on the committee corrected him after he said very strongly, several times, that "the county attorney's office assures me that this Uradco property is not in the Dade City Transition Area."

Only after a member of the public stood up and pointed out that this project is in the Dade City Transition Area and, therefore, subject to transitional densities and compatibility concessions, did the committee bother to say "oh yeah." But it didn't seem to matter.

We spent $2 million to $3 million on a new comprehensive land use plan, and it doesn't matter?
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy

Several editorials in the Highlands Today have come out against the Florida Hometown Democracy ballot proposal. That is unfortunate, but not surprising, as a newspaper is a "business" and depends upon the number of paid subscribers it has. The more people moving into the newspaper's area, the better chance there is to increase sales. This may be called the "gold" factor. I call it the "greed" factor.
[ Read the full article here ]

Martin residents urged to push Hometown Democracy on ballot

STUART - Lesley Blackner, the leader of the movement to give voters the power to veto land use changes, urged Martin County residents Monday night to join the petition campaign to put the issue on the ballot in November 2008.

Speaking at the Blake Library to more than 200 people, mostly supporters of her cause, Blackner said voters must sign the petition in droves or an historic opportunity to control growth in Florida will be lost forever.

"This reform effort will not come again," Blackner said. "If we don't get this on the ballot, they'll think of something to squash us. I want to see this get to the ballot, and let the people have their say, and then, I'm going to go bake cookies. Politics is tough."
[ Read the full article here ]

Revoking democracy in the Sunshine State

Relying on tortured logic and a 1941 case from North Carolina, a Florida court last week upheld this state's new petition "revocation" law. Call it another blow to democracy.

The law, passed by the 2007 Legislature and implemented by "emergency rules," permits the signers of petitions to take back their signature. The state has gotten along for 162 years without this, but that was before the arrival of Florida Hometown Democracy - the citizens initiative giving Floridians the final say on major land-use decisions in their communities.

Hometown Democracy scares the stucco out the state's growth industry, and legislators were prompt to respond to the challenge.
[ Read the full article here ]

Letter: Wait for Florida Hometown Democracy

Kenric Ward's recent columns on the criminal conviction of some Palm Beach County officials for corruption in land deals and "greenwashing" in spending millions for "development rights"(instead of the voter-approved outright purchase of land for preservation) reflect the low level of public trust in the honesty and the competence of our elected representatives and those who advise them.

As public officials in Indian River County and across Florida continue to fail to represent the interests of the public in land use and development, voters must approve Florida Hometown Democracy (floridahometowndemocracy.org) if development is to be controlled when the housing market recovers.
[ Read the full article here ]

Now's Your Chance to Exercise Control Over State's Growth Machine

I felt like Alice in Wonderland when I read Philip Laurien's spin against Florida Hometown Democracy in the recent editorial "Voters Put on the Brakes" [Nov. 11]. The Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment, if passed by the voters in 2008, would require that changes to comprehensive land-use plans approved by city and county commissions must then go to voter referendum. It will give voters a veto over bad growth.

But that's not what Mr. Laurien is saying. Mr. Laurien, executive director for the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, appears to be part of the "Say Anything" campaign now in full swing by the growth machine. Mr. Laurien says voters will vote no on every comp plan change and, if that happens, urban sprawl will continue unabated because the plans can't be changed to allow high-density development around the central cities, thus pushing growth into open areas.

Does Mr. Laurien have a crystal ball? How does he know how voters will react to any particular proposed plan change? Under Hometown Democracy, voters will determine whether a proposed plan change will serve the public interest and vote accordingly. And that's the way it was supposed to be all along.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy finds opposition in Southwest Florida

Local politicos oppose proposed state constitutional amendment to give voters the say on land-use changes

A proposed state constitutional amendment called Hometown Democracy is drawing significant opposition from the political elite in Southwest Florida.

But supporters say the opposition of the political elite is a perfect example of why the proposed amendment desperately needs to be enacted.

Hometown Democracy would amend the state Constitution to require that all major land-use changes go before voters for approval. Now, county commissioners and city council members can make those changes, despite public sentiment.
[ Read the full article here ]

Judge's decision deals a blow to Hometown Democracy

TALLAHASSEE - Hometown Democracy, the petition drive aiming to slow growth in Florida, lost a court battle Tuesday that could seriously hurt its ability to collect enough signatures for the ballot.

