Gutting Florida's Growth Act

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After Florida's business lobby poured tens of millions in campaign cash into electing Republican supermajorities to the Legislature last year, its top wish was clear: dismantling state oversight of the once-massive development industry.

More than a month before Billy Buzzett took over as Florida's top growth cop in January, lobbyists for some of the state's biggest developers already had outlined a game plan to make it easier for large-scale projects to spread across the rural and exurban landscape, according to public records released by Gov. Rick Scott office seven months after the Orlando Sentinel requested them.

Florida's business lobby had invested millions of dollars to defeat Hometown Democracy — an amendment on the November 2010 ballot that would have required voters to approve changes to land-use plans — and wanted to prevent local governments from putting growth-plan changes to public votes in the future. The new law does that.

Read about it here.

Floridians have been Suckered

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Suckered. That’s how Florida and Orange County voters should feel. In the last election we were told that a vote for Hometown Democracy, which left decisions about growth in the hands of citizens, would be a job-killer and ensure our economic downfall. Besides, opponents said in a multi-million dollar campaign funded by developers and landowners, there were enough protections already in place to guard against rampant abuse and sprawl.

Read the rest at the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida Growth Management died on Thursday

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Growth Management died this past Thursday. It was only 26 years old. It died prematurely from a cancer--our Florida Legislature. Totally putting aside quality of life for all Floridians-- politicians, persuaded by big developers and the Florida Chamber killed our beautiful State. Governor Scott, an interloper, signed the Bill into law.

Rep. Jeff Clemens voted against this Bill and for that I give him a lot of credit.

Read more of the obituary at The St. Petersburg Times.

Growth Management's Death

Twenty-five years of growth management, down the toilet. And all because legislators kept repeating the Big Lie.

In the waning hours of the session, the Florida Legislature planted a sloppy smooch on the lips of the developers: It virtually eliminated state control of growth and turned the tables on any homeowner who tries to challenge a cookie-cutter subdivision planned for next door.

Read more at the Orlando Sentinel and what Lauren Ritchie has to say --Blame the Big Lie on Growth Management's Death.

Graham putting Pressure on Scott

"Former Governor Bob Graham says Florida is already ranked third in the nation as a business friendly state. He says that ranking takes quality of life into account--an attribute he says could be at stake in the (newly gutted Growth Management) plan. Graham is recommending the governor appoint a citizens commission to oversee land and water management."

Read more at WFSU Newsroom.

HB 7207 - Jeff Clemens gets one right

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On an 87 to 31 vote, HB 7207 was passed by the Florida House. It also passed in the Senate. This is a vote that Rep. Jeff Clemens got right...he voted NO to passage of the Bill.

Evelyn Duplecy, District Secretary on his Staff, called late this morning to confirm his vote. When asked for his reasons, she said it was " because it is a "bad bill" and then reminded me that I can find all the outcomes of the votes on-line. This Bill was voted on Saturday and the final votes are not recorded there as yet. I want to give Rep. Clemens credit when it is due. I agree that it was a "bad" Bill but the Republicans have taken over all common sense when it comes to Florida.

HB 7207 is the "Growth Management" Bill that dissolved the Department of Community Affairs. 1000 Friends of Florida and the Wildlife Federation wrote a letter to Gov. Scott that said, “It would undermine 35 years of thoughtful statewide growth management policies.”

What the Bills says:
Redesignates "Local Government Comprehensive Planning & Land Development Regulation Act" as "Community Planning Act"; revises & provides intent & purpose of act; revises definitions; revises scope of act; revises & provides duties of local governments & municipalities relating to comprehensive plans; deletes retroactive effect; encourages local governments to apply for certain innovative planning tools; authorizes state land planning agency & other appropriate state & regional agencies to use direct & indirect technical assistance, etc.

Effective Date: upon becoming a law

Republicans Gutting Growth Management in Florida

One of the few news reporters in Florida who actually "gets it."

House Bill 7129 and Senate Bill 1122.

The House bill is a done deal. The House passed it on April 21 on a vote of 86-31, largely along party lines. Now it is up to the Senate to decide whether to go along.

Here are some major points of the House bill:

• Local governments no longer have to consider the need for roads, schools, parks and recreation when they permit growth. They can, but they don't have to.

• Local governments will be able to change their "comprehensive plan" whenever they want to allow growth.

