Referendums could change state growth

April 30, 2007
By JACK GURNEY
Sun-Herald.com

Florida Hometown Democracy wants local referendums on comprehensive plan changes. The Florida Supreme Court has approved its constitutional amendment proposal.

A proposed Florida Constitutional amendment that would require local voter approval when cities and counties increase density in their comprehensive plans has cleared the legal hurdles necessary to be on a 2008 statewide ballot. Petitions are again being circulated.

The nonprofit New Smyrna Beach organization known as Florida Hometown Democracy has been down this road twice before -- in 2004 and 2006 -- and was thwarted when its proposed ballot language was legally struck down because it addressed multiple issues.

As a result, efforts to gather more than 600,000 valid petition signatures from registered voters were prematurely called off. But this time around there appears to be no legal obstacle that would prevent Florida voters from finally having their say.

Last June, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously approved the group's language for placement on the ballot. If more than 60 percent of the voters approve it, the final say on land-use decisions that involve density increases will be handed over to local voters.

It would shift the extraordinary power to decide where new subdivisions, business parks, shopping malls and roads are to be built away from elected county and city officials, who routinely clear the way for such decisions when they update comprehensive plans.

All it currently takes is a commission or council majority -- typically three out of five votes -- to approve massive development plans that necessitate new roads, schools, water supplies and more essential services such as public safety.

Florida Hometown Democracy supporters want community residents to have greater input into the critical growth management decisions routinely made by local politicians. They believe referendums on comprehensive plan changes would help.

"We love this state and hate the failure of local government to protect Floridians from bad growth," said Palm Beach attorney Lesley Blackner, the organization's chair. "The best way to fix the broken machine is to change who approves comprehensive plan changes."

There is an understandable fear among many current politicians and growth-industry leaders that the passage of an amendment that requires referendums on new growth could either slow down development, or bring it to a halt, and badly damage the state's economy.

Florida Trend Magazine, a popular statewide business publication, gave a hint of how strong opposition to the proposal will be in its March edition when it featured Blackner in an article that described her life and motives. It wrote:

"Blackner, who makes veins throb in the foreheads of developers across Florida, conceived that 'worst idea,' which for all the ire it rouses still has only a quarter of the voter signatures it needs to get on the 2008 ballot."

Later in the story it continued:

"Blackner, 45, seems the kind given to tilting at windmills, the one in college who rails against the status quo while everyone else wants to go out for a beer. A lawyer, she alternates between philosophical musings, such as 'growth isn't even defined,' and rhetorical bomb-throwing."

The flip side of the upcoming showdown over growth is that environmental organizations across the state have endorsed the proposal, as have most of the large newspapers in editorials that recognize comprehensive plans have not succeeded in controlling rampant growth.

Florida has more than 18 million residents. The state's population has doubled every decade since 1940. It is projected to double again by 2030 to more than 30 million, which, without proper planning, could overwhelm natural resources such as water supplies.

In 1985, the Florida Legislature approved the Growth Management Act to get a grip on the demands of an expanding resident population. It required each county and city to adopt a comprehensive plan of land uses. Sarasota County titled its plan "Apoxsee."

Officials at the Florida Department of Community Affairs administer 500 community plans from counties and cities that -- if built out -- would allow more than 100 million state residents, and new density is added every year through local changes to the plans.

By Jack Gurney

Pelican Press