A circuit judge in Tallahassee upheld a new law that gives voters 150 days to revoke their signatures from the petition - a tool opponents are eagerly employing. Lawmakers, urged by business interests, said the change was to protect people who feel pressure to sign petitions.

Lawyers for Hometown Democracy argued that the Legislature violated the state Constitution by passing a law that negates the rights of citizens to petition the government.
[ Read the full article here ]

Proposal to limit growth scares some pols

By now, you've probably heard something about "Hometown Democracy." But you may not know quite what it is.

In the simplest sense, Hometown Democracy is a ballot proposal -- something you may get to vote on next year. It would take the power to approve many major developments away from elected officials and place it directly in the hands of the people. You and your neighbors would get to decide whether Super Wal-Mart moves in or a neighboring subdivision can be built.

But in a grander sense, Hometown Democracy is a story of how Florida politics works -- how politicians refuse to deal with problems until we make them.
[ Read the full article here ]

Super majority flap just the beginning

If you were bombarded by telephone robo-calls, a half-dozen mailers and a crop of yard signs sprouting like mushrooms after a summer rain warning of doom from the "Super Majority Power Grab," hold onto your sombreros.

The development communities' unsuccessful attacks on that effort - the super majority proposals passed overwhelmingly in both the city and county of Sarasota - may have seemed like a boom-box car rolling annoyingly through town.

Next up: A proposal whereby every time a city or county commission votes to change our long-range growth plans, by the now-required 4-1 or 5-0 vote, that approval would still be subject to a veto:

By us, the voters. It's called Hometown Democracy, and it's likely coming to our ballots next fall.
[ Read the full article here ]

Clock is ticking on Hometown Democracy

We're getting closer to putting Florida Hometown Democracy on the ballot, but more signed petitions are needed.

There isn't much time left, so if you haven't already signed it, please do so - and ask your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors to sign it. Petitions can be downloaded at www.floridahometowndemocracy.org.
[ Read the full article here ]

Businesses mobilize effort to defeat Hometown Democracy

TALLAHASSEE - After retired salesman Murray Jaffee signed a petition for a ballot proposal called "Florida Hometown Democracy" he got two letters and a phone call saying he had made a big mistake and should revoke his signature.

Jaffee, a self-described "tree hugger" from Deerfield Beach, was puzzled over that response to his support for the citizens initiative designed to give voters the final say on where new homes, roads and other development should be allowed.

"It's crazy. Why would we sign a petition in the first place and then rescind it?" Jaffee asked. "Who are these people?"

They are builders, developers, and other business leaders. Their drive to revoke petition signatures is just part of an unprecedented, all-out effort to defeat Hometown Democracy in the courts, in the Legislature and at the ballot box.
[ Read the full article here ]

Hometown Democracy debate heavy on barbs

TAMPA - Since launching a campaign for a constitutional amendment that would limit growth, Lesley Blackner has marveled at the business groups aligned against her.

"This is the power elite of our state," Blackner has said of her opponents.

On Friday, Blackner squared off for the first time against the man who personifies the forces opposing her effort to put Florida Hometown Democracy on the 2008 ballot.

For more than an hour, John Thrasher, a former Republican speaker of the state House who now lobbies for development and business interests, traded barbs with Blackner, a Palm Beach lawyer, before 50 people at a Tiger Bay Club of Tampa luncheon.
[ Read the full article here ]

In petition drive, $3.02 talks

Mark Wilson has a simple but effective strategy for fighting a constitutional amendment that would require voters to approve land-use changes often needed by big developers and routinely granted by county commissions.

If you can't beat 'em, outbid 'em.

Wilson is the executive vice president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The chamber and other business groups hate the amendment backed by Florida Hometown Democracy, which is fanning the antigrowth flames and gathering signatures to put its amendment on the November 2008 ballot.
[ Read the full article here ]

Should voters or officials control growth?

A brewing statewide debate on development took center stage at the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus Thursday.

During USF's Institute for Public Policy and Leadership's first forum, a panel of experts from around the state agreed that more public input is needed for better growth planning in Florida.