• The state's power to review the decisions by local government will be reduced and speeded up. The state cannot take the side of citizens who are challenging a local growth decision.

• Local governments will be more limited in what they can ask developers to pay for.

• To make sure that there is never another citizen revolt as in St. Pete Beach, the law forbids any community in Florida from holding a popular election on growth decisions.

• There will be an automatic seven-year extension of approval of all major developments, known as "developments of regional impact." There are special protections to protect phosphate and lime rock mining.

Read more of what Howard Troxler of the St. Petersburg Times has to say about Growth Management and the Republicans who are gutting it.

The Guv

Rick Scott is the least popular governor in the nation. Three Growth Management bills have hit his desk. We already know what he thinks about growth management--gut it down to the core.

Public Policy Poll

Impact fees and largest change in Growth Management Law

Impact fee legal standard may change

TALLAHASSEE — Local governments would have a tougher time defending impact fees charged on development projects if a new standard of review by the courts is reenacted into law. In identical House and Senate bills, for any action challenging an impact fee, the government would have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence — meaning a greater weight of the evidence — that the fee meets legal requirements. In the past, courts have held local governments to an easier-to-meet “fairly debatable” standard that the Florida Supreme Court rephrased as a “reasonableness test.” Business interests claim that this test makes it nearly impossible to prove that an impact fee is excessive.

House Bill 7021 is sponsored by Rep. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, and the House Community and Military Affairs Committee. Senate Bill 410 is sponsored by Sen. President pro-tempore Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton. The bills reenact a law adopted in 2009 that was challenged last year by nine counties and three local government associations. The bills, which are headed to the respective House and Senate floors, aim to make the challenge moot in part by providing a legislative finding of an important state interest.

Committee passes growth management reform bill

TALLAHASSEE — A Florida House committee passed a 300-page rewrite of the state’s growth management laws March 17 that streamlines the development approval process by taking the state out of much of the comprehensive plan review process.

Former secretary of the department of community affairs, Linda Shelley, calls it “ … the largest change in the growth management law since we enacted it in 1985.”

The proposed committee bill, PCB 11-04, eliminates the controversial state concurrency requirements, giving local governments the option to retain the standards. Shelley says the Senate version doesn’t include that provision.

Concurrency laws generally require developers to have roads, parks, utilities and other infrastructure in place by the time they obtain final permits.

Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, chairman of the House Community and Military Affairs Subcommittee, sponsored the legislation.

The bill passed 11-4 with support of four Gulf Coast legislators: Rep. Matthew Caldwell, R-Fort Myers, Rep. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, Rep. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, and Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa.

“This bill reduces state regulation of local government comprehensive planning,” Workman told his committee. “Florida growth management laws have evolved into prescriptive, burdensome, and costly regulations on local governments and property owners.”

Source: Gulf Coast Business Review

Quote of the Day

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“I’m not going to pass a growth management bill. A freshman Democrat isn’t going to pass a school reform bill in the state of Florida. What I’ve tried to do is look at smaller issues that I think have some worth.”

~Jeff Clemens

Read Freshman PB County Rep finds a way to get noticed

Lies about Growth Management

Listen to Gov. Rick Scott and legislators prattle on about how growth management laws are job killers and one cannot help but wonder what Florida they live in.

It can't be the state where a firestorm of overbuilding resulted in some 300,000 vacant homes and condos across the state, depressing everyone's property values and making the recession far worse in Florida than most states.

Read more of

The outrageous lies about growth management.

Florida's Growth "Management "

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One of the founders of Florida Hometown Democracy, Ross Burnaman, has been involved in a law suit. His client, Richard Burgess, has kept a development on hold that was considered sprawl by every agency in existence, Hammock Creek Green in Edgewater. Even Pelham of the DCA had agreed with him that it was out of compliance. Rick Scott essentially kicked Pelham to the curb and recently appointed Billy Buzzett to head the DCA. Billy Buzzett, involved in Florida real estate development for many years, currently serves as the vice-president of strategic planning for the St. Joe Company the largest landowner in the State of Florida.

Hammock Green eventually made major changes to its original plan and now Audubon has even approved it.

We congratulate Mr. Burgess for pursuing this case which forced the developer to make major changes but he still believes the project is just flat wrong. Recently he said, "We're going to end up with just another big empty development on the downside of the largest bubble we've ever seen in the country on excess housing. It's insanity."

