Florida--we need growth management and the DCA

Holy! The Palm Beach Post got another one right -- well, sort of! Essentially they are saying, fix the problem of urban sprawl now and you won't need FHD in 2010. Things must be improving at the Editorial Staff. Perhaps they realize now that they have made some boo boos in the past. The Post says, “Head off Florida’s land rush,” and ask, "why would any developer contemplate a new town in this economy?" We ask, why contemplate ANYMORE sprawl across Florida, period.

Right now there are some State Legislatures who want to abolish the DCA, our only watchdog on development within the State of Florida. And as imperfect as this agency may be, it is all that we have as residents to oversee growth within our State. Otherwise we, as citizens, are just complaining about outlandish projects to elected officials with hearing problems. Why do some in our State Legislature want to do this? Lobbyists for developers have been working overtime to convince them that the DCA is the problem and that the DCA is the reason for what is slowing down growth in Florida. All governments are in budget crunches and they are believing the developer line. With over 300,000 houses sitting empty in our State, our selected officials need to get a grip.

Near Yeehaw Junction, there are 27,400 acres and Tony Pugliese wants to build 100,000 houses for a new town called Destiny. He’s the guy who wanted to get his hands on our beach several years back. The only destiny we will have here is sprawl--100,000 more housing units of it.

Read what the St. Petersburg Times has to say.

We have so many empty houses within the State of Florida. St. Lucie alone has 10,000 empty houses and has the 10^th highest foreclosure rate in the United States according to Sally Swartz, writer for the PB Post. According to realestate.aol.com, the City of Lake Worth in both zip codes, 33460 and 61 have a total of 2,294 units for sale and a total of 1,426 in foreclosure. Why then do certain people want to get rid of controls we have in place for growth management? Money. It is always about the money. They can build to their hearts content, bulldozing prime land. Environmentalists are angry because wildlife habitats will be cut off and possibly totally eliminated. Residents are unhappy because we do not want our State paved over, traffic problems and sprawl.

The DCA reviews local governments’ Comprehensive Plans and unless something is totally out of whack, they usually end up approving what a city wants but it takes time. Builders want everything paved over yesterday. Right now the DCA has approved the Sunset parcel zoning change and land use. Seven of us are now in a lawsuit with the DCA and The City of Lake Worth. We can at least present our argument, and if good enough, get this approval reversed because zoning is all a political decision as confirmed by our Planning & Zoning Board’s own counsel choice, Nancy Stroud. She also said that it was illegal--contract zoning. So, there are still ways to skin this cat.

Citizens shouldn’t have to go through hoops to protect their neighborhoods from self-serving decisions of Planning & Zoning Boards and some developer backed officials who just want to feed the budget's bottom line. We need to hold the line from population increases, the development at any cost mentality and have a proper plan for growth. Good growth management is essential for a healthy State. We need to keep the Department of Community Affairs.