The institute's director, former Herald Editorial Page Editor David Klement, called the growth battle one of the most important issues Florida will face in 2008.

But philosophies on how to handle it remain leagues apart.

At the center of the debate is Hometown Democracy, a movement that's trying to put growth decisions - perhaps hundreds of them a year - to voters in the form of a referendum each fall. Instead of allowing local governments to make decisions on land-use changes, a majority of local voters would have to approve changes to comprehensive plans each fall, according to the group's proposal.
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Ripostes to pro-growth alarmists

Living in Florida, a state that has more than quadrupled in population since I was born (no, I'm not the oldest man alive), has made me grow reluctantly accustomed to seeing things change: Wooded areas that I once played in have become gated communities; beaches you could drive along have severely restricted access; open ocean vistas have been blocked by walls of condominiums ... And let's not forget the traffic congestion.

Therefore, it was with surprise and delight that I read about the Hometown Democracy petition for a constitutional change requiring voter approval of all Comprehensive Plan amendments by local governments.
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Owners rush to develop parcels

A proposal that puts growth in voters' hands may be behind a surge in development requests.

Higher juice prices and fair weather have made this a good time to be a citrus grower like Joe Davis.

So why, amid a historic housing slump, is Davis planning to develop his plump groves to make way for homes, which are withering on the vine?

"I don't want voters determining how I can use my land," said Davis of Highlands County. "So I've speeded up my plans."

Call it the Florida Hometown Democracy Effect.
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Tough tactics rise in land-use ballot fight

Critics say politician-lobbyist Thrasher misleads on the intent of the Hometown Democracy initiative; he disagrees.

The letter marked "Extremely Urgent" sounds dire: You signed a petition, it reads, but you may have been tricked by "out-of-state interests" and "Big Developers" who want to destroy the state's scenic beauty.

In the letter, former House Speaker John Thrasher urges you to take back your signature. If that petition becomes law, the letter warns, certain "electors will decide our fate and the fate of Florida."

Those "electors" Thrasher writes about? That's another word for voters.
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Neighborhoods - A Matter of Trust

Should voters have the power to make decisions about the future of their communities?

TV historians and some of us with memories longer than we like to admit to, recall that the late, great Johnny Carson once hosted a quiz show called "Who Do You Trust?" This name kept occurring to me as I pondered the latest news from the Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) movement. This grassroots, nonpartisan group is asking voters, "Who do you trust to manage growth and development in your community?"
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Double-dealing

Politicians, businessmen pooling resources in effort to shut down the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative

The Florida Chamber of Commerce apparently thinks the state's cities and counties are doing a swell job of managing growth. And vice versa.

In its latest assault against Florida Hometown Democracy - the citizens initiative that would give voters a direct say on any comprehensive plan changes in their communities - the chamber's campaign organ is drafting municipalities to fight for the status-quo.

Evidently, a multimillion-dollar war chest and legions of corporate backers aren't nearly enough for the chamber's political action committee. It wants to tap tax dollars, too.

By linking arms with the public sector, "Floridians for Smarter Growth" is further exposing the incestuous intercourse between business and politicians.
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Hometown Democracy Gives Voters A Say In Development

Are you tired of developers leaping over the local comprehensive land use plan with the approval of county commissioners and building larger and higher and covering more wetlands and wildlife habitat?

Are you tired of developers building unsuitable development in unsuitable places and stressing our roads, water supply and drainage?

Are you concerned that rapid development the past 20 years has been piecemeal and not integrated our need for infrastructure and natural resources?

These issues have stimulated growing convictions that development in Florida is out of control and led to the creation of a solution called Hometown Democracy, a ballot initiative being readied for the 2008 general election. Voters would decide whether land use plans, the road map for growth, are changed.
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Business Groups Fire At Initiative

TAMPA - Terrified that voters may get the power to kill development projects, Florida business interests are unleashing an array of political weaponry to defeat the Hometown Democracy initiative.

A mass mailing from one opposition group alleged that the Hometown movement is a shadowy conspiracy fomented by out-of-state special interests called "electors," another name for voters.