Norma Kenya says, "Unless modern man learns to tame his greed and overconsumption, he is destined to destroy himself in the name of “development.” Development without a moral compass is unethical.

It probably is but the deck is getting more and more stacked against the residents of Florida as developers are desperate for work at any cost. Scott is taking away all protections leaving the decisions to local elected officials, the ones who have been the problem all along. And now we learned earlier, impact fees have exploded to 505% from 1993 to 2004 and are continuing to rise as our communities respond to explosive growth and local governments will not be able to compose or collect these fees from the developer.

All those who didn't want a vote on growth when they voted against Amendment 4 are getting their way and it will hit them right in the pocket-book.

Growth in Florida - Amendment 4 was an Answer

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"Florida should expand the use of two growth management pilot programs to provide the state with a new focus on large-range planning and the needs of critical areas, Department of Community Affairs Secretary Billy Buzzett said last Tuesday." Note: Buzzett is a former executive with St. Joe Paper Co, the largest land owner in the State of Florida.

"Nancy Linnan offered a presentation on behalf of a Florida Chamber of Commerce's effort to draft a proposal to reform state growth management laws. Other groups supporting the effort are Associated Industries of Florida, the Association of Florida Community Developers, the Florida Association of Home Builders and the Florida Land Council." Read more at The Florida Tribune.

Do you possibly think now that Rick Scott is Governor, that the State will be protected from sprawl? The deck is stacked against smart growth and protecting our State from developers and the Chamber of Commerce's greed on the pretense that growth will produce jobs and jobs are more important than our quality of life.

As George Niemann says, "Many communities are now suffering from congested roads, overcrowded schools, severe water restrictions, declining home values, as well as, real estate taxes that are still too high.

At the root of this problem is the fact that many of our elected officials base their growth decisions on extraneous factors, instead of focusing on what should be the primary decision-making factor — the desires and the best welfare of the citizens who already live in that community.

The vast majority of growth plan changes from the private sector are initiated by business interests, not by your average property owner. If the growth plan doesn't fit the business plan of the developer, they try to modify the growth plans to fit their business need."

Amendment 4 would have been a protection for all of us--we would have had the right to vote on the development if the land-use had been changed by politicians. Also, follow the money--look to see what organizations endorse a candidate. If it is the Chamber of Commerce, Realtors Association, builders groups and the like, run like hell.

Florida Chamber of Commerce's Wish List

The evil Florida Chamber of Commerce has released its legislative agenda for 2011.

"Last year’s agenda became a blueprint for the 2010 Legislative Session and elements of nearly every Florida Chamber priority were adopted,” according to the group. Many of its priorities have been proposed by Gov. Rick Scott or are already making their way through the legislature."

One thing on the Wish List is to Eliminate the Department of Community Affairs’ mandatory oversight of comprehensive plans, and scale back other growth management regulations. Read more from The Florida Independent.

The Chamber's wish list--The Florida Chamber of Commerce--Where We Stand.

Rick Scott's Rush to Gut Growth Management

Beware DCA's Demise...

"Despite reports that indicate Florida's extremely friendly to business, Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders continue to accuse the Department of Community Affairs of making the state inhospitable to those who want to work here."

Read the full article at the Orlando Sentinel.

Message from Florida Hometown Democracy

The hand-wringing begins

Florida's newspapers are crying in their beer that the Department of Community Affairs is likely to be dismantled next year by the incoming Rick Scott gang. After vilifying Amendment 4 and parroting the over-builders' (the source of a very large chunk of their advertising revenue) lies, the newspapers now cry there will be no "watchdog" over bad growth.

Well, according to the Orlando Sentinel, DCA approves 90% of the plan changes that show up on its desk. What kind of "growth watchdog" is that when we all know that Florida already has enough growth on the books for over 100 million people?

The truth and fact remain that the real power resides at the local level, where a developer-applicant typically needs only 3 out of 5 votes or 4 out of 7 to change the growth map. The newspapers don't seem to understand that DCA doesn't have the power now to simply stop a bad plan change in its tracks. If a plan change violates some aspect of the Growth Management Act, DCA must go to court, just like the rest of us. Drive around Florida and it's clear that growth hasn't been well managed over the last 25 years.

