Hometown Democracy Won't Stop Growth

Regarding, "Smart Growth Hard to Plan" (Commentary, May 27:)

Editor Rosemary Goudreau should know better than to proclaim that the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment "could grind growth to a halt and destroy jobs." Her "sky is falling" hysteria is dead wrong.

The amendment (if it gets to the ballot and is approved by more than 60 percent of voters) could not "halt growth and destroy jobs," even if voters wanted it to. All the amendment would do is allow voters to accept or reject future changes to comprehensive plans that are approved by a city or county commission.

If, as Goudreau insinuates, every proposed comprehensive plan change must be granted to "save growth." then why even have a plan or allow voting by commissioners? Goudreau's rant shows that she does not understand that these plan changes are political decisions that should reflect the broad public interest, not just the desire of the sprawl machine to squeeze as many dollars out of an acre as possible.

What Florida Hometown Democracy will do is begin to break the grip that the sprawl machine has on our elected officials, who rarely say no to developers. It makes no sense to protect the power the commissions have on this issue when they have failed so miserably to prevent sprawl. This amendment takes some of that power away.

On April 2, 1999, the Tribune ran an article about a study that added up all the comprehensive plans in Florida and determined that together, they authorized residential density for over 101 million people. The same study noted housing densities authorized in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties for 6.5 million and 4.3 million, respectively. In comparison, the population in the state was 17 million in 2000. In the two counties, one million in Hillsborough and 344,765 in Pasco. Clearly, even if we never grant another plan amendment, there is way too much density already authorized. Accordingly, there will be lots of ugly sprawl, choking density, no water and plenty of low paying construction jobs even if Florida Hometown Democracy miraculously makes it into the Florida Constitution.

Under the amendment, developers can still build to their hearts' content, in accordance with the local plan. If a developer wants to go to the trouble of persuading the commission and the voters that a proposed change will benefit the community, he can. Plans don't mean anything when they can be amended on a whim, and that is what has happened to Florida.

I urge my fellow citizens who are sick of development as usual to go to www.florida

hometowndemocracy.com or call (866) 659-5513 for petitions. Let's do something positive for a change.

Richard Sommerville is a longtime local environmentalist who has been a volunteer petition gatherer for Florida Hometown Democracy for several years. He lives in Hudson.