Another group sent an e-mail last week that inserted a phony message onto a doctored photo of the Mons Venus strip club marquee, making it appear the club was offering free admission to Hometown backers.

The chicanery is drawing comparisons to the Watergate era.
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Slow-growth group sets out to voice growing dissent

Think about the new developments that have gone in while you've been on the Treasure Coast.

Would you have approved them?

Florida Hometown Democracy wants your answer to matter.
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Hometown Democracy hits 6,600 in Hernando

BROOKSVILLE - When Nancy Murphy signed, Hickory Hill was fresh in her mind.

Murphy, a 65-year-old Spring Lake resident, mailed her petition for the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative just a few days ago.

She said the county commission's recent 4 to 1 approval of the comprehensive plan change for the 1,750-home development off Spring Lake Highway is a glaring example of why Hometown Democracy is necessary.
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Land-use initiatives may vie for voters

Palm Beach lawyer Lesley Blackner sees Florida as a paradise rapidly disappearing before developers' insatiable appetite for land and money.

As Blackner sees it, poorly managed, unbridled growth has and continues to flourish beyond the oversight of Florida residents, even though their lives are diminished by it.

Blackner wants to amend the state Constitution to prevent local governments from making land-use decisions without the direct approval of voters.
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Put voters behind wheel of community changes

Thanks to Tom Pelham, Florida's top growth cop, for finally admitting the truth: There is no growth management in Florida.

Back in 1985, the state passed the Florida Growth Management Act to control growth that already was running rampant. The law mandated the creation of comprehensive plans to control growth and ensure that our quality of life isn't bulldozed. It was a nice idea, but it failed. Twenty years later, we live with the consequences of endless, insane overdevelopment: We are forbidden to water our yards; nonetheless, another round of 15-story condos or 2,000 houses is rubber-stamped.

The reason for failure is simple. Comprehensive plans were supposed to be a 20-year vision for a community. They were not to be easily changed. Today, the plans don't mean anything because our elected officials hand out plan changes like candy at Halloween.
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Land-use initiative facing sneaky tactics

You can be sure you're on the right side of an issue if John Thrasher is on the other.

The former Florida House speaker and big-shot lawyer-lobbyist has sent out a mass-mailing to scare voters into removing their signatures from a statewide petition in favor of the "Florida Hometown Democracy" amendment.

The Hometown Democracy initiative would let citizens vote to approve or reject major changes to the comprehensive land-use plans in their counties or cities. For the first time, Floridians would have some direct control over how their communities grow.

Thrasher's deceptive and slimy letter is proof of the panic that has set in among those who've made a fortune raping the state and are afraid of losing their sweet ride.
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Upping Ante For Signatures

In the fight between Florida Hometown Democracy and the development industry over how -- and whether -- to control sprawl, no body blow appears out of bounds.

After pushing the Legislature unsuccessfully this year to ban the practice of paying signature-gatherers for citizen initiatives, the Florida Chamber of Commerce is now trying to lure away Hometown's paid signature-gatherers with higher salaries.

"It's a free market," says the chamber's director of ballot initiatives, Adam Babington. "People are going to go where they get paid more to do the work. This is just something that happens in business."
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2 are leading drive to rein in Florida development

The caller seemed intent on provoking Lesley Blackner into revealing a darker motive for wanting to give voters a direct say about how their cities and counties grow.

"Who are you mad at?" he demanded, during a talk-radio show earlier this year in Ormond Beach.

"I've lived in Florida my whole life," Blackner answered. "I think the state looks like hell, and it's getting worse."

"So who are you mad at?" the caller persisted.

"I'm mad at a power structure that's under the complete control of the development community," Blackner fired back.
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Mailing tries scare tactics to stop vote

Charla Barrett opened the brown envelope marked "Urgent" and raced through the contents.

"Oh, no," she thought to herself. "Perhaps I've been tricked, and now Florida will be in trouble."

Relax, Charla. You did the right thing.

Like 475,000 people across Florida, the 55-year-old retired administrative aide signed a petition to put the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment on the ballot in November 2008.
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Just who exactly are the special interests here?

If you read the letter that former House Speaker John Thrasher is sending to Floridians all over the state, you're bound to get mad.

