PETER GADDY: Eye's Only - Put the decision in the people’s hands
Peter Gaddy
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The League of Women Voters is one of the most trusted and respected civic organizations at the national, state and local level. The Collier County chapter is certainly no exception. The Collier chapter recently sponsored a debate between State Rep. Matt Hudson and Leslie Blackner, a founder of the Hometown Democracy Amendment 4, which will be on the Constitutional Amendment ballot in November’s general election.
Proposed Amendment 4 provides that the voters at the ballot box must also approve all comprehensive plan amendments approved by county commissions before they become law.
Blackner is a Florida native who has spent most of her professional career working to protect Florida, its environment and its people from over-development and sprawl. After years of fighting against a development industry with almost limitless “deep pockets,” she came to the realization that the deck was stacked against her and others who loved Florida and wanted to preserve its beauty and quality of life.
With only a handful of supporters and some of her own seed money, she struck out across the state, standing in front of libraries and laundromats from Pensacola to Key West to gather petitions to support a constitutional amendment. After being dragged to the Supreme Court by the development industry on multiple occasions, after the expenditure of more than $2 million and after 700,000 petitions were signed by Florida voters, her perseverance paid off, when the Supreme Court, over the objections of the development industry, ordered the Hometown Democracy Amendment be placed on the November 2010 ballot.
Twenty-five years ago, the Florida legislature enacted a landmark growth management plan, which required each local community to have a growth management plan in effect. The purpose behind each plan was to “establish standards for the orderly and balanced future economic, social, physical, environmental, and fiscal development of the area.” Comprehensive plans were developed, which met these objectives and provided for reasonable development, setting aside an appropriate amount of land for the various types of uses that make up a community.
Unfortunately, we have seen most of these well thought out plans amended and wrecked by arrogant county commissioners and developers who ignored the public interest.
Hudson made the point that voters in one part of the county might not be familiar with local issues in another part. He gave the example that voters in the Everglades City area might not be familiar with issues in Immokalee. Of course, voters in incorporated areas, such as the cities of Naples and Marco Island, would vote on their own plan amendments.
For too long the public has stood by helplessly while county commissioners forgot whom they represented and developers, motivated by greed, took their amendments to the bank. In the end, it is the public and the taxpayers who have been left with the bill for the destruction of the environment, and the building of public utilities and roads to support the speculative bubble that has now burst.
Commissioners seem always willing to give out plan amendments like Halloween candy to support speculative developments. Not surprising, given that in many cases 50-100 percent of commissioner campaign contributions came from the development industry.
Not surprising either, that recent polls show that Hometown Democracy is now supported by 65-70 percent of those likely to vote.