Proposal gives residents a voice on growth

By LYNN ANDERSON
Published: 8 June 2008
South Florida Sun Sentinel
Stanley Price's observations (in the May 25 South Florida Sun-Sentinel) are the latest in the bare-knuckles campaign to discredit the citizens' movement to amend the Florida Constitution, which has overcome one barrier after another thrown in its way by the growth machine that has served taxpayers and voters so poorly.

What Florida Hometown Democracy will do is to require a popular vote of changes to local growth plans, required by the State of Florida through its Growth Management Act. When this amendment to the Florida Constitution is passed by 60 percent of voters in a state-wide election, it will do more to curb the costs of suburban sprawl than any measure in Florida history.

Mr. Price, representing the Florida Growth Machine including the Chamber of Commerce and the state's largest land developers, speculators and lobbyists, is backed by an unlimited budget that will stop at nothing to defeat Florida Hometown Democracy. There is only one way to view the army of lobbyists who made lucrative careers navigating state and local zoning regulations and applications for development: radical extremists who are determined to continue the current course of growth-at-any-cost that inflicts so much damage to taxpayers, to our quality of life and to our environment.

Giving citizens a choice to vote how land use plans are modified will take a big source of income from the pockets of lobbyists like Mr. Price. After all, their work is behind the scenes at staff offices in county hall, where citizens rarely go, influencing the vote of elected officials.

When Florida Hometown Democracy passes, developers will have to persuade the public that their plans meet muster to protect the quality of life and environment that Floridians value. What good is a land use attorney, for that? In fact, the pockets of Florida's taxpayers have been picked clean by experts who claim that people simply don't know enough to pass judgment on the quality of growth and communities where they live. They keep telling us that we don't know what's best for our neighborhoods.

Just look around — drive any congested highway, send your child to any public school whose budget has been slashed, look at any degraded lake, wetland, or estuary and understand that the values espoused by Mr. Price socialize the risks and privatize benefits to a very small segment of society that will do anything to protect its privileges. We have been fighting for our neighborhood on a local level and have petitioned for Florida Hometown Democracy in order to help the entire state. We look forward to the help of all Floridians in a campaign that has been supported solely by the grassroots.

All those wishing to have a voice in what gets developed in their neighborhoods, go to www.floridahometowndemocracy and download the petition or call toll free at 866-779-5513 for more information on the Hometown Democracy movement that seeks direct voter control of Florida growth. We only need 10,000 more signatures.

Lynn Anderson is a resident of Lake Worth.