Thrasher, after all, tells us that special interests are out to hijack our state. And, if you're like me, you'd rather not get hijacked.
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Group targets signatures in growth control petition

TALLAHASSEE -- Friederike Holt thinks giving voters a greater say in development decisions might be one way to keep Central Florida from becoming, as she puts it, a "cement jungle."

That's why she signed a petition to put the proposed Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot.
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If state won't control growth, voters should get chance

It was heartening to see Tom Pelham, secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, admit that the comprehensive planning system, which his department is supposed to regulate, has become a worthless sham. (Op-ed Sept. 13) Pelham describes very well the explosion of comprehensive plan amendments that have allowed developers to build at will with almost complete disregard for the state's Growth Management Act.
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Look out! Growth machine goes on full-spin cycle

Any good football defense knows you stop your opponent by hitting him high and low.

So it goes with the blitz against Florida Hometown Democracy. Tom Pelham, secretary of the states Department of Community Affairs, aims high in todays column, in which he lays out fair-minded alternatives to the citizen referendum on growth.

But such cerebral discussion may not knock the populist pins out from under FHD. So others are tackling low, and going for blood. A new West Palm Beach-based group calling itself Save Our Constitution Inc. has launched a statewide mail campaign urging residents who signed the Florida Hometown Democracy petition to revoke their signatures.
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Developers' lies taint battle over petition

If lawmakers think they can combat misleading petition gatherers by letting people revoke their signatures, they ought to read the first counterassault in the war against Hometown Democracy. This letter is intended to scare recipients with its lies and distortions, and the lobbyist and former legislator who signed it should be ashamed of himself.
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Citizen input might curb haphazard development

A developer proposes an 1,800-house subdivision.

A developer proposes an 1,800-house subdivision.

Opponents cry foul to anyone who'll listen. They protest.

The developer returns to the table with a scaled-back project. Instead of 1,800 houses, 1,500 will be built. And to show that he's community-minded and dealing in good faith, he promises to plant a few more trees and shrubs and agrees to other changes that are cosmetic at best.

On the hot seat, county commissioners praise the project and the developer's s stellar reputation. This project, the elected officials say, will be an asset to the community. So they give it the green light, even if it doesn't fit the comprehensive land-use plan.

In these here parts, it can happen. And in other states like Florida, the story typically ends no differently. There, practically anything goes when it comes to residential and commercial construction. Developments are seemingly allowed anywhere, built over any type of geographical terrain.
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Hey, buddy, watch who you call an 'elector'

Did you ever hear of the famous speech given by a Florida politician where he used a lot of big words to fool the ignorant voters?

Part of the speech supposedly went:

Are you aware that (my opponent) is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York.
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Initiative Gives Citizens Say On Growth

Florida Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham's column (Commentary, Sept. 8) missed the mark on the Florida Hometown Democracy citizen's initiative, which I co-authored.

Floridians need to understand Pelham's main points: "growth management" in Florida is a disaster and the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative is the only thing that has finally brought that failure to center stage.
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Proposed Changes To Growth Plan Foresee Subdivisions Everywhere

Lots of people are trying to amend the county's growth plan this year. Most want to build many more houses in remote areas than rules allow.

Lots of people are trying to amend the county's growth plan this year. Most want to build many more houses in remote areas than rules allow.

If the 16 proposed amendments to the county's comprehensive growth plan are approved, they will move the county away from its fiscally conservative philosophy of keeping new housing developments inside reasonable limits.
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Anti-petition drive targets Hometown amendment

TALLAHASSEE - A grass-roots petition drive intended to give citizens more control over development in their cities and counties is being challenged by a campaign funded by big business and developers.

The business group, called Save Our Constitution, was created by some of Tallahassee's finest political operatives, and is using a new law to target a signature-petition group called Florida Hometown Democracy.
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Urgent! Act now or developers will suffer!

When an envelope arrives bearing the words "extremely urgent," it probably means one of two things:

(a) They want your money.

(b) It's urgent to the sender, but not necessarily to you.

A mass mailing to hundreds of thousands of voters this week belongs in the latter category. The recipients have one thing in common. They signed petitions in favor of Florida Hometown Democracy, a ballot initiative that would require voter approval of land use changes.]
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Letter