Amendment 4 on Fox News

photo from st. Petersbug Times
Connerton development

Yesterday Fox News finally ran its segment on Amendment 4. It was bumped because of breaking news stories such as the bank robbery in Miami and Steve Colbert who had nonsensically addressed Congress on the illegal immigration issue. Close to 2:50pm, the story ran. Although Amendment 4 is about land-use changes contrary to local Comprehensive Plans, not just large developments, listeners and/or readers should have gotten a good grasp of the crisis Florida has been in because of bad land-use decisions. We, the voters throughout this great State, really do need a seat at the table.

Below is the jist of it and to read the entire story, Click here:

Earlier this month, Wayne Garcia walked across a stalled housing development in Land O' Lakes, Florida just north of Tampa. "It's an outrage," he said as he strolled past dozens of empty home sites. "This should never have been approved. This should never have happened."

Five years ago, architects promised "Connerton" would become the largest city in Pasco County. Today it looks like a graveyard of unfinished and unoccupied homes. Read about the graveyard.

"There were supposed to be 15,000 homes here," Garcia explained as he stepped over the unhooked plumbing of one side street. "Today's there's 233." And Connerton isn't alone. Florida now has hundreds of stalled building sites. It also has a record 300,000 vacant homes.

"This is all because of unchecked development," said Garcia who represents Florida Hometown Democracy, Inc., an environmental group that's trying to control growth in Florida. "Amendment 4 will finally address the problem," he said.

"The problem," according to Garcia, has been the state's local community boards, which approve or deny large developments. He says these boards in the last ten years simply approved everything put before them, basically caving to the powerful construction interests. "It's because the public didn't have a vote and didn't have a say in the matter." Amendment 4, he says will give the public that say, mandating a local public vote for every proposed large development in the state.

Garcia calls it "Democracy." Developers call it a "nightmare."