Amendment 4 recognized that the real power lies at the local level with city & county commissions, and that too often they can't be trusted to do the right thing. Even though demand went bust, the politicians keep granting more plan changes. So much for "planning!"

The over-builders spent $20 million to defeat the Amendment 4 reform. Money may not be everything, but in our case money meant everything.

Happy New Year!

You Must have "Standing" so say the Judges

Appeals court sanctions environmental groups in land-use case

December 14, 2010
By: Bruce Ritchie of Florida Tribune

A state appeals court ruled on Tuesday that environmental groups must pay the attorneys fees of Martin County, the Florida Department of Community Affairs and development interests for appealing a land-use case.

Richard Grosso, an attorney for the groups 1000 Friends of Florida and the Martin County Conservation Alliance, says the ruling sets a chilling precedent for groups that seek to enforce state growth management laws.

To read the rest of the article, CLICK HERE and scroll down.

Message from Lesley Blackner

Dear Supporters,

We are obviously disappointed in the apparent outcome of the referendum on Amendment 4. But we are extremely grateful for you, the countless thousands of volunteers and grassroots activists who stepped forward over the past seven years to fight the monumental battle just to get this issue on the ballot.

We fought together as a group of (very) concerned citizens in the face of the greatest pro-sprawl alliance ever put together in Florida. For seven years, those who make their living off of bad developments, real estate speculation, sprawl and back-room deals did everything they could to block our citizen initiative -- and any citizen initiative that might try to follow us. They created their own phony amendment. They created laws to attack our petition signers. They changed the state Constitution to require the approval of 60 percent of the public to pass an amendment.

To do this, they raised and spent well in excess of $16 million that we can document so far.

Make no mistake about it, we are right about the insidious affects of runaway growth. Our solution was the only one that anybody, including the state's sanctimonious news media, put forward and had the guts to stand behind.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to have a rational discussion of a solution to Florida’s horrible growth management problem in 30-second television ads that cost millions of dollars to air. Voters were subjected to the full financial power of those special interests that are committed to maintaining a death grip on their ability to control the status quo of sprawl and overbuilding in our state. We nonetheless respect the voters’ judgment at the ballot box.

For seven years, we sought to focus a discussion about how Florida will grow. We hope it is a discussion that continues beyond today, which marks the end of the Florida Hometown Democracy movement. It is left to our state’s elected leaders and residents find an answer to Florida’s addiction to promiscuous construction before it is too late for our state’s natural resources and quality of life.

Thank you for your support and hard work, and for your passion and concern,

Lesley Blackner
President, Florida Hometown Democracy

Who do you trust? Politicians or your neighbors to decide how your community should look?

WHY NOT GIVE YOURSELF A VOTE ON GROWTH?

Gary Borse 352/591-0128
Marion County


Why anyone in their right mind would vote against an amendment that would give them the right to vote on local land use issues is beyond unbelievable. People are literally dying to get the right to vote in other countries.

Who could be so controlling and influential in this country that they could talk someone out of their right to vote on land use?

If you don’t want a vote, then you don’t care and are willing to let your County Commissioners decide what is best for you. Right now if they say another interchange is good for you because their friends own land on both sides of the interstate, then they can build an interchange, high density residential units and lots more shopping for you. The roads, fire stations, sewer, water and schools for their projects are going to cost you. This includes the management and maintenance of these infrastructures into perpetuity at taxpayers’ expense, with annual increases that you cannot dispute. The developers make big bucks while you pick up the tab. The great Ponzi scheme is revealed.

The County Commissioners do not want you to have a vote. The Chamber of Commerce does not want you to have a vote. The Realtors’ Associations do not want you to have a vote, and of course the developer does not want you to have a vote on land use amendments, changes that increase your taxes, depress your home value and gives you gridlock.

They are all against your right to vote because they want to have total control over your quality of life without you having a say in what happens to your neighborhood. This is ludicrous and scandalous. We, the people, deserve a vote. We are the ones who are paying high real estate taxes for all this questionable infrastructure their projects require.

In some counties like Marion, many changes to the old comprehensive land use plan were made quickly and secretly, just short of this election because the County Commissioners are scared citizens might overrule their vote. From new I-75 interchanges, neighborhood overpasses, major shopping centers, high density residential development, mining preservation rezoning, and even two new municipal wells to pump water across the county to other areas they are developing. Over and over they have gone against the will of the people they are supposed to serve. ( I thought we were almost out of water.)

Hundreds of residents of the areas affected voiced their objections in writing, and verbally at several of these County Commission meetings. They were ignored and all of the written environmental, fiscal concerns and objections were “lost” by the County Commissioners when the project was submitted to the Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee. This appears to be “Standard Operating Procedure“ deeply entrenched in the State of Florida. Too often some of our local officials, past and present, work for the developers like Del Webb, and Pulte, as well as others, or have partnerships and real estate investments that are tied tightly to the development machine. Who do you trust to keep your community safe from bad land use changes? Your elected officials or your neighbors?

I urge you to read about Amendment 4 at floridahometowndemocracy.com, and see what is happening to Florida and why we are on the top of the heap in the housing and mortgage meltdown crisis, and then I ask you, “Do you want a vote?”

Gary Borse 352/591-0128
Cattle Farmer, Fairfield, FL

Growth Lobbyists have stuck their middle finger in the eye of the voters

Wonks Are Just Shocked That Anyone Supports Amendment 4.

The “Hometown Democracy” amendment is a terrible idea, and I’m voting for it .State and local governments have made an absolute mess of growth management.

This “management” consists mainly of a war of attrition between a developer and the nearby neighborhoods, and inevitably the developers, with their full-time professionals and pockets of capital, outlast the amateur citizens who have to dig into their own pockets to defend their interests.

The Chamber of Commerce and the real estate industry are running expensive PR campaigns to persuade people the economy will collapse if Amendment 4, “Hometown Democracy,” passes. Hey, guess what?

The economy collapsed BEFORE this thing passed — thanks to growth run amok.

The goal of the amendment is not to have people vote on all the changes to plans. The goal is to force governments to create good plans and stick to them. The Chamber says there are 10,000 changes to land-use plans every year, and they’d all need to be voted on. 10,000! That’s not a plan. That’s a developer playground.

That’s a reason to support Amendment 4, notoppose it.

Call me irresponsible. I expect the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Realtors and St. Joe and lots of others will. Under their Orwellian name of “Floridians for Smarter Growth,” they are just shocked, shocked that anyone can support this initiative.

All the wonky “policy” people I know are horrified that growth management may be taken away from, well, the wonky people who have been screwing it all up.

The environmental group 1000 Friends of Florida, which had opposed Hometown Democracy for a long time, has changed its mind. The polls say it’s close, but the business crowd has done its work and scared a lot of peopleaway. Every vote will matter.

Clear-cutting trees, backed-up intersections, flyovers, the ridiculous traffic patterns around our interstates, crowded classrooms, growing costs of keeping up with infrastructure — all have roots in bad growth management.

Slow down development, and our communities will be more livable and our property values will recover faster.

In Tallahassee, some one said we already have more public hearings than the law requires.

Repeated public hearings are stupid. It’s just another way to wear down citizens, who shout and scream and maybe get a “compromise” that the developers expected in the first place, while elected officials take a walk and avoid responsibility.

An army of well-paid professionals represents developers for as long as it takes to get the project through, while neighbors have to dig into savings and take time off from work or family to mount an opposition.

It’s not a fair system. It just isn’t.

The past four years, with Hometown Democracy chugging toward the ballot, gave those “Smarter Growth” developers plenty of time to produce a credible alternative. Tom Pelham, the head of the state’s growth-planning agency who knows what a mess we have, proposed one. But the Legislature, two-thirds Republican and enriched by campaign contributions from the real-estate industry, neutered what was left of state growth-man­agement after Gov. Jeb Bush and even refused to extend the life of Pelham’s agency.

The growth lobbyists don’t want “smarter growth.” They want growth, period. Instead of looking for “smarter management” of growth, they just stuck their middle finger in the eye of the voters.

So there’s only one last chance to bring them to heel: Amendment 4.

Yes, referendums on growth plans are a terrible idea. It’s not the way we should govern ourselves. But what else can you do?

Worry not: The system eventually will find a way to survive with Hometown Democracy. Nothing has ever thwarted the development industry in Florida, and this won’t either. Vote for Amendment 4?

Call me irresponsible.

I call it irresistible.

Neil Skene